Tino Seubert and his life and work cycle in London

Dear Tino, please tell us who you are...
My name is Tino Seubert. I’m a German born and London based product designer. 5 years ago I came to London to do my masters at the Royal College of Art. Originally I was planning to leave London again after finishing my masters. Today I work as a self-employed designer on commercial and more artistic self-initiated projects expanding from packaging design over furniture to spaces and installations. My inspiration is drawn a lot from ancient and contemporary art, science, the ugly and urban life.

Define creativity
Creativity for me is not only about the process of creating / making or working in the field of art, design, music or culture, but mostly about the ability to recontextualise - linking functionalities, shapes, materials with other functionalities, shapes and materials to explore undiscovered areas. Creative people must be daring and apply their visions, believe in them and put effort and energy in them, when others don’t. It automatically comes and must come with a high chance of failure or rejection.

Structure your creative process
Even though I suffer from OCD and would like to apply a structure to each and everything, it’s very difficult to do that with my creative process. For me it is a very fluid process and it doesn’t really have a beginning or an end. I try to keep my eyes and ears open every day - no matter if I’m at work or not - and be sensitive for things I could use in my work. If I find something I store it somewhere in my mind, in photos or in notes and then later on I bring it back, where I think it could be applied. However, I try to separate my creative process into phases: Research / Inspiration – drafting / sketching (in my head, on paper, with models or in CAD) – visualisation for myself and my client (if there is one) – production. In every phase of the process the whole journey can fail and make me start from scratch.

What makes a city creative?

Cultural diversity
Diversity in wealth
The need to be inventive
Legal freedom
Legal restrictions (to be broken and overcome)

What makes your city creative?
All of these aspects have made my city creative over the last 30 years. This creativity is very much at risk at the moment, as some of these aspects seem to break away under the current political situation.

Visualize the map of your city showing your life and work cycle
My commute to work is literally the shortest, most convenient and cliché, you could imagine. Probably also not the most inspiring - a 5-minute bike ride from hipster catwalk of Broadway market to another epicentre of urban culture - Dalston.