Get To Know Us: The Stockholm Crew

Many of you have been following our desk stories on our team at the Malmö studio, but we wanted to venture north and show our Stockholm crew a little love, as they are a major part of what we do. and who we are. We spent a few days up north at the studio we share with Howl Design Studio and talked to the crew a bit about their expertise, how it feels living and working in Stockholm and their thoughts on the upcoming move to a new studio this summer.

Introducing: Anders Hansson, Candy Hung and the CEO of Howl Design Studio, Filip Sauer. Get to know them!

Anders Hansson, Mechanics

Hey Anders! Tell us, how does working in the Stockholm studio compare to the Malmö studio?
It’s a little bit different; it’s even more tightly connected with industrial design. Also there’s a ping-pong table instead of fussball! This studio is super central to the city as well.

Is there a benefit to working more closely with industrial design?
We work closely with ID in Malmö also, but the projects we run here at the moment are more design focused. It feel like in Malmö things are a bit more tech focused. Hopefully those things merge soon as the Stockholm crew continues to expand.

So there’s a rumour this studio will be moving to a new location soon?
Yes! In roughly half a year. We are super excited; it will be awesome! We will have 3 times the space with the top two levels of the building and floor to ceiling glass windows. There’s a 270 degree view of city and a rooftop terrace where I will be responsible for GrillHasse’s corner and maybe a bar. There will also be more meeting rooms and we are doing all the interior design from scratch. New walls, floors, everything! It will be insane!

That sounds exciting for sure! The team here in Stockholm is much smaller. How does that feel? Are there any benefits?
We are smaller but we still work a lot with Malmö. When I have a question about electronics I just call over to Malmö, I call Erik, Dan, or Peter…we still work together even if we are in different cities. We are all involved in each other’s projects to some extent. That’s one thing about Frankly, you really feel the connection, everything is very hands-on.

How long have you lived in Stockholm?
I’m from Lund but I’ve lived in Stockholm for about 4 years now.

What are some of the things you appreciate about living/working in Stockholm?
Stockholm is beautiful, there’s so much water, the swimming in the summers. When I was doing my Master’s thesis at SurfEars I got my Tablas paddle board, so this is a pretty great city to get some use out of it. There are also so many good restaurant in Stockholm, I can recommend Flippin Burgers. There are great options around the office as well, we really like Urbandeli.

Candy Hung, Mechanics

Hey Candy, where are you from originally?
I am originally from Skåne, but I’ve lived in Stockholm for 2 years and I really like it! I’m really a big city person and this is the closest I can get to that in Sweden. Stockholm is more alive than a lot of other cities here.

Nice, what were you doing before you began working here at Frankly?
Before Frankly I was a consultant at Scania. I worked with a group called NEPE. There I worked with the V8 engine and was responsible for all the cable harness installation, design of circuit diagrams (2D diagrams for cable harness) and designing brackets and ducts that would hold the cables on that engine. I worked there for almost 2 years and before that I was at Chalmers working in the product development department. Scania was fun, it’s a huge company and there’s a lot of process that goes into everything there. It was a good start and a good way to lay the foundation for my career but it was a bit restrictive as well.

Interesting, and what specifically do you work with at Frankly?
This is only my second week but mainly I work with advanced surfacing. Right now I’m involved in bits and pieces of everything. I’m still getting into the flow of things.

How does it feel here compared to your previous jobs?
It’s very different! There’s much more responsibility and freedom; the ability to work where and how I want. The products are way more exciting and they are things I can relate to. At Scania I worked with engines, but I would never buy an engine, I don’t even have a drivers license. Here we make products I can relate to and that feels great. Things also move more quickly here at Frankly. Whereas at Scania, it could take months for a decision to be made, here it takes one phone call to make a decision on something.

What do you think is an important factor to your work environment?
Hmm…I enjoy having my own space to work in. Also having good people around who are supportive and give feedback. So I would say a social environment is important but not everything.

How are you feeling about the move to a new office?
Really excited! I’ve seen pictures and it looks great. I’m looking forward to the floor to ceiling windows, more light and space will be great!

How do you feel about working so closely with everyone here at Frankly? Did you work in close teams at your previous jobs? At Scania we had 12 people in a group….but we didn’t really work together in the groups. Here at Frankly, we actually work together; interacting with each other. It is combining work and social skills, which is super different. That combination takes a different type of energy… the ability to mesh well with other people. It allows you to get to know each other a lot better, I like that.

Hey Filip, tell us a bit about your background, were you always interested in industrial design?
Originally I was interested in art: sculpture and graphics, I enjoyed shaping things. Then I realized I wanted to do something more connected with people. With design you can do anything. First I went to Konstfack and then Umeå Institute of Design for industrial design because they had a more modern approach to ID. There were collaborations with external corporations and real hands-on experience. Then a year later I switched from industrial design to interaction design. Umeå is also where I met Jens and Oscar, (two of the partners at Howl).

That’s quite a journey. So, how did Howl begin?
Howl began in 2007 with five senior designers from other agencies all dedicated to doing something different. In the beginning, was Jonas Samrelius, Gustav Müller Nord, Oscar Karlsson, Jens O Johansson and I.

In what ways do Howl and Frankly work together?
There are total service agencies that are giants, whereas, Howl and Frankly are very good at what we do respectively. But, combined our services and abilities are on an even higher level. One of the most powerful abilities is the ability to prototype and demonstrate the real product experience. Our work with Aether is a great example of this. It’s all very exciting! We’ve always wanted to work this way; 10 years ago we tried to do this but with the technology available at the time and our resources, we had to fake it. Now we can actually build the real thing, down to the circuitboards and the process is fast. Not only are we able to give our clients a savvy picture of what their product will be like, but also how it will be produced and at what price.

How do you feel about how much Howl has grown compared to when you began?
Well, it’s taken us some time to come to where we are today. Our development has really accelerated rapidly in the last year. Our vision was always to work with product experience and collaborating with Frankly and growing the team and our abilities has really allowed us to deliver on that promise.

Wow it sounds like there’s a to to look forward to! How are you feeling about the move to a new studio?
We are moving in the summer around June or July and we are super excited about the move. It will be a real starting point to expand and to grow the Frankly Stockholm team. It feels like a a new start: Howl and Frankly 2.0/Next level!