Designer portrait Bernhard Dessecker

Bernhard Dessecker is a designer, lighting designer and interior designer with over thirty years of international experience. He became known through his long-standing collaboration with Ingo Maurer, whose striking lighting objects he played a decisive role in developing as a close colleague and project manager. His most influential designs include the “Swingading” floor lamp for the Ingo Maurer collection (1990), which was an extremely innovative lighting solution at the time, and “Spock,” a minimalist wall and ceiling spotlight that won the iF Design Award in 2000. He began his career as an interior designer at Studio Morsa in New York in 1983, moving to Maurer's Munich design team a year later.

During this time, he created luminaires such as ‘Johnny B. Good’, “Knüller” and ‘Bastardo’, which combine technical sophistication with poetic lightness. Dessecker was also involved in major lighting projects, including the design of the Münchner Freiheit and Marienplatz underground stations in Munich. At the same time, he developed his own work and realised projects for international clients such as Moooi, BMW and the Goethe-Institut.

One example of his sensitive lighting design is the illumination of the historic farmhouse parlours in the Bavarian National Museum, where he used precisely integrated LED technology to create a daylight-like atmosphere in windowless rooms. His designs are characterised by clarity, technical precision and a keen sense of dramaturgy. He understands light as a narrative medium that structures spaces and directs emotions.

Today, he develops individual lighting concepts, installations and products at his Berlin studio Dessecker-Design. He shares his in-depth knowledge of LED and OLED technologies in lectures and workshops around the world. In 2008, he published the book ‘Ingo Maurer – Designing with Light’ with Prestel Verlag. In 2023, he was named ‘Most Innovative Bespoke Table Lamps Designer – Germany’ by LUXlife.