Matthias "Matti" Keller

• Age: 42
• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Occupation: Freelance Brand and Web Designer
• Income: €55,000–€70,000 gross annual income, varying by year
• Education: Diploma in Communication Design from Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach
• Company size: Solo practice; occasionally hires one freelance developer, copywriter, or illustrator for larger projects
• Years in role: 14 years as an independent designer; 19 years in the design field

“I don't need every part of life to be optimized; I need the important parts to be made with care.”

Matthias Keller grew up in a small town outside Kassel, the son of a technical drafter and a primary-school librarian. He was the quiet child who redrew football-club badges in the margins of his exercise books and spent Saturday afternoons taking apart old radios without quite knowing how to put them back together. At the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, he studied communication design and became interested in the space between a beautiful idea and a system that ordinary people can actually use. His diploma project examined the visual language of municipal notices, an early sign of his lasting interest in public-facing design. After graduating, Matthias worked for several Frankfurt and Berlin studios, learning identity design, information architecture, print production, and the less glamorous discipline of documenting decisions. He went freelance at 28 after a small agency closed unexpectedly. The first years were financially uneven and professionally improvisational, but he gradually developed a practice through referrals from architects, arts organizations, publishers, and founders of mission-driven companies. He now works from a compact home studio in Neukölln, using Figma, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Notion, Harvest, and a structured cloud archive. His files are meticulously named; his desktop is not. His income usually falls between €55,000 and €70,000 before tax, depending on project timing. He pays himself a regular monthly amount, maintains separate tax and business accounts, and keeps an emergency reserve large enough to reduce panic during quiet periods. Money gives him options, not status. He still repairs a good bicycle rather than replacing it and buys furniture slowly. He recently declined a prestigious but chaotic project after realizing its schedule would consume the school holidays and undermine two existing commitments. He felt both relieved and mildly guilty. Matthias is proud of his work but uncomfortable with self-promotion. He would rather show a clear case study than describe himself as visionary. His central professional challenge is protecting concentration while remaining responsive enough to sustain trust. He has become more willing to explain constraints early, charge for additional rounds, and leave space between projects. At 42, he is less interested in appearing busy than in building a durable life: dependable work, time with Anika and Leni, good food, occasional music, and enough attention left over to notice how a city is changing.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

On a typical Tuesday, Matthias wakes at 6:45, makes coffee, packs Leni’s lunch, and walks her partway to school before cycling back through Sonnenallee. He spends the first hour answering only urgent messages and reviewing the day’s three priorities. From nine until noon he works without meetings, refining a typographic system for a regional theatre. After a quick lunch of leftovers, he joins a client call, clarifies two contradictory requests, and records the agreed decisions immediately. The afternoon is split between responsive web layouts, an accessibility checklist, and sending an overdue invoice. At five-thirty he closes the studio door, buys vegetables, and cooks while listening to a jazz trio recording. After dinner, he helps Leni with fractions, then spends twenty minutes stretching his shoulders. He reads a few pages of a book before bed, but often mentally rearranges the day’s unfinished details.

Lifestyle

Matthias lives in a high-ceilinged Neukölln apartment with Anika, their daughter Leni, and an elderly rescue cat named Miro. He starts most mornings with rye bread, strong coffee, and ten minutes of reading before opening email. He cooks four or five nights a week, often lentils, roast vegetables, or pasta with whatever is in season, and treats cooking as a useful counterweight to screen work. He cycles for errands and takes longer rides along the Teltow Canal when deadlines allow. His health is generally good, though his shoulders tighten during intense project periods. He tracks household spending, keeps a substantial emergency buffer, and dislikes conspicuous consumption. Weekends alternate between family visits, jazz concerts, flea markets, and quiet dinners with two or three close friends.

Work life

Matthias runs a small, reputation-based design practice from a converted bedroom studio with a large desk, calibrated monitor, paper samples, and more notebooks than he admits needing. He develops brand identities, websites, campaign systems, and editorial materials for cultural organizations, ethical businesses, architects, and occasionally ambitious small companies. His workdays mix deep visual work with contracts, invoices, presentations, accessibility checks, and client education. He uses Figma, Adobe applications, Notion, Harvest, a shared cloud archive, and a carefully maintained project template. He has no permanent coworkers, but regularly collaborates with a front-end developer in Leipzig and a copywriter in Hamburg. The hardest part is switching between strategic thinking and administrative maintenance without losing momentum.

Relationships

Matthias is close to his older sister in Bremen and speaks with his widowed mother most Sundays. His oldest friends are a mix of former design-school classmates, musicians, and neighbors; they value his steadiness and dry humor. Anika is his most trusted sounding board, especially when he is overthinking a professional decision. He participates in a small Neukölln neighborhood repair group and occasionally mentors design students, though he avoids formal networking events.

How they decide

He is research-heavy and deliberate, but not paralyzed by uncertainty. Matthias gathers examples, writes down criteria, tests assumptions in a small practical way, and then sleeps on consequential decisions. He trusts people who explain trade-offs plainly and becomes wary when someone substitutes confidence for evidence. He is more willing to act when a decision can be revised later. For irreversible choices, he consults Anika or one experienced peer rather than a large group. Once committed, he follows through consistently and rarely revisits a decision merely because a newer option appears.

How they sound

Matthias speaks in measured, moderately quiet sentences, with a slight Berlin dryness that appears when he is comfortable. He is formal with new clients but not stiff, and often says, "Lass uns das einmal sauber auseinandernehmen" when a discussion becomes muddled. He explains visual decisions through ordinary comparisons rather than design jargon. His pauses are thoughtful, not uncertain. He uses English terms naturally in work contexts but dislikes performative startup language. He rarely says something is "awesome" or "a game changer"; he prefers "promising," "useful," or "not quite there yet." When irritated, his language becomes more precise rather than louder.