Fredrik Öst, founder and creative director at Stockholm-based studio Snask, tells us more about today's mixed-media image of the day
Computer Arts: Tell us about the project ... Fredrik -st: The project was to brand and create a visual identity for the Handicrafts famous exhibition at the very credible public gallery Liljevalchs. We needed to attract both members of handicraft associations and people who are not normally in contact with handicraft. We also needed to appeal to old people as well as young. The idea was to make everything by hand and make it really visible that it was made by hand.
CA: How did you put the piece together? F-: We always solve problems. So the first step is to identify what problem there is. In this case, the wide yet specific audience was a bit of a problem since handicraft has been slowly fading away recently, but at the same time people do more and more by hand. Which basically makes it handicraft. We do a lot of our projects by hand and we have a very flat hierarchy since people work best that way. The computer is just the final touch, if needed.
The project took a long time, perhaps a week or two but the most time-consuming part is to identify problems, come up with solutions and perfect the visual piece. The challenge was to make people who don't know handicraft see and like it. At the same time, it had to be appealing for handicraft experts. So we used skilled craftsmanship to make some parts of the identity to make the experts happy. They saw stuff that no normal person would be able to.
CA: Tell us about the history of Snask ... F-: We love music, film and culture in general, and have been DJs, rockstars, writers, and we all have a love of design. Designers without interest in culture or being a part of his orher time is no real designer. Perhaps a non-modern artist but not a designer. Our style ... nice looking? It's what we want it to be but always with an incredibly high ambition. We can make colourful design as well as black and white and minimalistic. It's about what suits each project best.
Culture inspires us. It inspires everyone and inspiration creates innovation. Innovation creates economic growth. With that said we love to watch really deep films as well as super action packed pieces of shit. We love to hear indie bands play their tunes as well as seeing Beyonce take over the Super Bowl. As for our ideas: we steal them like every other great artist has done. When we don't steal we put a gun to our heads with one bullet in it and play russian roulette until we settle for the best idea. Normally no one gets harmed.
Subscribe to Computer Arts for your monthly fix of the world's best inspirational design work. Available on iPad, in print or on other digital devices.
Get the Creative Bloq Newsletter
Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
