About us

The personalities in the team are as versatile as our projects. We share the passion for good design and broadening our horizons together. To do this, we visit museums, architecture, production facilities, restaurants and also travel to the places where our team members grew up.

Fred Held
Founder of Held+Team

Fred Held studied at the Muthesius Academy in Kiel and graduated as an industrial designer. From 1989 to 1997 he worked as a freelancer at Windi Winderlich Design in Hamburg. In 1997 he supported KIDP (Korea Institute of Design Promotion) in South Korea and founded Held+Team. In 2011, the Held+Team Design partnership company was established with Thomas Märzke. Since 2005 he has been invited as a valued juror for the iF DESIGN AWARD, among other things.

Thomas Märzke
Partner since 2011

Thomas Märzke first studied sports science at the University of Bochum before graduating in 2003 with a degree in industrial design from the University of Essen. He worked as a freelancer in Essen and Wuppertal, among other places, and joined Held+Team in 2003. In 2011 he founded the Held+Team Design partnership company together with Fred Held.

Lorenz Bayer
Partner since 2021

Lorenz Bayer studied product design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar before completing his Master of Arts in Industrial Design at the Muthesius Academy of Arts in Kiel in 2014. During his studies, he worked interdisciplinary projects in Dublin and Shanghai, among other places, and started working at Held+Team in 2017. He has been an additional partner at the Held+Team Design partnership company since 2021.

Oliver Hahn
Partner since 2021

Oliver Hahn first studied computer visualisation at the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg before continuing his studies in Industrial Design at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences in 2013. He completed his studies in 2016 at the Muthesius Academy of Arts Kiel with a Master of Arts in Industrial Design, specializing in Medical Design. He worked as a designer in Fürth, among other places, and joined Held+Team in 2016. He has been an additional partner at the Held+Team Design partnership company since 2021.

Thilo Hogrebe
Roland Hopp
Ronny Staps
Verena Desch
Angelina Clasen
Daniel Meyer
Bertrand Behrendt
David Berger
Feidi Hu
Paul Ullrich
Leon Affeldt

Our offices at Ulmenstrasse is already Held+Team's third location. It started with a floor space of about 100 square meters at Schrammsweg in Eppendorf. Then, in 2003, we moved to the light-flooded office at Rehmstrasse, about a kilometer away, which everyone was very attached to. Unfortunately, in 2013, the 170 square meters there were finally becoming too small for the growing team. Less than 300m away we found our current location on the fourth floor, at Ulmenstrasse. The view over Hamburg and the still bright ambience under the vaulted roof make up for the wonderful backyard ambience that we had to give up.

Since August 2017 we have more space and expanded our workspace down to the third floor. The new premises have become a small showroom, additional project rooms, a spacious presentation room and an archive. A modern conference room, in which we hold the growing number of video conferences with our customers in Asia, Europe and the USA, is also available. By now, we are "living" in almost 400 square meters and still make sure all employees can work together in one room. There are also retreats to work on projects alone or in small groups - ideal conditions for creative activities.

Sustainability is important to us in our daily work, which is why we also value: