The Head

Who is ...

the guy behind Jahn Grafix? You can find the answer to this right here. And in my opinion it's important that you find out who I am because you can't buy a standard product that can be specified by any certain features. I only provide a service. And perhaps it will help you to decide if I am the right one for your job when you know a little more about me.

Personal

Born on May 4th 1970 in Munich. And raised there. Yes it's true - but not really common anymore: Still you can find people in Munich that were actually born in that town. I could tell some funny stories about the first 19 years of my life. But I guess those stories are not really of interest for you at the moment. And as far as my private life is concerned there is not much exciting stuff to tell: Married, no kids; two dogs at the moment - and a bunch of water- and pond turtles.

Education / Job experience

School - yes, I attended some of them. Elementary school, high school - then 13 years later school was over. Then I waited for a place at college. And while waiting: I didn't join the forces - I performed my alternative national service at a psychiatric rehab center.

Why do I mention that? Because there you learn a lot about men and psyche. Back then I didn't know if it would be of any help later in my carreer- but lets face it: One of the most important things in advertising is to understand peoples minds. You need to know things about perception and cognition. Otherwise you will never be able to create good ads. No matter what: Advertising always addresses people. No matter if it's a CEO of a multinational company or a regular mum shopping at the supermarket. It's always humans. So you need to understand them to a certain extent ...

But lets get back to education: After finishing alternative service I started to study economics in Munich. Why that? Because back then I planned another carreer. The intermediate exam was no problem and was done quite quickly, since in the early days study was the focus, work was just in addition. But that changed quite soon.

Soon I discovered the direction in which I wanted to go. My sibsidiary subject at college was Market- and Advertising-Psychology and this subsidiary subject soon became my focus at college. I attended several project seminars. One of them was the german research center for direct-marketing, where I had the pleasure of seeing and learn from Prof. Siegfried Voegele, who was still holding seminars back then. The seminar there is almost identical to the apprenticeship "direct marketer" at the bavarian advertising academy. The main difference was that we did not graduate as "direct marketer" and we were not allowed to have that job title. But we had the same lectures, same speakers, same content. At no fee. I also wrote my diploma thesis there. And it could not have been that bad: It was sent in to the "Alfred Gerardi Gedaechtnispreis", which is a newcomer competition for young professionals in the field of direct marketing. Didn't make one of the first 3 places (which were awarded with money) - but at least my work received an award for extraordinary work together with 3 others out of a few hundred participants.

The end of college was short but painful: I failed to meet the requirements for the final exams at my first attempt (because I didn't absolve one of the mandatory pre-exams on time), and at second attempt I messed up one final exam, which caused a fail. Though the commission would have allowed me a third attempt due to the good results on the rest of my exams, I refused that last attempt because I already made my decision to stick with marketing and advertising. I had made myself home in that field already. I had had lots of jobs besides college and I knew that this was what I wanted to do. What would a degree in economics be good for then? Right. Nothing. It would not have said anything at all about my capabilities in a creative job. So having learned the theory of advertising, and having collected lots of experiences during college, I did what was obvious: I got my trade license ...

The Job

The early days
Like mentioned above: During college I made my first experiences and I started at Bosch Siemens Domestic Appliances. What was originally planned as some data typing job for a few weeks turned out to become a 9 month job in the logistics division. This involved creating all kind of internal presentations for the logistics team, who back then, were restructuring the complete distribution acreoss europe and had to present all concepts to the management board. And I was allowed to create some presentations evenfor that management board. Those were the times when you had no video projectors, color printers and stuff ... but just black and white prints, some overhead projectors and transparency copies. That job just ended because the alternative national service came in between.

2nd act
I just finished my alternative service - and got a call. Because my knowledge and service was needed again. The former logistics team had founded their own consulting company and they needed my help for turning their drafts and notes into convincing, appealing and easy-to-understand presentations for their customers. And that's what I did for some years. And when a part of that team again formed their own new company, I could even choose for which consultancy I wanted to work. And I accepted the offer from the new company.

At the same time ...
... my ex-girlfriend (who is now my wife) was initially working for a printerhouse, and then for a small advertising company in Munich. I was there a lot too. Helping. And learning a lot about the daily business whilst also learning the theory at university.

The bottom line ...
... is: While studying at university I was able to build up a client base which made it possible to start my own business. And that's why work became more and more focused and the diploma was just not that important anymore. The rest is history - and you can read it in the "agency" section of this site ...