Portrait photo of José Ernesto Rodríguez smiling with short and slightly curly hair in a blue t-shirt.
Intro

Let's create responsible and beautiful services that benefit everyone, while also having lots of fun.

UX/UI Designer at DigitalService

As a designer I make things visible, make things make sense and make things. I am a UX/UI designer at DigitalService, the digital service unit of the German federal administration. Our goal: creating services that work better for everyone. Interested in getting into UX design or the public sector? I'd love to help! Let's meet for a remote coffee, tea or lunch → Guidance. In my spare time I am completing my master in urban futures at FH Potsdam. Previously I worked with the German ministry of justice as part of the Tech4Germany fellowship, the public sector team at PwC and the service design studio Fuxblau.

Transitioning to civic design and urbanity

I've come to realize that I want to use my time, energy and skills to ideally design for all people, regardless of their purchase intentions, passport, background or abilities. Too often, our resources are underused by only serving a fraction of our society and neglecting our most critical necessities. I am convinced that by adopting the mindset, approach, and tools of today's designers, governments will be able to better meet the needs, wishes and expectations of its people. Let’s build the open government, together!

Background in graphic, interface, design thinking and urbanity

At the end of my graphic design apprenticeship at Lette-Verein I discovered service design and realized I want to do more than just designing logos and posters. Since then I've shifted to a more holistic approach: I studied interface design at FH Potsdam, did the basic track at D-School, worked at the service design studio Fuxblau for 4 years, work in the public sector team at PwC, joined the Tech4Germany fellowship and started the urban futures master at FH Potsdam. For more information go to → experience.

Some random facts about me

I eat lots of sweets but somehow hardly gain weight. I'm seriously afraid of the end of the universe. Always up for sports and board games. The best purchase for my flat was a slow closing toilet seat. I still enjoy watching Spongebob and Dragon Ball. I love chocolate but not chocolate ice cream. Humanist technologist and optimist. I enjoy observing how people observe other people. I like to take care of my fingernails. Aperol Spritz was my favorite summer drink before it became cool.

Works

Interface & Service Design

Screenshots of the website in desktop and mobile version.

Rechtsinformationsportal

Tech4Germany: Redesign of Germanys website for federal laws

Germanys ministry of justice worked together with Tech4Germany to improve its website for federal laws »Gesetze-im-Internet.de« with more than 4 million monthly visitors. Within the 12-week fellowship we created a basic MVP, an API and a clickdummy. The MVP shows it's possible to create something functioning within a short period of time. The API creates awareness and emphasizes its importance for more open data within the ministry and to the public. The clickdummy helped us to test our assumptions and functions as a clickable vision for the website.

Case study in German
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Fellowship
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August - October 2020

Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Niko Felger, Greta Fest, Conrad Schlenkhoff, Dr. Beatrix Lindner, Sabine Schlüter, Alexander Schiff and Kai Rülke.

Altersvorsorge

How to encourage young people to think about their retirement

As part of an internal project at Fuxblau, Birga, Maya and I set out to help young people prepare for their retirement during a 5-day design sprint. We were not surprised by our guerilla research. Young people either just ignored the topic all together or just didn't feel ready to start saving yet. Paper prototypes helped us open a dialogue rather than just testing its features and usability. By creating the customer journey, business model canvas and stakeholder map we identified gaps and opportunities in our concept.

Post on Medium
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Work at Fuxblau
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February 2018

Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Maya McBeath and Birga Schlottmann.

European Spring Program

Goal and action focused policy program

The European Spring Movement (DiEM25) is a pan-European political movement launched in 2015 by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat. I offered my expertise to local organizers and ended up working with their policy coordinator David Adler. We replaced the cryptic policy titles with descriptive and concise headlines. We then classified the 100 policies into 4 overall goals and 12 subgoals to offer various points of entry and make them less overwhelming.

European Spring website
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Honorary Work
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Winter 2019

Arriva

Arriva asked us to develop services that would react to changes on the customer side as well as disruptive competition within his key market. Our team traveled through seven European countries, talked to more than 40 users and industry experts to identify relevant trends. Based on our research we developed rough concepts for transportation services and tested them with people on the street. Together with the client team, we prepared the service implementation by creating service blueprints and created a plan for how to prototype the services in various countries.

Work at Fuxblau
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Spring 2017

Hopper

»Hopper« by Ivo Kranzfelder reimagined for the screen

The challenge of this small exercise was to translate a book into its digital counterpart in two screen formats: 1024×768 and 240×320. Ioannis Sarakasidis and I aimed to emphasize Hopper's paintings with a clear layout and light typography. We chose to incorporate the characteristic red for headings and active states. The letter H functions as the menu button. We used Sketch to create the screens and experimented with the prototyping tool Pixate. The course was led by Boris Müller at FH Potsdam.

University course documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Winter term 2014

NPR One Redesign

The course at FH Potsdam, supervised by Frank Rausch and Timm Kekeritz, was roughly structured like a Google Design Sprint. Rather than introducing new fancy features, we concentrated on fixing the biggest pain points. Our main focus was on how to better present individual podcast episodes as well as podcast series within the explore section. Our second main focus was the redesign of the actual podcast player.

Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Winter term 2016

Volksverschlüsselung

Redesign of email encryption app from the Frauenhofer Institute

We redesigned the desktop interface of Volksverschlüsselung. An initiative from the Frauenhofer Institute to make it easier to send and receive encrypted emails.

Project website
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Freelance work
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Autumn 2015
Works

Urbanity

Critical Water Infrastructure

We interviewed various experts from the fields of urban water management, rainwater management, disaster control, IT security and foresight. It became clear that digitalization and the climate crisis pose new challenges for the water supply and disposal. We developed 8 impulses, which help to build crisis-resilient water infrastructures in new housing districts.

Video in German
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Urban Futures Master at FH Potsdam
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Summer term 2020

Fluid Living

Fluid cities, governments, businesses and services

In my bachelor thesis, I envision a future in which cities can physically, legally and digitally adapt to the changing needs of its inhabitants. As people get more independent they can create communities based on their individual priorities. In my work I explore the most prominent opportunities and challenges this vision involves along such as: the business model, autonomy, formation of communities, spatial privilege, flora & fauna, serendipity, convenience vs. privacy and the access to services and goods.

Bachelor Thesis in English, PDF 755 kB
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Summer term 2018
A series of illustrations of people interacting with each other such as making music, having a picnic, giving a presentation, repairing their bike etc.

Kiezhochschule

A neighbourhood where people know each other across circles of friends, exchange knowledge and support each other has many advantages: It is more lively, creative and robust than neighbourhoods where the neighbourhood does not know each other or where there are isolated groups. This is exactly where the Kiezhochschule comes in. A variety of events, interventions and community spaces bring people together, they learn from each other and make new acquaintances.

Urban Futures Master at FH Potsdam
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Winter term 2019

Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Claas Fritzsche, Max Linnenschmidt, Kilian Parker, Jana Schelte, Sharmila Sharma and Thora Weidling.

Screenshot of the B-Labs website.

Berlinize

How to Berlinize your city in 7 steps

Is your city lacking growth, future perspectives, and a vivid cultural scene? Follow our 7 steps to transform your city into a flourishing and dynamic metropolis. We identified Berlin's secret sauce and created a fictional transformation agency. Berlinize is the result of the university course »Mapping Cities – Making Cities« by Prof. Dr. Marian Dörk at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Project website
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Urban Futures Master at FH Potsdam
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Winter term 2019

Urban Dataobjects

Abstract data converted into physical structures

Every year the Bertelsmann Foundation publishes the Social Justice Index. We brought the data back to the public to disrupt people from their daily routine and created more than a dozen of dataobjects around Berlin, combining each dataset with its appropriate medium and location.

Video and documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Summer term 2016
Works

Physical Design

Superclock

An internet-connected clock that shows you when your next train, bus or tram is coming. Magnetic ceramic spheres are linked to specific public transportation routes. Once a sphere is positioned on the clock face, it will move to the next available departure position.

Side project started at FH Potsdam
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2013 – 2014

Handkerze

Created just for fun. Why not?

Self-initiated project
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June 2011

Berliner Box

A modular and versatile box with the perfect size for vinyls and office folders. Thanks to its 45° miters on top and bottom they can be stacked and rotated to all four sides, creating shelves and room dividers. Made at FH Potsdam.

Side project started at FH Potsdam
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2013 – 2014

Hat Controller

Wired hats allow you to control your game character by tilting your head

At the physical interaction course supervised by Reto Wettach we dismantled a keyboard and combined the circuit board with various other sensors and actuators to create new electronic objects. During this 1-week exercise I connected hats with two tilt sensors triggering the keyboard buttons which allow the players to control the direction of their line in the game »Achtung, die Kurve!«.

Video and course documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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November 2013

Kahn Klangbild

Translation of an interview with Oliver Kahn into a sound object using dough

Made at FH Potsdam. Make sure to watch the interview with Oliver Kahn in German.

Interview on YouTube
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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November 2014

MAGO

Playful wooden cubes with a magnet of a different polarity on each side

Successful application homework for the integrated design study program at KISD. The homework topic was Try. The game Mago consists of 27 wooden cubes with a magnet of a different polarity on each side.

Work on Behance
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Self-Initiated Project
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Spring 2013

Weather Object

Stones of different sizes and temperatures make the global CO₂ emissions tangible

Physicalization of the daily emitted carbon dioxide per capita from 1896 to 2016. The more carbon dioxide is emitted, the bigger and warmer the stones become — an analogy to global warming. The empty shapes represent the predicted emissions. Made during a 1-hour workshop at the FH Potsdam with Katja Budinger. Note: not accurate data.

Course documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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June 2016
Works

Storytelling

Evolin

Speculative design shortfilm about life without sexual desire

Berlin 2037 — a pill to eliminate all sexual desire of the human mind has become increasingly popular. In this speculative documentary the sexual therapist Dra. Engel explains the reasons for the intake and the effects on four of her patients.

Video and course documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Summer term 2017

2115

Five-part photo series imagining possible futures in 2115

An outlook focusing on the technological and evolutionary possibilities of the next 100 years. Potential future events, presented as fragments in pictures and texts stimulate the imagination regarding the future of humanity. This photo shows a victim of an intergalactic pandemic. Made with tonic water, gelatine, and ultraviolet lights. Collaboration with Mario Hamborg, Moira Berit Joachim, Dominik Manikowski, Nina Tschirner and Oriana Striebeck at FH Potsdam.

Course documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Winter term 2014

First ascent of K2

Recounting the story of the first ascent of the K2

Projection mapping the route and weather onto a laser cut mountain. Collaboration with Mario Klemm, Thomas Miebach, Philipp Strixner at FH Potsdam.

Video in English and documentation in German
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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May 2016

Gofios Doña Olivia

Bigger picture business idea: a platform to order food on demand from ladies in Nicaragua who would love to share their creations but are too old to sell the food on the market.

Video in Spanish
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Self-initiated project
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March 2013

Oro Nica

Santa Rosa del Peñón, Nicaragua.

Video in Spanish
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Self-initiated project
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October 2013
Works

Graphic Design

My Personal Business Card

My business card made of expired bills from my fatherland Nicaragua

Technical support regarding the golden embossing from Daniel Bauer.

Work on Behance
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Self-initiated project
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Spring 2011

Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Daniel Bauer.

Carbon Works

Branding for a carbon manufactory

Carbon Works is a factory in the heart of Berlin producing high-quality carbon pieces for cars, technical equipment, skis, snowboards as well as packaging and furniture design. During the second year of my graphic design studies, we had the task to design a company’s identity and I had the opportunity to do a rebrand for them.

Work on Behance
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Freelance work
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Spring 2011

Bunga & Bunga Card

Business card for the DJ duo Bunga & Bunga. Made with marbled and laser cut paper and silver foil.

Self-initiated project
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December 2013

Raschelbuch

My mother wrote about our neighbor Peter, who passed away in 2013 after struggling with Alzheimer's for several years. I illustrated his story in this booklet during a course at FH Potsdam supervised by Dipl. Graf. Hans-Jürgen Willuhn.

Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Summer term 2014

Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and his mother Lydia.

Handschrift

Experimental typeface made using my hands and a photocopier

Made for fun during my graphic design apprenticeship at Lette-Verein.

Work on Behance
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Self-initiated project
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Spring 2011

Antonio Festa's Business Card

Antonio Festa is a Berlin-based architect. The laser marked lines on the back represent his favorite piece of architecture: the National Parliament House in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Freelance Work
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November 2015

Arts University Bournemouth

Generative logo machine for the Art University Bournemouth

How can we encapsulate the common, slightly contradictory desire of creative people and people in general: to express their individuality while being part of the whole? We developed a generative vortex representing the students' academic process in time and space. Students from all over the world come together, disoriented at the beginning, together they start to explore and collaborate, they focus on their interests, improve their skills to finally graduate as specialists in their chosen fields.

Work on Behance
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Self-initiated project
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Spring 2012

Autobahn

Series of 10 paper landscapes of streets passing through nature

Inspired by a song from my Mexican cousin and supervised by Prof. Hans-Jörg Kotulla at FH Potsdam.

Work on Behance
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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Winter term 2014

Berliner Box Business Card

The Berliner Box is a modular and versatile box with the perfect size for vinyls and office folders. Thanks to its 45° mitres on top and bottom they can be stacked and rotated to all four sides, creating shelves and room dividers. Made at FH Potsdam.

Self-initiated project
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January 2014

Bernd Flach

Corporate design for a dance teacher

Bernd Flach is a Berlin-based dance teacher. Made during my graphic design apprenticeship at Lette-Verein.

Client website
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Freelance work
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Spring 2011

Carflux

The ODB dongle processes the data of the car to enhance the drivers' experience. Made during the codemotion hackathon.

Codemotion hackathon
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May 2013

Dr. Super

Freelance work
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May 2015

Fuxblau Business Card

Fuxblau is a Berlin based service design studio.

Self-initiated project
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Spring 2015

It’s all about type

Typographic hair photo series

Made for a typography competition.

Work on Behance
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Self-initiated project
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March 2012

Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Alexander Jesipow, Flora Karger, Gülcan Uluyurt and Tina Wehder.

Keyboard Hackparty Poster

Poster for the Keyboard Hack Party

At the physical interaction course supervised by Reto Wettach we dismantled a keyboard and combined the circuit board with various other sensors and actuators to create new electronic objects. After the 1-week exercise we had a party to exhibit our creations. I made the poster for the party using keyboard leftovers and a photocopier.

Work on Behance
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Interface Design Bachelor at FH Potsdam
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November 2013

Lichtblick Festival

Made using dough.

Freelance work
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August 2013
References

What my colleagues, fellow students, flatmate and mother say about me. Btw, my nickname is Tito.

Tito stellt auch die ungemütlichen Fragen, deren weitere Diskussion uns als Team meist genau dort hin bringt, wo wir Impact liefern können.

Senior product manager at DigitalService

Tito just goes for it instead of babbling on for too long. Nevertheless he has a clear view of the goal and the courage to question the status quo. He always has an open ear and is passionate for these topics – you can feel that and it's very inspiring.

Sometimes you have the opportunity to observe a person’s progress over years and be genuinely impressed by what they’ve become. In 2011, I met @jerdesign at @GSJAM after finishing his A-levels. Today, he’s an experienced designer with a strong portfolio.

Head of design and user research at DigitalService

Our collaboration as a team of four was, the more I think about it, really good. Working together, we could solve any problem!

Product fellow and team member during the Tech4Germany fellowship in 2020

Tito took his role as a user advocate quite naturally and thus let the team develop new services from more diverse perspectives. He had an uncompromising focus on users. Tito's visualizations also helped us to get a better overview and structure our thoughts.

It was a lot of fun working with him. I'm sure our paths will cross again!

Public Management Consultant at PwC — colleague in ’20

Thank you for the last year. I have learned so much from you. In terms of craftsmanship as well as perspective. Even if it sounds super cheesy (but during Christmas you are allowed to do that) you have enriched my career tremendously. Apart from that, you are a wonderful person who really inspires others. Thank you for always bringing everyone together.

Fellow Urban Futures Master student at FH Potsdam with a background in cultural studies

Tito is at the origin of many processes, ideas, workflows that Fuxblau uses nowadays. Therefore he is also a mindful person who takes responsibility for his ideas. As we have similar profile focussed on prototyping, I have acknowledged the quality of his work, but also his curiosity, that leads him to always try new tools and visual effects. Finally, Tito is a very kind and committed person. He welcomed me with open arms, allowing us to have very constructive and critical dialogs. He was actively crafting a benevolent atmosphere in Fuxblau, while setting himself higher standards project after project.

Interaction designer at Fuxblau — colleague in ’18

Tito is my most beautiful gift to myself: a tall young man, a mirror image of his father, cheeky and charming. […] At times he brings me to the point of despair when he tries to get me enthusiastic about his newest ideas demanding long discussions. But I feel instantly reconciled once he asks me for advice or just gives me a hug. A lovable tormentor!

Mother since ‘91

Tito is incredibly curious and always seems to know about every latest design trend and new tool. Thus, I have constantly learned new things from him and he has always brought a breath of fresh air into our team. During the time I worked with Tito, he's had an incredible rapid development. By now, Tito is a top interface designer with a very good feeling for UX and also for visual design. Working with him has always been a pleasure — both professionally and personally.

Founder and creative lead at Fuxblau — colleague from ’14 – ’18

Tito is an extremely curious and open-minded person. He is eager to learn new tools and methods and highly motivated to acquires new skills. Although Tito works as a user experience and service designer in our company, we also highly value his skills as a maker and tinkerer.

Founder and business strategist at Fuxblau — colleague from ’14 – ’18

Tito is, from all of my friends, the one who’s most passionate about his work. It’s usually hard to talk without him interrupting because he has a new idea. He will open his eyes until they’re about to pop out and then shout into the conversation “Guys, guys … I have an Idea! Imagine …” […] But the thing that amazes me the most, is that all of his projects always have the goal of making people happy. Whether it is by trying to make their lives a little less complicated or just by paying attention to details that others underestimate.

Visual storyteller, fellow student at FH Potsdam — flatmate since ’14

I worked together with Tito on the Urban Dataobjects project at FH Potsdam. He proved to be a great team lead by facilitating the process, planning ahead and sharing tasks among our team. He has a great team spirit and always looked after each and everyone of us. I am deaf and rely on sign language interpreters. I noticed again and again how much he cared to involve me in our project. I still can feel his positive energy just thinking of him.

UX designer, fellow student at FH Potsdam and co-creator of Urban Dataobjects

Experience

People, events, projects and employers that shaped me.

UX/UI Designer at DigitalService

November 2020 – Today, Berlin

Group of people sitting at a table in black and white and blurred out except me. I am smiling towards the women in front of me.About a dozen of people sitting at a big table in a house with a glazed facade and the Reichstag in the background.The slogan of the DigitalService4Germany in German: For a digital Germany.

»DigitalService develops digital solutions with the German state. The people’s needs are at the core of what we do. Our goal: services that work better for everyone. Federal services should be as easily usable and accessible for everyone as other digital products that we use regularly in our jobs and everyday lives. This is why our product development is centered around users and their needs. We bring teams of developers, designers and product managers into the federal administration. Focusing on users' needs and involving federal civil servants, the teams build digital solutions that work better for everyone. Our products are user-centered, modern and trust-enhancing.«

Design fellow at Tech4Germany

August – October 2020, Berlin

Screenshots of the clickdummy, desktop and mobile version.My team during a visit at the German ministry for justice. People are sitting at a big desk while Conrad is explaining something. A whiteboard in the background.My three teammates sitting at a desk in front of their computers looking surrounded by post-its.

»Tech4Germany is the technology task force for the federal government under the patronage of the head of the Federal Chancellery. We bring together the country's best digital talents and creative minds in a 12-week program with government agencies and ministries to work on Germany's biggest digital challenges.« Germanys ministry of justice worked together with Tech4Germany to improve its website for federal laws »Gesetze-im-Internet.de« with more than 4 million monthly visitors. Within the 12-week fellowship we created a basic MVP, an API and a clickdummy. The MVP shows it's possible to create something functioning within a short period of time. The API creates awareness and emphasizes its importance for more open data within the ministry and to the public. The clickdummy helped us to test our assumptions and functions as a clickable vision for the website. Case study in German.

Designer and user advocate in the public sector team at PwC

October 2019 – July 2020, Berlin

Photo from my office with view of the Berlin government district during a sunny day in Berlin.Photo of my colleague working in front of his laptop and two external monitors.Screenshot of the GOV.UK design system html example file.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global network of legally independent and autonomous firms in the fields of auditing, tax consulting and management consulting. PwC has been working with local and municipal governments, public businesses, universities and non-Profit companies for decades. I joined the public sector team at PwC Berlin in October as a working student. As the only designer I helped my ~30 colleagues to build prototypes, plan workshops, create visuals for presentations and develop proposals to improve the collaboration within our team. Together with some colleagues we participated in the #WirVsVirusHack hackathon to combat Covid-19 and developed the Corofix chatbot. By answering the most frequents questions the chatbot relieves the overloaded hotlines. The Corofix chatbox can be easily personalized and extended by local governments to give its users more accurate answers.

Urban Futures MA at FH Potsdam

October 2019 – Today, Potsdam

Photo of an interactive table showing architectural data and a hand pointing at one of the houses.Illustration of a street in Paris and its various possible interventions to improve its livability also known as the 15-minute city.Photo of one my professor Tobias Schröder during of his presentations with slides in the background.

The four-semester master connects students from diverse academic backgrounds such as architecture, political science, cultural studies, public policy, geography, design, ethnology and many more. We acquire the necessary interdisciplinary skills and knowledge that enable us to work independently, scientifically and creatively to critically reflect on scientific findings and to act responsibly in the context of urban transformation processes. Our studies and projects focus on the following dimensions:

  • The Digital City as an informational system concentrates on big open data, smart city, smart citizens and information visualization.
  • The Physical City as a spatial and energetic-material system examines the topics of sustainable infrastructures, sustainable neighborhood development, and urban metabolism.
  • The Social City as a social-cultural system combines demographic change, social inequality, participation and an active design of transformation processes as well as changes in settings and behavior.

Translating user needs into business models at Fuxblau

2014 – ’18, Berlin

Photo of my colleague Birga Schlottmann standing in front a huge service blueprint with countless post-its.Photo of my colleague Manuel Großmann drawing wireframes.Photo of a stakeholder map on a whiteboard with post-its.

The service design studio Fuxblau was founded 2013 by Olga Scupin and Manuel Grossmann and I joined them in spring 2014 as their first employee. We helped our clients to better understand what their customers really want and how their overall offer can become more customer-centric. Our clients were a mix of Berlin startups, SME’s and recently also bigger companies like Arriva, Bosch and Sennheiser. Our common project process: establish a common understanding within the team, sharpen the concept and create a first prototype based on qualitative user research. It was very important to us to leave our clients with tangible and actionable outcomes they could keep working with like prototypes, action plans and service blueprints. During an average week I would support a colleague during a workshop or sprint, help my colleagues with all kinds of tech and design questions as well as update design templates and our internal wiki.

Interface Design BA at FH Potsdam

2013 – ’18, Potsdam

iPad and iPhones screens showing the translation of the physical book »Hopper« into its digital counterpart.Photo of a book with brown paper and black and white letterings.Photo of a women lying on the floor with closed eyes in a dark blue room with green fluorescent liquid coming out of her mouth.

At FH Potsdam I learned how to translate the design principles to digital interfaces and I explored its peculiarities. The studies are interdisciplinary — courses are open to interface, product and communication designers. Therefore, I also participated in many non-digital courses such as wood workshop, product design, calligraphy and ceramics. Throughout my studies I explored alternatives and additions to screen based interfaces. Be it a clock that tells you when your next bus is coming, physical objects visualizing data or a speculative short film about a future without sexual desire.

Design Thinking Basic Track at HPI

Summer Term 2016, Potsdam

Even though I was familiar with the approach and many methods from my work at Fuxblau, the basic track at the HPI School of Design Thinking gave me more confidence to apply it. Having the freedom to experiment with new methods and processes with a group of like-minded people with diverse backgrounds made a huge difference. During the 3-week project we developed Culture Coach, a service which connects you with a fellow immigrant or expert to help you navigate the new environment. Read more about the concept and process. During the 8-week project we helped the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies to create a sustainable strategy to organize their yearly symposium. The outcome: clearly defined processes and responsibilities between BCRT staff and PhD students. A set of organizational tools give the students guidance but enough independence to grow while organizing the symposium. Our final concept pitch and rough documentation.

Graphic Design Apprenticeship at the Lette-Verein

2008 – ’11, Berlin

Coming from an artistic family it was pretty obvious I would become a creative professional. Instead of attending high school I completed a graphic design apprenticeship at Lette–Verein in Berlin. It was a rather technical apprenticeship focused on classic design techniques and print. Our classes ranged from analog photography, design sketching, design history, illustration, typography, poster design and screen printing. At the end of my apprenticeship I discovered service design at Global Service Jam and realized I wanted to do more than just designing logos and posters. I concluded with a six-month graphic design internship at Arts University Bournemouth.

Some of the clients I've directly or indirectly worked with:
Ideas

I decided to share all my stupid and genius ideas. Let’s collaborate!

Collection of short audiovisual stories about my family narrated by its members and friends

Basically a family book.

An overview to visualize the status quo of challenges so that government, NGOs, companies, students, and volunteers can better understand where they could best apply their skills and authority

Job platform that allows everyone to create their personal job board so they can put it on their website or share it and the platform aggregates all these personal job boards into one big overview

RSS with a location attribute so people can find relevant content based on their location

The richest people and companies on earth pay a global earth tax to combat global challenges

Donation platform that helps me find great organisations and manage my donations

When paying taxes or getting money from the state I also see the first name and approximate location of my fellow citizens who payed or received that money

Weekly physical newspaper with all the online articles I didn’t read

Apparently this has been done before but they ran into copyright problems and had to shut down.

Website that allows to create beautiful and simple signs to print out

Although those ugly signs people create in Word or PowerPoint are also kind of beautiful.

Weather app shows how you should dress instead of the weather conditions

Visualizing a CV as a map or comic

Visualize how the policy will affect people in different ways

We need to do a better job by exposing how policies will affect people in different ways. Who benefits the most and who looses the most?

Video of people dancing in a club which then zooms into individuals and shows them during their everyday life

Could also work as an interactive video.

Two daily curated 3-minute videos for brushing your teeth

Translate and rebrand the news from another country to make it look like it happened here

Translate a sentence from sign language to spoken englisch and back and forth a few times to understand how much information is lost

To prevent the overuse of a typeface it can only be bought a certain amount of times.

The »Three-sip-beer« is the size of a standard bottle but only has three sips of beer and is basically 95% glass

The »Helper Gym« is a platform to post and find fitness tasks like helping with a relocation, a construction or chopping wood

So instead of going to the gym you work out by helping your fellow humans.

Sweets, fruits or nuts at the top of every bouldering route as a reward

Stone with a headphone jack

Sticker of a doorbell with Jérôme Boateng’s name

Sticker mit »Wer wird Millionär?« Fragen über Klingelschilder kleben

Spiegelndes Logo im Wasser, Buchstaben aus Styropor

Smartphone recognizes if somebody else is using your phone and deactivates all those embarrassing notifications

Smart water tap shows water consumption by shortly interrupting the waterflow.

Smart stethoscope allows you to listen to the stories of objects.

Smart book plays sound and background music depending on which page you are.

Service that improves the accessibility of memes by identifying the original image and making the text more legible

Search engine congratulates you when you searched for something the first time ever

Recycle old stuffed animals into one big pillow

Recreate the army pattern with mold

Recognize a playlist by adding this information to an inaudible frequency

Imagine you could not only shazam a song but also the playlist.

Print Pinterest boards as a book

Print a face on a hand fan

Platform or Facebook app to find people in a similar situation eg. studying design, recovering from a breakup, same dream etc.

Platform comparing the services, advantages and disadvantages of nations

Photo series of thousands of people to show the infinite sexual spectrum

Photo series of children in their bedroom with their stepparents

Photo series of a seat in a subway showing all the people that sat on it throughout the day

Photo series of 404 errors but in real life

Photo series at the airport of people before and after their holidays

Parabolic mirror grills in public parks

Page on my website with all the stuff I want to get rid off

Onesie with an integrated pillow

New language based on the phonetic alphabet

Mobile app that visualizes sound as a circle and by placing a glass of water on top of the screen you get disco glass

Messages organized by persons instead of apps

Meal recreated with painted rocks

Maps showing you the safest route home based on criminality data

Note: this should not exist.

Make the dishwasher sound like the sea

Logo made of jelly

Joint-calendar-poster is a perforated A2 poster with 365 paper tips with the date and an inspirational quote

Interactive timeline with all the necessary inventions to create the lighter

Interactive timeline with all human inventions and interconnections

Interactive painting of a glass of water showing how much water you should drink today

Infographic visualizing the prices of basic items like light, bread etc.

Infographic showing number and location of active soldiers around the world

Infographic of how the median human would have to live to prevent the destruction of our world

In monitor-mode your printer will take a screenshot and print it as fast as possible

Illustrators from around the world illustrating their favorite sex position

Humorous integration kits for different countries and cultures

Hammock with guitar strings

Feel-good-box includes all kinds of objects that feel good to touch, squeeze and rip apart

Of course only using scraps.

Exhibition of walls and borders throughout history

Everywhere chair

Replacing the four legs with adjustable and extendable legs, similar to tripod legs. Now you can take this chair wherever you go and always sit evenly.

Everyday objects which make fart sounds so you always have something to blame

Digital maps to discover the local stories from everyday people

Imagine walking through the city and being able to listen and see the stories people have shared on the internet. Basically a story aggregator with a map. And now imagine how people in 10 or 100 years will able to re-live and re-experience our lives. History will be written and documented by everyone.

Decorate a leafless tree with green plastic waste

Create a spicy salsa with my Mexican friend José and call it »Los José’s«

Create a brief user experience report and then offer it to the company to get the next job

Cooperative Twitter block lists people can follow

Coloring book but with beautiful black and white photos and only a black pen

Collection of the most neglected interfaces around the world

Collection of digital fears like duplicate files

CO₂ dashboard with infographics that compare how much certain industries, companies, countries and lifestyle impact our planet the most

Every day we are confronted with new numbers about how we are destroying our planet. But where should we start? By visualizing the CO₂ emissions we can better understand where to start.

Clothes borrowing service at airports

Card set with rules for card games

I am very bad at remembering card game rules. Imagine  a visual summary of the rules of a card game on a single card so all the cards fit in the same deck. Ideally 2 copies of each rule card.

Business card made of pcb to create different electronical devices

Bookmarking apps that show from where and whom I got the link

Board game prototyping kit

All the materials you need to prototype a new game such as dice, cards, tokens, chips etc.

Beautiful spherical tokens with a NFC chip to link to a music playlist

Attach all kinds of shakers to cleaning utensils to make music while you clean

App which converts text into a sign language video

App recognizes the voice of different people and tracks how long they speak during a meeting

App or website recognizes your reading speed and automatically scrolls for you

An array of switches to keep track of who cleaned the kitchen, bathroom and living room the last time

Alternative national flag made of all the flags of its immigrants

Alphabet made by connecting the moles of my flatmate José

Ability to zoom in by moving your phone closer to your face

Ability as a sender to define the kind of notification the recipient will get

What if the sender could classify a message as non-urgent so the recipient does not get a notification. The recipient then gets a reminder once a day for all the non-urgent messages.

A series of blog posts describing hidden design details

A dumb watch made of a beautiful stone that doesn’t show the time

A beautiful Faraday cage for smartphones in restaurants that also wirelessly charges them

The closest, cheapest, best rated, most novel and most recommended food option

Remember the last time you couldn't decide where to eat? Imagine a website or app which only gives you 5 options based on these 5 factors.

Guidance

Do you want to get into UX design, the public sector or study urban futures in Potsdam?

I'd love to help! We could have a look at your portfolio, I could give you some guidance on the Berlin scene and connect you with my network. The design and urbanity industry must become more diverse in order to create better services for everyone. Choose a time slot via Calendly and let's meet for a remote coffee. If you are working on your design portfolio watch this great talk by designer Lara Mendonça.