Meet the people behind Sand & Björk – where creativity, craftsmanship, and digital design meet

Sand & Björk is the studio where ideas take shape – quite literally. Behind the name are designers Evelina and Andreas, who combine a unique sense of design, technology, and craftsmanship to create everything from photorealistic environments to timeless furniture with a Scandinavian soul.

As one of our partners at Inredningskurser Sverige / Nordic Design Institute and our interior design programs, Sand & Björk invites us in this feature to an inspiring look at how creativity can become entrepreneurship – and how the line between digital and physical creation is blurring in the future of the interior design industry.

Hi Evelina! To begin with – would you like to tell us a little about yourself and your fantastic company Sand & Björk?

My name is Evelina and I am a designer at the core, educated as an industrial designer – but in my heart, I think I am above all a visionary. I am driven by making ideas become reality and by creating beautiful environments and objects.

Together with my partner Andreas, I run two businesses: Sand & Björk Studio (previously Dirty Peach Design) and the furniture brand Sand & Björk.

In the studio, we work with visualization, concept design and digital styling – we help companies, property owners and businesses clarify their visions through photorealistic images and creative design proposals.

Under the brand Sand & Björk, we create furniture and interior solutions for homes and workplaces, with a focus on flexibility, sustainability and Scandinavian aesthetics.

If we start by talking a bit about Sand & Björk Studio – how did your journey begin, and what was your vision when you started?

It all really began as a pure coincidence. During our studies we worked together on a project that received a good response from the market, and we decided to try to make something more out of it. When the project took off we needed to be able to invoice – and so the company was born.

Since then we have followed passion, curiosity and coincidences. Our next big project came about by chance, and led to a three-year collaboration that really shaped us as designers.

For us, entrepreneurship has become more than a job – it is a lifestyle and a constant act of creating and exploring. We are driven by the joy of creating, by encounters with people and by seeing our ideas take shape in reality.

You describe yourselves as a creative studio working between interior design, product design, and digital styling. What does your work look like in practice, and what’s inspiring you right now?

Our everyday life is very varied – one day we visualize a home digitally, the next day we are in the workshop screwing together a prototype for a custom-designed piece of furniture. It is precisely that mix that we love.

The inspiration often comes from materials, architecture, and our travels – but also from the contrasts between the digital and the physical. We are fascinated by how technology can help us visualize emotions, moods, and atmosphere before something even exists in reality.

Digital styling is still a new concept for many – how does it work, and how do you see the future for that type of service within the interior design industry?

Digital styling is basically about creating photorealistic environments digitally, often in existing home images. It can be about “furnishing” empty rooms, updating colors and materials, or creating inspiring images for marketing.

For us, it is a sustainable and efficient way to show the potential in a place or product, without needing to move a single physical object. We strongly believe that this will become a natural part of the future interior and real estate industry – but also for companies that want to visualize their ideas before they are carried out.

Before & after digital styling

Last summer you had an intern from us at Inredningskurser Sverige who got to follow your work. What did those weeks look like, and what do you think is important to show interns who want to enter the industry?

We think it is incredibly fun to take on interns – partly to be able to give something back to the industry, but also because we ourselves get new perspectives. Our intern got to try several parts of our work – everything from digital styling to creating marketing material and being in contact with clients.

For us, it is important that the intern is curious about entrepreneurship itself – to understand what it is like to run your own business or work in a smaller team where you need to be able to take on several roles. A large part of our work is about building relationships and creating new opportunities, not just designing. We want to show the whole picture – how creativity, business sense and communication interact in the daily work.

If we move over to your other “leg”, the furniture brand Sand & Björk, how did it grow forth and what did you want to create that did not already exist on the market?

Sand & Björk was born during the pandemic, when working from home became the new normal. We noticed how many struggled to create functional, beautiful work environments at home – and there we saw an opportunity.

We wanted to create furniture that is as beautiful as it is functional, that blends into the home but at the same time supports working life. A desk that feels like a piece of furniture, not like an office desk. Our ambition is to unite design, function and sustainability – and always with a clear Scandinavian tone.

Your furniture has a clear Scandinavian expression but at the same time feels contemporary. How do you go about when you develop a new product from idea to finished piece of furniture?

We sketch, sketch, and then test in physical prototypes. It is an iterative process that continues even after we have launched a product. A constant improvement process! And we really think that it is the details that make the big difference – we love, for example, rounded leg endings that make the furniture look light, getting exactly the right angle on fittings – and of course genuine (!) materials.

Which trends, needs or movements within interior design inspire you right now, both when it comes to digital styling and furniture design?

We are very inspired by timelessness and long-term thinking – to create products and environments that people want to live with for a long time.

I think the big trend right now is organic and “real” expressions, where one leaves the perfect in favor of the living and personal. And in furniture design, we are attracted by natural materials, sculptural forms and flexible solutions that adapt to people’s changing lifestyles.

Finally – what advice would you like to give to someone who dreams of a future career within interior design and design?

1. Dare to start, even if you don’t know exactly where you are going. Design is just as much about exploration and curiosity as about aesthetics and function.

   
   

2. Be open, take help from others, and let yourself be inspired by both successes and failures. And maybe most importantly of all – keep your personal voice. It is that which makes you interesting in an industry that is often driven by trends.