We caught up with Creative Director & Owner of MILCH+HONIG Christina Sofie John. If you would like to know the hottest events, studios and creatives in Munich give this a read! Christina gives us a wonderful insight into what's hot in Munich while giving some valuable advice for young graduates starting out.
Give us an elevator pitch on what you do.
MILCH+HONIG is a Munich-based graphic design studio founded in 2009. The team works on commissioned projects in the commercial, editorial and cultural field covering all areas of print and interactive design. We love to work with a network of talented people in the fields of architecture, video and animation. As designers in our minds and artists in our hearts we develop design solutions that are related to the context. By focussing on a content-driven design process with our clients, we define the foundation for their design culture. Several projects have been published in magazines, blogs und publications. Apart from that workshops und teaching belong to the fields of activities of the creative agency as well. I'm a jury member of Design Austria / Joseph Binder Award and chairwoman of the tgm (Typographic Society Munich).
What advice would you give students starting out?
1. Don't compare yourself to others
2. Don’t be afraid to experiment (e.g. with a wide variety of tools and techniques) even though it doesn't lead to a satisfying result right away.
3. Whatever you do, do it with love and passion
4. Only show works (of fields) in your portfolio you still want to do in the future, not everything you are able to do or you did in the past already – focus on your favourites!
5. Don’ be an asshole.
6. Never lose your sense of humour, stay positive.
7. Be open-minded and nice to people, cause communication is the key.
Is there an active design community in your city and who are your favourite top 5 designers/studios (In Munich)?
TGM (Typographic Society Munich)
Offoffice
Daily Dialogue
Melville brand design
Herburg Weiland
Buero Borsche
Moby Digg
But there are many many more!
If people wanted to know more about design in your city, what are the top blogs, organisations or events they can read up on?
Organisations:
TGM Again
Salon Connect
Ladies Wine & Design
Events:
EDCH Conference
Dynamic Font Day
Toca Me
Forward Festival
Magazines:
Slanted
Super Paper
Novum Magazine
Earnest & Algernon (cultural)
Das Buch als Magazin (lyric, poetry)
Be open minded and nice to people, cause communication is the key.
Whats the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Take people as they are, there are only this ones. Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Talk us through a typical working day include for you right now. What are some of the best and worse parts of your job, day-to-day. Best parts:
Independence: I walk my dog whenever I like, sometimes 3 times a day. Or I can leave the studio whenever I think it's time to enjoy the sun or have a little break at the Isar – the river running through Munich. Two years ago I decided to spend more time with my family and that was possible, too! Concentrating and focusing on important things saves a lot of time :)
Apart from that, I am in the happy position that I can choose my clients, those I like to work for.
How does the local culture of where you live affect your design work and getting clients?
I think it is easy to get clients in the fields of economy, technology or other similar industries because Munich is a good business location. That is the reason why we have a lot of work. But this flourishing economy results in incredibly high rising rents. And therefore subculture and free spaces which don’t follow a logic of commercial exploitation are somehow disappearing or even dying. This makes me very sad because it means that it becomes much harder to survive for those in creative fields like music, art and fashion for instance. And for designer a like me: less interesting work in these fields.
Any hilarious stories about you as a kid being creative?
I once cut my own hair and cloth for a photo shooting during my Kinder Garden years.
2019 for you in a sentence.
Breathing – I will only work on projects that matter to me and travel to a few new places to get new inspiration.
