A interview with eike-konig

Then came the question: Is a period of non-creation part of creation itself? I experienced a lot of self-doubt during this time, as I’d always created under tight deadlines, always been occupied – and then all of a sudden I had this free space to exist in, for which I was getting paid but had no obligations to fulfil. It seemed like paradise with a trapdoor. Easy to lose yourself in. You’re simply handed everything, but you don’t know what to do with yourself.' 


I found this related to me very much although very diffrent surcomstances but to see a well established professional had a similar issue is very rensuring. 



Four weeks in, I invited other people to visit me and create with me – people I’d already collaborated with for a long time, like Nathan and Jakob of Haw-lin, and Tim+Tim.

HOw he talks about collcoration helping him get through this stage. I have found collabortationg to be the most motivational thing for me. 


'You go to school, you sit your exams, you go to uni, you graduate, you start working… you follow this linear path, try to organize your life around this structure, although life is actually constantly in flux, in motion – there are no real moments of graduation, only constructed ones.'


Questions 
Clean workspace, clean mind. To what extent, and how, do your surroundings – both in your home and at your office – affect the way you work, and the output you 


As someone immersed primarily in 2D visuals, in what ways does the medium of television play into your life and work?create?

Porto - Portugal - White studio

Continuing my research into European Citys I found porto in Portugal a very interesting one. White studio 

We are a multidisciplinary design studio based in the beautiful city of Porto, with offices in London and Santiago. White Studio works on several design areas, from press to web, from editorial design to signage systems, from packaging to interior design. We focus on the essential: the concept. This is why each of our projects has an expression that makes it unique. Always working in close connection with our clients, we have been experiencing design for more than two decades. If you would like to know more about us, our methodology and the way we look at things, feel free to visit or contact us!

SOD - Collective presentation

For our Collective presentation me and elliot will be presenting SOD in an effort to spread the word of the collective and hopefully influence some students to get involved with us. This could then lead to further workshops, exhibitions etc in Leeds. I think this is a very important collective for me to be a part of for multiple reasons. It allows me to learn and network. 

Zagreb - Croatia - Size Studio - Research

I have recently been thinking more about summer and the best ways to make the most of it. This has eventually lead me to looking into some smaller cities churning out awesome design. One that has really caught my eye is Zagreb in Croatia. So I thought I would spend some time looking into design studios and look for someone I could potentially interview, I feel this really fits into helping me in my near future. As when looking for work experience having interviewed somebody in a studio in a location I would love to visit fits in well. One studio I came across which I thought was really great was Size there work is mainly based around branding. 

Dear Designers

I have signed up to this slack team to help with my design practice.

http://www.deardesigners.co/

How do you start a project?

A question I always wonder is what is the best way to start a project! I wonder if this is diffrent for everybody or there is a set way to actually do this. I think i will begin to ask people this question and record the answers.

Presentation

1. To begin I will talk about 

• Being thrown into the deep end, out of my comfort zone, but this helped me to learn and grow. 
• Wouldnt change anything. 

2. People I met 

• How people I met have had a huge impact on me, Because everyone has a diffrent process and diffrent approach to life in genral. 
• Yann being an anarcist/punk has influenced my cop question and research. 
• Fredrik and listening to him talk about his work made me realise how important it is to build a proper concept and really research. aswell as doing projects im intrested in. 
• Audrey, french exchange student who was just super chilled learnt from her that its good to play up to your strength e.g im not a illsutrator so find someone to illustrate rather than doing myself. 
• Also many others who just taught me great ways to look at life. 

3. Nature, relaxing 

• I learnt it is really important to have breaks away. time to reflect this is now a very important part of my process. It may not always be hiking may just be going for as cycle or chatting with friends. 

4. Overall sum up 

• Overall I think i learn that it is great to share ideas, experiences, work etc etc. 
• Its important to get out your comfort zone 
• Its important to meet new people 
• Its important to experience a diffrent culture and be open to new views and ideologies It very easy to see the world through the sound prism that is england. making me ignorant to the out side world. There is lots we could learn from scandivan countrys but there is also lots they could still learn. 
• a con was the lack of community in the studio this has made me appricate it much more back in leeds. 

5. Exhibition and talks 

• We did lots of exhibitions, museums and talks all contributing to a change in my thinking. 
• However this was probably one of the more important ones. 
• It was alot of fun, met alot of people through friends who were doing placements. 

6. Verification im in the right area. 

• Eike Konig done a very cool talk, really cool dude, basically listening to him and doing this event i just knew that I am defiantly in the right profession. 
• It also verified for me that i defiantly want to work in a studio over free lance. 
• Bakken Baeck Are a big firm which work on everything from product design, prototyping and branding to development and advanced machine learning.

7. SOD 

• A collective me and elliot joined run by our tutor yann and sunniva. 
• They create exhibitions which focus on social issues. 
• It made me much more aware of designing for a purpose and important issues

8. Meetings, working together, orgsanisation

• attending monthly meeting about what is to happen
• I felt very out my depth here however I really enjoyed it, the whole thing made you feel part of something much bigger than just your personal ambitions. 
• It would really cool to be in this kind of enviroment and is defiantly something i want to be apart of in the future. Again made me respect the uni studio much more. 
• There is something great about being able to hear what others are up to, there current ideas and ambiouns i find it extremely motivating and influential. 
• Slack

9. Exhibitions and future prospects. 

• Last exhibition was on loneliness
• Next will be on stigmas 
• This will be in oslo, new york, and a workshop in korean. 

10. Collabing with elliots possible. 

• Me and ellioot are in touch with them all and now plan to hoefully collab on a project to enter into. 

11. project 2 

• Comeplete and utter diaster, Given to much freedom and time with not enough mentoring. lead to me changing my topic multiple times and not getting anything substantial done. 
• From this however I learnt alot, about the importance of planning, understanding the problem and what im aiming to resolves. That it is NOt a good idea to keep changing. 
• Left it all till last min didnt even have time to phot graph final pieces. 
• learnt DO NOT fall back on a publication if i dont have a solid idea. I book on all my research however it spanned across a few subjects and didnt really answer any questions. 
• I like to plan my weeks out now. 

12. Collab work 

• working in a collab i have learnt alot about team work and come to understand the benefits of it hugely. 
• It is nice to have shared responsiblity. 
• I really enjoyed this and its something I will strive to do much much more of in the future. 
• 
  

13. Professional interaction. 

• I have not yet found a solid interviewee that i feel represents my ambiouns however I have been attempting to interact with proffesionals
• For my 505 sb1 I emailed the curator of the exhibition i am celebrating and explained what i was doing. He then sent me memorablia from the exhibition 2014. Two full papers on the exhibtion they had created to give out. Great primary research and hopefully he will attend the exhibition now. 

14. Josh milgate 

• This is a freelancer who I met out once and have been intouch with since first year. I ask him for feedback on work and have asked him for an interview he agreed but over email. However as I wish to eventually work in a design studio I feel It is worth me finding another. 

15. Mike Rigby 

• Mike Rigby is a graphic designer who I aspire to be. After listening to him be interviewed by debbie millman, His carreer sounds super exciting working in lots of diffrent countrys but mainly his ethics and morals are sound. I will send him an email asking for an interview. 

16. Aims / Social media 

• Something I dont do enough of but over summer will make a big effort to do more of. 

Reading list

First
http://www.itsnicethat.com/features/experimental-jetset-interview-280616

https://www.koganpage.com/product/too-fast-to-think-9780749478865#



https://www.ignant.com/2016/07/27/in-conversation-with-eike-konig/ - Read interveiw with eike konig to get up to date with what hes doing.

http://calnewport.com/about/ Read about cal newport and some recent articles aswell as rereading study articles.

http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/debate-is-ballet-an-art-form-or-a-sport


- Read over summer - https://www.amazon.co.uk/graphic-design-things-explain-better/dp/0500518262


ten years of graphic design chaos - big yellow book in library - looks really great for adverts

Interim Crit for Ballet responsive

We pitched out idea to our crit today and the general responses seemed to be to go back to the beginning and identify our problem. I appreciate


 http://www.roh.org.uk/news/royal-opera-house-and-va-announce-opera-passion-power-and-politics-exhibition

Looking at cultural aspects that are portrayed in diffirent ballet performances. eg Experience culture, Politics, History, etc

Presentation

Today I created a plan for my presentation. I felt like I had at least one subject to speak of from each slide of simons presentation, This helped me get a rough idea of the structure my presentation witll have.

To begin I will talk about

• Oslo.
• Where my work was and where it is now. Aesthetic to soul  
• Why I don't know what I want to do and why that is okay. 
• 
  

Design Matters with Mike Rigby

This was a good talk because it spoke about design agencys in both australia and newyork which I had not heard of. He speclised in branding and said something which really made me feel motivated to explore branding more! Branding has always been something I really enjoyed doing however I have had a lack of branding projects so i will make a contious effort to create more. Mike says that by designing with the right ethos he can help make huge social change as a brand is more than just a logo now. He also spoke about an open converation in his Alzheimers australia rebrand this is very relavant for my current project on ballet where we are aiming to create an open conversation between youths to promote more interaction. It gets people talking about issues. The way mike spoke about his work was very inspiring.

HORT & Rapha Talk / Bakken & Bæck

When in Oslo I visited Bakken & Bæck, they are a large design studio over a range of countries. Within there Oslo studio they had an open hour event with Eike Konig of Hort and Luke Scheybeler of Rapha, both do a talk. I had heard of both befor very slightly but after the talks I realised how little I knew of the two. Both extremly intresting but Eikie Konig for me was the highlight. He was very outgoing and done an awesome talk which got me very excited about being a graphic designer. 

He spoke about his placement within the vignelli where he had unlimited control of the space for the next few months. Hort have also done alot of work for nike so much so that they have tumblr page with the work that hasn't been used. His 20 years in industry allowed for some real good insights and knowledge. 

Nest Lauch - Colours may vary

Visiting the nest launch to help support Erin and other students whose work was published within the publication. This was a good little evening and allowed for me to speak with students who I had never met before. Speaking to Erin also gave me a little insight into how these events are set up and the amount of effort that went into the publication. She also asked for thoughts on how the next publication should be set up which I thought was very good practice. 

Pentagram Talk / Berlin