People of neubau: Gabriel Kirschner

With a vision to fuse creativity, sustainability, and style, NEUBAU is a reflection of the creative minds and makers behind the brand. In this series, we put a lens on the people of NEUBAU and reveal the actual lives behind the brand.
Stories about the love for high quality, strong design, innovation as well as personal experiences in Vienna’s Neubau district and latest discoveries in their neighborhood. Frame of Mind wants to introduce the people that make everything happen. An inside view of what’s happening behind the scenes - the fourth one in this series is Gabriel.

He is the mastermind behind all new design language of NEUBAU and enjoys sports and outdoors where he loves to push his own boundaries and find new challenges - we talked with Gabriel about his inspirations, fitness and daily routines.

My job description is Design, which means I am responsible for all the Design at NEUBAU. In close communications with Daniel Liktor (Managing Director) and Dominik Fuereder (Product Manager), I develop the present and future design language for NEUBAU EYEWEAR.

Since the first lockdown, I have kept myself busy with the WimHof method - it’s a very powerful breathing technique combined with ice baths. I have done it every day since then and I love it. I also started to slackline, it is much more difficult as you’d expect.

I don’t know if I bought something bizarre. Like many others, I bought some exercise equipment. Normally I go climbing but this year the climbing gym is closed. In my case, I got myself a rower machine and a Hangboard.

I like to exercise in all kinds of sports - but to really switch off? I guess I have to go into nature. My favorite thing is driving with my camper to the Austrian Alps to go hiking or climbing/bouldering some rocks. During climbing, you can’t allow yourself to think of anything else. That’s my favorite part about it! You train your mindset in such a strong way.

Passionate / extraordinary

I have not been in the team since the beginning. In my opinion, the team did a really great job developing and establishing an urban eyewear brand that has unique features - such as different sustainable materials, natural3D for example.

Vienna is like my second home beside Linz. Half of my family lives in Vienna, in my Childhood we often visited them. Now, most of my friends live there, and I visit them as often as possible. What I love about Vienna is the culture, how locals speak and behave, the history of the city, all the different museums, all the architecture especially the art nouveau, and it is the most worth-living city in the world, I think that says it all.

A new era for NEUBAU just started and I’m really looking forward to creating the new future of the brand, with the team. I especially have the new titanium collection in mind, which was in cooperation with ODEEHs collection we developed a new signature hinge, for which I’m very proud.In private? I hope holidays in a foreign country will be possible again in 2021.

Through the pandemic, private life feels like it has stopped. I really look forward to when everything is open again - whatever that will look like after this long period of time. It affects the psyche to stay at home for such a long time.

Design, in general, is a big part of my life, that’s why I wanted to work in that branch. I love to create things, starting as an idea and sometimes these ideas come to life. In my private life, I like to handcraft stuff. As an eyewear designer you often work on a computer, I love that, but I also love the craftsmanship behind creations. So, as often as I can, I make handcraft stuff. I can find a lot of inspiration for work there and like to experiment with different materials.