We had two sites shortlisted (out of 12) for this years FWA Site Of The Year. We did not win this year but finished on second place with Adidas Teamgeist, which is really fantastic! We Choose The Moon took the first place. Not my favourite site but it is nice and it’s great to see something from the lunar landing, cause I love space research.
It has been great to follow Rob Ford´s FWA since it started 2000. I remember the first version cause I had my own Designchapel presented there. Who could foresee that this little yellow site would be “The Oscars for Flash sites” a couple of years later?
I spent last week in Val d’Isère, France, where I have had a great time skiing with some friends! Everything was actually perfect; the weather, the snow, the queues, the food… everything! Ok, the afterski in Åre, and also Kittelfjäll, is much better, but who cares? I can warmly recommend both Val d’Isère and Langley Travel.
This week is our first week in our new Stockholm office. We have moved from Gamla Stan, where we have been located the last four years, to Kungsholmen. These pictures are from December during the restoration which still is running. The office are hopefully finish in the beginning of March. Here are some cool pictures during the first day by Jakob Nylund.
I will post some work in progress later on. Architect Fabian Wanqvist and Charlotta Havh (North Kingdom) is helping me out with the interior design.
Michael Ballack, the captain of the German national soccer team, concentrating before a film shoot and Rene Adler, the goalkeeper, is doing an interview in front of our scenography. Cologne, September 2009. A couple of exciting days for us from North Kingdom when the film shoots for Adidas Teamgeist took place.
Here is my personal thoughts and pictures from this autumn. These “Making of” parts have been very important for me to me to keep when I want to collect parts of the process, which never is seen in the final result and to have something to look back on when we work with new projects in the future. Working as an Art Director for this kind of projects can be pretty difficult. Big complex game campaigns for big brands, where lot of different parts runs parallel. You need to keep everything in the same style and quality, and you always have a client with very high expectations. Times like that, the most important is to have a well working team, which we have in North Kingdom! Many of us at NK have been working together over ten years so we know each other very well. Nobody is afraid to say what he or she thinks. A project will never turns out good if people in the team don’t say what they have in mind. It is so true that the details will betray you, so when Marcus Ivarsson (our Project Manager) said “Every single pixel need love” I couldn’t agree more.
I’m pretty happy with the final result. The sound and voice overs are absolute fantastic! DinahMoe did a great job! They handled all sound dynamically at runtime, all integrated and affecting each other. Visually it is almost perfect. With little more time I think we could make the game itself a little harder in the last two chapters and with more variations. But still, we had over 500,000 games played the first three weeks, chosen FWA Site of the Month, and a very happy client, which is most important. However, I have to admit I wasn’t totally sold about the game idea, the strategic style, but it gave me even more reason to try to make it as visual outstanding as possible.
My first rough concept drawings from August 2009, showing how the white takeover would look like, how the players would transform to these white “ghosts” without any identity, history or power.
During the project I worked with two very talented illustrators; Therese Larsson (intern at North Kingdom), who did the covers and Anton Eriksson, who was in charge of backgrounds, based on our 3D sketches. The graphic novel style came from 180 Amsterdam who did the very cool “Spark” movie for Adidas earlier this year, which gave Adidas a new mystic, dark feeling. I wasn’t so fond of the rest of the campaign they did, when their graphic novel style was too lame and to regular. Adidas let us make our own style within the genre which we both loved and thought would be necessary for a great outcome. Basically I got free hands with my illustrators. Why can’t all clients be like that?
James Robinson, Project Manager. Some great picture by Jakob Nylund from the last days at Gamla Stan. North Kingdom will soon have a new Stockholm office.
“2009 saw a move away from destination websites as brands sought to integrate themselves into social networks and engage in real time media. However, there were still a fair few URLs that rocked our world.”
Cool! North Kingdom is mentioned twice in Contagious issue “Most Contagious 2009″; Adidas (Teamgeist) and Swedish Armed Forces (Recruitment). I worked as Lead AD for both, which was pretty cool too!
adidas — Teamgeist
“Sporting giant adidas used a stylish online game inspire by the graphic novel genre to allow fans to explore the true value of the adidas jersey worn by the German national football team. Through Stockholmbased agency North Kingdom, the Teamgeist site placed captain Michael Ballack and star players in an augmented reality, interactive comic book. Visitors helped the team win back its identity after players became lost in ‘blank’ jerseys. The game was played 500,000 times in the first three weeks. Contagious 21.”
Swedish Armed Forces — Recruitment
“In order to recruit exactly the right calibre of candidate amongst the country’s 18-25 year-olds, the Swedish Armed Forces used a dark, complex website that sent users through a series of psychological tests assessing intelligence and motor abilities. Direct mail provided personal feedback on the online tests, resulting in a response rate of 72.6%. The average dwell time was almost nine minutes and the site (www. mil.se) received record breaking figures during the campaign. Via DDB Stockholm, with North Kingdom, Skelleftea, Teenage Engineering and Stopp, Stockholm all contributing. See Contagious 20.”
Since yesterday you will find me on Twitter as well. A little late, yes I know, but better late then ever! Hope to meet you there! You will also find North Kingdom here.
Project: Website by North Kingdom. My work: Lead Art Director & Designer. Client: Adidas Germany. Information: On November 13th 2009 the new fed kit for the German national football team for the World Cup in South Africa 2010 was officially launched and presented to public. This jersey is of national interest, with huge PR activities behind it. Having centred the DFB communication campaign in classical ATL channels over the last years, adidas Germany were now looking for a cutting edge approach with a web based centrepiece. The main objective was to create hype around the team and its new jersey and in the long run anchor adidas as the leading football brand in Germany. The campaign targeted towards German football fans, is driven by the idea of team spirit, the fun of the game and the design of the new DFB jersey.
We at North Kingdom created a web based centerpiece called adidas Teamgeist. An unique online graphic novel game where the fans can discover and learn more about the story behind the jersey while competing for the ultimate prize of flying together with the German football team over to South Africa next June. The story is centred on the jersey and the importance it has to the team, the players and the fans. To find out, the users have to go back in time and replay the three German World Cup gold matches of -54-74 and -90 in a real time football strategy game.
Except the advergame the campaign consist of a set of viral video that was launched as teasers, an augmented reality novel, a blog, a twitter feed and a facebook fan page.
Personal Work. I have vacation right now and tried do something on my Cintiq 12WX meanwhile I was listening on a e-book. I had no plans what-so-ever when I started, except that I want to build him with ZBrush one day.
I am not sure what he/it is. From the beginning this character was looking totally different but when I flipped a copy of the original horizontal and multiplied it on top; a new character appeared which felt much more unique. Then I took this new character and finished the work.
Microsofts Body Recognition Project — Where will this end? This system seems to be sold with every Xbox in the future. EyePet — I think this can be huge as well! PlayStation is using the Eye camera to bring a furry pet to life in your living room. New York Nearest Subway — An augmented Reality App for iPhone that make it easy to find your subway. ihologram — Nice app for iPhone that gives the illusion of a 3d hologram. I think we will see lot of this kind of stuff during 2010. Social networks are getting huge — Social networks are getting so huge that many of them are competing in size with some of the largest countries in the world. RUSE — I just want this table to be reel! Great to see our old friend Joseph Leroux from Coca Cola Zero as one of the actors. Samsung Magic Unboxing — When do we have these kind of boxes? Nice idea but a very cheap end on the video. Augmented Reality — Seems to be everywhere these days.
Project: Designchapel, second edition. My work: Fashion design. Client: Designchapel. Information: I made three dresses and one coat for new Designchapel edition. These dresses where drawn and made back in 2006 but I have never showed them in my portfolio. Photography by Håkan Moberg, Stockholm.
These dresses are not made for sale right now but you will hopefully find them somewhere in the future.
The idea was to get a 60’s look but in more modern and clean look. Check out sketches & work in progress of the dresses in the Behind the scene section or the final result.
On my flight back from Munich yesterday I did a new small drawing on my iPhone with the Brush application. I felt very very tired on the trip home so I guess that’s why the guy ended up like this…
Project: Website by North Kingdom. My work: Interactive Art Director. Client: DDB Stockholm. Information: This site is the major part of a recruit campaign for the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) by DDB Stockholm. We worked very closed with both DDB and Jesper Kouthoofd (Teenage Engineering) who was Film Director and in charge of the scenography. Stopp did the Post Production and 3D. The web experience and the eight commercials were shot on a 330 feet set inside a secret naval base outside of Stockholm. The website consists of a 15 minute interactive film that was shot in one take.
Here above you can see the design in progress for the first room: The Freezer. It is a test where you have to save two persons of four, or can you maybe solve the test different? Check out the Behind the Scene part here below.
Jeff Voris (Disney, LA), Miguel Moreno Toscano (Coca Cola) and Andy Orrick (The Mill). It has been some very inspiring days in Skellefteå this week with the Creative Summit.
“Creative Summit is a VIP event arranged to strengthen, introduce and bring companies, industry people and creative talents together on both a regional, domestic and international level. The event is only open for 125 delegates each year.” — Creative Summit
Lunchbreak. Peter Olofsson has designed the new North Kingdom tshirt.
To build my portfolio part I have used Cargo Collective, which is a web publishing (CMS) and community-building platform (currently in development). Here is the content that counts, not the design, which sometimes can be very good for us designers who usually struggling to make as cool portfolio as possible.
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.
This winter North Kingdom made a project with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for GE, containing a website and a Augmented Reality solution. The project turned out great with a happy client, a Silver Clio and S.O.T.M FWA.
On my way back home from New York I tried this new iPhone app. called “Brushes”. It’s a program where you can paint with your fingers on your mobile! Very easy to use actually. I drawn these two robots here below on the plane (shown in three steps each);
This spring I had the honor to part of the jury of One Show in New York with Michael Lebowitz from Big Spaceship as Jury Chair. 28 invited from the business where gathered at the amazing IAC building on Manhattan, where we voted and discussed work from all over the world for a week. I had a great time and learned a lot. Thanks Kevin Swanepoel and Jeff Hirch for the most organized jury week I have been at!
Augmented Reality from Lego. Great to see a brand using AG which is really useful and engaging! World Builder by filmmaker Bruce Branit. Pretty cool short movie with a digital fantasy world. Headtracking with AG. When will we see the first websites using headtracking? Or when will the first game arrive? Vision 2019 by Microsoft Lab. I always love to see visions of the future.
I was invited to speak about inspiration at Berghs School of Communication by Peder Rotkirch, who is in charge of Interactive Communication. For me personal it is very inspiring to visit design schools when I self never had the chance to study at one, so next year I will try to do more of this when it is very important for North Kingdom as well when we always looking for talented students.
The T-Mobile Dance - An amazing “spontaneous” Flash Mob Dance at London Train Station. Coraline by Wieden + Kennedy. How to get a broader audience to be excited about a movie. Did You Know - Fantastic video on the progression of information technology. Kate Moss Hologram - Holographic Projection of Kate Moss for Alexander McQueen, 2006.
The process for making DCHPL-2 have been long, very long. The goal has not been the final result but just the process. To take time and learn new stuff! To sit down and think; what do I want to try? Here is some sketches and ideas I have had during these years I have been working with this. Sometimes it have been three four months between each time I have open the Designchapel folder, sometimes even more. And yes, it can be very frustrating to not launch the ship, to ask yourself “Will I never ever finish this?”, but somehow, you have to tell yourself also “Well, it is just a bloody webpage. Focus on what you think is fun, nothing else!”. It can be hard many times to not be stressed, but during my years in this branch you have to think on your social life as well, otherwise you will never stay long in the business.
Project: Typography design. My work: Graphic Designer. Client: Designchapel. Information: The first Designchapel font. Made in illustrator. Photography by Håkan Moberg, Stockholm.
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 illustration did I actually start to do the autumn of 2006. Back then it was made to be a part of my upcoming portfolio. However, I felt after a while that I wanted to learn new stuff instead repeating myself. Therefore, I have put it on hold until now. This autumn I where invited for a new illustration book called Monarchy Series (will be released 2009). My idea was to take my old unfinished illustration and add new technique and elements to it, because I realized I had to little time to start over from scratch. In the end the illustration wasn’t that different then the old one when I wanted to keep it clean and simple.
The model is my ex-girlfriend (who also is the model for all old Designchapel illustrations) and to make them more unique we borrowed some wigs from a hairdresser shop in Skellefteå called “Torsten”.
The main idea behind “Royal Nun” is the ever ending struggling between having a pretty big company (North Kingdom) on one side and my creative freedom on the other side (Designchapel).
“December inspiration” is a collection of some of the best stuff I have seen this autumn, when this is my first inspiration post. The red thread is new technique and I´m very curious to see what 2009 have to offer!
G-Speak by Oblong Industries. - This is a new system that really takes the Minority Report UI into reality. I want You to Want Me by Jonathan Harris. - An interactive installation at MoMA in New York. So simple but so excellent done! Augmented Reality. - AR is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data. Subway Installation / Digital Poster by Ginga Interactive. - I guess we will have this kind of installations all around us pretty soon. Air Force One tagged by Droga5. - Awesome idea! 0 dollar spent on media, 150 million views.
