M. Young & K. Olina

British industrial designer Michael Young (b. 1966) and Icelandic graphic artist Katrín Ólína (b. 1967) formed an acclaimed multidisciplinary partnership that merged industrial manufacturing logic with dreamlike, digital graphic narratives. Operating across London, Reykjavík, and Hong Kong, the duo blurred the boundaries between three-dimensional product design and two-dimensional visual art. Their defining masterpiece is the Tree Coat Stand (2003) for Swedish brand Swedese, an iconic biomorphic silhouette crafted from lacquered laser-cut MDF that became a modern classic. Together, they also created the interior universe and bespoke furnishings for the Cristal bar in Hong Kong and porcelain collections for Rosenthal. Their collaborative work balanced Young’s industrial metal and composite engineering with Ólína’s folklore-inspired, calligraphic graphic motifs.