NORTH KINGDOM PROJECT — Weetakid, an intergalactic mobile gameplay for kids, is a concept made by BBH London for Weetabix, which is a popular whole grain wheat breakfast cereal in England. The assignment for North Kingdom was to create a mobile game with an AR solutution connected to the cereal package.
I myself wasn’t so much involved as I use to be in this kind of projects when BBH London was in charge of the overall feeling, Yum Yum (London) made the characters and 3d, and Zoink Games (Gothenburg) took care of the games, including game bible.
My role was pretty much to take care of the first look and feel, concept designs, covers and some interface design/ mock ups. The final production was so so in my eyes… but it has some cool visuals so I thought it could be fun to keep it here on the blog for the future. The image above, with the three iPhones, have I done in Cinema 4D.
“Weetakid, the game. Brought to you by Weetabix.”
— WIP
Some first rough sketches of the cereal package cover I did together with our 3D artist Mathias Lindgren. We knew Yum Yum was going to do the final 3D so we focused on design ideas, proportions, logotypes and other design elements.
We had to finish this print before we started the “real” project because of timing. So at this point we had to figure out what kind of world Weetakid would lived in.
Here are some first stuff from Yum Yum in London with my feedback written on top.
We wanted to keep Weetakid in a happy lovely mood with a cool logotype …
… but the client wanted to keep him like this; more serious and frustrating. This is the final version for the cereal package with the logotype from the Weetabix design department. Better?
Another solution we did for another kind of package.
A part of the storyboard from BBH London who was in charge of the flow.
My mock ups for some of the interfaces (not finals).
Some loading screens I put together for different screens.
3D by Yum Yum London —
The best part of the project was to work with Yum Yum London who was in charge of the 3D. Lovely guys to work with, thank you guys!
This week I finished another design for Rob Ford and FWA when they needed a Mobile Of The Day (MOTD) award certificate. I was lucky and could change the award original color code when its blue was a little bit crazy (and we already had two blue ones). This green matches the other awards pretty nice I think.
Here can you see the other versions and on the FWA gallery site you can see how they are used around the globe.
When I’m trying to learn Cinema 4D I just had to test how I could comp the poster together with an iPhone. Here is how the scene looks like with all the lighting, which is from the excellent Greyscale Gorilla. The iPhone is a free model which I also found at this excellent Cinema 4D site.
Last night I finally launched my small side-project Black Leakage; an online shop with vinyl wall art. I’m working with a nice small printhouse from my hometown Skellefteå called Vision Reklam with 15 years of experience who handle the printing, packaging and shipping.
Black Leakage concept — Unique wall art made by matte beautiful vinyl. All motives are named after oil tankers that where destroyed during World War II – as a small reminder that out of something bad, something good can come. 10% of the profit goes to Greenpeace Sweden to save our oceans from oil.
North Kingdom, Woodbot Pilots — We received the second round of prototypes a couple of weeks ago. One step forward, two backwards. I really like the way they solved the logotypes, which here are carved into the wood, but there are pretty many parts that not are solved yet and I start to wonder if they really can make it as we want it or if we need to made the design simpler or use another material. It is pretty interesting to work with China factories when you don’t know what you get. Our blue print had for example one black cable on the left arm, now we have two red ones, which is fine; most important is to see what can be done and not. But I am very concerned that they do not follow the feedback at all and they mix up the parts. Our big dude have here the small characters arms…
We have tried a new way to make the eyes which looks pretty cool. The faces (the screens) are one part we have not been able to see how it can be made. Unfortunately.
Three prototypes of pretty much the same body. As you can see, you need to be open minded of what you get. The shapes have become more rounder in the last model which is perfect. The color should be more like the one in the middle but it was great to see how a lighter version would look like. The horns have get a pretty strange shape thou…
The middle stripes is missing which is a shame when I think they do pretty much to the overall feeling. Hopefully we will have it on place on the last, third round of prototypes later this month.
This spring we at North Kingdom did a small web project including both an iPhone app and five movies with Forsman & Bodenfors for Volvo. We created an online guide with the 25 most spectacular winter adventures in Scandinavia, a project called Volvo Cross Country Travels. With the app you can receive special designed badges from each location. Forsman & Bodenfors made the concept idea, my role was Interactive Art Director.
To mock up the first design (B) I received some rough sketches (A) from Forsman & Bodenfors, who wanted a clean magazine so it could run on an iPad. Therefor we chose HTML5 as a platform.
Some screenshoots of the final result (small changes have been done since launch).
We created some cool badges for each location which you could get digital if you checked in at chosen location. Our idea was also make them physical so people could receive them by post so people could put it on their cars. Illustrations by Anton Eriksson, directed by Jakob Nylund.
We also sent two guys for 3 weeks of filming. Jakob Nylund and Riccardo Tagliabue made five beautiful spots (above). I sold in the idea and really wanted to go with them, but the time issue made me to stay at the base.
The total result turned out so so I think except for the badges and the videos that had higher level. Some annoying tech problems with external partner cut down almost all love. Instead of doing the whole thing with HTML5 we ended up with a hybrid solution (Flash) the last two weeks of the project.
However, it was great to work with my old friend Staffan Lamm at Forsman & Bodenfors again. They are doing such excellent work these guys! Mathias Lindgren (North Kingdom 3D) and I was working inhouse at their Gothenburg office the last week. On the picture you can see Mathias at their total orange place, 8.45 PM, Friday night. We where the last one leaving. (Photo taken by iPhone)
I have now found the perfect vinyl and technique for the Black Leakage project. Here are some photos from my own apartment on the final product. I will hopefully have the shop with five different motives up and running before the end of the week when I only have some instructions and documentation left to do.
The idea is to keep the original color of the wood where the logotypes and the stripes are. The rest of the body will be made darker. To make it clear for the factory in Hong Kong I have made this mock up in Photoshop.
Finally we have got our first prototypes from Hong Kong delivered. They haven’t been corrected from my last post except the wood have been stained. On the next version we will see how we to make the stripes and logotypes (the idea is to keep these areas without coloring so they stay in original light wood, instead of stickers), all details fixed from earlier feedback, head separated from body and the varnish wood.
We haven’t spent so much time on the packaging yet but they actually made some first rough boxes for us for free in this delivery, without asking. That is what I call service! The idea is also to place the woodbot inside a small designed bag, placed inside a wooden box. The color will be the same as the woodbot I think.
The eyes looks pretty funny when they just have done some big fat white dots. Here can you see the hand issue as well. They have done the hands functionality really nice when you actually can bend the fingers, but it looks little to chunky. The photos are taken on the pier outside my apartment by the way… just after the sunset.
Details from behind. I like the back of the big one best; a solid color, without any differences in tones. It gives the woodbot a luxury feeling. The reference have been Kay Bojesen’s wooden toy monkey.
Woodbot Pilots — North Kingdom’s wooden toy robots. Prototype No.2.
For a couple of days ago we put up our first Black Leakage wall sticker and it was much easier then I thought. This first one is placed in my sisters apartment who lives pretty close to me in Stockholm.
Last month we received the first photos of the woodbot prototypes from the factory in Hong Kong. However, it was first now I found time for feedback (yes it is a side project) so hopefully I will see a new version of these guys soon. The biggest issue right now is the small details, specially the hands. So I am very excited to see what solutions they have on my feedback. Do we need to redesign or do we need to find another solution? Plan B is to make the hands in plastic.
IN PROGRESS — A wall art decal (vinyl) made for my apartment that soon will be available at my online shop. You will find them in two different shapes and two different sizes.
For a couple of years ago I found a screenshot on the net, showing a broken screen from someone’s MacBook . The upper right corner on the diplay had got a punch and some liquid had start pouring inside the screen. It was something in that abstract shape I liked so I saved the picture on my hard drive for another day. This winter I started to think about my living room’s big white wall. I’m not so fond of placing prints or frameworks behind the TV so a vinyl print felt like a better solution. Therefore I made this print based on this crashed display. I liked the idea to have fine shapes with a little bit of attitude.
Right now I’m waiting for the real prints, so it will be great to see how it works. The idea is to add these to my upcoming online shop if it turns out well. Black Leakage will be printed on matted vinyl and available in two different shapes;
Black Leakage No. 1 (Portrait)
Black Leakage No. 2 (Landscape)
If you want a Black Leakage for your home as well, just send me a mail and I will notice you when it is available. And of course, you will get 40% OFF just because you read this! And if you recognize your broken display I will send you one for free! :)
If you are interested, just send me a note here. It will be available in a couple of weeks.
I have made the illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. More to come when it´s available and I have test it in my apartment.
Last month Marcus Ivarsson and I got the honor to be invited to London by the D&AD President Sanky. He asked us to speak at one of their D&AD President’s Lecture, which is an event they hold six times a year. Earlier speakers have been Neville Brody, Shane Walter and Kyle Cooper for example and it’s just one speaker at each event. The arrangement was very professional done, so we had a great time both on stage, with the great audience (over 700 people!!), and at the dinner and the clubs afterwards. Thank you so much Sanky btw, for the nice opening words you gave me! I will remember them :)
On stage we talked about North Kingdom and how we are are making our projects. We talked about “finding and follow your butterflies” and how to “be one big brain”. This is how we were presented on D&AD’s website;
“D&AD Black Pencil-winning North Kingdom is a world leading digital creative agency. Their spiritual home is Skellefteå, a small town next to the polar circle in Sweden. Depending on the season, the team enjoys 23 hours of sunshine or darkness a day.”
It was also great to see the following week how people from the audience wrote review articles about our presentation;
Concept art by North Kingdom (Robert Lindström & Mathias Lindgren). Deer by Mirada.
Three screenshots from the final work and the landingpage of ROME, everything made with webGL.
Read more about the projecthere and check out the huge making of article at our North Kingdom blog here. This post on Designchapel only concerns my involvement and my personal notes.
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A couple of weeks ago we launched a little different project from North Kingdom called ROME, an interactive music video made in webGL from Google Chrome. To learn more about the technique you can read more at ROME technology site.
I wasn’t so super involved myself unfortunately when it was the music director who was in charge of all the visual stuff. I only did some early concept drawings together with our 3D artist Mathias Lindgren and some design directions on the website. These pictures will I show here below.
The beautifully Norah Jones, one of my favorites, is singing “3 Dreams of Black” in this interactive music video with Jack White from Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi’s album ROME.
Some really early concept drawings. I had an idea of a mirror world underneath the surface, a more twisted version of the dream world.
“A dark world is found under the surface, as if you would look under the water’s edge. This dark, odd, bizarre world contains a mirror image of the “real” world but within another shape. Here will you find the dark soup. A soup that could have same style in all three dark worlds.”
We are always looking for new talents to North Kingdom, where I’m trying to keep an eye on designers and art directors. The best mix is of course to have both seniors with international background and juniors from the schools (where we for the moment work very close with both Hyper Island and Berghs here in Stockholm). However, to be honest it doesn’t matter what school you have studied at, it’s your portfolio we are interested at. So if you want to live in one of the best cities in the world; Stockholm and you have a great showcase, then you should definitely send us and email.
Tonite I have modified my illustration from the wallpaper “En kopp kaffe” to match a 50×70 cm print for an upcoming exhibition. I will definitely play around with it more later, regarding colors and graphic elements. The print will be a limited edition of 25 or so…
Some first ideas of the package design — a box in wood.
For the moment we are in contact with a factory in Hong Kong who hopefully will help us with the production. This blueprint is made for them to start making the prototypes. I really hope we will have some nice looking prototypes in the office soon!
The new arms in place. The smoother design gave them a better overall look I think. (Logotypes are missing.)
“Overloaded design can be both boring and distracting, while minimalism’s ability to cut to the chase gives it a decided commercial edge. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry defined the style as being “not when there is nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away”.”
“Clean, unfussy, functional, minimalist… these are the kind of adjectives that would spring to most people’s mind when the subject of Swedish design is raised.”
In the latest issue of IdN, v17n6: Minimalism Issue, you find lot of Swedish creatives from varies fields. Really cool to see what’s going on in the neighborhoods;
— Oskar Kron Design (Stockholm, Sweden)
“I find it interesting how typography can set a tone or convey a message in the way it is treated rather than what it necessarily says. It’s a bit like a bolt, it just holds everything together.”
This weekend I have played a little with my (alternative) DC logotype to see if I could make it more unique. I have done some small changes with its head and made a new solution with the body/ cross.
Got a mail from Shawn Pucknell, Director at FITC Events, today; “Just got all the prints today and sorted them all out and hand numbered them. They look great. Attached is a shot of the prints and album…”
“As part of our celebration for the ten year anniversary of FITC, we selected ten FITC Speakers from the past ten years and asked them to design a print with the theme ‘TEN’”.
Yesterday we had one of our first soccer practice outdoor at North Kingdom Stockholm. Of course we were dressed up with our new, supernice outfits from adidas.
We kicked Perfect Fools butts in the last game, which made us to the best agency in Sweden (regarding to the trophy we won from them), so let us know if you want to challenge us for the title and the cup. Otherwise you will find us at Vasaparken every Wednesday at noon.
This weekend I have modified another nun illustrations from 2001/2002. The original illustration was never mentioned to be bigger then 800 pixels high so I have done some adjustments now in Photoshop, so it will work better in print. Work in progress…
“Designed Swedish Religion — The Red Nun”. 50 x 70 cm, 300 dpi.
Last month I posted some pictures on our North Kingdom blog concerning the first Woodbot prototypes we have made via a 3d printer. For the moment this is a side project for Mathias Lindgren (3d) and myself, so it goes little slow sometimes, when our regular projects goes first. However, I’m strongly motivated to see if we can take it to production later this year.
The characters will be made in dark wood to get a premium feeling. Details like bag in leather.
So what’s the next step for our physical Woodbot? Right now we are talking with different partners around the world to see who can help us to move on. It’s partners in USA, China, Japan and, of course, in the north part of Sweden. The priority for the production is (when numbers and profits doesn’t interest me that much);
1 — Quality
2 — Flexibility
3 — Cost
The idea for now is to make three models from start, with a limited edition of 250 – 500 each. It’s hard to say the price but I would guess around 150 USD each. The money is not the most important here; it’s to actually do it. I’m reading a book right now called “Making Ideas Happen — Overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality” by Scott Belsky, and I start to understand why so very few of all my ideas never left the drawing table. Yet.
As soon we have figured out whom we will take care of the production we will create one single, wooden prototype. When this prototype has the quality we looking for, then we will put Woodbot on Kickstarter.com to get, hopefully, a budget to start the production.
The prototypes are printed at Digital Mechanics in Västerås, Sweden.
TEN PIECES. This is mine and North Kingdoms contribution to FITC 10th Anniversary (Canada). FITC have invited 10 artists that have spoken at their conferences the last 10 years to create 10 posters. Therefore the theme was just TEN. The size will be 12 x12 inches, printed on matte 80 pound stock.
Some of the other artists are Natzke, MK12 and Kyle Cooper.
My idea was to create something made by 10 shapes, based on a technique I used back in 2000 for a project called “The Skyscraper”. I wanted to make a minimalistic symbol that both contains the word “TEN” but also something connected to North Kingdom, so I created a deer in a shape similar to our North Kingdom logotype..
The symbols/logotypes I made September 2000 for “The Skyscraper”.
I’m have started to prepare some stuff for an exhibition this spring in Stockholm. Two of the prints will be modified versions of my nun illustrations from 2001/2002. These illustrations where never planed to be used bigger then I had them on my original website from 2002, but they have been printed up to 140 x 140 cm which is insane when all details looks pretty bad. However, I thought it was an excellent way to both improve my painting techniques and fix these old illustrations for print.
This is still work in progress but it will end up pretty close to this I think. I have some stuff left to do in her face and neck and I’m still playing with the design. And yeah, the logo is not set yet as well.
Size 50 x 70 cm, 300 dpi.
The original illustration was never mentioned to be bigger then 800 pixels high.
Thank you guys who posted feedback of the logotype redesign. Some of you have notified me that the minimalistic eagle was similar to the logotype for Design Made In Germany, which is true. You can say it is from the same logotype family so to speak. Not as much that it felt I really had to change it but I wanted to see if I could modified it a little to make it more unique. I mean, the logotype become even more similar when my original logotype from 2002 is based on the Germany eagle.
However, I ended up with a version where I have used a solid circle underneath and a slighter bigger cross symbol. The eagle symbol become more minimalistic then before which is good when it is the cross that is the core of the logotype.
Spontaneous I think the eagle loses to much of its symbolic language. And maybe it becomes too minimalistic? If I have time I will do some more versions later this week.
My original logotype, the heraldic eagle, have felt out of date and maybe little impersonal, so the last five-six years I have more and more just used the cropped cross in different ways. I have now finished an idea where I mix the eagle, the circle and the cross in a much minimalistic way, which I think represents me better. So the plan is to use this logotype from now on.
To keep quality in all your projects, every month, every year, and in particular as your agency is growing is not an easy task. Everyone who has been working at a design bureau knows how easy the growth and profit take focus from that final touch and execution. That’s a deadly, but common sin.
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At North Kingdom we have always been discussing our projects quality. These internal design evaluations are not only important for you as a designer but for the entire company. How will you otherwise improve and take it to the next level? One step we have taken is to appoint a North Kingdom design director, and that guy is me since a couple of months.
In a growing, creative design company, there are two elements that needs equal focus; the economy and the portfolio. We use to say that if you concentrate on quality it will sooner or later pay back, when a well-executed project will give your company great PR which will give you more contracts in the future. Sounds maybe easy, but of course, it’s not. You really need to understand how to sell and run a business as well. When we started North Kingdom almost eight years ago we had something that later seemed to be a perfect match. When I focused 24/7 on the creative side, my colleague and the other founder, Roger Stighäll, focused on the business as a full bloodied business man he is. We were two strong individuals that were fighting our different interest.
Besides the internal design discussions it’s also important for you to fight for your visual ideas. As a designer or art director it can sometimes be hard to internally convince why you would need two extra days, fixing visual details when you have a strict budget and deadline to follow. A fight that becomes more important for you when you know how fine the line is between an acceptable and an award winning project. It’s now so important that your colleagues are understanding what you want to achieve. Sometimes we have what we call a “tweak week” at North Kingdom; a week after launch where we fix details that wasn’t done during the last hectic weeks, so we ourselves are pleased with the final result. If you are building a pyramid it would be a bummer to miss the top, right?
Personally I think many companies needs stronger art directors and designers with authority to really fight for their design vision (which should be a vision that not only are based on personal style but business goal). If you as an art director makes a project without any bigger complications within the team or with the client you have probably not taken the work to the level it could be, or should be. If it’s easy, you are probably doing it wrong.
“If people aren’t telling you that your idea is crazy, then it is likely not a very big idea” - Francis Ford Coppola. I like this quote when it touches design as much as ideas itself.
What concerns me, is that is too often we see well known agencies working with super big brands with a terrible result. I hardly believe the budgets are too small, instead I believe there are stronger people in their organizations who are more concerned about money or credits than what they actually are going to launch. Maybe, we should question more if these persons are having to much power in house for each companies best?
— Robert Lindström, art & design director, North Kingdom
This is cool! The first photo I have seen on a FWA wall with my design. It’s from ATTIK, San Francisco, USA. ATTIK was one of my absolute favorite agencies (together with Büro Destruct) when I began my carrier. It’s also pretty cool that the certificate in the end of this photo, the one from 2010, is together with us at North Kingdom for Scion.
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