Karl Malmvall grew up in Småland and the family company of Karl Andersson & Söner, founded by his grandfather and where his father worked as a designer an product developer. After studies at LiU Malmsten in Stockholm (1986-88) and Aarhus Architectural School (1989-1990), Malmvall was spotted by design manager Gillis Lundgren at IKEA who offered the young designer a job.
Malmvall worked for two decades for IKEA in Switzerland, Indonesia, and Sweden. For IKEA Malmvall designed office interiors as well as garden furniture and everyday products for domestic use. In 2001 Malmvall left the company and founded his own design studio the following year. Later Malmvall was employed as a designer and product developer by Design House Stockholm whereafter he got the same position at H&M Home.
As a furniture designer, Malmvall made his debut while studying in Aarhus, with the table Prima Vista with expandable legs that gave him an Excellent Swedish Design Award in 1988. During the same year, Malmvall was the recipient of the scholarship from the foundation Marianne and Sigvard Bernadotte’s art fond. In 2008 Malmvall won the Red Dot Design Award for the Thermo flask 2 in 1 by XD Design and three years later he was awarded both the Furniture of the Year Award by Elle Interior and the Wallpaper Design Award for his Stepladder for Design House Stockholm.
