My bio is not the typical creative director’s bio.

I have learned and done quite a lot of different things. In 1991 I studied product design which I stopped in 1992 for studying retail business and marketing. At the same time I learned retail shop manager in a sports retail store.

During that time I met hundreds of interesting and inspiring people and I learned a lot. As I was always interested in art & design I taught myself graphic and web design. The Internet was totally new and hot. So I learned my first steps in Freehand (today part of Adobe Illustrator) and NetObjects Fusion. In 1998 I build up my own website for my new founded design and brand agency „Velestron“.

That was a lot of fun.

I always dreamed of combining my retail and marketing skills with design and fashion. So I took the opportunity to join the german retail-group Wormland Men’s Fashion in 1999. A new journey began in the buying department and e-commerce. Later in 2001 I changed into the marketing department. That should be a start into a new era:

First I was Marketing Manager helping to relaunch the new Wormland marketing and image strategy for the upcoming years. But I always did some creative works too.

So I developed a new CI for Wormland and created countless flyer, magazines, packaging and other advertising stuff.

I have always loved making ideas happen. Nothing brings me more joy than having a vision and later seeing that idea come to life. So from 2004 I was the Art Director

of Wormland - transforming more and more into the creative mastermind of that company. We created outstanding and innovative image campaigns for the retail brand which were benchmark for the german retail business. I co-laborated with countless photographers and artists like e.g. Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca, Ali Kepenek, Felix Krüger and Tony Kelly and became Senior Art Director of Wormland in 2014.

At the same time, I wanted to understand more about how to blog. So I set up a blog which was named Art Directors Diary.

The years went by being creative like a machine putting out 360 degree campaigns, a new Wormland book and a unique Wormland perfume called „Identify Yourself Moleculaire“ (olfactory & packaging) in 2020. After 22 years I felt the time had come to leave Wormland and to start something on my own. Since 2022 I’m creating and working freelance and I’m very curious about the next design chapters of my creative life now in Berlin. 

Within 22 days I invented a boutique creative studio with all my expertise of the last 22 years together: 22Y STUDIO Michael Meise Creative Services.

During these times the world is changing again: The internet has become Web3, NFTs „said hello“, AI is becoming bigger and bigger and I think again - what a fantastic time full of new opportunities.

Looking back, I recognize a common thread running through everything I did, keeping all the different things together and I was always curious about new things. That everything happens for a reason and that even strange events can have a positive side is one of my core beliefs until today.