012025: Play It as It Lays
The time between years is drenched in train rides, as per usual. I scroll through my phone while the Swiss alps and lakes pass by, and reflect on the past year. Many of my plans did not cut it: I didn’t make more time to draw or go to museums. Yet again, I spent way too many summer months working. But 2024 has also been good in many aspects. So I’m not defeated—I made some adjustments. Here is, just in time for the new year and a new chapter, a little list of updates!
In December, I left Village One, the design and tech cooperative I co-founded three years ago. In those years, I learned that I love the team + work, but I don’t enjoy co-managing a company, and I don’t want the responsibility of salaries, employment contracts, and bureaucracy. The special setup of Village One—a democratic work place for ethical design and tech—is something I deeply believe in and honestly, I wouldn’t set up a small-scale company in any other way. I’ll very likely continue to work with the Villagers as a freelancer (we love each other very much still!), but I will also focus other creative projects, and my own stuff. I will make time!
Looking back at those three years, I am more than thankful for the people, and for the things we worked on together. My two biggest projects over the years were Publix (a house for journalism and democracy in Berlin), for which we built the website and helped with lots of technical and design decisions, and the Sovereign Tech Agency, for which we developed their brand architecture, visual design and website. So much stuff to be grateful for (and proud of).
Stepping out of a cooperative is a whole different game than leaving any other type of shared company—it’s very low-friction. Harry wrote a great blogpost about it in the Village One garden. As 2025 is the International Year of Cooperatives, the Village One garden is a great point to start learning about how great coops are!
So, that’s it! I’m going full-time solo again in 2025! Exciting times. However, I still have a bunch of freelance projects from 2024 to document and wrap up. Here is a brief overview:
Falter.at Redesign
My biggest freelance project from 2024 was the relaunch of Falter.at. This was so much fun! The weekly newspaper from Vienna has been mainly focused on their printed paper, but with the web relaunch, we’re putting more emphasis on their digital publishing. The Falter team was an absolute joy to work with, and making digital editorial stuff just really is my jam. Find many details in my FALTER case study.
Book Cover: “Schleichwege zur Klassik”
I illustrated Gabriel Yoran’s introduction into classical music for Insel Verlag. I love making book covers! It was a real joy to explore the topic, and to work with so many skilled and quality-obsessed people. Here is the case study with some sketches and behind-the-scenes on my website.
Illustrations: “Verkrempelung der Welt”
And throughout the year, I illustrated Gabriel’s column for Krautreporter, in which he explores the question why products of everyday-life are getting worse and worse. The writing was very enlightening and sometimes quite complex, and it was fun to find visual metaphors for it. I finally published many of the drawings on my site, have a look!
And now? It’s January, and after a year full of work, I am treating myself to some creative weeks for myself. But soon, I’ll be up for freelance work again!
If you’re looking for a web/ui designer, a brand designer, an illustrator or a design lecturer, feel free to drop me a line! I am especially interested in editorial and publishing projects, in ethical and open source technologies, and in design education.
Usually, the year passes by with the blink of an eye. I hope you found some positive bits in the past year, and are looking ahead into a good 2025. Another year, another round, make it count! 💌 Yours truly, Christoph.