Detlef Fiedler studied architecture in Weimar. After his studies he worked as a gardener and later as a garden architect. He moved to East Berlin in 1987 and worked as a graphic designer at the advertising agency DEWAG. In 1989 he and four other young designers founded Grappa, the first graphic design group in the GDR. In 1992 he and Daniela Haufe left the group to found Cyan. Together with one to four other designers they create graphic design and corporate identity programmes exclusively for cultural clients such as the Bauhaus Dessau, the State Opera Berlin, the House of World Cultures and various galleries. From 1991 to 1996 he was co-editor of the critical design magazine form+zweck (form+purpose). As a member of the dance company Toula Limnaios he created several films and videos that were projected on stage. From 1996 to 2006 he taught as a professor of graphic design together with Daniela Haufe at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig.