HELLOME ON CULTURE & DESIGN FUTURE

For over 15 years, HelloMe has been pushing the boundaries of contemporary design, crafting bold identities for brands like Apple, Nike, and Warp Records. But for founder Till Wiedeck, design has never been just a career—it’s a way to shape culture, challenge ideas, and create lasting impact.

In this interview, we explore his early creative influences, the organic growth of HelloMe, and the philosophy that drives the studio’s work. From embracing unpredictability to redefining brand storytelling, this is a deep dive into the mindset behind one of Berlin’s most innovative design studios. Catch HelloMe live at Forward Festival Berlin, where they’ll share more insights into their creative journey!

What’s one of your earliest memories of being creative, and how did that experience influence your journey to becoming a designer?
Ever since I could hold a pen, I was drawing. So creativity never felt like something out of the ordinary. My older brother was more into science and craft, while I was sitting at my desk, sketching away. Around 10 years old, I became interested in graffiti. Letters and music quickly became the defining part of my youth. Looking back, it feels like a natural progression from that to designing record covers for friends and creating flyers for events which ultimately led me to study design.


When did you first realize that design wasn’t just a passion but something you wanted to pursue as a career?
I started designing small projects for friends and musicians long before attending university. It felt natural to combine my passion for music and visual culture into something meaningful. Personally, I never really approached creative work from a career perspective and even today, as an internationally operating studio, we somehow still don’t. We engage with projects and clients who share the ambition to shape contemporary culture. Whether we work with small music labels or global brands, positive cultural impact—at any scale—creates value far beyond career ambitions.


In 2008, you founded HelloMe while still studying design and working with Mario Lombardo. What motivated you to take that bold step?
It felt like the right moment to carve out a space where I could shape an independent narrative and creative environment. Over time, HelloMe grew organically, and with every person who joins, a new voice and perspective is added to the team. Today, the studio is a place for everyone to thrive at what they are best at—guided by a shared creative vision and the ambition to develop work that pushes beyond the status quo.

Starting a business always comes with its challenges. What were some of the biggest obstacles you faced in the early days of HelloMe, and what valuable lessons did you learn along the way?
I never realized I was starting a business until much, much later. For the most part, trusting your feelings, instincts, and sensibilities has proven extremely helpful when overcoming any challenges. Being generous and staying agile, while remaining committed to the vision and focused on the bigger picture, is a helpful principle when running a studio—which is equally a business structure and a social environment, in which every person, perspective, and feeling matters.


Looking back at your journey so far, is there a piece of advice you wish you could give to your younger self when you were just starting out in design?
Everything is temporary.


HelloMe has been based in Berlin since 2008, a neighborhood known for its creativity and energy. How does the city—and your immediate environment—shape your creative process?
Berlin has always played a vital role in shaping HelloMe’s cultural understanding and creative environment as a studio. While not many of our clients are based here, a lot of our long-standing collaborators and friends are. In the early days, I shared a studio with Johannes Breyer of Dinamo for several years, which led to a very early version of what became ABC Favorit being premiered as part of the Warp Records identity HelloMe designed in 2015. A few years later, I collaborated with Manuel Bürger on the identity for Volksbühne Berlin—again, we had shared the very same studio for many years. Today we’ve all relocated, some to new studios, some to other countries while each of us has carved out their own unique perspective. What’s exciting about Berlin is how interconnected these individual paths are. The city, in many ways, has been a backdrop for my personal but also for HelloMe’s journey as a studio and an essential part of shaping the amazing team it is today.


Where do you turn for inspiration, especially when you’re looking for fresh ideas or a new perspective?
Taking things slow helps when refocusing and finding inspiration. Nature, contemporary art, architecture, and unfamiliar environments often help me formulate new ideas.

Your work spans a diverse range of industries and brands. What principles guide your approach to creating unique and impactful brand identities?
Defining contemporary culture—in the broadest sense. Our approach is guided by the principle that creating cultural impact can transform any business, build brand value, connect audiences, and facilitate sustainable change. We help our partners understand their brand environment, challenge ideas, and use design as an expression of values and aesthetic sensibility—creating holistic and resonant brand identities that align with both their audiences and business goals.


You’ve collaborated with global names like Apple, Nike, Warp Records, and The New York Times. Is there a particular project that stands out as especially meaningful or memorable to you?
All of the names you mentioned have been very important in shaping our approach to collaboration and creative dialogue. Our longstanding partnerships with Warp Records and Apple are a testament to exactly the type of mutual understanding and trust that builds lasting and ongoing impact across a broad range of audiences and cultural layers.


The Nike PG4 GATORADE campaign is one of your studio’s standout projects, with its unique blend of performance, art, and cultural storytelling. What was it like collaborating with Nike on such an ambitious campaign, and what were the key takeaways from the experience?
Our trusted relationship with Nike spans over 10 years, covering various briefs, formats, and global campaigns. Among others, Nike asked us to conceptualize and define the visual language for Nike’s brand presence during the NBA All-Star Weekend 2020 in Chicago. At the time, the US team tasked us with not only designing the visual identity for Nike’s own presence but also developing seven different campaign identities for the shoe drops that Nike had planned during that period in collaboration with some key Nike athletes such as LeBron James, Paul George, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and several more. So the PG4 campaign is part of a larger body of work we created with the Nike team around the same period.

HelloMe often works on print projects, in an increasingly digital world. Do you feel that designing for print holds a special place in today’s design landscape?
We literally design for any digital or physical format you could possibly think of, as most of our projects are complex briefs that cover a wide range of media. However, print—and especially books—hold a very dear place in our practice, even though they are not the predominant medium we work with. We run a publishing imprint called METER Books in collaboration with curator Frank Boehm. METER publishes books and editions exploring the contours of contemporary culture. Embracing the book as a primary mode of cultural expression, METER engages with relevant voices in contemporary discourse to produce printed objects of experimental form, essential quality, and lasting significance.


With design constantly evolving, what do you do to stay ahead of trends and keep your work fresh and relevant?
We observe, anticipate and shape culture. We try to keep an ear to the street, stay close to what moves people, what shapes thinking, and what shifts perceptions. Ultimately participation is key. Engaging in continuous exchange with different disciplines helps us stay open and evolve our work in ways that feel both relevant and unexpected. Curiosity and critical reflection are more valuable approaches for us than chasing what’s currently in vogue.


For you, what defines a successful project at HelloMe? Is it about aesthetic impact, client satisfaction, or the lasting impression on audiences?
Fun, Fame, Fortune. Pick two. Best all three. If it ticks just one box, don’t do it!
All jokes aside, we share a genuine ambition to deliver our best work—for everyone involved, on every project. We help our partners reach their full potential by creating work that cuts through the noise and amplifies their brand, narrative, and message—while maintaining the highest level of aesthetic precision and visual excellence.


What excites you most about the future of design, and how do you see the field evolving over the next decade?
I believe there are many futures for design, which will take shape in different ways. A new paradigm is emerging—one that forces us to articulate what is essential and human, while our digital perception becomes increasingly artificial. Design will continue to expand its role—not just in branding or aesthetics, but in shaping society, ethics, and behavior, especially within digital environments. That shift opens up an exciting space for new ways of thinking and ideation with the potential to redefine how we interact, live, and create meaning. We are excited for what’s ahead!