Kajsa Willner trained at Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome and Milan. After getting a bachelor’s degree in furniture design in Italy she moved to the Netherlands to gain work experience by training and working for Julien Carretero and JSPR. She returned to Sweden and founded Studio Kajsa Willner in Malmö in 2013.
Studio Kajsa Willner designs and sells objects in small series and also does commissions for visualising spatial installations, curating exhibitions and initiating new projects. Kajsa’s starting points in the design process are nature and the process itself but it can also be something that she wants to bring to the surface and highlight from a different perspective, clothed in a functional or dysfunctional form.
Kajsa Willner was shortlisted for Ung Svensk Form (Young Swedish Design) in 2014/15 and was the bronze winner of the A’Design Award 2017. In 2016 she was selected by Konst i Halland (Art in Halland, a regional resource centre operated by Region Halland and Halland Art Museum in Sweden) to be artist in residence at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Poland.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Where were you born?
Halmstad
How old are you?
35
Where do you live?
Malmö/Limhamn
What do you do?
Furniture and product design plus curated projects.
Your favourite place?
Vilshärad
Favourite material?
Everything
Favourite designer?
Hella Jongerius (the early works)
Favourite colour?
I like all colours if they are combined well.
What inspires you?
Nature, change, drive and humour.
Your vision/business concept?
What is characteristic of Studio Kajsa Willner is to dare, to explore, and in a playful way to challenge preconceived ideas about what design is and should be.
Biggest mistake?
I make mistakes all the time both as a person and as a designer. In my work I make sure that I turn this to my advantage by utilising the mistakes I make and instead letting them become a positive part of the flow of the design process.
Dream project?
To be part of a team commissioned to design and put Malmö on the map as a new art and design city. Hopefully in the form of an art and design biennial or similar, in which I would also like to participate as one of the exhibiting designers.
Next project?
Hopefully something crazy – it remains to be seen if I will get the commission!
The Designer of the Month is a series of portraits intended to showcase local talents with links to the Öresund region and also to present an expanded view of design as a concept. The selection is made together with the association DISK (Designers in Skåne) and can be an individual designer, a group, or a manufacturer. The list of design areas is long and includes everything from furniture design, industrial design and architecture to fashion, illustration, the moving image etc.
