Your the one that I want!

Hope all had a good weekend! Mine was pretty good, I went to a yearly festival at the Royal Academy of Music, where Nonni goes to school - which started with a concert, first an original piece for two accordions and then Mahler's 5th. I unfortunately missed about 70% of Mahler because I was about to get a coughing fit and that's just not what you want at a concert like that where the Queen of Denmark is also present. So I ran out and stayed! Oh well. 

Well I wanted to share this cover I ran across on youtube - i will always have a soft spot for Grease, because I loved it as a kid - and this cover of Your the one that I want is pretty good! enjoy!

TGIF!

thank god it's Friday! 

That's become a pretty well known phrase, and it's no coincidence that it's about Friday and not Tuesday. Friday means it's the end of the working week, and the weekend starts as soon as you get off work! Even now, when I don't have a steady job - Friday still gives me a little tingle, maybe it's just the habit - Fridays feel great too when your a student (although at UB we usually had Fridays off so TGIT - thank god it's Thursday could have been our slogan).

I am however at "work" right now - I was lucky enough to meet up with a fellow Icelander here in Copenhagen, she is the sister of two of my best friends home on the block of ice. She works at a place called the HUB Copenhagen, but the HUB is an international society - a sort of a workspace that accommodates people with small businesses, or projects that all have in common that they are about sustainability, helping others or similar ideas. It is refreshing to be around young people that want to make changes and have visions. I am working here as an intern - and my first job is to lay out a brochure for them to promote the work- and meeting spaces that are out for rent. So I will be in and out of the HUB for a while now - hopefully picking up some interesting jobs from the little companies and groups that work here :) I am excited about meeting other people and getting into some real work! 

Have a good Friday kids!

Pro Bono work!

I have been wondering about my possibilities here in Copenhagen. It is next to impossible to get a job (even the ones that I didn't really want to begin with), and I am working part time at a coffee house/restaurant to be able to afford rent and food. Honestly, I am not too disappointed because this gives me space to really think about what I want to do. 

The reason I got into the field of graphic design to start with, was the fact that I enjoy MAKING. I love to sit down with some pens, or paint or scissors and piles of magazines and whatnot, a pencil and the wonderful invention that is an eraser - and just make something!! Maybe I like it almost too much to want to go away from it to design almost completely on the computer, which is what takes the least amount of time and is most popular at the moment. I do not want a job where I sit in front of a computer all day and lay out elements to a design that has already been made by someone else... I want to have the time to do what I enjoy, and the possibility to use it for something practical.

I'm starting to ramble on (LIKE if you love that song!) but what I'm trying to get at, is that I would like to do pro bono work for groups or individuals with good ideas, and most importantly - good intentions.. So if you know anybody that has a cool assignment that is in some way going to be useful to the environment, other people or animals or pretty much whatever - have them contact me if they need the promotional material made. It goes without saying that I would not do pro bono work for rich people, so keep in mind that I want to do this for the people that can't afford the good design. On the other hand, if you know the rich people that need their design done - don't hesitate to hit me up ;)

I believe in focusing on doing things that make me happy - if it means a part time job doing nothing of what I was educated to do, I really don't mind. A professor of mine said once that if you do things that you enjoy doing - eventually you will start making money by doing exactly what makes you happy. Instead of striving to get to a point where the money is coming in for sure, but you work so hard at your career - that you have no time for the things that make you happy - and maybe you have even forgot what they were.

I´ll end with a pretty useful quote from the man himself.

“Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.”

— Johnny Cash

Panic Station!

I have recently acquired the new Muse album on vinyl, and after first listen (I avoided all cheating by listening on youtube or whatnot before receiving my album in the mail) I fell in love with the song Panic Station.. It is powerful, fun and the beat leaves you confused as to whether you should start dancing or just close your eyes and breathe n'sync to it. If i had been alone, I probably would have tested some michael jackson moves.  

The other day I went to Accord (a sweet sweet store by Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen, with TONS of music) and went straight down to the basement where they have the vinyl market. I ended up getting 10 albums after 2 hours of flipping through.. for only 200DKK! Here are the titles I found, comment if you have a favorite tune from any of these! (one is missing because it's a christmas present..)

Discover, explore and live!

In an old Icelandic rhyme called Hávamál - it is told that you must travel and experience things to become wise. I´m sure the becoming wise part is not necessarily important, but I have always kept that message in mind.

I want to see as many things as possible - not just places that I've heard are worth seeing, but just situations and different people that have lived in other cultures than me. I really value being able to travel and having the time to go somewhere (far away or close), sit down and observe. I like to imagine what people are thinking about, what their lives must be like and if they are truly happy or not. I figure - the more that I see, the more ideas I get about the world and human beings, and I get closer to understanding what is important to us.. as a whole - and as individuals. 

I love to make things, and to wonder about what sort of elements intrigue people and draw them in. Is it just things of beauty, fine craftsmanship, shocking things, bright colors, shapes .. the list is pretty much endless. And that's why I love graphic design - I feel like there are no limits to the research, and the different aspects are never ending.