I’m Michael “Pauki” Mauler, the person behind pommesblauweiss.

the situation

A project rarely starts with an asset. It starts with a situation: what needs to be communicated, where it’ll be experienced, who it’s for.

I think from the format. That’s a habit from my early years in broadcast design, where typography, visual order and brand conventions leave no room for guessing. Stuck with me since. A space, a stage, a screen: each has its own conditions, audience and way of being experienced. Those conditions shape the idea from the start, not after.

Motion design is the foundation of what I do, not the destination. It’s one part of a wider visual language: design, sound, technology, staging, production. Whatever the project needs.

“Simplicity and complexity need each other.”
John Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity, 2006

the process

I approach complex projects as visual systems, not as piles of separate assets. Concept, design and implementation have to stay connected the whole way through.

Technical feasibility isn’t something you solve afterwards. It has to be considered from the start. A good idea still needs to survive real production conditions. Learned that the hard way, more than once.

For me, technology serves communication. I reach for it when it expands what’s creatively possible, not because it’s new.

the people

Depending on the project, I work alone or pull together a team of collaborators and specialists I trust. Sometimes that means defining the visual direction. Sometimes it means becoming part of someone else’s team.

“We don’t work for you — we work with you.”
pommesblauweiss, Das Pomphlet, 2005

Collaboration, for me, means listening, thinking along, taking responsibility, and disagreeing when it’s necessary. I see myself as part of the team, not someone just processing a brief.