Welcome to Baum-kuchen!

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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 brand that is passionate about living life and excited to share with you everything extraordinary that inspires us every day. 

Our approach to the Baum-kuchen lifestyle comes from our unique background of German Bauhaus and Japanese wabi-sabi, marrying harmoniously in California. The 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". We are constantly evolving and looking for inspiration from Japan (where Wakako grew up), Germany (where Frido is from), and everywhere in between (especially in California, where our home and studio are). We opened our brick-and-mortar studio/shop in 2013, where we showcase some of our products and share our stories. After spending six years in Altadena, we moved into our current studio/shop space in the heart of Eagle Rock. 

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

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 the 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 (she/her)

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 large corporations. As an intuitive/empath, she has a keen sense of 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) kids. You can find her and her family's everyday adventures on her Substack stories. 

 

Frido Beisert (he/him)

Frido is the German Bauhaus half of the partnership, taking a lead role in creative and visual direction for Baum-kuchen. He has 20+ years of experience in teaching design, visualization, and creativity at ArtCenter College of Design and frequently leads design workshops for businesses, creating ripples in small and large organizations. At Baum-kuchen, you can find Frido either working on Truly Yours services or creating new designs for BK. 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, as well as BK's online courses. 

 

Nerine (she/her)

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 received a package from Baum-kuchen, you know that there is a real person coordinating the package behind it, and that person is our amazing Nerine! She makes sure that each package is sent with love in the most beautiful way, and artifacts that get sent from our studio go through her critical eyes for a quality check. She fills our studio with bright smiles and laughter:) 

 

Eunice (she/her)

Eunice joined our studio in the fall of 2015 and have been infusing her unique aesthetics into our website, Love for Analogue Stories, storefront displays, and our original items. She inspires and encourages many like-hearted analogue enthusiasts to live every day mindfully with a pen and notebooks in hand. Over the years, we have witnessed that her love for analogue is incredibly contagious in the most joyful way. 


 

Emil (he/him)
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 collaborates closely with Frido to develop the designs for BK artifacts, expanding the visual vocabulary that communicates our values. Emil also curates our inventory and in-store experience, ensuring everything is well-organized and ready to be showcased, with the customer's experience as his top priority. You can find him on his Etsy store and his Instagram where he shares his artwork and original designs.

 

 

Kei (she/her)

Kei joined the team in the spring of 2022 as we began to expand 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 customer services to helping passionate TN enthusiasts personalize their analogue experience through the Truly Yours service, as well as designing BK original artifacts. She currently lives in Kyoto, Japan, with her partner. You can follow her adventures through her Instagram here. 

 

Amanda (she/they)

We welcomed Amanda to Baum-kuchen in the spring of 2023. They joined us with a unique background in design, craft, and a passion for analogue. During our time together at BK, they support our online order fulfillment as well as in-person opening hours. We LOVE that their passion for life and analogue (which is the critical intersection of Baum-kuchen) exudes genuinely. We are also thrilled to watch their print studio a to zee press thrive in the zine and risograph world! 

Portraits of Wakako, Frido, Nerine, Eunice, Emil, and Kei by Arotin Hartounian 

Portraits of Amanda by Emil Konishi

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