A short history of me

  • 2003: Dipped a toe into computer science II at the university. Dropped out real quick. Switched to communications design – a much better fit. 
  • 2003: Started freelancing as an illustrator. That never really stopped.
  • 2009: Graduated Dipl. Kommunikationsdesigner from HBK Saar. I illustrated Joanna Newsom’s song “Monkey & Bear” as propaganda posters.
  • 2011 – 2021: I explored leadership roles on the visual side of the games industry: concept artist, art director, team lead, creative advisor, talent scout, design director.
  • 2010s – 2020s: Taught design and concept art in various schools. I like sharing stuff and had the opportunity to do so there.
  • 2025 april – august: Selling strawberries, ’cause before starting university was the best time to try something completely different.
  • 2025: Let’s try the magic reset button in real life: started a dual study program in career guidance (Beratung für Bildung, Beschäftigung und Beruf – HdbA Schwerin, Agentur für Arbeit Berlin Süd
  • 2025 december: I quit the dual study program.
  • 2026: I guess it’s back to freelance

Currently

I’m always going through books, albums, and other things – here’s what stuck lately:

  • House of Protection, Doug Hammond

    Two very different musical discoveries on one morning

    First: House of Protection

    Electric Gorillaboyz. Lots of energy, great workout song to get fired up on, distortion, metal riffs, great combination of sounds, super tight drums (though another song I listened to from them has more interesting drum sections).

    Second: Doug Hammond

    And now to the polar opposide. Smooth as silk jazz. I opened the bandcamp frontpage and, as I often do, I just click on a thumbnail of something that was recently bought. I hit play without knowing anything beforehand, other than that someone had just bought the album. Time flew past. I worked and found myself regularly pausing just for a moment to enjoy the music, and then continued. It’s fantastic. I immediately played through the whole album a second time and then bought the album for myself. I feel a small smile of contentment when listening to this album. It’s a small joy, a ray of sunshine. Love it.

    https://doughammond.bandcamp.com/album/its-born

  • 20240910

    Geez, I’m a bit out of practice with something loose and cartoony.
    The book series I’m currently reading in the evening is a bit dark, I felt like I had to find the time to doodle something lighthearted for balance.

  • 20240904

    A friend mentioned that for his liking the last track didn’t have enough tonal variety. I tried to do better with this one. But now my wife says it’s too much.

    Also check this youtube-channel if you like piano, patterns, syncopation and other stuff. Most of what I do is directly inspired (if not just lifted) from Chris’ channel.

    https://www.youtube.com/@ImpliedMusic

    Example:

  • 20240902

    Maybe it’s because my interest in music making started on a drumkit, but even when I’m playing around with a piano-sound I often end up experimenting with syncopation. Or patterns more in general.
    I planned this track as a “beginner”-piano piece for myself to practice. The pattern starts relatively simple and evolves over time.

  • Fiona Apple – I want you

    Haunting performance, so intense.

  • 20240822

    I tried a new approach today. Usually I jump into the DAW immediately and fool around until I have something that I like. Today I instead started on a piece of paper. I restricted myself to something very simple and tried to work more like I’d work on any other non-musical project.
    Only after the individual building blocks were there I went by gut and ear.

  • Oddada

    ,

    Oddada is a beautiful, charming music builder/looper. Create loops in a fun way, record them in the end together and save them as tapes (and/or wav-files).

    Oddada – Website

    Oddada – Steam

  • 20240722

    I experimented with audio again.
    Except for the drums, all other sound-effects are triggered by instances of Mario Nieto’s “Harmony Bloom”. To add some more randomization and general sound-distortion, I fooled around a bunch with Cableguys “Shaperbox” on the majority of sound-tracks.

    Here’s 3 minutes of auto-play and generated audio. Such a fun way to just experiment and play around.

  • 20240713

  • 20240712