about

ABOUT KAREN

C R E A T I V E   D I R E C T O R

Karen Hofstetter is a Brazilian art director and designer with over 12 years of experience in the fields of graphic design, illustration and photography.

She began her design education at the Pan American School of Arts at the early age of 15, where she elected to spend 5 years studying graphic design and communication after school. She went on to study social communication at FAAP in São Paulo with a focus on marketing and advertising. In addition, she spent a year studying photography at Senac and a year studying illustration with the specific intention to discover and cultivate her own personal style.

Karen began her design career in advertising, working as a trainee art director at W Brazil and then subsequently for two years as an art director at 106 agency. In 2010, she moved to Berlin where she continued agency work at Scholz & Friends and Select NY Shortly after, she launched her own freelance career and has since worked with clients such as Urban Outfitters, Vogue Brazil, L’Occitane, and IKEA, a worldwide distributor of her illustration work. In 2014, she was included in Renata Abranchs’ trend report of young creative people to watch in Brazil.

From 2014 to 2017, Karen launched and developed OH K — a slow fashion, seasonless ecommerce destination for clothing, art, and other decorative items. The project was designed to support local businesses and prompt producers to create products inspired by social, political, and economic issues. Karen curated a collective of 30+ artists and brands to collaborate on OH K’s debut collection, inspired by the toxic flower Amaryllis Belladonna popularly known as the Naked Lady. The collection called for consumers to reflect on women’s rights issues in Brazil and the role and impact they have as individuals in society. Part of the proceeds from the project were donated to a Brazilian NGO.

Karen is inspired by working with clients who are committed to positive social impact. She has previously collaborated with LIVO, the Brazilian sunglasses brand, Gaveta, a sustainable clothing exchange project, and Tales of Us, an initiative that works to educate children in remote environments through the act of storytelling.

She also enjoys working with artists and musicians on projects where she has a lot of creative freedom to be playful and fun. Past collaborators include the Mareh Festival, Gop Tun — a nightlife collective in Brazil, Innervisions DJs Franky & Sandrino, Warung and many other local Berlin-based artists and labels.

Currently living and working in Berlin, Karen specializes in creating comprehensive brand/visual identities across web, print, and other offline mediums. She works directly with freelancers in other disciplines (copywriters, programmers, motion designers, etc.) to provide her clients with a full-service creative studio experience.

 

Clients of Note

L’Occitane | Vogue | Ikea | Urban Outfitters | Chandon | Warung | OH K

Exhibitions

Agora Collective
Berlin, October 2014

Urban Arts
São Paulo, October 2014

Prinzessinengarten
Berlin, August 2016

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