Axel Schmid, born in 1971, completed his studies in wood and metal working before studying at the Academy of the Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where he obtained his degree in 1997. Thanks to a grant of the Association of the German Industrial Designers he could spend a year in Japan. Afterwards he started working for the lighting designer Ingo Maurer in Munich.
Aside designing high-quality lights, together with Ingo Maurer Axel Schmid has designed artistic installations and projects all around the world. With Ablaze, Ingo Maurer and Axel Schmid created an impressive installation uniting architecture, object, sound, light and smoke for the exposition Architettura Mutante during the Milan Design Week 2011. Also in Milan but this time for Audi City Lab, Schmid and Maurer illuminated parts of a historical building with a sea of light and colour.