Studio Maven

What is the story of Studio Maven ? LS: We have different backgrounds, I come from the fields of publishing and journalism, and Lisa from pure graphic design. I was working in an agency on an exhibition for the Nordic Ambassies, but the graphic designer I was working with suddenly quit, so I had quickly to find someone to help me… I immediately asked my sister because it was the most obvious solution. We didn't have much to communicate, I knew she would know what I was looking for… and at the end it turned up very great. It was the starting point of our collaboration. LB: We decided to go on with that idea of accidentally working together. At that time, I was in charge of the art direction of Electronic Beats Magazine for almost five or six years. It started to be really always the same… so doing this exhibition was quite an interesting change within my practice. In the beginning we accepted a lot of projects, because we thought we need reference projects aside from what we had done before in other agencies. But we quickly realized that the thing we really felt the most comfortable with, and the most passionate about, was printed matter. A few years ago a lot of people were saying that Print is dead, that graphic designers have to look somewhere else… so we were like let's check out some other directions. But today we can affirm that for us, Print is not dead. We are now more focusing on a more premium part of print matter, with particular papers and finishes. This can not be replaced by digital media.

How are you dealing with this focus on printed matter in the digital age ? LB: A lot of people know us for our collaboration with Œ Magazine. It's one of our major projects but it is not the most lucrative. We try to do some more commercial projects too, like designing catalogues. However we consider all of our collaborations as rewarding projects. We don't want to work on things we don't believe in, or with people we don't want to work with. This is important for us to assume this speciality in print products. But if someone come with the desire of making a whole corporate identity, we will do it to the end, even for the website part. If a client only want a website, it is another story… then we can recommend someone talented we know. It will always depend on the situation. LS: Being a graphic designer is also talking to people, organising things with them, each time it is a long process. Every project means a lot of hours on it, so this is important to have people you enjoy to exchange with. I think we found the right balance between 'ideal' jobs like Œ and others sometimes more profitable. LB: There is a lot of creative people in Berlin doing a lot of things. We can collaborate with other professionals from different fields, but there is no sense for us to say that you can do everything. That is why we want to keep this speciality. We like to collaborate with people who also assume a certain style, then we know what to except at the end. We always stay open, but we know what we can do the best.

How do you consider graphic designers as instructors ? Do you have some interns working with you in the studio ? LS: We like to organise visits, like you did in our studio, for students, to help them see what the real world of their future work is. We also like to share opinions. It is always interesting to talk more deeply about our projects, to see what is behind the cool photos on our website. We like to welcome interns. We always try to work with people from outside of Germany, even if sometimes it is complicated for the translation part. LB: A few years ago, I worked in Barcelona with an art director who let us do a lot of things by ourselves. I remember that sometimes he was asking me to do things in 'the German way'. He had an idea of how we worked as designers in Germany, he thought we were so organised. We were really independent, especially since I knew I did things in a completely different way than how he would have done it. But what I always hated — and the reason why I decided to be self-employed — was that in the end, he always changed my work. I understand that, because if it is your signature you always need to check. Ironically, I feel I am a little bit the same now, even if I want to help people to find their own way…

How would you see yourselves in five years ? LS: We talked about it several times, how we want to develop, to grow… We agreed that we don't want to become this big studio with an army of people working for us. It is true that we would work more efficiently in this way… but this is not our vision for the future. For some projects we like to work like this. We have people helping us when it is for a big project, like for example designing a catalogue. LB: Money-wise it would be clever, but we don't want to handle a system like that. For new projects even more… we would be frustrated if we had to divide projects we would like to make completely by ourselves. I don't want to organise instead of design. Like Lucie said we sometimes enjoy working with other people. But maybe come back in five years and we will be a big factory with twenty people at each floor… No, I don't think we will ever be like that, we want to be free, travel, take some time off when we want… Here it's a question of what you want in life in general, not only about your professional life. Interview conducted in February 2015 ©ktlg