Interview: Jan Wilker of karlssonwilker

Five years ago, two friends Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker had the idea to start their own design studio in New York City. In the time since, karlssonwilker has created work for clients including The New York Times Magazine, Mtv, the Guggenheim Museum, and Puma. They also created a book you might have read called ‘tellmewhy’ which  reveals the story behind the first 24 months of their business. PSFK caught up with Jan during a trip around the globe to inquire about inspiration, their creative process, and generally to find out how things were going.

karlssonwilker has produced work for some pretty big name clients recently. Which has been the most challenging creatively?

The most challenging i would say was the branding/information system for mtv networks, the orb. not because of the sheer breadth or complexity of the project, or the "big name" client, but the simple fact that we had never really done "motion" before. so it took us almost 4 weeks of non-stop trial and error to get into that new medium. i remember that in the beginning, we thought we had some great ideas that looked very promising to us as stills, but when we tried them out in motion, they all totally sucked and didn’t work at all. so we had to overcome our complete lack of proficiency in this new language and had to accustom to it. sometimes it was nerve-wracking and painful, and sometimes it was just hilarious and funny how amateurish and pathetic all the things were that we came up with. but that for us is exactly what we like about doing things we never did before. and we are very happy that sometimes people let us do things that we haven’t done before. clients are usually very risk averse and want to see very similar work than the one they expect you to do for them. so, proper respect to them, and in this case, mtv networks.

Your book ‘tellmewhy’ is really insightful and revealing from a business and personal perspective. How much impact did it have on the business after it was published. Were there any reality TV style negative effects?

looking back, we did get a few projects directly though the book. i would say 4 or 5 times people called us and said they had just read the book and they would like to give us a project. but by far the biggest impact the book had was inside the "design community"; up to this day we get emails from around the world thanking us for doing the book and for being so honest. and it is great and very helpful for us to get these mail because they remind us that we should just continue the way we started, and not becoming lazy and give up when its getting tough. we’re still in contact with some studios that opened around the same time as we did and had gotten in contact with us through email. from time to time we would check on each other to see how the others are doing. i guess it gives all of us a sense of not being the only ones who make mistakes or struggle with their own business. we also have quite a few visitors, announced and unannounced, that come by telling us they feel like visiting an old friend, which is funny for us since we have no idea who is standing there in front of us. some of them really talk to us like we’ve known each other for years. we really like these moments.

You’ve just gotten a call and landed a web, print, & television ad campaign for Adidas. They are insistent on seeing a concept tomorrow afternoon at your office. What’s karlssonwilker’s emergency plan?

This sounds like a job you’d only want to do for the money. it sounds like a disaster to work with them. so, we’d do it for the money, the money, we’d do it for the money… we would give them an extremely high estimate. they would be so lost and desperate that they would agree to our fees. we would pull an all-nighter, have some fun hours and try not to start drinking too early, so we wouldn’t fall asleep too soon. in the end, they wouldn’t use our concept, since all of a sudden they’d have more time, second thoughts about the product itself or the general direction, or the product will not be launched at all, now or not as soon, or is getting renamed, blablabla. we would get a lot a money, and they wouldn’t call again. easy.

What are some sources that inspire each of you?

Inspiration: for me, it’s traveling and people in general. I’m in Beijing right now, and i guess (and hope) that it will somehow have a tiny little impact on the things i’ll do in the future; how these mechanics work I’m not sure. i don’t have a sketch book or anything remotely similar, and no digital camera; and hjalti doesn’t either. i guess that every thing, feeling, situation has the potential to inspire.

Who spends more time surfing the web?

Right now it might be me spending more time on-line. but I’m already slowing down.

Is there anything new in particular in fashion, music, or art that you are excited about?

No. i don’t get the whole fashion thing. music: yes, a lot of bands, but the problem is that i never know the names of the band. people give us burned CD-Rs with full albums or compilations on them, without anything written on them. art: i never really go to art openings, they happen too early. i’d be in the studio. I’m excited about technology in general, though, and how it could democratize things. let’s see.

It’s said that you are your own worst client, yet karlssonwilker has produced some really memorable self promotion pieces. Have you moved away from doing these as your portfolio and client list grows. Is a second book something you’d consider?

We could see another book happening, but definitely not as a sequel to "tellmewhy". it would have to be something very different, thematically. and about self promotion: we’re trying to do a new mailing right now. we haven’t done one in 3 years. it is not easy for us and never was and i don’t know when we’ll finish it and send it out. we would buy an address list from agencyaccess.com to send the mailing out to potential clients, since the only way we do get jobs is by word-of-mouth (or through our mailings, but then again, we only did two mailings in the past 5 years). but we thought it wouldn’t hurt to send something out again. these mailings never show any of our work. we use them for our own amusement, thoughts, and comments.

What’s going on in the office over the next six months?

we always jump from one project to the next, since we don’t have steady, re-occurring projects that we are working on, so we don’t have any idea what’s going to happen in here in the next 6 months.

Thanks to Jan and Hjalti for offering some time to answer our questions. karlssonwilker also co-sponsor the annual World Graphic Design Foosball Championship. This year’s event has already taken place but you can read about the winning team and see photos from the evening on the official WGDFC web site.