Lass uns scheitern

Less mirrors, more windows.

Spiel

Adding some color to this blog or posting the canvas for future writing which is one of the few resolutions for this year: Write more, post more.

Spiel

Lass uns scheitern. Auch in 2012.

2011

This year I turned 24, quit two jobs, started two jobs, made new friends, lost my best friend, met her, grew up a little, enjoyed trips to Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne and London, said hej, said goodbye, helped organizing up.front, listened to music, started smoking and stopped again, attended conferences and spoke at one, hacked music, listened, got advice and gave advice, had far too much coffee and not enough beers with the gang, got interviewed for a book, got a bike and did not ride it, learned how much I love my family, reminded myself of how important that is, wrote a lot of thoughts down for myself, took myself seriously (but not too seriously), drew dots and connected them consciously, tried to pick up Portuguese and failed, saw friends starting things, did not attend enough gigs, did not work hard enough, read a lot, forgot half of what else happened.

I am looking forward to the next chapter.

Spiel

6 months ago I met the Amen team for the first time. Now I am part of the team. :) (photo via Florian)

About leaving DDB

Just after 11 months I am leaving DDB, where I worked as designer on their Volkswagen team. They asked me to join them when I was freelancing, several times they showed interest, but I wanted to do my own thing, which I just started back then. I had my own clients, was full of myself thinking that I could pull it off: Working for good clients doing great work. Well, as I wrote in an article before, that only worked out partially.

When I finally took the job just after a couple of weeks into my new job at DDB I figured what was going wrong when I did freelance work, very obvious things. Just for that revelation I can’t thank my team enough. My work here reminded me of my true skills apart from what I do on a daily basis, to think about design: Being a team player, getting along with colleagues, pulling of exceptional work together.

If you think that you could be that loner coming up with great ideas which you want to label with your own name no matter what, then you are wrong. This goes for every team situation, may it be a startup, ad agency or whatever. Only together you can reach that cookie jar. Also you can fail together and fall on top of each other when the ladder tips over. At least from my experience.

So apart from working on kool stuff and even getting some things released, I am very grateful that my experience at DDB (even if it was a short one) lead me to wherever it will lead. For a start it made me quit, which is ironic in a way. On the other hand it is not at all, It is just time to take the next step on that ladder.

Random Thoughts #2

We are laying out our own path while walking it. Not knowing exactly where it will lead.

Traffic lights

Being lucky is walking around and coming across green traffic lights more often than yellow or red ones. Yellow lights offer opportunity, ask you to take chances which either lead to green or red lights. Red lights advice you to wait for green, to wait for the next cycle.

Being lucky is a temporary state.

Spiel

Preparing up.front 20th. Captured by Malte.

Random Thoughts #1

When I was younger I dreamt of having a collective with like-minded people. At that time I was in highschool, not as blessed with a wonderful and talented group of friends as I am now.

At that time the web, forums, chatrooms were my way out, my way to reach people. Surely I would have been able to get to know other people sharing the same interests, well no I hadn’t otherwise I would not be able to write this following thought on my iPhone now.

Point is that via the web I got the chance to meet great minds, loved ones and people I greatly disrepect. Extremes you know? When I was in school every day was pretty much the same except the part where I sat down at my PC and started Photoshop. Often results were shared on forums and often feedback felt like a punch in the face. It took a few punches to find the value for me in those.

Well back to the dream and I will fast forward to the here and now. I reached my goal, and the reason is that I did not define it as such, as a goal, but the collective I dreamt of slowly built up and will build up in the future.
And most importantly I am not achieving this all by myself sitting in my room in front of my computer, but by going out there sharing my thoughts. Sharing my thought sketches with friends. Sharing these discussions and outcomes with friends of friends and so on.

And I just realized not too long ago that this will be my approach to work, play, career, love going forward. At least I would like to think so. Too much time was wasted on short-sighted judgement and non-decision making.

Have a wonderful weekend and get in touch if you would like to share your opinion with me.