A lived-in approach to sportswear shapes Figur’s graphic systems for brands like Hoka, Sap and Unna

Figur is Swedish for “figure” – it’s also the name of the Stockholm-based design studio and creative office of Lukas Nässil. A deliberate nomination for the word that would define his creative practice when the designer opened the doors to the studio back in 2019, Figur comes from the idea that “the studio is the work it produces,” Lukas tells It’s Nice That. It’s a kind of “self-referential play”, he says, “where each piece of work is categorised as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3 and so on. It helps us maintain the mindset that each project is as important as the next, because it all adds up to the totality of Figur.”

The studio has made a name for itself in the past eight years through a number of brand identities and graphic systems for sportswear brands, bringing a utilitarian and systematic edge to its work across objects, print, animations, installations and more. Taking one look at Lukas’ Instagram page will give you an idea of where the studio’s functional approach has come from. Whether it’s ultra marathons or mountaineering, the designer has fostered a very lived-in approach to the visual worlds he’s creating for the brands supplying the adventure gear.

If you’re in the running world you’ll have seen the studio’s work with Hoka (caterpillars included), Asics or even Unna, but Figur isn’t just brought into teams to define the look of these labels, it has become a founding partner of a number of them in the process, namely Unna, Raide Research, and Sap), shaping core principles, narratives and strategies in collaborations with clients that are in it for the long-run.

Part of this “do it for real” approach comes from an early studio rule that Lukas made when Figur was founded: “no photoshopping case studies,” Lukas says. “Which might seem like a banal rule, but it has had a big impact on our work ever since. It means that all conversations with clients, selling the core idea, exploring production possibilities, and attention to detail become more real,” he ends: “If it’s fiction, it’s not a Fig.”