Joel Karlsson was born in Gothenburg in 1975 and works primarily as an industrial designer. He has earlier studied industrial design and architecture in Sweden and abroad. After his studies he worked as an assistant to Konstantin Grcic in Munich, but returned to Sweden to work on a product for the furniture manufacturer Swedese. The year after, Karlsson took a position as a furniture designer at White Design only to start his own company Joel Karlsson Design later on. His client list includes companies such as Skeppshult (bicycles), Swedese/Söderberg (furniture), Essem Design (hallway armature), Bordörren (doors) and Markslöjd (lighting). During 2005 Karlsson teaches industrial design at Växjö University.

Joel Karlsson has developed the rack Vincent for Essem Design. By combining a modern light source with a classic hat rack Karlsson has succeeded in altering the conception of hallway armature. Vincent is cast in aluminium and comes in five different colours as well as metal. The rack can be used both as a hat and shoe rack.