The Hamburg export merchant, Jan Philippi, sensed his preference for unambiguous forms very early on. Nonetheless, he was required to engage himself with the sales of a hanseatic retailer’s HiFi-equipment. PHILIPPI quickly realized that some of those products downright infuriated him: they were just plain ugly. As a man of action, here and there he attempted to improve and beautify, as he believed even HiFi cabinets and furnishings should look good. The consumer goods demand tremendously increased in Germany at the end of the 1980’s and although Jan Philippi had to travel to many countries on his behalf of his company, this allowed him to make contact to several competent companies. Unfortunately, quantity and not quality was in demand back then; as a friend of quality products, this was a trend that PHILIPPI was not willing to accept. Disappointed by the prevailing taste, he decisively went about creating his own personal solution; striking the entrepreneurial path to opening his own business.