Chris Nierhaus

Just by the name, you can tell Haus is a European-influenced company.  There is something simplistic and clean about european brand design that I have always admired. The colors of the Haus logo are vivid and contrasting. The font is simplistic and bold.

There is one more thing that you will notice – the business card has my name on it!  Yes, this brand was one I designed for myself with the intensions of starting a coffee company of my own. I find myself working in coffee shops so much that I fell in love with the atmosphere and social purpose behind them.

The complete vision actually includes establishing a coworking place that also funds itself with the coffee shop at street-level. This has been a goal of mine for quite some time and now that coworking places are popping up in more places, I can research the business properly to reduce my chances of failure.

Coffee shops are starting to turn away “laptoppers” because for $1.85, they can buy a coffee and use the space and equipment all day long. Not a wise way to make a profit. With layoffs at a record high and more people attempting self-employment, it seems like a good idea to have more coworking spots available to rent. I will go into more detail about the coworking trend in future posts.

Would you like to see a coworking place in your area? Do you know of a coworking place in your area or own one yourself?  I would love to hear from you!

This was an interview done for Imagination Cafe about graphic design as a career choice. I have been fortunate enough to have my work featured in several publications over the years, but was my first official one-on-one interview.

I wish I had decided to be a graphic designer much earlier, but computers weren’t even used as design tools when I was going to high school and the task of laying out and keylining ads by hand was very boring.

For any of you that experienced the early days of designing by hand, here is a trip down memory lane:  The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Enjoy!