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.

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 project here 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.”

   More pictures and information here.

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.

Last week I worked on some character design for an ongoing pitch. The client wanted another direction thou so it never went further than this. So today it is just garbage, but that’s life. At least it was fun to do. The cool typeface is called CAPSET, made by my friend Andreas Philström.

   More pictures and information here.

Some sketches from a concept I’m working on right now. The characters had to be very simple so I continue to work with the style I made for The Lodge showreel a couple of years ago. I have no idea if we will use these small fellows but they where really fun to do :) Next step will be to build them in 3D if choose to continue. The project will be launched first after the summer so it is a very early sneak peek.

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.

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.

   More pictures and information here.

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.

   More pictures and information here.

I love the cooperation between Apple and Nike (Nike+) and I use their gadgets a lot. When will we see they use the latest in all parts of the technology? Imagine a pair of glasses where you can both see friends and your records visually as a “ghost rider”.

Here is some behind the scene peaks from when we made “Get the Glass” for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Fransisco, US. The client was The California Milkboard inc.

Me and David Eriksson (CD/CEO, North Kingdom) had for a long time wanted a project where we could build something physical, something you have not seen earlier, and when we first heard about the new Got Milk? project we understood that this would be the project! I guess Goodby thought we where a little bit crazy in the beginning but when we described the idea they loved the idea.

   More pictures and information here.

A first concept drawing of Father Robot. A character which will be built in 3D and added to the pictures with the new Designchapel nun.