Hi, I'm Anja,
I’m a freelance wood and interior designer based in Manchester. My working interests are broad and ever-evolving, including woodwork, furniture design and improvisation from reclaimed materials as well as designing and re-imagining interior spaces. I spent the first part of my professional life favouring the analytical side of my brain and personality. With a degree in Sociology, Media Studies and English from Germany, I reported on British and American culture and society as a freelance journalist for German news outlets such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel, Die Welt und ZEIT Online. I published numerous peer-reviewed academic articles and book chapters in the field of popular music and fandom studies, and helped other scholars disseminate their work in the English-speaking scientific world in good English. In 2016, triggered in part by the death of my lifelong inspiration David Bowie, I began working creatively with tangible materials like wood, paints, stains and pieces of seemingly unsalvageable furniture. I have since designed my first series of coat racks which combine expressionist and abstract painting with a useful, but often bland piece of homeware. But don’t you let that put you off! To continuously add to my “vocabulary”, skill set and repertoire, I am attending courses at the Leeds College of Art and Design, Manchester DIY School, and soon the National Design Academy. When I’m not working in wood or breathing new life into sad and unimaginative spaces, I like to take long countryside walks with my dog Dixon, immerse myself in the Manchester jazz, art and theatre scene or travel to explore what other cities and cultures have to offer.
