Stefan Diez learned his craft from scratch. Born in 1971 in Freising near Munich, the designer first completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter.
He then studied industrial design at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. As a student, he gained valuable experience with renowned designers. He worked as an assistant to Richard Sapper and later to Konstantin Grcic.
In 2003 he went his own way and founded his own studio. From the Diez Office in Munich, he supplies German and international design manufacturers such as e15, Thonet, Hay and emu with fresh designs.
His outstanding works include the “Chassis” chair for Wilkhahn, whose frame of deep-drawn sheet steel references the highly innovative manufacturing process of automotive space-frame technology. “Houdini” for e15 from 2009 developed into a modern classic within a few years.
Between 2009 and 2014, Stefan Diez held a professorship for industrial design at the Karlsruhe University of Design. Since 2015, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Lund in Sweden.
The Munich-based designer has received many international design awards. In 2017, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln curated a comprehensive show of his work entitled “FULL HOUSE: Design by Stefan Diez.”
The MAKK justified its choice of Diez as follows: “The consistent, often radical search for new paths is characteristic of Stefan Diez’s work. His view goes beyond conventional approaches in design and finds surprising solutions.”
