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Enjoying her work: Emily Till, here transferring a plotted motif onto transfer paper. © private
Emily Till decorates shop windows, Christmas markets and the Oktoberfest. As a trainee in visual marketing, the Starnberger native now represents Germany at the World Skills Competition. Her job is underestimated, says the 21-year-old.
Starnberg – Shortly after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Germany can win medals again from September 10th to 15th – at the World Skills Championships in Lyon, France. A young woman from Starnberg has also made it into the national team: Emily Till, 21 years old, is competing in the field of visual marketing with 13 other international specialists. A total of 70 nations are represented, with around 1,400 people from non-academic professions who are to be given a boost by the (lobby) event – automotive mechatronics engineers, bakers, app developers, florists, tilers and many, many more.
Emily Till can be found at Munich’s Theresienwiese these days. The trainee is helping with the Oktoberfest preparations on behalf of her employer, a decoration company. She and many others are ensuring that the Wiesn once again makes its typical, festively decorated impression. Till’s job is a visual one; she also decorates Christmas markets and stage sets. “You do a lot of manual work, you can express yourself creatively and create new things. With decorations you can transform rooms into other worlds, bring products to life and put a smile on people’s faces,” says the 21-year-old. She sounds enthusiastic when she talks about her everyday work, she’s downright enthusiastic. “In contrast to many other jobs, we always get direct feedback.” When children’s eyes get bigger, for example. “You can see in their faces whether the emotion you wanted to convey is actually coming across.”
The challenge: working under time pressure and mental stress
At the World Cup, the classic in her field will be important: an attractively decorated shop window. Till and her colleagues call the exhibition space that they have to design in Lyon a “couch”: a kind of showcase that can be seen from all sides. Four days of competition are scheduled, from the concept development to the implementation of the as yet unknown theme. The Starnberger native has been training in the weeks before to work under time pressure and mental tension, putting figures and furniture into couches and lighting them aesthetically.
Anyone who thinks that a visual marketing designer does nothing more than set a table is wrong: “The profession is underestimated,” says Emily Till. “Painting, carpentry, floristry: we have points of contact with several professional fields and work with our hands and with a wide variety of materials.”
World Skills Championship takes place for the 47th time
The 21-year-old came to the World Championships “via a roundabout route”. “An acquaintance once took part in a European Championship,” she says. Eventually she and her teacher at vocational school brought up the subject and decided to contact the “WorldSkills Germany” association, the German talent factory. Her teacher’s letter of recommendation and good grades did the rest. Even more than a medal, Till hopes that her industry will be regularly represented in the coming years. Because that has not been the case recently.
The World Skills Championship takes place every two years and this year is the 47th time. One of the reasons is to raise public awareness of the added value of professional groups from trades and industry. The German national team is taking part in cooperation with “WorldSkills Germany”, trade associations and business partners. It is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Participation in the “Visual Merchandising” discipline is supported by the Neumayer Foundation. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is the patron of the national team, and French President Emmanuel Macron is also expected in Lyon.
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(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Starnberg newsletter.)
