Careers guide: Stufish design director Ray Winkler reveals his path into set design for rock stars

Today Dezeen Jobs launches a careers guide profiling people with inspiring jobs in architecture, interiors and design. First we interview Ray Winkler, design director at entertainment architecture studio Stufish, which creates stages for musicians like the Rolling Stones and U2.

Each week the new Dezeen Jobs careers guide will help people who want build a career in the design industry learn from leading figures, understand company cultures and pick up tips on what these firms are looking for when they recruit.

In our launch interview, Winkler explains how he was hired by legendary stage designer Mark Fisher shortly after completing his architecture studies, and worked his way up from the bottom.

“You did the drawings, you did the model, you did the tea, you booked the hotel, you booked your flight,” Winkler said of his early days at the firm.

Winkler has since designed sets for the Rolling Stones for 20 years and has also worked with acts including Madonna and Beyoncé.

But he says his career highlight was working on a show with Jean-Michel Jarre at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt in 2000. “On the night of the show, a 100-year fog rolled in and you couldn’t see anything!” he recalled.

Winkler’s team mostly consists of architects. “I look for a degree of autonomous thinking and working,” he said. “There’s often a need to do some hand sketching or some rendering or whatever it might be, and that’s important.”

“This is not a job, it’s a passion.”

Read the interview on Dezeen Jobs ›