For twenty-five years, the New York-based design studio KarlssonWilker has maintained its status as a deliberately small operation with outsized creative ambitions. Founded by Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, the studio has never expanded beyond nine team members, a strategic choice designed to preserve strong creative signals and eliminate hierarchical barriers. This tight-knit structure allows the duo to pursue what they describe as "controlled chaos"—an approach that prioritizes emotional intelligence and clarity over rigid systems. Their reputation for pushing creative boundaries has attracted major clients seeking designs that feel human rather than corporate.
The studio's philosophy centers on the belief that friction generates creative energy and prevents complacency. Jan Wilker explains that friction keeps you awake, alert, surprised, and present, adding that the team quickly grows bored with familiar solutions. This mindset has become a craft honed over two decades, allowing them to embrace uncertainty as a deliberate methodology rather than reckless experimentation. By staying "oblivious to tastes and possibilities" at the start of public-facing projects, they generate raw ideas that survive inevitable constraints from physical limitations to board member opinions. The result is work that feels fresh while maintaining professional polish.
Their recent identity overhaul for the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation demonstrates this approach in action. Confronted with the daunting task of honoring two design legends, KarlssonWilker broke the identity into distinct personalities for Charles, Ray, Eames, and Foundation. They mined the Eames' vast visual catalog for tiny pictograms to use as footnotes, creating a semantic framework that references its own legacy. This living system rewards play while providing structure, embodying the Eames philosophy in every application. The modular communication system avoids pastiche, instead creating original editorial mechanics that tell stories through design decisions.
The identity for Philadelphia's Calder Gardens showcases how the studio's process unfolds through deep collaboration. Working closely with Sandy Rower, who demanded excellence without shortcuts, the team began with no fixed plan. The resulting logo features a deceptively simple slow fade that mirrors nature's calm, with adjacent lettering that gradually appears three-dimensional. This subtle effect speaks to the spaciousness of the green space and art museum. The project was so complex that the studio published an entire book documenting the creative process, revealing the depth of thought behind seemingly simple solutions.
Not every project flows smoothly, and the studio is candid about creative dead ends. For the Reykjavik Art Museum identity, initial presentations failed to resonate. The team persevered until discovering a solution featuring an extruded triangle that explodes into fractal patterns, creating glitchy trails across the museum's website. Similarly, the Remai Modern identity emerged from what Wilker calls a "strange, borderline idiotic" concept—adding redundant lowercase letters before each word. Though even the client was initially confused, the design worked semantically rather than semiotically, capturing the institution's unconventional spirit. Both projects demonstrate the studio's commitment to pushing through uncertainty until something clicks.
KarlssonWilker's client base values this human-centered approach, seeking them out as the "non-corporate option" that delivers emotionally intelligent design. The founders see themselves not as reckless anarchists but as craftspeople who have mastered the art of not knowing where they're going. This methodology produces work that rattles, amuses, and engages audiences in small but meaningful ways. As they continue operating from their New York base, the studio proves that staying small and embracing creative friction can yield powerful results for major cultural institutions.
