Visiting Eike König

Eike, we visited you in your agency Hort und Zuhause in Berlin-Kreuzberg. With the name "Hort" alone, we immediately associate something secure and communal. How can we imagine a day in your everyday life?

That was also my intention back then, in 1994. Surrounded by self-organized after-school programs in Frankfurt's Nordend, it was time to design an after-school program for creative grown-up kids, positioning itself as a shelter and laboratory space between the university and the cold business world.

My everyday life itself has of course changed after 24 years. What was also thought of and lived as a social space in the beginning is no longer needed in the same form today, due to the structure of our very self-determined collaboration as a collective. Therefore, it also needs a rethinking of how it is used. I am considering, because my girlfriend Anne and I are about to have children, to divide the space into living and studio space.

I have never really lived a classical everyday life anyway. That doesn't correspond to my personality ... but will eventually change with my new role.

But I like being here very much - actually every day when I'm in Berlin.
It's a very good place of silence to think and to produce. It is and remains also still a shelter - as initially thought and designed.

My Home is my Castle is said so beautifully kitschy and your name offers an absolute steep. What makes you the king in your home? What is especially important to you in the living area? Do you have an interior object or the like that is especially close to your heart?

I absolutely cannot stand the creative chaos in my office in my private rooms. That's why it's more 'essential', 'curated' and 'tidy' at home. The objects, furniture, utensils and artwork all tell a certain story for me from my/our life together. To single out one would diminish the value of the others. I like the mix of different things that Anne and I have carried into this space.

Personally, I don't need much fancy stuff, in fact none at all. The only thing I need, and possibly collect through it, is space. And that is to the left and to the right, but also upwards.

And since we like to cook and have friends over, a certain coziness is of course important.

If one looks at your works, they are striking, large and already now and then a slap in the face. Alone the tombstone with the "EGO" engraving hits the selfie heart, but also the absolute zeitgeist. The term zeitgeist alone is also striking - where do you see the trends in terms of design and graphic design? Who inspires you?

Trends - I already can't stand that word anymore. It would also make a wonderful tombstone: TREND in golden letters on black marble.
Inspiration is also such a term that leads to nowhere. I have an open soul with many interests and a certain passion for cultural products - be it literature, architecture, contemporary art, theater - but at the same time I am interested in new technologies, social issues and currents, and the languages and strategies of a wide variety of institutions, be they commercial brand empires, political parties or subcultures. In everything I find triggers that move me and make me think, and I process them in my personal works.

But the biggest source of input, questioning and reflection I find in the people close to me and those I work closely with. Anne, my girlfriend, is an unassessable, and therefore very valuable fountain of criticism, questions and suggestions. The people I have worked with for a long time in the after-school program are something like curators of knowledge and ideas for me. And of course the discourse with my students ... I will forever remain YOUNG.

Your portfolio includes greats from Arte, Bauhaus Dessau and Nike. You made it to the final round of MoMa for the new corporate design. Who else would you like to work for and why?

I actually don't have a top list of possible collaborations. I can discover something exciting and unique in many requests and of course I can also imagine learning something in the process. Therefore, I could not name anything now. It comes as it comes and that's often a good thing. At the moment my professional life is divided into 3 sections: after-school care, university and my freelance work. If we become a family now, I would have to organize the whole thing probably a little differently, because this will move for me in the center of my attention and thereby importance. This freedom to put my spotlight exactly here is a great luck for me and I will feel and live it intensively.

How To Compost In An Apartment