

Zarah is a cafe, an event space, bar and art platform in the centre of Beijing. Since it’s beginning in 2007 I am responsible for the Design including Interior Design. Until now, I am taking care of the whole visual area, branding, creation of print and online materials as well as photography. Situated in a beautiful old Beijing style courtyard house, which is renovated with steel and concrete elements, the architecture combines the old and the new. Zarah aims to create an exchange between China and Europe through culture, food and art. Zarah’s red square logo and a clear visual language reflect on this mix of simplicity, warmth and style. www.cafezarah.com
Overview on various projects of the past years:
Folded Flyer for the worldwide panel discussion “Receiving the world: Mapping Democracy” organised by the Goethe Institute Beijing.
Leaflets in German and Chinese as well as a key visual for the GIZ China.
“Kitsch”, a leaflet and photography project about kitsch in everyday Beijing.
A very special Design for a very special book — a philosophical book in which “green” is a symbol for god or rather “everything”. The title of the book sets the tone for the cover design: “Everything green”! Keeping a beautiful and simple style, the cover reminds on the haptic cloth-bound books from the 19th century with blind and colour blocking for the title and illustrative elements. The font was carefully chosen, using a classic serif font with surprising elements.
For the project series on the occasion of the “International Day of the Forest”, I designed the German-Chinese primer “Forstwärts” as well as illustrations for the eponymous short film. “Forstwärts” is made for German learning primary school children regarding the topic of “benefit and protection of the forest”. The illustrations, the typography and the whole structure of the primer are therefore created child-oriented and suitable for beginning readers. The project series was subsidized by the German Embassy of Beijing and realized by the cultural platform Kulturgut. It was supported by the GIZ, the Chinese State Forest Administration, the Forest office Beijing as well as the German embassy school Beijing.
For the Beijing based start-up Miss Muesli, I created a new logo and packaging tubes holding their premixed and customizable Muesli Mixes.
These photographs are an approach on rather personal topics: I am looking behind the surface of life, my life. At the essence of everyday things and feelings, at similarities of people and cultures, at society from another perspective. My idea is to make these hidden layers visible with rather abstract photographs and various photographic techniques.
The Design I did for the small Tibetan owned travel company Norda is bridging the company’s strong connection to Tibetan Traditions and its modern working style. I was responsible for the logo and the creation of name cards as well as leaflets. The Logo uses the traditional Buddhist symbol of a “Wind horse” within a simple, clean style setting.