about STUDIO BERG
photo by Anne Deppe
Playful, bold & decorative objects from Berlin
STUDIO BERG is a Berlin design studio founded in 2014 by designer and artist Friederike Delius. The studio creates playful, bold and decorative objects in hand-blown glass, handmade ceramics, metal and furniture – the collections JELLO, KNSTRKT, CANDY, VIIE VASES and FOLDWORK – made by hand in close collaboration with craftspeople across Europe.
Objects for everyday life
At the heart of the studio is a simple belief: the objects we surround ourselves with influence how we feel, how we move and how we experience our surroundings.
A room filled with cold stainless steel makes us feel and behave differently than one made entirely of pink cotton candy. And perhaps drinking our morning coffee from a cup whose texture we love to feel in our hands can make the coffee taste even better and the start of the day a little easier.
STUDIO BERG explores this idea through objects somewhere between art, design and everyday life – objects that bring colour, humour and unexpected moments into everyday spaces.
photo by Anne Deppe
A fascination with things
For Friederike, designing often begins with a fascination for objects. Flea market finds, forgotten household items, unusual materials, childhood memories and traditional manufacturing techniques all become starting points for new ideas.
She is particularly drawn to objects that tell stories. Who made them? Why do they look the way they do? What were they used for? And what new stories might they tell in a different context?
This curiosity is not about nostalgia. It is about discovering the possibilities hidden in familiar things and translating them into something unexpected.
Playing with expectations is an important part of this process. Things are not always what they seem: something that looks soft might actually be hard, something that appears edible turns out to be made of glass, and familiar shapes take on surprising new functions. Humour, curiosity and the pleasure of discovery run through all of the studio’s work.
photo by Anne Deppe
photo by Christoph Musiol
From fine art to product design
Friederike studied fine art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she was a master student of Tal R, before studying product design at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).
During her art studies, she experimented with objects, installations and unusual material combinations. From an enormous wasp’s nest made of mineral wool to landscapes of cardboard flowers, her work already explored the relationship between materials, appearances and the stories objects can tell.
Moving into product design was less a departure from art than a continuation of these interests. What changed was the possibility of bringing objects closer to people’s everyday lives. Rather than creating pieces to be admired from a distance, Friederike wanted to make objects that people could touch, use and live with.
An object becomes something different when someone gives it a place in their home. When it holds a wine glass, serves sugar or hides a set of keys, it becomes part of a person’s routines, memories and experiences. This relationship between people and objects continues to drive the studio’s work.
Craftsmanship & making things
For Friederike, designing and making have always been closely connected. Working with her hands is not simply a way of producing objects, but an essential part of how ideas develop.
She still makes the ceramic VIIE VASES herself and spent years producing every component of the modular KNSTRKT tableware by hand before moving production to a specialised workshop in Portugal. The first FOLDWORK pieces were soldered in her own studio in Berlin-Neukölln.
Even when production involves other craftspeople, Friederike remains closely involved in the making. For the hand-blown glass JELLO collection, she makes the plaster moulds herself and works directly with the glassblower at the furnace, exploring shapes, techniques and possibilities together.
This hands-on knowledge shapes how she collaborates with specialised workshops across Europe. Traditional craftsmanship, often passed down through generations, is not just a means of production but a source of inspiration in its own right: the knowledge embedded in each technique, the possibilities and limits of each material, and the individual character that comes from making things by hand.
These collaborations are an ongoing exchange of skills, experiments and ideas – and often lead to forms that could not have been imagined beforehand. Each object carries something of the people, materials and processes involved in its making, and the small variations that make handcrafted pieces unique.
Collections – glass, ceramics & metal
JELLO – Historical jelly moulds turned into hand-blown glass cloches
KNSTRKT – Modular, Memphis-inspired ceramic tableware
CANDY – Striped sweets turned into glass, mirrors & furniture
VIIE VASES – Sculptural ceramic vases with richly textured surfaces
FOLDWORK – Folded metal wall objects & furniture
Designed in Berlin and made in collaboration with craftspeople across Europe, STUDIO BERG's objects have found their way into homes around the world, from Australia to Hawaii. The collections are available through selected design shops and concept stores in Berlin, London, the Netherlands, Beirut, Osaka, Tbilisi, Abidjan and Melbourne, among others, as well as at the VitraHaus Shop in Weil am Rhein.
The studio's work has appeared in publications including AD Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Wallpaper*, ELLE Decoration, Sight Unseen, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Schöner Wohnen.
STUDIO BERG is always open to new collaborations, exhibitions and retail partners → Retailer area
Based in Berlin,
collected worldwide
photo by Anne Deppe
set-design Nici Theuerkauf, photo by Anne Deppe
Friederike is also one of eleven designers behind MATTER of COURSE, a Berlin design collective founded in 2021 that brings together independent female designers exploring materiality, contemporary craft and collaborative practices.
Over the years, STUDIO BERG has been shaped by the contributions of many talented people, including Hao Du, Jamie Clark, Alina Miklau, Leopold Heimpel, Karoline Heyde, Libi Gurdus, Nele Oetjens, Mingyu Kim and Leni Stehr.
Thank you 🤍
photo by Anne Deppe
