Joel Karlsson | ScandinavianDesign.com

Joel Karlsson is a Swedish industrial designer based in Gothenburg, known above all for the Streck and Pebble lighting families for Örsjö Belysning. Alongside lighting he has designed furniture and acoustic products for Swedish manufacturers such as Karl Andersson & Söner, Zero and Ateljé Lyktan, much of it developed within the architecture firm Krook & Tjäder.

Background

Born in Gothenburg in 1975, Karlsson trained at Konstfack in Stockholm and studied architecture at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and at Parsons School of Design in New York. He then ran his own studio, Joel Karlsson Industriell Design, and taught industrial design at Växjö University. Early pieces include the Bilbao swivel chair and stool for Swedese, shown at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in 2002. In 2008 he joined Krook & Tjäder in Gothenburg as design director and partner, leading its product design work.

Design approach

Karlsson starts from the needs of users and the conditions of production, aiming for products to live with rather than consume. He often works with archetypes – the classic wall lamp, the workshop light, the joiner’s bench – reducing them to a few carefully chosen lines. Details that are easy to overlook, such as how a cable hangs, are treated as part of the form, since they affect how long an object keeps its appeal.

Key designs

For Örsjö, the Streck family has grown from wall and table lamps into pendants, a glass-shaded version and Streck Bleck, which combines a lamp with a bedside table. The softly rounded Pebble comes in spun metal and mouth-blown opal glass. For Karl Andersson & Söner he has designed the Woodwork tables, the Buff table and the Pillow sound absorber, made partly from recycled textiles and PET bottles. Lighting for public spaces includes XM, Port and Cap for Zero and the Worker lamp for Ateljé Lyktan, while the Jern bench for Nola pairs Accoya wood with a riveted steel frame.