“If you don’t stray from the path, you’ll fall by the wayside.”

Ever since the major special exhibition “LOVE” at Universum Bremen, everyone in the Hanseatic city is likely to be familiar with the designer, artist and illustrator Tini Emde – or at least with her humorous illustrations. Reason enough for our editorial team to take a closer look at this alumna of the University of the Arts Bremen and pay her a visit at her EMTI Studio.

At the end of a courtyard in Bremen’s Fehrfeld district, we’re greeted by Toni Peperoni, her Rhodesian Ridgeback. Standing on the stairs is a cheerful, bubbly Tini Emde – wearing a shirt she designed herself and a pleated skirt – who, just a few minutes earlier, had given a spontaneous interview on the topic of ‘Sprücheklopfer’ on Radio Bremen. Her ‘Sprücheklopfer’ – that’s what this Bremen resident by choice is known for. But first of all, we’re interested in what actually brought her, as a young student from southern Germany, to the north back then.

“Actually, I just wanted a bit of a change of scenery,” says the native of Baden, who, after a two-year stop-off in Basel to take a preparatory course, began her studies at the HfK Bremen in 1999. Instead of moving to the larger city of Hamburg, Emde opted for the smaller Hanseatic city. She has not regretted her decision. Even whilst studying, she realised that Bremen is not only the ideal size for networking, but is also “a brilliant city by the water”. The then budding designer quickly grasped the importance of a good network. Since then, however, she has built up a much broader national network.

Emde’s connection to the HfK goes beyond her intensive time as a student: after graduating, she remained loyal to the university for around two and a half years as a designer in the so-called ‘Aquarium’ and, like our editorial team, was assigned to Department 1. Later, a teaching post in exhibition design brought her back to the university once again: an alumna in three senses, then!

For Emde, taking more time for her studies was an important part of her personal journey. In her experience, learning to work and think conceptually and freely took time. A crucial question for her along the way was: “How do I get closer to myself?”. Detours are a natural and often necessary part of personal development. There was much to discover in the workshops and also through the courses taught by her professors Fritz Haase, Eckard Jung and Detlef Rahe – and that, too, took time. Back then, the department was still called Design, was located on Am Wandrahmen, and was a ‘computer-free zone’. Emde found the typography courses with Eckard Jung particularly formative, describing them as “totally inspiring”. The alumna also has very fond memories of Prof. Yūji Takeoka’s class, with whom she travelled to Thailand to take photographs, as well as Prof. Paco Knöller’s drawing and painting class. When it comes to Paco Knöller, a former student of Beuys, Emde waxes nostalgic, raving about the “amazing stories he told”, his beautiful visual language, the questions he posed and his approachability. At the HfK, she learnt conceptual thinking, how to engage with set tasks, and not to be afraid of materials or unanswered questions. At the moment, for example, her first range of bed linen is in pre-press and she is already thinking about selling it by the metre.

Under the guidance of Prof. Roland Lambrette, her studies in the main phase of her degree led her towards temporary architecture. In 2008, Tini Emde went on to graduate in exhibition design. At the time, she probably had no idea that she was thereby laying the foundation for her future ‘ticket’ to Universum Bremen. Together with a colleague, she initially set up her own agency and gradually made a name for herself as an exhibition designer, securing the long-running ‘Einfach Wissenswert’ project at the Haus der Wissenschaft, partly thanks to an enquiry passed on by the HfK Bremen.

Knowledge dissemination seems to have been a recurring theme throughout her career as an exhibition designer. Years later, she designed the ‘rolling knowledge kiosk’ for Universum Bremen – a mobile educational project. The colourful model still sits high up on a shelf in her studio today. The panel van was followed by a small vehicle and, finally, in 2025, the major commission for the ‘LOVE’ exhibition. This is indeed an extraordinary commission: most museums strictly separate exhibition design from marketing and award the work to independent contractors. The fact that the design here comes from a single source is likely to be a crucial factor in the success of the special exhibition. 

For Emde, incorporating effective storytelling onto a tram proved to be quite a challenge. After all, the surface area in question is not continuous – measuring around 38 by 2 metres – and is interrupted by windows, ventilation slots, maintenance hatches and the like, whilst the enormous volumes of data involved can regularly bring the computer to its knees. The special exhibition ‘LOVE’, including the tram, will remain on display in Bremen until 23 August 2026 inclusive. Emde dreams of one day realising a project with similar visibility in other cities as well.

 

Emde has certainly reached a wide range of cities with her so-called ‘catchphrases’. She is known for her postcards featuring puns such as ‘Einfach mal die Kresse halten’. Emde has been working on the illustrated series for ten years now, and to this day she hasn’t grown tired of the project. According to Emde, her ‘witty sayings’ – which now also adorn wine bottles, textiles, tiles, magnets and the like – focus on emotional depth and situations in which as many people as possible can recognise themselves. These days, everyone wants to be special, which tends to drive society apart rather than bring it together. Through her witty sayings, Emde draws on emotionally connecting elements that show “that, at the end of the day, we’re all pretty much the same within our social construct”. Kindness, joy and love foster a sense of connection. For Tini Emde, being kind to herself is the greatest challenge of all. “If you don’t stray from the path, you’ll fall by the wayside,” goes a line from a song by Flomega. For the HfK alumna, adaptability is one of the greatest qualities in today’s world. And although she sometimes wonders what might have become of her had she studied fine art, she values her hybrid mindset as a designer, artist and illustrator.

Her path to the Sprücheklopfer was, as she puts it, “a complete fluke”. Although she had always enjoyed painting, she never really warmed to illustration during her degree. This was followed by a long break from drawing that lasted several years. The idea only came about at a time when she was trying to work out which direction her path should take. During this period of self-discovery, the urge to draw welled up inside her again and acted as an outlet, as Emde describes her process at the time. For her, art and design are closely linked to personal development. Finding one’s own style and place in the world, as well as recognising both one’s own worth and the value of one’s work – all these are crucial processes and factors in shaping one’s artistic journey. She gradually began to weave her increasingly expressive illustrations into commissions and give them more and more space. Through design markets in northern Germany, she experimented, gathered experience and feedback, and realised that a black-and-white illustration with a slogan works well as a postcard. 

Tini Emde now has 110 designs featuring witty sayings in her range, and her wellspring of ideas is far from running dry. Inspiration comes from all over. As well as song lyrics, she also draws on her Instagram community. Meerkats, raccoons and moles are already on her animal wish list. The many trade fairs and markets she still attends as an exhibitor have also contributed to new card designs: often, it’s here that the craziest ideas are born.

The stories Emde tells about how the sayings at such fairs find their way to her are equally vivid. She regularly observes men there looking bored or even annoyed – men who accompany their wives on Sundays out of love and suddenly find themselves lingering at Emde’s card stands with a grin on their faces. “Hey, have you seen this one yet?” is what they often say, whilst their female companion has long since moved on to browse at the stand two along, and suddenly a face in a much better mood peeks round the corner at Tini Emde. Those are the moments when one saying follows another in quick succession.

It takes five positive things to offset one negative one. This psychological rule of thumb applies to feelings, experiences, feedback and, above all, to one’s own thoughts. For Tini Emde, being mindful of one’s own thoughts and treating oneself with kindness is essential and, at the same time, a crucial factor in one’s own resilience. Sometimes all it takes is five good puns to turn even a rubbish day into a positive memory. And if even that doesn’t work, and on a particularly rubbish day your supply of kindness has once again run out, then all that helps is a deep breath and the most famous catchphrase from the EMTI Kiosk: ‘Just keep your cool’. That’s how even the loudest mind can be playfully quieted.