In a perfect world, working with creative people would probably mean that you soon will get out of your skin. Creatives tend to go their own way no matter what it takes. But since we live in a none-perfect world, being at Åkestam.Holst is like a blessing from above. Let me just start by telling you that the ad agency is one of the most Swedish ad agencies you can ever imagine. Flat and creative, full with talented people, Swedish people and one tall Englishman. And, yes we get breakfast and all that, but the thing is you never feel alone. You get help from everywhere and everyone. See this is what I mean; creatives with compassion and empathy.

Working with Paul Collins has given me such a great opportunity to develope my skills in Interactive Art Direction. He is on alert all the time. On every single detail of the artwork. So far I have been working on three different clients ranging from RFSU, Viking Line and Hemtex and a photo shooting for SBAB (the new ad campaign “Bra ränta och flyttpizza till alla”, was recently launched). Some of the work I have been doing are already out there, and a web campaign will soon be launched for another client. 

Four weeks ago I attended Guldägget–the Annual Ad Award Show at Konserthuset in Stockholm. Was glad to meet up with two classmates, Nadia and Jocke that night. Had a good time. Åkestam.Holst received two Silver eggs, 6 diplomas but no Golden eggs. Anyways, that was for last years’ work. This year it will be different, and that’s a promise.

Recently, I was asked by Editor in Chief at CAP&Design, Per Torberger, to interview Henrik Nygren, the well renowned Swedish designer. On April, 17th I had the honor to meet up with the guy and did interview him. The 50 years old father of two daughters received recently the Platina Egg for a long lasting work in the field of graphic design. It was one of these moments of sharing and listening to a great man with magnificent depth and experience. The article will be published on capdesign.idg.se soon and in the paper version of CAP&Design sometimes before summer. Check it out soon on capdesign.se!

Yesterday we had a grill party at the office–on the long balcony. Lots of beer, wine, chicks and nice weather. What more could you ask for?!

Cheers,

Namroud

Im doing my internship at Sid Lee,
its like the best place to be.
The office is très très cool,
it has concrete walls just like our old school.

My supervisor is Dave,
he is teaching me how to behave.
Everyday he gives me more work,
soon Im gonna start thinking he’s a jerk (nooo…)

They are actually really nice and treating me well,
I dont think anyone at Sid Lee will go to hell.
Everyday we get delicious food,
even if we are not in the mood.

My two swedish friends are very sweet,
they get all their furniture from the street.
They are called Karl and Andy,
when we went to IKEA they didnt by any candy (!).

Me and my swedish gang goes to french class as well,
the teacher calls me Madmoiselle.
I think the french language is très beau,
it reminds me of inspector Clousseau.

When I arrived almost three weeks ago
there was a storm here with a lot of snow,
but now we have the nicest weather!
so hot I almost dont need kläder.

Like Martin at the NY metro I never recieve,
information about when the next train will leave.
and it might come as a bit of a chock,
but down at the platforms you dont see a single clock.

Montreal is veeery laid back compared to home,
I know like ten people who doesnt carry a phone,
Things like that makes me like this charming city,
and you dont have to look like you work at Nitty Gritty.

Maybe I’ll stay here and smoke weed every day,
that would be kinda nice in a way.
Throw my cellphone in the garbage can,
and just eat a lot of peanutbutter and jam.

This beautiful poem has now come to an end,
I have no more of my precious time to spend,
If you dont wanna read it you can sing it like a song,
then I highly recommend the melody from “Sweat (A La La La La Long)”

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kfTuNdku3A)

Sweet greetings from Montreal to y’all!

Greetings from Berlin!

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I’m feeling good and everything is going great.

I’ve been at Fjord for 2 weeks and time flies, it feels like only yesterday I stepped into the office.

During my 2 weeks I have already learned a lot from my mentor, who is taking good care of me and showing an interest in what I do. And the learning process continues. My days are filled with both learning as well as helping out with ongoing projects – ‘coming soon to a mobile phone near you’. I feel that I am being well taken care of!

I’m also happy about getting to speak different languages at the office. It nice to be able to speak both Swedish and Finnish on a daily bases, in addition to English, and occasionally trying to mumble some words in Deutsch. My German skills are getting better; I listen somewhat fluently if people have the patience to talk slowly. In work situations I see it best to stick to what I know but in my free time I try to use German.

Next week I will be introduced to another project that is going on and get another view of the working process. In my application to Fjord I asked to participate in different projects and get a view of different job positions and my wish has been granted. Apparently even the undeceive can get what they want.

Take care! =)

Katja

After having worked with and having studied design, media and avertising for a couple of years I’ve come to realise that one single word often can paint a picture so more vivid than a long text. So, to descibe my internship at Le Bureau, I’m gonna go ahead and use a superlative that hasn’t been used since 1935 at a jazz concert in the south of Chicago and that word is “swell”. Another word to describe my internship at Le Bureau is a word that I’m pretty sure hasn’t been used at all since the movie “Dude, where is my car?”, that word is “awesome”.

I’m going to give you a third word to describe this internship as good as possible so you really get an idea of what it is like to intern at Le Bureau, this third superlative hasn’t been used at all since a Man Ray exhibition in the 1930’s in Paris where someone used the word to praise a beautiful photography. The word is “super”.

I’m gonna throw in a fourth word to describe my internship, and that word is two words that are gramatically incorrect and also in two different languages which in theory can’t be done, but I think that those two words will conclude this text good, because Le Bureau is that kind of bureau that needs special word combinations to describe them. These words are “sehr great”.

And to top it off, I’ll even throw in a fifth word for you. This word hasn’t been used since 1984 when I was two years old and I ate really good ice cream, this word is “wow”.

In other words; I’m having a really good time and I’m doing alot of great stuff but I can’t tell you about it because it’s super secret of course. I’m not drinking coffee like all you other interns, but then again I drank coffee like four times so far in my life and it tasted like a word that hasn’t been used since right after I saw the movie “Saw III”, that word is “shit”.

Yours truly,

Christoffer

My internship so far:

Stepped out of the office last sunday and saw this car flying up the street in a real movie-like car chase.

Changed from a really good office to a space called “the cave”.

Worked with both Adobe and HP.

Worked 62,5 hours over 7 days last week.

My brother’s friend was almost in a fight with a security guard at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Drank a beer called Hop Stoopid.

Met two swedes at GSP.

Saw the house from the vignette of Full House.

Got frighten, by a homeless. He approached me with the line “Do I look scary?!”

Got my name, Crille Lampa, pronounced wrong 56 times.

Visited the “recent earthquakes of San Francisco” homepage every hour.

Seen Henrik really pissed-off.

Presented a creative director as the janitor to Henriks girlfriend over skype.

Seen the city from the 52nd floor of Bank of America.

Got a White Gold t-shirt from GSP.

Eaten so many pizzas that I can’t eat ‘em any longer.

Rented a movie at iTunes.

Not had a weekend without work yet.

Seen a two and a half liter bottle of Listerine.

Started to say “dude, thats hillarious!”, “amazing!” and “cool, man”.

My paycheck seemes to be gone.

Am I in a website? Is this for real? Is this digital or am I dreaming? So many questions popped into my head as i entered through the doors of Biscuit building. I was pretty nervous, I could feel it in my body as my legs was feeling a bit numbed and my belly was acting like jelly. And to actually see the stairs that runs up to Mother in front of me made me feel a bit confused inside… a surreal feeling and a vague tint of paranoia started to spread… can they see me?.. is this for real? Am I dreaming? I could see a huge red shining reception with people working in it. They all looked really busy and they did not seem to notice me. I started to think that they actually where fake, robots or some kind of  3D-projection. A illusion so that people would think that things where normal in this website-house-building-thingy. After a while they actually started talking to me with a dialect similar to C-3PO, asking me who I was and who I wanted to see… Yes! They could actually talk! I know its unbelievable that this website that I walked into actually could communicate with me, so I tried to play it cool. Wondering if they really could hear me or if they where reading my mind, I decided that it was safest to start talking. But I was a bit uncertain if I should give them the information they needed or if I should make a run for it. I felt a bit scared. Where they the enemy?  where they from the future? Would they start shooting lazers through their eyes if I did something wrong? I shortly reflected that i should try not to be to obvious and avoid all eye contact in the future. I started acting like I knew that they could talk all along, I mumbled something about POKE and that I was from Hyper Island.  They told me to grab a fruit and go to floor 4… It seemed as if my plan was working. I slowly looked to the left of me where the bowl of fruits where standing. Not sure if they where poisoned or if they where made out of plastic, I hesitated for a while. But then they looked so good and tasty, I could not refuse. I quickly stuck my hand down the bowl and grabbed the first thing i could get hold of…

To be continued….

/Stina <3

Hola!

So far, Barcelona has been very good to me. Almost everyone who’s been to Barcelona are talking about pickpockets but I guess my looks are a bit to urbane to be misstaken for a dumb tourists as I walk the streets with my savoir faire, a bow-tie and this mornings le monde under my right arm - or maybe Im just lucky. Anyway, this city is truly fantastic. A great combination of people, places and warm weather comes together and makes this city very unique. “- it’s almost like couture” as somebody from konstfack in the line at Vi on Telefonplan could have put it. 

The first two days I felt like an hispanic version of Stings song englishman in new york, and on the third day when I came to check in on a new hostel they played that same song loud in the reception, was it fate??? It may sound a bit Nick Hornby to drop parables to old songs but don’t you worry about me - it’s absolutly not pretentious or cool to refer to a 80’s reggae track by Sting.

I should mention my internship at the Great Work office because they are really great. So far I’ve been doing a lot of hand drawn illustrations and the last couple of days a lot of video but everyday there’s something new going on so Im very happy with it. The people there are taking good care of me and since Im not the only one called jens here, my official name at the office is Barry White. 

I’ve been here two weeks and I’ve already found a lot of places that Im going to miss when Im back in the cold, like the brunch restaurant were you can get a perfect clubsandwich and a coffee while listening to a somewhat bad free jazz band for only a handful of money. Or the beach…

Last saturday I joined up with Simon and we took a taxi up the mountains to go to a club wich had the most incredible view over this city, I had a great time even though there were one or two many girls in bootcut jeans from New Jersey called Megan and the music was quite shitty. Needless to say - my personal goal this week is to find my very own music-reservoir - a place were nobody’s ever heard of the words reggaeton or Kleerup. Preferably they will play old 80’s house anthems like Killer with Adamski and Seal. To start of off my search, I think Im going to explore a metro station called Alfons X, it’s named after an old Spanish king or something but for us kids of the MTV generation - this sounds like the illest rapper in da hood. I’ve never been to this place but  this is Barcelona so Im sure it will be fantastic…

Abrazos y besos

/Barry

My third week at Farfar, either it is me getting old or me just having a great time, because time is flying away.
I guess I couldn’t have picked a better place to do my internship at. It has actually nothing to do with the fact that the office is just 2 minutes away from my flat. I swear and cross my heart.
During my former working years I have learned to appreciate, more than anything, a good working atmosphere and colleagues. And when it comes to being creative, maybe that is the biggest secret of them all… and also maybe one of Farfar’s secret to success.
Since day one I have had my projects to work on and wherever I turn there are super talented people to back me up or to push me in the right direction.
The entire office is in a production phase and it feels quite nice to just produce stuff… and start to feel the hunger to use “post it:s” again.
We all know what Farfar is able to deliver and produce and I am proud to actually have my “ass” on one of their chairs and I do hope that my “skånska” touch will contribute to more future success and that I am able to stretch and inspire.

My first love at the office was indeed the biiiig PINK flamingo next to the entrance, except from the goldenegg and grandpa, that is one item I will steal.

Love,

Jessica

Dear classmates, random folks and maybe DM!

I’m at work right now (180) sitting in my conformable chair, in the office that lies right next to a canal in the middle of Amsterdam. I have a smile on my face because the sun is shining and I have lot’s of fun things to today.

I’m working on Adidas and some other stuff. Everybody is nice, except for one guy who thought he was funny by asking me to bring him coffee in front of lots of people.. It was NOT funny at all, I mean, he didn’t even laugh him self. Pff!

Well, anyway.. to those who’s looking for internship (DM) I can dearly recommend 180! (but stay away from that coffee guy!) It’s a very creative or should I say “KERATIV” environment here, with 90 degree stairs and open arias.. And I can also recommend Amsterdam the city! It’s a bit like “Gamla Stan” but with a thin layer of fog floating around all over, and it makes you laugh from time to time. (Stay away from that fog as well).

And to those who heard about *Jonk, well I found him (or her), sadly enough it was just a “korvmoj”… Ok, that’s it for me, keep strong out there and I’ll see ya’ll soon!

HUGS/ Fanny

*Some swedish people thought Jonk was a Dutch name (was not).