Martina Baeuerle
Meet Martina 👋
Role: Technical Content Writer & Marketing Assistant
Background: M.Eng. Fabric & Design Technology, Senior Product Engineer, Technical Product Development & Customer Operations
First-hand experience: Living in & working from a campervan, converting a campervan, working in the outdoor industry
Areas of expertise: Van life and remote travel · Van conversions · Technical communication · Off-grid living · Product engineering · Research & problem solving
Experience and expertise
Martina combines an engineering background with several years of first-hand experience living in her self-converted campervan. She holds an M.Eng. in Fabric & Design Technology and spent over a decade working in high-end fashion, developing expertise in technical design, product engineering, risk management and problem solving.
More recently, her experience working in the camping and outdoor industry, alongside living off-grid, has given her a practical understanding of the systems people rely on every day. She now combines this hands-on experience with her technical and communication skills to make complex subjects clear, useful and accessible.
Articles written by Martina ✍️
Personal story
Martina grew up on the shores of Lake Constance in Germany, where water was a big part of everyday life. She could actually swim before she could walk, and rowing and sailing were part of the school curriculum. That early love of the water naturally grew into a passion for scuba diving. Now a PADI Divemaster, she has explored underwater worlds across the Caribbean, South Africa, the Mediterranean and UK waters. For her, being underwater is almost a form of meditation, the steady rhythm of breathing, the slower pace and the feeling of weightlessness make it the closest thing to being in space.
After studying Fabric & Design Technology in Germany, Martina moved to London and began a career in high-end fashion. Over more than a decade, she worked across garment technology, technical design and production for brands including Erdem, Victoria Beckham and Burberry. Her work involved technical development, supplier management, product risk, quality control and finding practical solutions to complex problems.
Alongside her fashion career, Martina developed a freelance costume design business, creating technical costumes for bands, drag queens, television and stage productions, including America's Got Talent, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Underbelly Festival and Glastonbury. Combining technical design with creativity, the work taught her how to turn ambitious ideas into practical, working solutions.
After years in fashion, Martina wanted a different way of living. She converted a van into her full-time home and has spent the past four years travelling mainly across the UK and Europe. Alongside living on the road, she worked in the camping industry, gaining first-hand insight into the needs of campers and the practical realities of life outdoors. Working directly with customers, managing bookings and helping solve day-to-day problems gave her a strong understanding of the questions and challenges people face when living and travelling on the road.
Living in her own van, which has undergone several interior overhauls over the years, has also given her a different perspective on the systems that make off-grid living possible. Relying on them every day has given her a practical understanding of what works, what doesn't and how important it is for technical information to be clear and accessible. Combined with her engineering background and experience working directly with campers, this naturally led her to Nohma and its mission to make off-grid energy simpler.
Life on the road has given Martina plenty of opportunities to spend time outdoors. She enjoys exploring, scuba diving and foraging, with a particular fascination for mushrooms and learning to identify the different species she finds along the way. Sustainability, off-grid living and finding practical ways to live more independently are a big part of what keeps her exploring.
And she doesn't travel alone. Back when the van was still just a distant dream, her rescue cat Chubbs was already part of her London life. When the dream became reality, the van was designed with him in mind, making him the original vanlifer and unofficial supervisor. Since then, three rescue dogs — Ping, Stevie and Olive — have joined the crew. Somehow, all four animals and one human fit into the van, giving it a rather magical Mary Poppins bag quality.
Living in a van and being part of the Nohma team has completely transformed my lifestyle. Having the flexibility to work remotely allows me to live sustainably and traveling while collaborating with a fantastic team. Together, we use our shared wealth of knowledge and firsthand experience to help customers create their off-grid systems and fulfil their dreams of launching their own van life journeys.
Martina Baeuerle, Technical Content Writer & Marketing Assistant
When the days get cold and dark, Martina enjoys retreating into the van for her "grandma-style" hobby of knitting or crocheting. Her comfort food is a warm bowl of soup, while Chubbs, Ping, Stevie and Olive curl up around her. It's hard to beat and certainly better than any hot water bottle.
Campervan electrics leaving you confused?
