Background  LYSTH is founded by Maiken Lyster Thonke. Maiken began working in the advertising/graphic design business in 1993. While she was studying to become a graphic designer at the Danish Design School (1992-1997), she worked in the graphic department of the Tycho Brahe Planetarium, mostly with magazine publishing, video editing and exhibitions.

After an internship at Pentagram in New York and graduating from the Danish Design School (Danmarks Designskole) in the area of Visual Communication in 1997, she worked for several years at one of Copenhagens leading advertising and marketing agencies, Kunde & Co as Art Director, mostly with branding on print, but also film, packaging, web, exhibitions. Later she was hired as leading Art Director by Valtech (former Ahead), who works mostly with digital solutions.

In 2004 she founded LYSTH, which has solved most disciplines within the area of visual communication. During the years  she has been living in different development countries in Africa and South America but is now back in Denmark. The demand for Danish, simple design in other parts of the world and understanding of complex “development issues” has made her a solid partner for several international organizations.

In 2013 her exhibition design for Danida was nominated to the Danish Design Award.

During the past years Maiken has upgraded her photography skills and works now partly with photography.

         

From the left: Maiken together with school kids in Ouagadougou (Photo: K. Hyllested), showing them the photos from the day’s photo session; Kenya’s president Kibaki at the opening of the Governing Council in Nairobi; In front of an exhibition in UN Headquarter in Nairobi, Maiken as curator showing crown princess Mary the Danida Anniversary Exhibition at the opening in Copenhagen (Photo: Danida). 

LYSTH solves assignments in the area of:

• Photography
  Portrait, reportage and documentation
• Exhibition Design
  Creation of the visual identity for an event, and make it come alive on everything from a website to on-site material in a conference environment
• Graphic Design
  Concept development, branding, corporate identity, logo, layout, package design, web design, magazine publishing, report, design guides, infographics
• Advertising
  Campaigns, Art Direction

Countries of experience

Maiken has lived and worked for more than ten years in different countries:

Benin, Bolivia, and Kenya

And been on missions to:

Burkina Faso, Brazil, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia, Tanzania, Turkey, UAE and USA.

References / Maiken has experiences from the following clients:

Organisations

• UN-HABITAT, HQ, Kenya
• UN Women, Somalia
• UN Women, Switzerland
• UN Women, HQ New York, USA
• UN Women, Boliva
• UN Women, Copenhagen
• UNON, Kenya
• Danida, Denmark
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
• Danish Embassy in Benin, Pakistan, Bolivia, Kenay, Burkina Faso
• African Guarantee Fund, Denmark
• PIN, People in Need, Afghanistan
• SIDA, Kenya
• Ulandssekretariatet, Denmark
• Globalt Fokus
• Foreningen Folkemødet

Companies

• Royal Copenhagen
• Holmegaard
• Illums Bolighus
• Montana
• Brabantia
• HTH-kitchens
• Wicanders
• Georg Jensen Jewellery
• Izabel Camille Jewellery
• Ecco
• Designers Remix
• FloFlo

• Arla
• ICA
• Neutral

• Radiometer
• Imedeen
• Novo Nordisk
• Lundbeck
• Brüel & Kjaer
• Ezenta

• Grundfos
• Sydbank
• Nordea
• Ezenta
• Maersk

• Gyldendal
• AlineA
• Samvirke

• Baresso

Museums

• Tycho Brahe Planetarium
• Karen Blixen museum, Nairobi
• Museum of Natural History, NYC
• Koi Koi camp, Uganda
• Kulturnatten

… and many more

All photographs displayed on lysth.dk are for viewing purposes only and may not be reproduced in any way without permission from Maiken Lyster Thonke.