RAW Magazine Issue 6:
Malte Gruhl
http://maltegruhl.com
Q: Where do you live?
Malte Gruhl: Currently, I live between New York and Berlin. I have moved a lot in the last few years, and I would like to keep up the nomadic lifestyle for a bit longer. I really enjoy living in different environments and experiencing new things.
Q: What brought you into web design?
Malte Gruhl: I started when I was 12 years old. A friend of mine was great at coding, so I became the designer in our team. And here I am.
Q: Who are/were your idols at this time?
Malte Gruhl: I’ve never really been interested in that kind of thing. The longer you work in this industry, the more you see how there is an illusion about a lot of people.
I mean this great speaker at the last conference you admired, or the guy from twitter who has it all figured out? They are mostly not the talented ones, they are just the loudest.
So I don’t waste my time chasing idols or looking top deep into the rabbit hole of social media. I try to become better instead.
Q: What does your typical day look like?
Malte Gruhl: Oh man! It’s pretty normal I guess—spending too much time commuting, rotating through apps on my phone, and deep in the internet.
With that, I make it a goal to learn something new every year. Last year, I focused on 3D. In 2018, I would love to finally go on and learn Javascript, as well as design my own project specific typefaces. Overall I think doing something new is an important creative outlet and I like to do it at least a couple of hours a week.
Q: What kind of music are you listening to during work?
Malte Gruhl: Being a pretty stereotypical German, it’s electronic music. A soon as I hear vocals I get distracted.
Q: What tools are you using when designing/developing?
Malte Gruhl: Depends really on the brief. But, in general, I like to start on a whiteboard as you can easily sketch out a visual concept and get my first ideas out. Pretty much like a notebook but a bit more collaborative.
After that, the more of a concept I have, the more of high fidelity tools come to use, like Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop, Cinema, Indesign/Keynote.
Q: What does your work-process look like?
Malte Gruhl: I start with research (no, not Pinterest!), rough sketches, and lots of writing. If I think that I found something interesting, I quickly test it by trying to explain it on two slides in a deck. If that works, I like to move on and quickly scamp up how it could transform across different channels. Next to creative, the project process has become highly important to me. It sounds boring but if you have worked already under the nemesis of “winging it,” you know that it’s just gonna end up being a shit show. The project’s outcome will be average, the client will ditch you and the designers will be burned out.
So I like to define timelines, break down tasks with clear responsibilities, and manage this whole process so I can get the hell out of the way to let the more talented one do their jobs.
Q: Your best piece of work?
Malte Gruhl: The last I have worked on.
Q: Your worst piece of work?
Malte Gruhl: The last I have worked on.
Q: Why do you have a Brutalist Website?
Malte Gruhl: Because we take design to serious at the moment
Q: Who designed the website?
Malte Gruhl: Me
Q: Who coded the website?
Malte Gruhl: Also me, but to be fair there wasn't any coding involved
Q: With what kind of editor?
Malte Gruhl: Readymag