Voo Visits: Berlin Creatives on Tennis and Their Work

Voo: Can you share a bit about your work in the creative industry?

Monja: I’ve been in the creative industry for 15 years as an illustrator, art director, graphic designer, and artist. For much of that time, I found joy in shaping others’ stories, bringing their ideas to life. But over time, I started digging into my own emotional chaos (or brilliance, depending on the day). Four years ago, I finally moved from only small sheets of paper to (building) large canvases— turns out, using my arms instead of just my hands feels like an upgrade. These days, my work often pulls from what’s flying around in my head—language, humour, and the everyday struggles we all know too well. Painting has become a big part of that. Next year, I might just let the canvas take over entirely.

V: Does playing tennis influence your creativity in unexpected ways?

M: After a long day in the studio, heading to tennis practice feels like unloading a big buildup of focus from my mind. It’s the small, yellow, round light at the end of the work tunnel. That tunnel is beautiful and exactly how I chose it to be, but it’s still work—and mostly solitary. That’s why I love having an opponent, stepping into direct interaction and exchange, even if it’s mainly with a ball.

V: How does tennis help you manage stress or reset, especially in your creative work?

M: Tennis combines two things I love: sport and play. Sport, for me, is a way to relax and let go, but it’s the act of playing—the childlike joy of hitting a ball, competing, and losing yourself in the moment—that truly makes me happy. In a game, everything else fades away. Tennis, with its focus on technique and precision, lets me channel all my energy into something controlled yet playful, and that’s what helps me reset and return to my creative work with a clearer mind.

V: What lessons from tennis have shaped how you approach creative challenges?

M: I’m naturally pretty impatient and want everything to work right away. Tennis has taught me the importance of patience and technique—and the rewards that come with both. I’ve learned to enjoy hitting the ball as hard as I can, knowing it’ll still land in the court (most of the time) because I’ve taken the time to learn the technique from my trainers. That lesson has carried over to my work, where I’ve started to appreciate the process of sketching and drafting. While I still often dive straight into a final draft and feel good about it, I’ve realised there are times when patience, experimentation, and preparation—which, together, define drafting—make all the difference before delivering the final ‘hit.’

Voo: Can you share a bit about your work in the creative industry?

Filip: Someone I admire once told me something that really put the ace to my creative serve, to stay in tennis terminology:
“To be a poet is not to write a poem, but to find a new way of living”. And I think that is so true metaphorically for all creatives. Anyway that it is for me. Being creative often expands the work itself, but it is about carving out a new way of existing. In the same way my work spans from theoretical to practical and everything in between, just finding a combination that suits me. Often my work evolves around concept, creative direction and design, whether it be graphic or industrial design. Lately though, I am finding myself working more from a spatial and sculptural point of view.

V: Does playing tennis influence your creativity in unexpected ways?

F: As Serena Williams said: “A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” Very American and almost camp, but she has a point. That is something I have learned. You need 10 fails...before 1 good thing comes out. That is the spirit of creativity. You’re supposed to fail to succeed in any way creatively.

V: How does tennis help you manage stress or reset, especially in your creative work?

F: Tennis, as any physical activity, has the power to both transition and transcend our mind. That is how I use it anyway. Also works great against anxiety. It can really reset your whole system. The feeling that you have after tennis or sport can be that of a clean canvas for your creativity to paint on.

V: Do the demands of tennis help you find balance or recharge creatively?

F: I think it’s a sport that looks easy but until you’re out there actually playing it, you don’t realise how much strength it takes. For sure that is something which can be applied to a creative as well as work/life balance. As the ancient old saying goes: Work hard, play hard as they say. And that is a direction that the demands of tennis do teach you, transferable to life in general.

V: What lessons from tennis have shaped how you approach creative challenges?

F: Perhaps more than on a direct level, I was inspired by what happened within the sport as whole back when growing up.
It was inspiring for me as a little gay child, marginalised in a small village, to see the Williams sisters succeed, against all odds, in such a serene way, in a sport with its origins in Britain and historically having been very elitist white “club” sport.
That is definitely something, amongst others, that has taught me how to approach any challenges in my life, creative or not, with an understanding that I belong, even if something or someone try to make me believe otherwise.