“Your own kite in the middle of it all - that makes you happy and satisfied”
Interview with kite designer Christine Schwarting
How did you get into kites?
As a child, I had an eagle kite made of plastic foil. It must have been a popular kite that flew brilliantly for its time. But that was it for childhood memories.
It wasn't until Frank and I met while studying design at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen that I delved deeper into the subject. My first kite festival was in Thailand and it made a big impression on me. So much culture and splendor. Back in Germany, I slowly started to build kites out of paper and bamboo. Often in black and white and with intense brushstrokes. The graphic or illustrative direction always ran parallel and both directions sometimes mixed.
Looking at the sky as a gallery appealed to me right from the start. Responding to the wind, then the constantly changing cloud scenario and your own kite in the middle - that makes you happy and satisfied. Frank and I also traveled a lot and spent a lot of time by the sea.
You have currently designed an Eddy for Spiderkites, what have you come up with?
The new Spiderkites kite should be like a warm-hearted, cheerful encounter. The graphically designed little man dances and waves. The colors are bright and cheerful. A good mood kite, because we can all use a good mood. I have drawn a whole series of illustrations in this style, be it manikins or bird motifs. Now a little man has made it onto your kite and I'm delighted that he will be able to take off and spread joy in all sorts of places in the future.
What else do you do?
When I'm not designing a kite, I take care of “airformance design” and “Der kleine Drachenladen”. At airformance, we develop and build textile objects that are used on stages, for example. They are usually illuminated or printed. There are individual productions and a collection of rental objects. As we are a small company, everyone does almost everything. We work in our studio-workshop in Krefeld or in event halls, trade fairs, TV studios and so on. As the boss, I naturally have to do a lot of administrative work, but I also get to design and build in between.
At “Der kleine Drachenladen”, the name says it all. We set up the online store in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, when everything else came to a standstill.
What do you particularly appreciate about your design work?
When things are going well with a design, time flies. This “flow” is nice and feels like you're immersed in your game, just like in childhood. When you come back to reality, you have something concretely created in front of you. A visible or tangible result. That gives me great satisfaction and is fun.
