At ViSSEVASSE we design visual stories. With no beginning or ending. It is up to you to imbue our images with thoughts, feelings and memories. Perhaps you are reminded of long summers and happy childhood dreams, or maybe you see your present and your future.

Pastels and poetry
ViSSEVASSE is a Copenhagen-based design and paper studio with a passion for graphic products. Products you can flip through, look at, write on. The brand is the creation of Dorthe Mathiesen and Karsten Noel Poulsen, who for the past 20 years have worked at the intersection of fashion, stage design and graphic design.

We have a soft spot for iconic buildings, places and objects, but we also find inspiration in anything from a song to a feeling. Our style is Nordic and minimalist with a touch of delicate pastels, poetry, nostalgia and food for thought.

At a time when we are all constantly interrupted by emails, text messages, notifications and status updates, we offer an offline breathing space to pause, reflect and dream.

It all began with posters
We set out by designing posters in 2013. Posters can do many different things. They can decorate a room, tell a story, make us smile and cause us to take a second look. Sometimes it can take a long time to decide what to put up on your walls. And sometimes you just know, instantly. Since then, our passion for graphic design has only grown, as has our product line.

International partnerships
We always keep our eyes and ears open to items with a touch of magic to supplement our own design universe. Therefore, we have established a partnership with the Australian art photographer Vee Speers, who creates haunting images that are both poetic and disquieting as well as enigmatic, timeless, intense and simple. Images that make us think and take that extra look. We also collaborate with the Swedish photographer Dan Isaac Wallin, who magically captures nature’s raw beauty on old polaroid film stock.

What does ViSSEVASSE mean?
So, what does ’vissevasse’ actually mean? It is Danish for ’fiddlesticks’, which the dictionary defines as nonsense, poppycock, balderdash. We lean more towards the use of ’vissevasse’ as a verbal shrug intended to say ‘don’t worry – it’ll all work out’. Because it always does.