Stills & Strokes

What Stills & Strokes does

Stills & Strokes (legal entity Stills & Strokes Homann-Vorbeck GmbH) is a Berlin-based boutique creative studio founded in 2012 by Art Director Melanie Vorbeck and photographer Stefan Vorbeck. The firm delivers art direction, editorial and product photography, and visual storytelling for international magazines and brand clients across beauty, fashion, luxury, automotive, and e-commerce. Its output is organized around named campaign series (FLUID FORMS, WINTER STUDIES, BOTTLES STUDIES, FOLD STUDIES, BOTANIC PLANTS STUDIES, Jelly/Flower/Fruit Studies) built by merging analogue photography with digital post-production to produce surreal, pattern-driven commercial imagery.

The business operates as a professional services studio with project-based engagements and retainer relationships, billed directly to enterprise clients. Distribution is direct B2B with major international titles and luxury houses, supplemented by US sales representation through the Levine/Leavitt agency (NY and LA). Revenue mechanics are project fees and retainers; no pricing is publicly disclosed. The client base is unusually logo-heavy for a firm of this size, spanning Harper's Bazaar editions in eight countries, GQ (DE, IT), Interview Magazine, Wallpaper, Garage, Chanel, Diptyque, Sephora, Nike, BMW, MINI, Swarovski, KPM, Rosenthal, Zalando, and mytheresa.com, among others. The studio is privately held and bootstrapped, with both founders listed as managing directors in the Berlin commercial registry and no disclosed external investors.

The company's growth posture relies on reputation, award recognition (ADC Germany 2013, ADC Switzerland Bronze 2014), academic teaching positions at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts since 2023, and speaking engagements at international design festivals. Geographic reach is achieved through international magazine editions rather than local offices; the studio is a single-entity operation headquartered at Apostel-Paulus-Straße 12 in Berlin-Schöneberg with no disclosed subsidiaries, headcount, or external funding.

Name

Stills & Strokes

Legal name

Stills & Strokes Homann-Vorbeck GmbH

Website

https://stillsandstrokes.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Stills & Strokes is a Berlin-based boutique creative studio delivering art direction, editorial and product photography, and visual storytelling for international magazines and luxury, beauty, fashion, and automotive brands. Founded in 2012 and founder-owned.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Creative Services / Commercial Photography

NAICS

Commercial Photography (541922), Photographic Services (54192), Graphic Design Services (54143)

SIC

Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Photography & Still Production (Stills, Product, Lifestyle) (MPAAAMAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Digital Creative & Experience Design Agencies (Web/App/UX) (MPAAAAAD)

Keywords

• Creative art direction
• Editorial photography services
• Commercial product photography
• Brand visual storytelling
• Fashion beauty photography

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Creative Services: B2B creative agency providing art direction, photography, and editorial design services to magazines, beauty brands, fashion brands, and luxury lifestyle companies. Revenue derived from creative project fees and retainer engagements.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Stills & Strokes is a Berlin-based creative studio providing art direction, editorial and product photography, and creative campaign design for international magazines, beauty brands, fashion houses, and luxury lifestyle companies. They merge analogue and digital techniques to create distinctive visual content for commercial clients. Revenue is generated through creative project fees and retainer engagements.

Product overview

Stills & Strokes is a Berlin-based creative studio specializing in artistic direction, photography, and visual storytelling for the beauty, fashion, design, and culture industries. The company operates as a single unified creative service rather than a platform with discrete modules. Their offering consists of bespoke creative campaigns and product presentation series—including FLUID FORMS, WINTER STUDIES, BOTTLES STUDIES, FOLD STUDIES, BOTANIC PLANTS STUDIES, Jelly Studies, Flower Studies, and Fruit Studies—each representing distinct artistic series created through the seamless merger of analogue and digital techniques to produce surreal, visually bold commercial content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Art Direction B2B creative art direction services for editorial and commercial campaigns; leads visual concept and execution for magazines, beauty, fashion, and luxury brand clients.
• Editorial Photography Editorial photography services for international magazines (Harper's Bazaar, GQ, Interview Magazine, Garage, Wallpaper, etc.), including recurring monthly publications and covers.
• Product Photography & Creative Campaigns Product photography and creative campaign production for beauty brands (Chanel, Sephora, Diptyque, Hourglass, BABOR), fashion brands (Nike, Dolce & Gabbana, Wandler), luxury brands (KPM, Swarovski, Rosenthal, Wempe), and retail/e-commerce clients (Galeries Lafayette, Zalando, mytheresa.com).
• Editorial Design Editorial design services, exemplified by the award-winning Kultur SPIEGEL cover (ADC Germany 2013) and contributions to Soirée Graphique (ADC Switzerland Bronze 2014).

Named customers23 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Levine/LeavittcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorUS sales representation agency representing Stills & Strokes for North American client acquisition. Offices in New York (+1 212 979 1200) and Los Angeles (+1 310 392 2700). Handles [email protected] inquiries.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Wall Group: Los Angeles-based creative agency representing photographers, hair-and-makeup artists, and stylists for fashion, beauty, and celebrity campaigns. Comparable as a talent-and-creative-services platform routing premium creative output to the same enterprise customer base.
• Art Partner: London- and New York-based creative agency representing photographers, stylists, and creative talent for fashion, beauty, and luxury brand campaigns. Comparable as a creative-services provider sitting between photographers and enterprise beauty/luxury clients in the same buyer pool.
• Streeters: London-based creative agency representing photographers, hair-and-makeup artists, and stylists to fashion and beauty clients. Comparable as a curated creative production node serving the same premium beauty and fashion brand buyers.
• Bureau Borsche: Düsseldorf-based design and art direction studio producing editorial, identity, and campaign work for fashion and cultural clients. Comparable in the editorial-plus-commercial art direction overlap with Stills & Strokes.
• Bureau Mirko Borsche: Munich-based art direction and design studio known for magazine covers, fashion campaigns, and brand identity work for premium clients. Directly comparable in combining editorial art direction with brand campaigns, and is an actual prior internship site of co-founder Melanie Vorbeck.
• HORT Berlin: Berlin-based creative studio working across art direction, branding, and editorial design for cultural and commercial clients. Comparable as a Berlin-headquartered creative agency with a similar scale and high-end editorial client mix.
• Meiré und Meiré: Cologne-based creative agency specializing in brand identity, art direction, and content production for premium and lifestyle clients. Comparable to Stills & Strokes' art-direction-led creative production model; co-founder Melanie Vorbeck previously held a permanent art director position there.
• M/M (Paris): Paris-based art direction and image-making studio founded by Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag, serving luxury, fashion, and publishing clients (Aperture, Vogue, Saint Laurent). Closely comparable to Stills & Strokes in combining art direction with bespoke visual production for premium brands.

Others

• Kollektiv Mareike Bearba: Not a direct peer; It's Nice That is the editorial platform that has featured Stills & Strokes. Included as an ecosystem/reference point where the studio's brand reputation is amplified within the creative industry.

Broad incumbents

• Liganova: Stuttgart- and Berlin-based brand experience and creative agency working with luxury and lifestyle brands on spatial, digital, and content programs. Broader incumbent with overlapping premium-brand clients but a wider service portfolio beyond photography and art direction.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/melanie-vorbeck-homann-40b519276
• Instagraminstagram.com/stillsandstrokes

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Stills & Strokes