Hlynur Atlason

Hlynur Atlason became a designer almost by chance. “I didn't know the profession existed until I was in my 20s,” he says

His native Iceland didn’t establish its first design school until 1998, several years after Atlason left to study political science at the Sorbonne. An open house for Parsons Paris – the European branch of New York’s esteemed university for art and design – proved the catalyst for his change in direction.

The discovery was immediate and all-consuming. “When I started studying,” he recalls, “I was just completely taken over by this stuff.” He transferred to Parsons and moved to NYC, focusing on product and furniture design. After graduation, he set up his own design studio, producing kitchen utensils, beverage bottles, airline serviceware, cosmetics packaging, and furniture. In 2023, he was named one of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award honorees.

With an ever-observant eye, Atlason reimagines the familiar, paring down excess while introducing new modes of comfort. “I don’t see furniture as an exercise in form alone, but as a response to the way we actually live right now.”