Hlynur Atlason

“When I buy a product, I obsess over it,” Hlynur Atlason says. The Icelandic designer works the same way – constantly observing, constantly cataloging. His instinct is reduction: Strip away the unnecessary, leaving only comfort, tactility, and purpose. “There’s enough visual clutter in the world,” he says. “I try not to make things more busy than they need to be.”

Atlason has built his practice around that discipline, but his obsession with products almost found no formal outlet – his native Iceland didn’t establish its first design school until 1998, several years after Atlason left to study at the Sorbonne. A Parsons Paris open house pulled him away from his studies and toward the school’s campus in New York City, where he earned a BFA in Industrial Design and launched his eponymous studio. With an ever-observant eye, Atlason identifies what the moment calls for and responds with objects: a razor for a new generation of women, a tequila bottle that redefined the category, a chair that looks like sculpture and feels like relief. His work remains rooted in a genuine curiosity about how people live.

In 2023, he was named one of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's National Design Award honorees. In 2026, he became the inaugural designer of the DWR Design Residency – a platform for the designers shaping how we live today.