Welcome to Baum-kuchen!

 

Baum-kuchen started its journey in 2010 as an online store operated in Wakako and Frido's garage. Today we are a studio, shop (online and brick & mortar) and lifestyle who are passionate about living life and excited to share with you everything extraordinary that inspires every day. 

The approach to Baum-kuchen lifestyle comes from our unique background of German Bauhaus and Japanese wabi-sabi marrying together harmoniously in California. Products we create and curate at our studio are aesthetically beautiful, emotionally and physically durable and functional.

We are interested in exploring the idea of "Journey as the destination", "love for analogue" and "slow living" and are constantly evolving and looking for inspiration from Japan (where Wakako grew up), Germany (where Frido is from) and everywhere in between (especially in Los Angeles where our home and studio is). We opened our brick and mortar studio/shop in 2013 where we showcase some of our products and share our stories. Our current studio/shop is in the heart of Altadena. 

We also love staying in touch with our virtual community via BK monthly love letter and Instagram feed and are constantly sharing our unique life adventure through our stories.

Our hope is to continuously bring you creativity, imagination, and inspiration.

It’s our life. Let’s make it beautiful:)

 -wakako 

p.s.  "Baum-kuchen" is a name of a delicious German cake which has become quite popular in Japan. It looks like a tree stump and to us... it represents layers of happiness that have been built with time aging beautifully. 

 

Baum-kuchen Team

Wakako Takagi // Founder + Curator + Storyteller

Wakako is the Japanese Wabi-sabi half of the partnership. Her role is to breathe life and stories into Baum-kuchen. Before starting Baum-kuchen in 2010 she had worked on design and trend projects for small design consultancies to giant corporations and taught design research at Art Center College of Design. She has a keen eye on what is on the horizon and a tender heart in understanding what makes people smile. She loves finding inspiration in everyday life and sharing her passions with everyone she loves and cares about. Wakako believes that we will never work a day in our lives if we can pursue happiness through what we do. Together Wakako & Frido are raising two Germanese (German x Japanese) girls. You can find her and her family's everyday adventure on her Instagram!

 

Fridolin (Frido) Beisert // Co-founder + Design Director

Frido is the German Bauhaus half of the partnership taking a lead role in creative and visual direction for Baum-kuchen. He also has 20 years of experience in teaching design and creativity at Art Center College of Design and frequently leads design workshops for businesses creating ripples in small and large organizations. Frido believes that "creativity" is a verb and prototyping ideas is the essential part of the creative process. You can find more about his philosophy behind creativity in his Creative Strategies book. He has a German sense of strong wit smitten by Japanese sweetness. (this last sentence was clearly written by Wakako:) 

 

Nerine  // Lead for Baum-kuchen Karma 

Nerine holds our fort at Baum-kuchen studio taking a lead role in BK Karma (where we ship positive vibes through our online orders) since the summer of 2014. If you have ever received a package from us, you know that there is a real person who is coordinating the package behind it and that will be our amazing Nerine! She makes sure that each package is sent with love in the most effective way and that all the artifacts that get shipped from our studio go through her critical eyes for quality check. She fills our studio with smiles and laughter:) 

 

Eunice (The Daily Roe) // Creative Lead for Love for Analogue

Eunice joined our studio in the fall of 2015 as Creative Lead for Baum-kuchen and have been infusing her unique aesthetics into our website, BK style packaging, Love for Analogue Stories and our original items. Virtually she inspires and encourages many like-minded analogue enthusiasts as The Daily Roe on Instagram to live everyday mindfully with a pen and notebooks in hand. Over years we have witnessed that her love for analogue is incredibly contagious in the most joyful way. 

 

Emil // Illustrator & Designer
Emil joined our Baum-kuchen studio in the Fall of 2018 to support us with the growth of BK original artifacts. As a professionally trained artist and designer, he works closely with Frido to develop the designs of BK artifacts, expanding the visual vocabulary that communicates what we believe in. Emil also curates our inventory and our in-store experience for our community, making sure everything is well organized and ready to be shared. You can find him on his Etsy store and his Instagram where he shares his artwork and original designs.

 

Kei

Kei joined the team in the spring of 2022 as we started to grow our offerings at Baum-kuchen slowly and steadily, while considering the impact of the pandemic. She wears many hats at our studio from supporting the team with online fulfillment, in-person shop opening, to online customer services. Amongst the team members, she is known for her magical way to ship our online orders with her warm smiles and speedy hands. You can follow her adventures through her Instagram here. 

Sketches of Baum-kuchen team portraits by Arotin Hartounian 

Written by Wakako (with much love for our incredible team!)