Who is behind WireStyle?

My name is André and I am the founder of WireStyle. I studied physics at KIT in Karlsruhe and started my own business producing string art pictures. We produce the string art pictures in a small team with the help of our self-designed robots.

How did WireStyle come about?

In 2018, we came across works of art with strings and were fascinated! Most string art pictures you see on the internet are handmade by artists and are therefore extremely expensive and have very long delivery times. In addition, you don't know in advance what the result will look like later, so we wondered how such a work of art could be produced even better and faster with the help of robots.

As you can't buy such machines anywhere, we developed and built them ourselves. My physics degree and my interest in technology also taught me a lot about mechanics and electronics. I had previously built remote-controlled RC airplanes and helicopters, so I also had a lot of fun building the WireStyle machines.

How did you become known?

In the beginning, it was mainly our customers who spread the word of mouth, i.e. most of the pictures were ordered by people who had seen our string art pictures on their friends' walls. In April 2022, we also appeared on the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen”, which is the German version of the show “Shark Tank”. We were also featured in the inventor program “Einfach Genial” on MDR. You can also see the video here on the website.

What makes a string art picture so special?

Conventional pictures are printed with color. With a string art picture, there is only one long string! Funnily enough, all viewers who see a string art picture for the first time stand in front of it and look for the beginning of the string or the printer ink hidden behind the string. “How does that work? Where did you get that?” is often heard. Which is completely understandable - you could hardly reproduce details such as faces by hand with a string as accurately as we do.

How are these pictures produced?

To determine the exact path of the string, we have developed several computer algorithms ourselves. This allows the original image to be converted into a string art picture much more precisely than could ever be done by hand. In dark areas, the string is very often laid over the same areas from different directions. The nail positions are calculated individually for each image so that contrasting edges are optimally reproduced.

The robots are now located in our small production hall in Karlsruhe, from where we also ship the pictures directly, so all our string art pictures are 100% Made In Germany!