About
Karlssonwilker is internationally renowned for its deeply original design solutions for clients from the commercial and cultural sectors. The studio’s focus on in-depth discovery, coupled with an intuitive sense of place, narrative, and humor, allows them to inject new energy and purpose into projects, and create engaging experiences in complex cultural environments.
WHAT WE DO
Design-Driven Strategy & Business Consulting
Branding & Visual Identity
Environmental Identity
Signage & Wayfinding Systems
Interactive & Digital Products
Editorial & Packaging Design
Ideation & Naming
Design Process Optimization
SELECTED CLIENTS
Bloomberg
Guggenheim Museum
Mini/BMW
Calder Foundation
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
Nintendo
The New York Times
Samsung
Sotheby's
Swatch
TIME Magazine
Vitra
WORDS OF MOUTH
PARTNERS
HJALTI KARLSSON Co-Founder/Partner
Hjalti founded Karlssonwilker with Jan Wilker in 2000 after the two met at Stefan Sagmeister's studio. Hjalti is a frequent design speaker and judge who has served on numerous international design juries, most notably as chairman of the design jury at the Clio Awards and juror at the Red Dot Design Award. Born and raised in Reykjavik, Iceland, Hjalti is an alumnus of Parsons School of Design and the 2013 recipient of the Torsten and Wanja Söderberg Prize, the world's highest endowed design award, for his outstanding achievements in graphic design.
VERA YUAN Partner
Vera oversees Karlssonwilker's client relations and business development. Her two decades plus of creative direction and design leadership include formative years at the pioneering brand consultancy Landor Associates and helming the creative departments at Anne Klein and Ann Taylor as Vice President, Creative Director. From its start, Vera has been Karlssonwilker's enduring delegate and advisor, working exclusively with the studio since 2020. Vera received her B.A. in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley.
JAN WILKER Co-Founder/Partner
Jan founded Karlssonwilker with Hjalti Karlsson in 2000. He serves as the President of AGI’s (Alliance Graphique Internationale) US Group and has taught at Cooper Union, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons. His sought-after lectures and workshops have inspired designers around the world to improve their creative processes. He also holds infrequent immersive neighborhood workshops in Karlssonwilker's studio. A native of Ulm, Germany, Jan studied architecture at TU Stuttgart and holds a master's degree in communication design from Stuttgart's State Academy of Art and Design.
Press
Print magazine cover
An interactive cover for Print magazine, designed in the early days of Karlssonwilker.
Novum cover story
Karlssonwilker graced a magazine cover for the first time for international design publication Novum.
IDEA 266
Baby Hjalti and Stefan Sagmeister on the cover of IDEA magazine's New York issue.tellmewhy
tellmewhy—the first 24 months of a New York design studio is the story of our beginnings: two young, wide-eyed designers, one from Iceland and one from Germany, who started up their own studio without any clients, in the midst of a recession, in a city brimming with world-renowned designers.
MONOGRAPHS
15 Projects in 15 Minutes, Oddi, Reykjavik, 2021
karlssonwyman, KW, NY, 2020
karlssonwilker On America [Unit 42], Unit Editions, NY, 2018
20 Projects, Live From New York City, It’s..., Oddi, Reykjavik, 2017
15 Projects in 5 Minutes, For Quick Readers, Oddi, Reykjavik, 2013
20 Projects in 5 Minutes, Oddi, Reykjavik, 2009
karlssonwilker’s 12 Days in Serbia, Publikum Publishing, 2006
Ventures
Our restless curiosity leads us into many different areas. These ventures and endeavors bring endless joy and learning. They enrich our knowledge and reference base and make us better project partners, designers, and people. A few examples:
RIDGEWOOD DOORS
In a bid to keep a hyper-local design tradition alive, we teamed up with master woodgraining craftsman Ferdinand Tschinkel, the last standing artisan, who has furnished Ridgewood doors with their signature veneer for more than 30 years. Our collaboration includes a line of Ridgewood Door Jackets that pay homage to the faux wood pattern, a booklet sold in a neighborhood bookshop, and workshops where the artisanally inclined can learn this time-honored skill.
You can read more about the project in an article on New York magazine's Curbed (link below). The story features Ferdinand Tschinkel talking about faux wood painting history and giving a detailed how-to of the technique.
WORKSHOPS & EVENTS
Our studio also serves as a space where designers and not-yet professionals can gather to discuss, inquire, listen, and get their hands dirty in learning intensives and workshops. We invite participants to improve and reflect on their processes in an environment freed of the usual restraints or expectations.
THE ICE CREAM WINDOW
On summer weekends, our studio does double duty as an ice cream shop, bringing neighborhood-inspired custom flavors and unbridled delight to our neighbors since 2020.
KWOTUS RACER JACKET
Moving our studio to Ridgewood, formerly the center of New York's knitting industry, inspired Jan to revive his first foray into design: making and selling clothing. This jacket is made of super-light TYVEK and cut in one of Karlssonwilker's favorite styles. Hjalti wears it so often that it has basically become his uniform.
THE DOG LAMP
Originally created for Worldstudio Foundation’s annual charity auction, our dog lamp is a perennial favorite. Every once in a while, we produce a small batch and offer them for purchase. The current batch already sold out.
Graphic Invasion Time Machine Backwards
Destroy an ever-changing collection of graphic design through the decades.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, WELCOME TO KARLSSONWILKER’S SPOKEN PORTFOLIO
featuring the voice of Paul SahreSpokenPortfolio® 1 (2002)
SpokenPortfolio® 2 (2019)
SELECTED AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
Shortlisted for Dezeen's Designer of the Year, London, 2023
The History of Graphic Design. Vol. 2, Taschen, Köln, 2018
Architizer A+ Award 2017 for Wolf Gordon’s OfficeExcavate, New York, 2017
Nominated for Design Museum’s Design of the Year, London, 2017
Voted Top 20 most influential design studio of the past 20 years, by CA Magazine, UK, 2016
Torsten & Wanja Söderberg Prize, Sweden, 2013
DDB Design Stars, New York, 2013
a!Design Award, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 2013
New York City Public Design Commission, Award for Excellence in Design, 2011
SELECTED WORKSHOPS & LECTURES
AIGA Design Conference, USA, 2021
Domestika Workshop, 2021
ZHK, Zurich, Switzerland, 2021
Art Center, Pasadena, California, 2020
AGI Open Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2019
Typographische Gesellschaft, Munich, 2019
DeTao Shanghai, China, 2019
AGI Open Mexico, Mexico City, 2018
RAM, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2017
AGI Open Paris, France, 2017
UDEM, Monterrey, Mexico, 2017
AGI Open Biel, Switzerland, 2015
One Design Week, Bulgaria, 2015
Here, itsnicethat, London, 2015
AGI Open São Paulo, Brazil, 2014
Diseño SLP, Mexico, 2014
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2013
OFFF Festival, Barcelona, 2013
AGI Open London, 2013
ADOBE MAX, Los Angeles, USA, 2013
TYPO London, England, 2012
AGI Open Barcelona, 2011
VCU Qatar, Doha, 2011
MFA Yale School of Art, USA, 2011
SahreVictoreWilker Summer School, NY 2008–2010
LYNfabrikken, Denmark, 2009
CAFA Beijing, China, 2009
OFFF Festival Lisbon, Portugal, 2008
DesignIndaba, South Africa, 2008
ADC Latvia, Riga, 2007
Grafitat, Ecuador, 2007
Spark, New Zealand, 2007
Typo Berlin, Germany, 2006
SELECTED JUDGING
365: AIGA Year in Design, USA
ADAA Adobe Design Achievement Awards, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, USA
CLIO Awards (Chairman Design), USA CLIO Awards, USA
FÍT, Icelandic Graphic Design Competition, Iceland
Golden Pin Design Award, Taiwan
IGDB Ningbo International Poster Biennial, China
RED DOT Design Award, Europe (2019–today)
SGDA Shenzhen Graphic Design Association, China
Society of Publication Designers Annual Award, USA
Taipei International Design Awards, Taiwan
Young Guns 20, USA