Sometime last year I was approached by Vasakronan, Swedens largest property brand with a property portfolio valued at SEK 80.3 billion. Being a market leader the felt their digital presence had to reflect that position. Their question: What do we do? As always I teamed up with Caroline Karlström and accepted the challenge to answer that question. In this project I took on the role as both head of strategy and concept as well as actually delivering the top level designs of the new Vasakronan that Britny later implemented and refined.
This is what we did. Parts of the new Vasakronan digital brand presence
The new Vasakronan.se runs WordPress!
Me and Caroline started the project with an analysis phase and analysed their existing presence, the traffic to their site, the content, the design and the site structure. We interviewed representatives from Vasakronan as well as their clients and potential prospects. We also performed an extensive technical analysis [click to continue…]
psst. You haven't missed the new app for kids aged 1-9 years old? It's created by my other company JAJDO.
Check it out in the App store
Yesterday I wrote a blog post about SAAB. It obviously created some sort of attention since I almost had a new unique visitor record. Among the commenters were official SAAB representatives, positive even though I had quite a strong tone in my post. Another commenter, a bit surprising, was David Holecek, Interactive Marketing Manager at Volvo Cars. In his comment he wrote – “Sticking my neck out a bit, it would be interesting if you would do a similar exercise on our volvocars.com site (or rather volvocars.se, as we do not have all the shopping tools on our international site). We may be asking for a potentially harsh treatment 
, but feedback is always important.”
I was planning to do a video on the Volvo site as well, but due to kids at home I’ve not gotten the possibility to record something yet. It’s just to noisy! But, David, I decided to give you some feedback anyway.
I only walked through the XC60 part of the site since I’m more or less looking at buying exactly that kind of car right now. (Probably the new BWM X3, but I do like the XC60)
It’s sort of two-faced but here we go.
- You’ve done your lesson when it comes to usability. Most things [click to continue…]
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you would know by now that I’m a big fan of sharing ideas and thoughts. Internets biggest contribution to a better world is exactly this – getting rid of protectionism and replacing it with sharing knowledge.
Together we can tear down the walls of monopoly built up by multinational companies more interested in giving money back to shareholders than actually building great things for the people. The open source culture is probably the best example of this with code like Android, MySQL, WordPress, Drupal, Linux but also real objects like the 3D printing Makerbot and Frankencamera 2.0 by Stanford to prove that it works. We’re living in exiting times!
Now that’s a sort of long introduction to this short link tip. But I felt I needed to remind you all to share your knowledge before sharing my knowledge about the Yahoo Design Stencils. This initiative by yahoo is yet another example of sharing. Yahoo has this section called All Design Patterns where you can find all their best practice thinking on usability and design for both mobiles and the online world. Then a couple of clicks away you’ll find all these great thoughts in downloadable templates for Photoshop, Omni Graffle, Visio and…yes you name it!
Two days ago I got the news that my application for a TEDx license was approved. My idea is to host an event for around 75 people in Viggbyholm, Täby where I live. The focus of the event will be visualization and how design shape our ideas about the future.
The event will be held in Täby, Sweden on 18th April. 18:00 – 22:00.
Now there’s three things you can do:
- Apply for a ticket – because the seats are limited there will be a draw monday next week.
- Suggest speakers – if you know someone that can speak 5-10 minutes on visualization, let me know.
- Spread the word. Tweet this post or copy the url of the TEDxViggbyholm site and spread it in your network.
I‘ve spent some time this evening browsing my favorite packaging site The Dieline. That’s when I suddenly realized I should blog about packaging today.
When I speak about creativity and innovation and how it must be a part of every interaction (especially packaging) you have with your customers one of the most common replies I get is: “How can I make use of what you say in my business. We don’t have a sexy product”. Wrong question!
Today no one, no matter what kind of product you market, can overlook the fact that your customers lead a stressed life. People want to be entertained. We want drama. We want smiles. We want to feel. Everything is about entertainment and drama! Brand owners – inject emotion into your products or eject yourselves from your position!
The one question you should ask yourselves when it comes to packaging is: “Does my packaging make people smile”
Here are 10 brands that obviously have understood that you can make something out of anything.
1. Rellana Wool – Making Yarn Come Alive
This wonderful wool packaging concept called Wolly Heads was made by Ogilvy Frankfurt- It’s one of my absolute favorites. They’ve turned something very ordinary into something [click to continue…]
Innovation is a strange thing. The best of innovations usually happens when someone takes something established from the world of culture and ads a twist or adapt it to future needs. Weiden & Kennedy’s great Honda COG pastiche on Peter Fischli & David Weiss’s art expression ‘The Way Things Go‘ is the perfect example on this.
So, when I performed my every day ‘link yoga’ this morning and did some soul stretching on Cool Hunting I suddenly found myself in love with a set of icons – Helveticons.
Max Larsson from Örebro, Sweden has created a set of icons, glyphs and symbols based on the Helvetica Bold typeface and the result is stunningly simplistic and…helveticified.
Hmm. Now I just gotta work out where I need those icons.
As I was browsing the ‘best of the week 63 on the Abduzeedo.com blog (abducted by design) I fell in love with this image showcasing how the Virgin logo has been stretched into different business areas.
Isn’t it cool when someone has created a logo so simplistic that it can be put into any context without loosing touch of it’s origin. Richard Branson is truly a mastermind when it comes to PR, marketing and entrepreneurship.
The Matsu’s wine triology, ‘El Pícaro’, ‘El Recio’ and ‘El Viejo’
Today on TheDieline I ran into the company ‘Vintae Luxury Wine Specialists’. Vintae is Spanish based company that specialize in top of the range and luxury wines.
Not only do they have a great wine portfolio. Together with Spanish agency Moruba, they’ve designed some wonderful bottles to stack in your cellar.
The Winery Arts collection revolves around the number 9, considered by many cultures as the supreme number of knowledge
When a company understands the value of differentiation, simplicity and creativity like Vintae, I can’t do anything but run to the wine shop and empty my savings account. This is the shit you wanna put on your table!
