The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design
Frans Enmark found his way into design through music, where the artists he loved were packaged by Warhol, Saville and Farrow – door openers that showed him how powerful design could be. That entry taught him to trust intuition over logic, a conviction that still runs through Stockholm Design Lab, the Swedish studio, where he is one of the creative directors. Founded in 1998, SDL has built simple, remarkable work for brands like Polestar, Moderna Museet and the Nobel Prize. Ahead of his talk at POV Budapest 2026, exploring 2026’s theme of ‘The Act,’ he tells us how he knows an idea is right, and why craft accounts for 90% of the work.
TBI Hi Frans! How are the summer months treating you so far?
FE Great. Currently on the High Coast of Sweden – an exceptional place which has the highest coastline in the world, still rising by about 1cm every year. Do visit if you get the chance.
TBI How did you come into graphic design?
FE Growing up, the main arena for graphic design was the music world, and the artists I loved were packaged by Warhol, Saville, Farrow, TDR, etc. These people were door openers into art direction and graphic design, showing how powerful these tools were in the right hands and I was hooked.
Intuition is more important than logic.
TBI The way someone first comes into graphic design shapes what they go on to do. How did arriving through music shape the designer you became?
FE It gave me permission to trust that intuition is more important than logic, that if it feels right, it is right.
TBI For anyone who doesn’t yet know Stockholm Design Lab, how would you sum up the way the studio works and what it believes in?
FE We believe in clarity, curiosity, excellence and that every detail matters. And that the strategy behind the work matters as much as the design it results in. We believe in doing exceptional, culturally relevant work that stands the test of time, and since 1998, SDL have been doing exactly this type of work. This has resulted in many long-term relationships with clients and collaborators, which we enjoy.
TBI Much of the work of Stockholm Design Lab is built on simple ideas. How do you know if an idea is the right one, obvious or not?
FE You know it's right when it doesn’t feel like something we invented and rather feels like something that was already true; we just found it. After that, it is about craft, which is really 90% of the work.
TBI You’re convinced designers have a responsibility to reduce visual pollution and to aim instead for beauty, wonder and simplicity. How do you stay focused on that?
FE If we can imagine someone experiencing our work and feeling something, curiosity, a small lift, a reason to look twice, rather than feeling visually suffocated, that's the test.
TBI When a project is up against tight deadlines, how do you protect the craft and the simplicity you’re after?
FE If you try to protect everything a little, you end up protecting nothing. Usually, it is about deciding what really matters and protecting that. Or, even better, by extending the timeline. Good things take time.
TBI Is there a piece of Stockholm Design Lab’s work you’d point to as the clearest example of a simple idea done remarkably well?
FE The work we are currently doing with Japanese lens and camera maker Sigma, which is about championing photography, its craft and engineering, in a very clear way in every meeting with the brand. Most recently, we have initiated and produced a book for Sigma Foundation on the groundbreaking British photographer Trevor Key (long-time collaborator of Peter Saville, among others). You’d be surprised how many camera brands are promoted through really terrible photography. I think in most of our work there is a strong idea at the core, even when the extent of each project has grown significantly (Polestar, Moderna Museet, The Nobel Prize, etc).
TBI As Creative Director, how do you get a team pulling towards the same simple idea?
FE SDL is a medium-sized, multidisciplinary, independent agency, able to take on a selected number of projects each year. In an environment such as ours, it’s crucial that ideas can come from anyone at any given time. The job is less about handing down one idea and more about giving initial direction and then staying in constant conversation with everyone, client, strategists, designers, editing and curating.
I would like to see less graphic design in graphic design today.
TBI What would you like to see more of, and less of, in graphic design today?
FE I would like to see more quality and more craft (again), and actually, I would like to see less graphic design in graphic design today.
TBI POV’s 2026 theme, ‘The Act,’ proposes that an identity is now as much about how it behaves as how it looks. How are you thinking about that within your talk?
FE I would say ‘the act’ isn't the work itself, but rather about what happens in someone else’s head in that half second before they fully get it. That small delay, liking something before you can explain, makes it memorable. This distinguishes many of our projects, and I will talk about them and how they came about.
TBI For those weighing up a ticket to POV Budapest, in person or via the stream – what do you hope the audience takes away from your talk?
FE I hope people leave energised, feeling refreshed, and with a clearer sense that design is not a surface-level exercise, but rather that it’s the sum of all the details that constitutes the total impression.