Mikaela Dörfel was born in Varkaus, Finland in 1962. Growing up in Scandinavia and coming into contact early with the works of Tapio Wirkkala, Kaj Franck and Alvar Aalto, she was fascinated with forms and materials already as a teenager. The step to becoming a designer herself was only logical.
Already while studying Industrial Design in Hamburg, she was most interested in products relating to the set table including materials, porcelain, glass and metal. It was only consistent that she was employed by Rosenthal AG after graduating in 1988. Her time as design manager at Rosenthal strongly formed her brand thinking and fashioned a conscious handling of resources. Her pressing desire to be able to develop designs herself persuaded her to become self employed with the design studio Dörfel-Design in 1997. She works for clients like Auerhahn, Fürstenberg, Joop!, Leonardo, mono, Nambé, Royal Porcelain, RAK Porcelain, BHS tabletop AG, Vista Alegre, WMF, Wilkens and Zwilling. Her designs were awarded by Design Plus, the IF- Design Award and the GOOD Design Award.
Mikaela Dörfel runs her studio and lives with her husband and their two children in an old farmhouse surrounded by wonderful landscape near Hamburg, Germany.