Resume in Prose

Professional Training

There were two bookstores in my hometown Walsrode: one with school supplies and one selling Literature, with a capital L. Guess in which of the two I did an apprenticeship as a bookseller after graduating from high school.

Across the street from the Literature bookstore was the editorial office of the Walsroder Zeitung. I always wanted to write, so one day I crossed the street and stammered, »I’m an apprentice at the bookshop, could I write book reccommendations for you?!«

So I learned to write and take pictures as a reporter for the local paper at a rate of 20 pfennigs a line and 20 marks a picture. Along the way, I became so good at writing proposal prose that I lived abroad on scholarship four times, most recently as a Fulbright Scholar in Chicago.

Academic Studies

After my apprenticeship I wanted to go to university, but I couldn’t decide – journalism or design? In the end, drawing was the only thing I kept trying, even though I was never satisfied with my results. And because all the great picture books in the bookstore came from the University of Applied Sciences (HAW) in Hamburg, I went there to study illustration.

But somehow I found the course superficial. I didn’t want to talk about image composition, but about what I was doing when I was making pictures – was I just depicting reality or was I creating it?

To explore this question, after I got my diploma, I went on to study Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Above all this meant: reading Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes, for four semesters, in every course, in English.

Professional Life

After getting my master’s degree, I worked as a freelance graphic designer for companies and publishing houses, including the dpa subsidiary News Aktuell and Gruner+Jahr.

In 2014, I founded my studio All Things Letters and decided to specialize in lettering, because when I do lettering I don’t have to decide between writing and designing and can work on form and content at the same time.

Since then, I’ve been designing everything with letters for publishers, agencies, and companies. I wrote six book about lettering and type design, and together with three friends I co-founded Berlin Letters festival. I also share my knowledge in workshops, lectures and on social media.