I have been invited by Ståle Gerhardsen to a design/typography conference tomorrow called hello VARSKO!. I will speak about North Kingdom, adidas, design, illustration, typography… and some other things that could be inspiring. Therefore I have spent my Friday night on my sofa, preparing my presentation. Luckily the World Cup is still running on the TV, and it will be very inspiring to hear the other designers talk tomorrow and to see what’s going on in Trondheim.

VASKO is a society that supports creative visual communication and has its focus on the artists that dare challenge and break rules. Through exhibitions and happenings the organisation wants to show the world what is going on in the design underground in Norway, especially in our region Trondheim.

Last week David Eriksson (CD/CEO) and myself came back from Toronto and FITC 2010. North Kingdom where invited by Shawn Pucknell to speak at this, in my eyes, very professional managed conference with nice variation of speakers. FITC is an event for the design and technology community, which is now held for the 9th year. I where in Toronto and spoke back in 2007 and was already then very impressed by the arrangement at Hilton Hotel. This year’s theme was Playground. ”Which is all about…playing!”

All photos here below is taken from FITC’s photostream on Flickr

During Saturday, the day before everything started, FITC had a ‘Get a Job’ day where we spoke about how to apply and what you as a student should think about. If you are a designer it is pretty much about portfolio, portfolio and portfolio, and that you can work in a team, which is just as important.

   More pictures and information here.

We at North Kingdom where invited to the APTM4 conference in Tokyo recently (big thanks to Yosuke Kurita). Therefor David Eriksson and I went to Japan for a week. It was very inspiring meeting guys like Even Roth from Graffiti Research Lab, the cool guys at SemiTransparent Design, Abe-san & CO at Ogilvy Tokyo among others. We also visited the “Now Updating…” exhibition by Yugo Nakamura and Tha Ltd. Amazing stuff! I love Tokyo!

David and I where also interviewed by the Japanese magazine “Web Designers” as you can see on the other picture here above.

We were invited to Toronto and FITC 2007 this year, so Staffan Lamm and myself visited this beautiful town in Canada. Everything was located in Hilton Hotel and we where very impressed how professional arranged this Flash festival was!. Big thanks to Shawn Pucknell among others. We had the last lesson, the last day, and we could not believe our eyes when over 1000 came to see our presentation. We talked about some of projects we have done at North Kingdom. “How is a small company like North Kingdom, located in the north part of Sweden, thinking and working so leading global brands/agencies would like to work with them? North Kingdom will go through some recent projects from sketches and ideas to final production.”

Unfortunately we didn’t see so much of the others presentation when we where preparing ours the days before.

Speakers poker on the night, here with me on the left side. Photo by Shawn Pucknell.

A short review from Ping Mag, Japan.

WOW! What a town! Lovely Barcelona! We took a weekend off the whole company (North Kingdom) and went to Barcelona to get some inspiration! Me and David Eriksson also did some speaking at the OFFF conference which took place the same weekend. We were invited to OFFF together with Jorge Calleja, who we did the Get the Glass project with (when he was working for Goodby). Our speaking was about just that project! We had a great time in Barcelona! Met lot of cool people and I had a chance to met Scott Hansen who I have know through email during a couple of years.

   More pictures and information here.

We visited ADAPT 06 in Montreal this autumn with some of the best digital artist in the world. I had the chance to see some of Hollywood´s best digital artists showcase the techniques behind their works in 2D & 3D.
The main reason of why I was in Montreal that week was because I where speaker at Journée Grafika, a web/design conference. At the conference we met Sid Lee (also speakers) who invited us to there office. They are the guys behind the magnificent MGM Grand site. Cloudraker was another nice agency we met and visited.

At ADAPT 06 I met a legend; my new topp favourite artist; Syd Maed! He has been designing futuristic concepts for corporations and the movies (including Blade Runner, Tron and Mission Impossible 3) since the ’60s. He is making “retro future” in a way I have not seen anywhere else, and he does not even use the computer!

Another great artist I had the chance to see was Mark Goerner! Stunning work from one who has make concept drawings for Minority Report, X-Men 2 and Superman Returns. Mark is currently working on James Cameron´s Battle Angel to be released in 2009.

Thierry Doizon gave a lecture in speed painting and I can just say “WOW!”. His team was demonstrating the use of custom brushes and team work. Just f***ing amazing what they could make by drawing for 1,5 hour.

Some other really great artists I had the chance to see; Dylan Cole, Christian Lorenz Scheurer, James Clyne and Sebastien Larroude.