Katrín Olína is an Icelandic industrial designer and researcher. Her work is cross-disciplinary, finding expression in the fields of product design, interiors, furniture, jewelry, graphic art and writing. In her recent design practice, Olína has developed materials and design processes that weave together different creative modes: from research and philosophy, to industrial design, graphic art and 3D printing.
She has used these unique, cross-disciplinary approaches to explore typology, amongst other themes. In Primitiva Talismans, developed in 2015, one basic shape is digitally multiplied into different three-dimensional structures, which are 3D printed and cast as bronze jewelry. Primitiva is a unique collection of 40 bronze cast talismans designed to encapsulate some of humanity’s existential questions, and to help the wearer find focus in a technologically entangled and often disconnected physical world. Olína wrote Primitiva – Book of Talismans as an aid to navigating the collection.
MINISOPHY, Olína’s latest project in collaboration with Professor Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir (University of Helsinki), is a digital publication in unique miniature form. MINISOPHY is a biweekly showcase of philosophical nuggets, art, everyday voices, wisdom quotes and practical exercises in thinking and meditation that link around a common theme.
In earlier works, Olína investigates nature, mythology and storytelling principally through the medium of drawing. Many of these were translated into large-scale, immersive graphic environments such as Cristal Bar (Hong Kong, 2008), Skin, a medical clinic in Florence (2007), and the Dr. James Medical Clinic (Taipei, 2005). Notable works shown in museums include Subplant5 at The National Gallery in Oslo (2005) and Eulenspiegel at Reykjavik Art Museum (2008). Tree, coat stand (2003) for Swedese, created in collaboration with British industrial designer Michael Young, is amongst her best-known works.
Olína has won numerous awards for her work, including the Forum Aid Award, SEGD (The Society for Experiential Graphic Design), FÍT (Icelandic Graphic Association), and the DV Culture Award (Iceland). She is regularly invited to participate as a speaker at design and other events around the globe, including most recently at TYPO-Berlin, DesignTalks Reykjavik, and the Women Economic Forum.
Over the past 25 years, Katrín Olína has been based in Reykjavik, Paris, London, Brussels, Taipei, Hong Kong and Helsinki.
