North Kingdom project — An online 3d game utilizing the hardware acceleration introduced in Adobe Flash 11.

The ATL developed by Jung von Matt focus on visualizing the possibilities and power of the Vodafone network through four main characters – The Netguys. These Netguys can be seen in TVC, Print, Out of Home and also in an interactive experience. In the interactive channel Vodafone wanted to give their customer a fun, casual and engaging game experience centered around the Netguys characters in the browser.

Our idea to communicate was that Vodafone customers have access to the Network of Tomorrow (im Netz von Morgen) but it is really up to them to make use of all the possibilities with Vodafone as a mobile provider.

More information — North Kingdom.
Play Netguys — English version

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For a couple of month ago I worked on this project as Art Director and designer. Netguys was a big challenge for us when we where working with the new 3d engine in Flash 11 with a very small team and a very tight time limit. However, this kind of projects can be really fun to do!

What is really cool in this project is that the 3D blocks in the city appears randomly so you never know what’s coming up, you never know how the city will look like. More about this later at our Behind the Scene section.

These 3d images have I done in Cinema 4D, just to make the screenshots from the game little more interesting. I bought the display model at TurboSquid.

A poster I did most for fun, but later on become the splash page you can see below.

   More pictures and information here.

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.

   More pictures and information here.

Feel free to download some minimalistic wallpapers for your iPhone, iPad and Desktop (2560×1440, 1920×1200 and 1440×900).

Download — Black Leakage Wallpaper Kit

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.

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.

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.)

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…”

My print is the one in the lower left corner. Great to see how the other artist solved the assignment. My favorite is the one by James Paterson.

“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’”.

Read the whole post at FITC.

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.

   More pictures and information here.

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”.

   More pictures and information here.

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.

Last month we launched a pretty cool project at Times Square for LG on their huge LED screen. A project within the project was to create a character, a process I will show here below. Usually I don’t work as an illustrator but sometimes it happens…

Overall we created over 50 characters during two hectic weeks…

A — Final direction from client B — My redesign and modification of the character when we wanted him more mature and cool C — Klaus Lyngeled (Character Designer och Animation Director) did some tweaks on my sketch D — The final character made in Unity 3D

When a project have a character in focus it’s of course super important to give him a look that works both for the brands philosophy and the project itself, a combination that can be very tricky sometimes. This autumn I helped one of our teams with some early concept ideas and development of a character for LG. The character was going to have artificial intelligence and “live” inside the biggest LED screen in NYC; a huge 15×25 meters display (1984×1136 resolution) on Times Square. His name is Gil (Life Is Good backwards) and he’s LG’s Good News Ambassador. Gil is animated in real-time 3D (Unity 3d) which means instead of using loops of pre-rendered animations, he actually can respond differently to messages, weather reports or news feeds so that he feels really alive

   More pictures and information here.

For a couple of days ago I got my test prints for the FWA award certificates from a local print house, just to check the design. All new winners will receive these from FWA via post, starting January 2011, except for SOTD winners who will just get a pdf.

Old winners will also get these certificates. Rob Ford; “Initially, I think the certificates might be printed for all SOTY and PCA winners I can still get in touch with. For previous SOTM winners, I think it makes sense to send them a PDF which they can print from themselves.”

The famous FWA digital award ribbons are vectorized and placed in the lower right corner.

Our fireplace have been in our foyer for a while, but it’s first now we can call it done, when the surface has been missing the right touch.

To get the right style we first used signal red spray all over the plate. After the color dried, I used sandpaper and paint thinner to scrub away some color, owensoot to make it darker and dirtier and salt water to give the surface some rust.

The fireplace is actually working when we are using bio fuel in three small tanks under the surface.

The final result become pretty close to my rough 3D sketch, even if it looked pretty bad.

The fireplace — work in progress II.
The fireplace — work in progress II.

WORK IN PROGRESS — This autumn I got an amazing assignment from Rob Ford at FWA; to design four prints for their awards.

The basic idea was to make something that would look good on your wall, and even better if you would have a collection. Rob Ford wanted to have a different award certificate for FWA, a vision I liked very much. However, the design have to be simple in a way, when it still is an award. You should be proud of it, and not feeling that you have a piece of art on the wall you maybe don’t like. The typeface and the design are taken from the FWA digital award ribbons, which made me start thinking of knitting, which also looks like pixel art in a way. Both knitting and pixelart are just handcraft, which matched the idea perfect when the projects you see on FWA are filled with that

Some lines from the brief;

“They could all be the same format but with a slightly different colour style to resemble the level of award. I’ve attached all of the award ribbons in case they help in any way and I have also attached the FWA logo in eps format.”

“I have thought in the past how it might be cool to have a 3D trophy image on the award certificate but I really have no requirements on the design style or idea. Of course, FWA is all about being progressive, original and innovative so I’m sure you will have that in mind anyway.”

(The award would not come with a wooden frame btw, I just wanted to see how it would look like.)

The four certificates — SOTM (Site Of the Month, SOTY (Sity Of The Year), PC (People’s Choice) and SOTD (Site Of The Day). I added some awards from us at North Kingdom to see how it could look like.

SOTM, SOTY and PC will be printed and sent over. SOTD will be available for downloading. Some test prints will be made next week.

— This post will shortly be updated.

NORTH KINGDOM, WORK IN PROGRESS — For the moment I’m working as a Creative Director/ Art Diretctor / Designer with a little different project then I am used to. It’s an interactive installation that will be placed at Skellefteå Airport this winter. An installation where we will use a very interesting 3D camera technique and a huge 82 inch one-touch screen. If you have seen Microsoft’s Project Natal you maybe know what I’m talking about, it’s a 3D technique that can be used both in games and installation like ours, but also for instore installations, interactive shop windows and much more.

The 3D camera is developed and made by Optronic in Skellefteå and it’s using Time-of-flight (TOF) technology (can be explained as radar operating with light). More information about the camera at Fotonic.

“With the technology, the time it takes for a very short laser pulse to travel to a certain object is measured, allowing distance to be calculated with great accuracy. Using a unique sensor chip, the distance to each individual pixel in the scene can be measured, creating a complete three-dimensional image.”

Video — Proof-of-concept of hand controlled car game
Video — 3D camera test

The basic idea behind the concept was to make something pretty simple (orders from the 3D cam tech guys) and focus on the visual, because we don’t want any bugs when it will be a public installation. That gave us directions to use as few joints in the bodies as possible. Therefore I had to figure out how to make them so simple as possible but still interesting. The first sketches I did were these fluffy things, which was made for one of our first ideas around an interactive mirror. From the beginning our ideas were mostly to make something arty, focusing on something we called Flight DNA (when every flight trip is unique), and digital mirrors with avatars (which is still on the track in another shape). However, it felt little lame, so we ended up with a game instead that anyone could easily understand. During this period I was working a lot with Per-Mattias Nordkvist, Improove (who I worked together with at Paregos in Skellefteå, way back).

(These fluffy characters are now moved to another ongoing project).

When we moved over to the game idea I wanted characters with more attitude and possibilities to fly. When Skellefteå is famous for its wood culture, what would be more right to do the characters in wood? And what would be cooler to make these wooden characters into robots? Above is the first concept sketches I made in Illustrator, showing the different bodies, heads, etc. It is also showing some first ideas of how the environment will look like.

Here are we working with the texture, colors and placement of the fabricated logotypes (which will give the characters a racer attitude). Pawel Wilkos from Ars Thanea is helping me out with the 3D when Mathias Lindgren, our 3D master, went on paternity leave. So big thanks to our old friends at Ars Thanea! We are own you one!

When I came up with the idea of these wooden robots/pilots it felt like we could do something more around them. Could we make them like a brand, could we take them further to other platforms? It’s some ideas we now are looking at, so I really hope we will see them in other platforms soon. Right now we are actually doing some first tests on iPhone (something I have been dreaming about over three years now). My intention is also to make a shop so people can order them as 15-20 cm high design wooden characters, limited edition. I hope to connect our local wood companies together to make it happen. If not, let me know if you have any ideas how to sponsor the project.

   More pictures and information here.

I have just finished mine and Kenny Lindströms kitchen illustration, so tomorrow I will send it to the printhouse because instead of paint it we will print, just to save some time. The main idea was to mix our styles.

My work was concept, copy, making the lady and put everything together. The idea is also to make a black stain on the table underneath
where the coffee is pouring. When I wrote the copy I wanted to achieve a feeling that the picture is taken from a saga, a story (not final);

“Her coffee smelt nice, but it felt like somebody was watching her. It was chilly outside and the aroma of the coffee now had a touch of salt. Like a deep lake of oil, her drink now took on a new dimension. Another side of the kingdom was now presented.”

— Work in progress

The illustration is made on a Cintiq 12WX, based on a photography I took a couple of years ago. When the plan was to paint everything we wanted a clean and simple illustration, which we kept even if it now will be printed.

Kenny Lindströms beautiful octopus. Original file in illustrator above. Below after my coloring.

Word Templates — Unfortunately it has been taken a while for us to finish our corporate identity program. Right now some guys are helping us out with making templates for our Word documents. However, it’s not easy when I’m a detail perfectionist and they don’t have a clue of what kerning or spacing is. But I’m an optimist and hopefully, after a couple of weeks, we will have a front page ready :)

North Kingdom Notebook — This is going to print this week; our own designed notebooks (A5). I have also designed some personal stickers for our crew can be added on the cover.

On Monday FWA will publish our wallpaper kit to their special edition 10th Anniversary collection. We where invited by Rob Ford together with 9 other great agencies (FWA 10 top winning agencies) like Goodby, B-Reel, Big Spaceship and EVB for this special occasion. It was of course a big honor for us, but also a chance to make a quick piece of art which is always challenging and fun.

Get the wallpapers here — FWA 10th Anniversary wallpapers by North Kingdom

If you like the font I have used and made, you can download that one here.

When we had no time whatsoever we made a quick collaboration in house. We didn’t have any directions among us more then just go “bananas”, to make something we wanted to have on our own desktops, and to keep it black and white as our graphic profile.

The directive from Rob Ford was; “The wallpaper should include the FWA logo, your own logo, the number 10. I am happy for the FWA logo to be manipulated in any creative way rather than having it placed, as is, on a nice image.”

   More pictures and information here.

For the moment I’m working with our corporate identity which is very important for companies in our branch. The idea behind our clean, sophisticated black & white style is to make an identity that don’t take focus from our projects and that we can keep for a while. Ok, we have already kept the logotype and style for a while but we have never had a complete package which I trying to finish now. My study was actually focused on print so it is fun to do that kind of job now and then…

I have always enjoyed listen to music meanwhile I work creative, specially when I’m sitting at the office or at coffee shops. For me it’s so important that I can shut down everything around me to find my creative mood, my creative “capsule”.

Here is my playlist on Spotify for you who also like to work with easy listening music: Designchapel — A creative day at work

When we did our showreel for North Kingdom last year we also made our own soundtrack together with Andreas Lundmark. I have used his music before when he was a part of Elodie, a great group from Skellefteå with a original style. The last thing I wanted for our showreel was a high tempo pop/rock/techno tune which almost every showreel uses today. Instead we wanted to give our reel an odd story with a calm pleasant feeling.

The soundtrack turned out so good so I wanted to give it a proper record cover with our Dear Deer Lady. I tried a new, quite fast, technique where I painted (with Wacom Cintiq 12wx) on top of a photo I took a few years ago. To fit the graphic profile of North Kingdom I made it black & white.

Download wallpapers — Dear Deer Black, 1920×1200 px (zip)

Download soundtrack — Creatvt (North Kingdom) (mp3)
Download typeface — Black Nun Bold (Illustration file) (.zip)

Finally, DCHPL-2 is live! These three picture is my first of a series I will continue work on during 2009 and probably 2010. They are found at my Cover Art selection if you have not seen them.

I have had these illustrations almost ready for over a year now but I have never had time to finish my website so therefore I have kept them in my drawer. I’m sure you know how it is… there are thousands other things to do then finish your portfolio. However, I came up with a pretty easy solution in the end but still very open creative with the cover solution. The base of this WordPress blog and my portfolio on Cargo. Thank you Andreas Philström and PM for helping me out with the WordPress programming. I really like this solution where it will be more focus on creating stuff for my portfolio instead of recreate my website.

I have actually been working on the content for the site during several years. The main idea for the site was to try out new techniques and medias that I never have been working with earlier. For example fashion drawing, learning Painter and concept drawing, creating a font, learn more about After Effect and so on.

My goal was also to make everything myself but as I said, the time issue is pretty big in this branch, so instead of making the photoshoot myself I worked close with a photographer, Håkan Moberg, and Mathias Lindgren (North Kingdom) helped me out with making the robots from my concept drawings.

You can download the pictures as wallpapers here.

Close up — Father Robot

Close up — Black Black Sunday

Project: Typography design. My work: Graphic Designer. Client: Designchapel.
Information: The first Designchapel font. Made in illustrator. Photography by Håkan Moberg, Stockholm.

Download Typeface (AI)

Font Distribution — Please note this is a exclusive download. You are not permitted to redistribute this font as a direct download from any other site. If you wish to list Black Nun Bold in your blog as part of a font post/listing then you can do so, but please direct your readers to this post for the font download.

Font Licencing — All rights are reserved by Robert Lindström. You may use Black Nun Bold freely for noncommercial and personal purposes, such as creating a logo for a personal web site, free web design materials, goods or banners. When used, please credit Designchapel or Robert.

This is a first glimpse on our upcoming fashion brand MINK / Made in North Kingdom. The logotype of a blinking deer character have I drawn in Illustrator. The hangtags (on the right side) are for the t-shirts and will be printed on canvas. From the beginning it will only be printed t-shirts with Limited Edition. I am not sure though when this project will be launched. Hopefully during 2008 or 2009.

For a couple of years ago I started an internal project at North Kingdom where our different designers made their own version of our NK symbol. It turned out pretty cool actually! Here above can you see 4 of these t-shirts prints designed by Kenny Lindström, myself, Charlotta Havh and Bjarne Melin. More to come!

We from North Kingdom will take care of one module at Hyper Island this winter. It is for their new one-year program called Interactive Art Director in Stockholm. We will give the student a Big Task (subject is still secret) among work shops, inspiration lectures etc. When it is finished we will gather the students work in a printed book. Can be pretty cool!

The illustration is just from a lonely night when I was bored…

   More pictures and information here.

Project: Festival Identity. My work: Art & Creative Directions, Graphic Design and Photography. Client: Ur-Kraft, Skellefteå.
Information: A festival with 10 years of history needed a new identity. These picture showed how the posters would look like.

Project: Website, Corporate Identity/ Branding from North Kingdom. My work: Art Director & Lead Designer. Client: North Kingdom.
Information: A first version of North Kindgdom identity.

Project: Corporate Identity. My work: Art Director & Graphic Designer. Client: Station Åtta, Skellefteå.
Information: A new modern night club in Skellefteå needed a new identity. Illustration by Charlotta Havh.