Stefan Weil started his career as a graphic designer with meiré and meiré in the 80s. He designed and published various fanzines and magazines (Der Fürst, HG, Das Herz, Frontpage). Later in the 90’s he worked as Creative Director and Cool Hunter with Leo Burnett. In 2000, Stefan Weil took over the creative direction of the future lab “LAB.01” initiated by DaimlerChrysler at the EXPO in Hanover for Atelier Markgraph. In 2005 he followed the call for the position of Managing Director Creation. Since 2016 he is co-owner of the agency Atelier Markgraph. The interdisciplinary design and planning office brings companies, brands and topics come alive worldwide. In the field of tension between business, culture and science, the integration of the latest technologies creates surprising brand stagings: from exhibitions to media productions to corporate architecture. Atelier Markgraph’s customer list includes well-known brands as well as cities, museums and cultural institutions. Stefan Weil has received numerous national and international awards for his work. He is also a member of the ADC, DDC, DAD and Soho House.
For me Frankfurt is …
Homeland. Hub and Hope. Our studio was founded here, the city is well connected to achieve global goals well. Real and virtual. The city is one of the important centers of Europe and the place of Paulskirche is the cradle of German democracy.
What do you love most about your job?
The very spectral voyages of discovery. The permanent study and exploration of new topics, from pacemaker to Greek mythology, to the inventors of automobile and synthesizer.
Where do you get your ideas from?
From our own creativity to the gene of the creative. Favored and encouraged by reading, traveling, Google, our permanent curiosity, a ‘hunt’ for the new and special.
My lunch break …
Out to lunch. At the moment I prefer to visit Iimori, the Japanese Gyozabar on Mainzer Landstrasse or in the city center near Raffa and Simon at Margarete’s.
What trends do you think we will see this year?
Progressively hybrid solutions. Products, interiors, spaces in which the real, the genuine, the analog together with the virtual, the digital form a symbiosis. AIl for many tasks where a machine actually comes to a result faster and based thereon the progressive self-evident of robots. The coexistence and good collaboration of man and machine. Finally flying cars and new types of nutrition. Sea cucumbers, jellyfish and insects are increasingly establishing themselves as a supplement to established food concepts.
What else can we still learn?
Endless. The question is confusing. The permanent change requires constant learning. We live and learn in a very exciting time of omnipresent transformation. Realization, reflection and reaction are elementary pre-requisites to work with, to influence. That is our claim and our task.
You should definitely do that in Frankfurt …
Implementing the MOMEM where the world now expects more, nationwide better bike paths that will be expanded internationality. Frankfurt has the potential of a ‘Creole’ cultural spread. And generally put away the blinkers in the sense of co-working. Education, culture, architecture, real estate, finance, law, seniors, kids, street, penthouse, precarious, elitist, established, alternative. Unity!
