IN MEMORIAM
It is difficult to find the right words. Perhaps because words rarely suffice when people leave us who, over so many years, became so much more than any title, role, or responsibility could ever describe.
Last November, after a short and serious illness, we had to say goodbye to Jörn Beckmann. Today, it is no less difficult to comprehend that Reiner Urbaniak has now also passed away after a short and serious illness.
Almost 30 years ago, Jörn and Reiner founded their design studio together – first at Schulterblatt 36, later alongside us at Neß 1. Everything that has emerged since then bears their unmistakable signature: shaped by reliability, creativity, expertise, and a remarkable sensitivity for people, design, and what truly matters.
Jörn was a special person. Someone who never needed many words to make a difference. With his intelligence, diligence, dry sense of humour, and calm nature, he accompanied, influenced, and enriched us for many years.
As a photographer, Reiner had a unique gift: he did not merely capture images; he revealed moods, personalities, and stories. Together with Jörn, he developed our new corporate identity and logo family, created our website, designed our books and publications, and shaped our visual presence with great passion and extraordinary attention to detail.
Yet all of this describes only a part of what they meant to us.
Over the years, a professional collaboration grew into a deep and lasting bond. Reiner was a creative spirit, endlessly curious, a perceptive observer, a thoughtful listener, and an inspiring conversationalist. He was genuinely interested in people, their stories, culture, literature, and life itself. Encounters with him were never superficial – they left us with new thoughts, fresh perspectives, and invariably a smile.
Jörn, in turn, impressed us with his reliability, humility, and quiet strength. Each of them, in his own way, enriched our lives far beyond the professional sphere.
To us, they were more than business partners, photographers, designers, or advisors. They were companions on our journey, sources of inspiration, and cherished friends.
We are grateful for the time we shared, for the countless conversations, the projects we created together, and the many traces they have left behind – in our thoughts and, above all, in our hearts.
Our thoughts are with their families and with everyone who was close to them
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Dear Reiner. dear Jörni.
We will remember you in your images, your ideas, your stories, and in everything you set in motion for us and within us.
And sometimes, we are certain, you will still be with us: in a thought, a conversation, a glance at a photograph, or while enjoying a cup of cocoa — "...the real one, of course, not that instant stuff from a tin!"
You are deeply missed!