CCB Magazine

In our new series "How are you in form?" we ask which legal forms are the right ones for creative professionals: GbR, GmbH, gGmbH or all of the above? How do you organize yourself? The design duo around Studio Kern opted for a partnership company. What advantages does this bring them? That's what we asked the two designers.  
 

INTERVIEW  Boris Messing

CCB Magazine:Hello Prak and Max. Together you founded Studio Kern, which specializes in social and sustainable design concepts. How did you get together?

Max Nissen:Prak and I met over ten years ago when we started studying design at FH Potsdam, and we've been working together ever since. But we founded Studio Kern only a year ago.

CCB Magazine:What products do you make? Can you give a few examples?

Prak Piakot:We generally pay attention to short, local supply chains and fair working conditions in our designs and conceptions. Sometimes we have to find compromises between the cost factor and our ecological and social demands. In addition to product design, we conceive events, do graphic design, take care of video editing, or make room installations. So it's a colorful potpourri. For the most part, we've been doing visualization and animation projects though.  

Max Nissen:We design physical objects mostly in the context of trade fairs. A concrete example of one of our products would be the cast iron candlestick - K1. It was handmade in the Lausitz region and is recyclable and indestructible. For us, not only the ecological aspect plays a role, but also the question of who earns money from the production. As Prak already said, we make sure that this happens in a local context as much as possible.

CCB Magazine:Your studio is organized as a partnership company aimed exclusively at members of the liberal professions. Why did you decide on this and not on a GbR? What advantages does that offer?

Prak Piakot:Fortunately, we were well advised, because neither of us is an expert in legal forms. For our constellation, it turned out that a partnership is the most favorable. The partnership is essentially based on the principles of the GbR. In contrast to the GbR, however, it offers the possibility of limited liability. The partnership therefore brings us many advantages: On the one hand, we can clearly contractually regulate the terms of our partnership, even in the event that someone else joins us. This concerns questions such as: How will the profits be divided? We do it fifty-fifty. Who is liable for what? In our case, it's usually the person who is significantly involved in a project. With the GbR, we would both be equally liable. In addition, our brand name is protected and we can conclude contracts. A minimum capital is not required for the partnership. 

Max Nissen:For us, the partnership means that we can also work independently of each other, which gives us more leeway. For example, if one of us realizes a project alone, he keeps the profit and pays a certain percentage of it to the joint company account for fixed costs, etc.

Prak Piakot: The partnership is essentially based on the principles of the GbR. In contrast to the GbR, however, it offers the possibility of limited liability. A minimum capital is not required for the partnership

CCB Magazine:Would a partnership with limited professional liability also have been conceivable? Here, the private assets of a partner who practices his profession incorrectly are protected in the same way as those of his partners. Liability is limited to the sum insured under the professional liability insurance.

Prak Piakot:That's what we originally wanted to do. But then we would have needed professional liability insurance to cover our profession as product designers. We actually only found one insurer that would have been suitable for this, but the conditions did not fit. Furthermore, it would have been difficult to find a notary public who would register us as a partnership company with limited professional liability. This is not clearly regulated by law. That's why we decided against it in the end.

CCB Magazine:This means that as a partnership without the limited professional liability, you do not need professional liability insurance?

Prak Piakot:Exactly, that's not necessary. With us, the person who is significantly involved in a project is liable. In principle, we are also liable with the company assets. But since we can decide for ourselves how and when to pay out our profits, we do not have any significant company assets in our account.

CCB Magazine:How is your partnership company received by your customers or does it not matter at all?

Prak Piakot:As you say, this has no impact on our customers at all. We create trust through our appearance and our experience. We advise our customers in detail, that's most important. No one has ever been interested in liability.

Max Nissen:It should be noted that we are only the designers and not the manufacturers of the products. In most cases we sell our customers only an 'intellectual property', which means we sell a plan or an idea. Of course, we also advise on manufacturing, but we do not manufacture anything ourselves. 

Max Nissen: In most cases we sell our customers only an 'intellectual property', which means we sell a plan or an idea

CCB Magazine:Who advised you on the legal form of your company?

Max Nissen:After graduation, I received start-up coaching from the FH Potsdam. And then we got advice from ZGS Consult GmbH, which is one hundred percent funded by the Berlin Senate Department. But we had to apply for this. This resulted in the partnership company as a suitable legal form for our studio.

CCB Magazine:What do you want to achieve with Studio Kern, are you looking for growth? And if so, would that have an impact on your partnership?

Prak Piakot:Of course we want to grow. But more important for us is creative freedom and flexibility. We don't see ourselves as the managing director of a thirty-man agency, that would be too much. We want to stay at a healthy size where we can still be creative ourselves.

Max Nissen:With more employees, the partnership would no longer be the right legal form; we would then have to establish a limited liability company (GmbH). We don't necessarily want that. Unless we have a hit on Tiktok! Then we'll think about it again.