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p. 5
thought the problem with making sensible decisions is that so is everyone else why do we strive for excellence when mediocrity is required have you noticed how the cleverest people at school are not those who make it in life if you can t solve a problem it s because you re playing by the rules you don t have to be creative to be creative you don t have to be able to write to be able to write don t seek praise seek criticism sometimes it s good to be fired there is no right point of view it s right to be wrong paularden 1941-2008 photo jean jullien art 5 sons[close]
p. 9
design houses artists galore what s what fashion proof just a thought illustrate it pictures in print gallery profile bubbles just a boy yokoland&war 13-18 etc&delta&garvey 20-29 trainerspotter 34-37 art space 40-45 making it and drawing it 46-53 spacejunkies 70-73 seven days with susie 74-75 foul mouthed fifteen 76-78 a peek at the chic and not so chic 30-32 mental shots an icon dead possessions 54-69 cover eric timothy carlson art 9 sons[close]
p. 13
yokoland hey say it s best when things just happen it s often the case that well thought out ideas careful planning and conservative thinking will get you no-where like the odd rash decision or accidental one will the very fact that norwegian outfit yokoland describe their origin as occurring sometime between 2000 and 2005 indicates just how laid back and organic the process was for them started by espen friberg and aslak gurholt rønsen sometime between leaving high school and their graduation from the national academy of the arts yokoland simply became a space to experiment with all the new things they were learning and allowed them to jump into creative projects as they saw fit the pair are adamant that it was never supposed to become the highly successful and fully functional graphic design t and illustration studio that it is today yet that is what it is whereas most studios take years to make a name for themselves and compile enough work to perhaps publish a book yokoland were still pinning their graduating papers to the walls of their office when renowned publishers die gestalten verlag came a looking now four years on from that first book `hidden track they have five books under their belt not to mention worldwide exhibitions a celebrated achievement for any design house never mind one in its infancy their hands on approach and juvenile use of props have given the design world a refreshing new look as well as winning them countless awards and clients we caught up with aslak gurholt rønsen one half of the founding members of yokoland to talk team changes cottages and the cost of living art 13 sons[close]
p. 14
so aslak it s been exactly a year since you were exhibiting your work here in the uk for your `under the bushes under the stars exhibition how did that go and what have you been up to since then the exhibition became a strange mix between our different projects our projects are sometimes a pure designproject other times a pure art-project but most of the time it s a mix of the two this can often be a challenge when it comes to exhibiting since the work can so often be misread a year after we did the exhibition i m still not quite sure if i liked it or not since the exhibition in sunderland quite a lot of things have changed around here one of our group members espen friberg has left us while another one martin lundell has joined we have also had an exhibition of drawings and collages here in oslo and published a small book of all the work when it comes to our work that might have changed a little as well with more varied projects you guys are based in oslo which has an incredibly high cost of living how do you afford to work out of an oslo based studio yes it s quite a challenge working from oslo especially when it comes to doing jobs abroad in the last two years about fifty percent of our work has been for abroad clients it s quite exciting working with people from the other side of the planet but rarely profitable the norwegian kroner isn t great so working from here is quite a challenge you work with so many mediums in producing lots of types of design do you have a favourite you get into with more passion then the others you seem to have a love of props yes at a point set design seemed really interesting the thing is though that in the last couple of years everybody have started to do it and with varied luck there are too many sad examples where it s been done on the wrong premises that it has not worked in the context it should it s not like there s one thing i do with more passion than other things what i find interesting is the process of working connections you discover coincidences that happen along the way the challenge of change and the rush you feel when getting a final piece back from the printer you ve created some t-shirts along the way would you like to do some real fashion design we have never worked with an established brand to create a line of clothing it would be a great challenge[close]
p. 15
though but no one has ever asked us at the moment i m wearing a pair of black h&m jeans i got from my girlfriend for my birthday a red t-shirt for by;alarm since it s the first day of this years by;alarm-event a white long sleeved shirt from a norwegian brand called dovre mostly worn by old people and an old grey well-used hoody inherited from my dad i m not sure it s what most people would call good style what inspires your work i m not sure really of course our projects are connected with the place and culture where we re living so maybe that s why there are so many mountains trees and animals in our work you have said before you re problem makers not problem solvers do you think you have had to change that philosophy to gain work not really but i never meant it as literally as it might sound for instance the images we did for the new york times [pictured left perfectly show an example of problem solving but the fact is that i don t feel like a problem solver it actually sounds like someone you call when you have a problem with your computer or need to have the pipes in your apartment fixed i so often hear designers talking about problem solving that it has become a cliché to me this is just one aspect of a designers job and to call yourself a problem solver sounds more restricting than necessary another important side of design is to challenge and your clients work together with them get into the content of what they re doing and maybe even changing their view on things in that way we often feel like problem makers what is next for yokoland is there another book on the horizon or another exhibition left stats for new york times above gathered goods stolen pictures and collages make interesting exhibits we ll definitely make a new book soon we just finished a small book that we published ourselves but we re hoping to make a new bigger one that could be published by die gestalten velag i don t have any clear idea for it yet so i guess it will just have to be more of the same old same old thankyou for talking to art&sons what would you say to graduating design students who like yourselves want to set up their own studio is it a realistic goal based solely on talent or have you been lucky in your breaks to get a studio going is most of all a lot of hard work of course we ve had some lucky breaks along the way but i don t think we ve been particularly lucky in many ways it s a lot harder to get a proper studio going in a place like norway with no tradition for design what so ever it would have been a lot easier to get a studio going in let s say london paris amsterdam or new york i guess what i m trying to say is that if you want to start a studio not only based on commercial aspects of design you better want it hard and if you on top of this decide to start it up in a place like this you ll have to want it even harder talent is usually not something you have but something you gain art 15 sons[close]
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