Breaking In

The apprenticeship was the straightforward path into design. You found an agency that would take you, learned by working on real projects, emerged knowing what you were doing. There was no mystery to it, no romance—just the arithmetic of getting good: find someone better at the craft than you are, work in the same room, absorb what sticks.

Berlin had plenty of agencies doing interesting work, and they all needed people. If you wanted in badly enough, if you could convince them you had the hunger for it, they’d teach you. That was the exchange. Real work for your time, real knowledge for your effort. Not a guarantee of anything, but an actual shot at the future you wanted.