advice to graduates.

I can't believe it's been a year already. A whole year has passed since graduating from uni. A year since I lived in Carlisle, had drunken midsummer and hippie parties in our awesome garden, a year since I started my so called professional career as graphic designer. Well, there's been some ups and downs since then. A lot of things has happened and I've learned some stuff. For all of you new graduates out there, here are my advice to you:

1. Never work with anyone that you don't feel comfortable with. It will damage you in the end, no matter what job it is. In this business so much is actually relying on personal chemistry, so if you work with great people things will work out, and if the chemistry's not there it can get sour. So know what your limits are, and if they are trespassed just quit. You don't wanna end up being stalked or worse...

2. Live somewhere were you actually wanna live, don't just live somewhere because it's convenient. I know this one can be a little tricky, because you wanna live where there are jobs. But feeling good at home is actually the key to everything. If you don't have that it doesn't matter how great your job is. The atmosphere of a city or a particular place can be pretty hard to ignore. It can be your biggest inspiration or the opposite.

3. Say yes to everything. If people offer you even the smallest project, unpaid or paid - take it. Replace all your uni projects in your portfolio with as many real life projects as you can and as fast as you can. You will come off as much more professional than just a recent graduate, someone who's actually interested in working and not just showing off their skills. People will wonder "hey, why do this person have such awesome portfolio pieces but no job?".

4. Be humble. Don't pretend you know everything because you just graduated from uni. Because you don't. Listen to what people have to say and if it makes sense, learn from them. And ask questions often. Clear communication is SO important.

5. Life after uni sucks and rocks. You will be poor, have periods of massive self-doubt and it can be scary as hell. But there is also freedom to do whatever you want. No more essays, no more crap tutors telling you what to do. Time after uni is great because it's real life and not just a rehearsal for what's coming. The projects that you'll get will be important for real. Nobody will grade them, but you will know yourself if they are good or not. And you'll get a better understanding of what you want in life and your career as well.

I hope this will help some of you. It can be a relief to know what's coming and also know that it happens to everyone. Not in the same way of course, but the hard vs good parts will always be there. I think one of the biggest problems I've had was just to accept that, and once I got over it everything's so much easier. I am now a designer because I choose to be and loving it.

witchi tai to.

I am completely in love with this song. It's so positive I wish I could bottle it up and drink it. There's a better version of it by Harpers Bizarre from the soundtrack of surf movie Thicker Than Water, which I couldn't find anywhere, so enjoy the original version by Everything Is Everything.

t-shirt party.

Check this out; T-World (where I'm currently doing work experience) is organising this awesome t-shirt party in South Melbourne next week. It's gonna be rad!

some prints.

Just wanted to show you some prints I worked on at Beyond The Pixels, which now are hanging on my wall.

elizabeth gilbert on nurturing creativity.

I fucked up two machines of laundry today. One of my favourite cardigans turned purple and my comfy home-sweater shrunk to half its size. My list of things to do haunted me for the rest of the day for not being ticked off once, while I went for walks, coffee, watching The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and then getting some more coffee. It was one of those days when I just totally sucked. But then I saw this video and I don't feel so bad anymore. Elizabeth Gilbert's view on creativeness is just so cheerful. This new insight is amazing. How could I not have thought of that myself? I mean, people are flawed, we mess up laundry and have shitty days. It's a terrible thing to believe that we can create amazing things all the time. So I shouldn't kick myself for not getting a lot of stuff done, I should kick my little genius.

beyond the pixels.

10 weeks went really fast. But it was enough to make me learn a bunch of sweet computer tricks, get seriously organised, draw insanely detailed drawings, know how to ask for the right thing in terms of print quotes, appreciate good architecture and have the best time (I think ever) with pipe cleaners - just to mention a few things. My internship with Beyond The Pixels was such a great experience and I'm so happy they gave me the opportunity to work with them. Thank you Che, Kareen, Mike and Adele for everything! You are really cool people with great taste in music. Oh, and for all of you who don't know who they are, just check out this article about them. (And yes, that is me in the corner, pretending to be working hard on Mike's computer).

the volcano with the impossible name.

Volcano obsession, here we go again! Iceland must be the hippest country of the year if you're a graphic designer and happen to like Sigúr Ros.

now i feel old.

I stumbled across this article the other day, which impressed me a lot, but also made me feel super old. This painting was made by a 3-year old Melbourne girl named Aelita Andre and she has sold paintings worldwide for up to $28,000! This girl will have a killer cv by the time she's 20, I'm gutted nobody sold my Monet replicas from kindergarten for thousands of dollars...

time to pretend.

It's been a while since I last updated the blog, a huge gap in my usual posting habit. Probably because I said I was gonna stay productive, which I have, only that's been at work and not so much at home, and when I promise myself stupid stuff like that I usually don't do anything. It's been chilling time in front of this show every night, which I'm becomming addicted to. I can sometimes find myself thinking about the art of food in the strangest of places and I reckon Marion or Adam will be the winner in the end. Lately I've also rediscovered this song by MGMT, which is just effing genius. I had an intense period of listening to this song sometime around April 2008, but not until now could I relate to the message in the lyrics. Not that I'm a drog addicted rock star, but being in the creative industry is sometimes a little bit like "being faited to pretend". Sometimes you're dead tired and "miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone" but you still have to pump out the best you have because that's what you do for a living. Jónsi from Sigúr Ros also made his own version of it, which I like a lot.

swedish party.

This weekend was all about my home country, with meatballs, lingonberry jam, brown sause, Norrlands Guld and heaps of Swedish music. A lot of people knew about the music, but just didn't know it was Swedish, which made me feel pretty proud. I was also very surprised to find that this song became sort of a croud favourite. It's such a cheesy old song, that's hilarious...

snow a lifetime ago.

A package from home was dropped in our mailbox today, which contained some of my developed, crappy Diana photos. It seems like a lifetime has passed since I took those photos and I really hope it doesn't look like that back home still...

australian mother's day.

A week of crazy creativeness is over and my final 5 pieces are submitted for the Semi Permanent Book. I don't expect my life to go down to less creative though, I'm sort of in a productive flow. To explain how this works a little further I'm gonna give you a retell of how today, and many other days in my life are like...

I wake when the sky is grey and my head's cold. I hide underneath my layers of blankets. This is the first time I've done that here, because I normally don't mind a cold brain. My little blanket-cave is lit by the glowing green numbers on my cell phone in my hand, which I turn off as soon as the alarm beeps every 9 minutes. I can't believe I set the alarm for a Sunday, am I insane? In my mind I draw a quick sketch of the dream I just had; Hans Blix was holding a thin plastic bag and a giant brick of stone was hoovering above him in 3D. Then someone in the dream took a deep breath and it all crumbled like paper. That was all. My oxygen runs out and I take a shower. Time passes and my house mates wake up too. We find a piece of chicken in the bathroom sink. Not cool, man. Not cool. Then they see my artsy stuff and tell me I'm a cool person and we're not allowed to have Blu-Tack on the walls. They give me saxophone oil to clean my cupboard doors. It makes me miss playing trumpet. I haven't played since I was 13, but my hands can still remember how to curve around those metal shapes, how my upper lip feels prickly and pink when I've played intense, and how half-embarrissing but satisfying it is to empty the spit on the floor. The smell of a trumpet is the smell of musical excitement, a long ride on my bike in the rain and fear of my teacher. My mind then goes back to present time and my doors are shiny. My hands are dry, so is my throat and mouth. I hang out in the kitchen for two seconds. Then I hang my laundry and rant about Juno; "The baby thing is totally a side-plot and there's no way in the world that a cool girl would fall for such a lame-ass like Michael Cera. It's so unrealistic, come on!" I then decide to go for a walk. I feel incredibly ugly today, my hair and face is a mess, but I'm so over it. I don't need to be pretty on Mother's Day. The day is pretty though. It's perfect. The colours says it's autumn but the temperature says Swedish summer. For some reason this is what I imagined as a child it would be like to live in the United States (which was always my dream). I think it came from watching E.T and wanting Halloween to become a big thing in Sweden. I didn't bring a camera on my walk and I feel like half a person, possibly a bit lighter and a little bit more invisible, which is nice. I've forgot how it's like to just walk and not think, without doing anything creative. I can't do it anymore. The pictures and stories line up before me constantly and they never stop. Sometimes they drain all my energy, but I figure it's much better this way than to live a life without it. I can't imagine a life without it, how boring would that be! Since my camera is elsewhere, I will tell you what to see; Giant, brown maple leaves next to my shadow that looks like a small person's. Two guys in a distance throwing a baseball between the curtains of a weeping willow. People having coffee. A red sports car flashing by. I take those notes in my head as I walk on, imagining I will read them when I'm dead and have an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia, like "oh, my God, I miss when I was alive and could do awesome things". I have theories about this that I'm not gonna go into today... Today I'm just using the skills I have and think about my mum because it's Australian Mother's Day. I guess this is a way of saying thanks for giving me life and awesome genes. I love you, mum.

young man from the jungle.

colour fever.

sufjan is god.

I've gone a little crazy with the posting of new artwork recently, as you can see. But for a good reason, I'm trying to make it into the Semi Permanent book this year and refuse to let my own skills, knowledge, or sleep and whatever, come in between that goal. That means I'm spitting out whatever creative thought I have onto paper and my Mac and not doing much else. And it would be pretty sweet if you guys out there could help me pick out the pieces you think should make it into the final 5 that I'll submit on Monday. Just browse through the artwork by clicking on the category called "Creative Everyday" (you can find it at the bottom of this entry) and leave comments. Thank you!
Meanwhile, let me tell you a little about the most awesome dude in music of all times. He's been helping me through my creative bullshit today and throughout the whole week and for many years before that. He is Sufjan Stevens and he is God. Seriously. I'm gonna marry this guy and have him play for me live everyday. Just imagine how crazy creative that would be...

young man, thin hair.

wild children.

the gift.

our non-existant dog, part II.

childface part II.

romance was born.

Wow! Adele at work told us about this fashion show that she'd gone to in Sydney the other day. I'm sitting here now feeling really gutted that I didn't get to see it too. The collection was called Renaissance Dinosaur and was created by design duo Romance Was Born. Seriously, dinosaurs... DINOSAURS! And jungle, Jurassic Park, time travel, they even had a dress that looked like a volcano - how awesome is that! If there was one fashion show on Earth that I would have wanted to see... well, I guess I just missed it.

billie thinks it's crap too.