I’m Ole Tillmann. A creative director, designer and advisor. My ambition is to create work with international relevance and impact.
Computers were part of my childhood, from the C64 to the Pentium. My father’s old punched cards, once used to store computer data, became our notepaper. I had a 56k modem in my room early on. My first download was a typeface.
From an early age, I wanted to study product design. While still at school, I gained experience in advertising agencies.
A few detours led me to television. At RTL, I hosted Top of the Pops, including alongside Justin Timberlake. Journalism training at the Adolf-Grimme-Akademie deepened my craft. Karl Wachtel was an influential coach for me there.
Alongside presenting, I worked as an actor and later trained as an acting coach with Sigrid Andersson. I learned techniques she had brought from Los Angeles and psychophysical exercises developed by Michael Chekhov. I discovered that imagination can be trained like a muscle. That experience still shapes my work today.
As a TEDx coach, I helped others bring their ideas to the stage. Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute and founding PEAK followed. Working with hundreds of startups, I connected communication with innovation design.
I learn through my own projects: I wrote Beyond the Obvious, co-designed it with Axel Lauer and published it myself. I produce my podcast and experiment with motion design and AI.
“Ole is a driving force in our keynote productions.”
