Morten Linde – Studio Yolk
Studio Yolk is a Copenhagen-based art and design studio founded by Pernille Iben Linde and Morten Linde. Creating collectible furniture, lighting, and sculptural objects, the studio combines contemporary Scandinavian design with playful forms, tactile materials, and meticulous craftsmanship. Rooted in an experimental and collaborative approach, Studio Yolk develops pieces distinguished by organic forms, refined materiality, and a warm, human-centred sensibility, resulting in timeless works that balance artistic expression with everyday functionality.
Interview
I was born in Denmark, north of Copenhagen.
I think it was a thumb by César. North of Copenhagen is the Louisiana Museum, and they have great pieces by artists like César, Dubuffet, Giacometti, and Calder in their sculpture park. This made an impression on me when I was young.
Yes, in 1990 I finished my design education. I am also educated as a psychotherapist, but design is my profession. I have been designing everything from eyewear, hi-fi, Swiss mechanical watches, furniture, and phones.
I have a quite active brain, and I like creating – it is my escape room. It is like therapy for me. My brain is in a constant dialogue with my body. The brain keeps coming up with new ideas, and my body is feeling which ideas are working and which are not.
I try to be as open as possible. I use every method I know: sketching, 3D drawing, 3D printing, models, visualization, talking to craftsmen… It can be a story in my head, a feeling I get, a material I see or experience, something I hear that makes me wonder. Ideas often begin and materialize outside my studio.
Yes, I start working when I open my eyes and try to stop when I close them.
I don’t know. It can be the texture, the reflection, the weight, the sound, the softness, the history, the environmental impact. The design and the material need to communicate with each other.
I like to use my voice as a human being to tell a 3-dimensional short story that I feel is important, and maybe it will give meaning to someone else. I mostly work with geometric shapes because it makes me calm to look at them.
Enjoy the journey.
I don’t think I belong in a movement – I like doing what I am passionate about. Maybe there’s a movement for this?
I think there are so many great designers. Like hundreds and hundreds, both living and not living. I have a lot of respect for many designers. Especially the ones that go their own way.
Music is very important to me. At the moment, I listen to electronic music, like James Blake and Hania Rani. But next week it might be jazz or country, as long as the quality is good and the artist has a personality.
I make objects that have an emotional value to me and hopefully to the viewer/owner.
Yes, STUDIO YOLK is a family-based art and design studio. My wife, Pernille Iben Linde, is an artist; my oldest daughter, Amanda Johanne, is a fashion designer; my son Carl Otto is an artist; my youngest daughter is studying to become an artist in Bergen, Norway, and I feel so privileged to work and share my life with my family.
“The design and the material need to communicate with each other.”
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
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