Reference: ÅKERLUND001
Title: Art of Darkness
Date: 2011
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: 2011 PgDip Character Animation final project at Central Saint Martins that won the first ever NOVA Award in 2011
Media: Animation [4m07s]
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I began trying my hand at animation in my early teens and applied to a course at CSM to fulfil that dream. My final project was a transformative process that meant a lot to me. It became the foundation on which I built my own studio and started my freelance career. The Tiger from my film is still the logo and symbol of my creative practice.

Reference: ÅKERLUND002
Title: Art of Darkness
Date: 2011
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Sketches of the animated character 'Tiger'
Media: Sketches
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I began trying my hand at animation in my early teens and applied to a course at CSM to fulfil that dream. My final project was a transformative process that meant a lot to me. It became the foundation on which I built my own studio and started my freelance career. The Tiger from my film is still the logo and symbol of my creative practice.

Reference: ÅKERLUND003
Title: Art of Darkness [Storyboard]
Date: 2011
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Draft storyboard for Art of Darkness animation
Media: Sketches
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I began trying my hand at animation in my early teens and applied to a course at CSM to fulfil that dream. My final project was a transformative process that meant a lot to me. It became the foundation on which I built my own studio and started my freelance career. The Tiger from my film is still the logo and symbol of my creative practice.

Reference: ÅKERLUND004
Title: Art of Darkness [3D Model]
Date: 2011
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: 3D Model for the Tiger character
Media: Clay model
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I began trying my hand at animation in my early teens and applied to a course at CSM to fulfil that dream. My final project was a transformative process that meant a lot to me. It became the foundation on which I built my own studio and started my freelance career. The Tiger from my film is still the logo and symbol of my creative practice.

Reference: ÅKERLUND026
Title: Communicating the Design of a Rescue Vehicle
Date: 2021
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Commissioned for the 2021 NOVA X Exhibition.
Media: Paper Models
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I work as a designer and firefighter. These two professions have previously been separated, like opposite sides of myself, with no connection to each other. When the pandemic hit the planet, this suddenly changed and my different fields of professional knowledge seemed to align in time and space.

I started to create visual communication related to covid-19 for the fire brigade I work for. I designed a paper folding fire engine toy as part of a “stay at home – protect your loved ones” campaign. The illustrations caught attention and I was asked if I could draw a real fire engine. I was invited to take part in a project to develop and order new rescue vehicles. This process had previously been made using text-based communication. When I got involved, I could bring visualisation techniques and design methods into the development process.

In this commissioned work for the NOVA-X exhibition I show some extracts of the design development process. The large paper model on display shows the layout of a new fire engine that will be taken into service in the autumn of 2021 at Södertörn’s Fire Protection Association, Stockholm, Sweden. Next to the large model of the real fire engine, design development models and the paper folding toys are on display.

The design of the real fire engine is based on the collective practical experience from innumerable rescue operations carried out of by firefighters. The concept was to create a layout based on how the equipment is used in different rescue situations. It is organised to fit the workflow and prioritised in the critical order the tools are handled. The objective for the project was to create new fire engines with best possible layout for successful rescuing and supporting the fire brigade’s overall mission to save lives and protect the public.

Reference: ÅKERLUND010
Title: Paper Fire Engine
Date: 2020
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Paper model of a Swedish fire engine
Media: Paper model
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: These toys were designed as part of a campaign by the regional rescue service to encourage people to stay at home during the festive season in 2020. It was a friendly encouragement to conduct home activities instead of travelling.

The Swedish Government’s decision to encourage people to act according to COVID restrictions, instead of demanding them by law, was a topic of intense domestic debate. This campaign is an example of a local initiative trying to encourage behaviours that would decrease COVID infection rates.

Reference: ÅKERLUND005a
Title: BRIO Network [Railway System]
Date: 2010
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Customisable wooden railway tracks as part of the BRIO Network toy range
Media: Wooden toys
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: My bachelor’s degree project “Modern Wooden Toy” was made in collaboration with the classic Swedish toy brand BRIO. My BA-project was developed into a new product line called “BRIO Network”. This resulted in a ten year long creative collaboration with the company.

Reference: ÅKERLUND031
Title: BRIO Network [Toy Characters]
Date: 2010
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Wooden toy characters to be used with the BRIO Network series
Media: Wooden toys
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: My bachelor’s degree project “Modern Wooden Toy” was made in collaboration with the classic Swedish toy brand BRIO. My BA-project was developed directly after graduation into a new product line called “BRIO Network”. This was the beginning of a ten year long creative collaboration with the company.

Reference: ÅKERLUND006
Title: BRIO Network [Sketch]
Date: 2010
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Development work such as sketches, early prototypes, drawings and other documentation
Media: Sketches
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Design development of the characters from my student BA-project leading towards the product launched by the classic Swedish toy company BRIO.

Reference: ÅKERLUND007
Title: BRIO Network [Sketch]
Date: 2010
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Development work such as sketches, early prototypes, drawings and other documentation.
Media: Sketches
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Description:

Design development of the vehicle from my student BA-project leading towards the product launched by the classic Swedish toy company BRIO.

Reference: ÅKERLUND008
Title: BRIO Network [Model]
Date: 2010
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Development work such as sketches, early prototypes, drawings and other documentation
Media: Clay model
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Prototype of the character from my student BA-project leading towards the product launched by the classic Swedish toy company BRIO.

Reference: ÅKERLUND009
Title: BRIO Network [Character Drawings]
Date: 2010
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Development work such as sketches, early prototypes, drawings and other documentation
Media: Sketches
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Design development of the toy characters from my student BA-project leading towards the product launched by the classic Swedish toy company BRIO.

Reference: ÅKERLUND030
Title: Wallraff
Date: 2021
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: Written Reflection
Media: Text
Credit: wikipedia.org/wallraff

Description: Wallraff is probably not the right word. What I mean is to use my own experience and practice-based knowledge as a research method and starting point for design development. The “Wallraff” journalistic method suggests that you put yourself into the situation you are investigating.

A bit like method acting, when you go into your character by doing the things your character would be doing and use those experiences in your artistic performance. In my case I work as a firefighter, I have professional knowledge myself that I can bring into my design method. It is this gathered experience that I want to be the starting point for a creative design development. The time we are living in seems obsessed with consumer surveys. You cannot walk one step without being asked about your experience of a product, website, service, shop or whatever.

But what does all these customer surveys really say? I think that the information you get from this often is quite superficial. And superficial analysis makes for a superficial development process and outcome. In the most recent design project I was involved in, to develop, specify, and order a new rescue vehicle to the fire brigade, I was interested in this deeper knowledge about fire and rescue operations. To use the collective experience among the professional firefighters as the foundation for creating the best possible tool to achieve successful rescue operations. To save lives and protect the public, the fire brigades mission.

Reference: ÅKERLUND012
Title: Wrapped Reichstag [Project for Der Deutsche Reichstag – West Berlin]
Date: 1977
Author: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff
Details: Technical data and process imagery for the Wrapped Reichstag sculpture
Media: Postcard
Credit: christojeanneclaude.net

Description: This postcard was on my wall for many years. I bought it at one of my favourite museums in my hometown - the Museum of Sketches. A museum completely dedicated to sketches and the process behind artworks, not the finalised result. I saw an exhibition with sketches for Christos’s and Jeanne-Claude ́s “Wrapped Reichstag” and brought this image back home and nailed it to my wall. The sketch is the first step of realisation. An image of what to come. And what a powerful sketch this is.

Technically brilliant with pencil and what looks like dry pastel. The wrapping of the building makes the shapes even more interesting, revealing the architecture and form by concealing it. The ropes that tighten the fluidity of the textiles that cover the building. To me it cannot be more political and symbolic than this. To me this image has always represented a balance between power and art. A democratic system and a free art scene working together. The peoples Reichstag covered in blank canvas, as a symbol of the endless possibilities to shape the future. We the people, hold the pencils, and the democratic system is the structure that holds the canvas in place, the frame. That is my personal interpretation of this artwork.

I grew up in the cold war period. After the disaster of WW2 and in the terror balance between the United States and Soviet Union. I have been incredibly fortunate. Growing up in a country in peace and in a time in history when you could wrap the Reichstag in Berlin, where the power accepted an art piece playfully cover up the parliament. This post card reminded me of this. How lucky I was. And now. The same muddy extremist ideologies that took over Berlins Reichstag during the darkest chapter in European history are making their way back in many democratic countries. How fragile it is, the freedom of expression. You always must fight for this right. Reclaim it.

Time to put that postcard back on the wall. And sharpen my pen.

Reference: ÅKERLUND013
Title: Earphoneland
Date: 2021
Author: Sony Walkman
Details: Sony Stereo Cassette Player TPS-L2
Media: Hardware
Credit: wikipedia.org/walkman

Description: No artefact has meant more for my artistic practice than my earphones. Being a devoted music lover, I started to make mixtapes with my favourite tunes at an early age. Record them from radio to tape. This was the time of the Sony Walkman. I could not afford this desirable brand, but I got myself another cheaper version of a “freestyle”.

Throughout my life I have moved between the different formats of sound. From vinyl to cassettes to CD to MD to digital files to streaming. From my first cheap earphones that came with the freestyle, to my latest wireless noise reduction earphones. I would not have survived all the open offices and other experimental new management workspaces I have been forced to work in if I would not have had my earphones. Thank God for this escape route into “earphoneland”. The mixtapes I once made has now turned into Spotify playlists. Trying to mix the perfect soundtrack to accompany my creative work. A free space, filled with the wonders of music. The surrounding fades away. It is me, the artwork, and the music. Only us three. The rhythm, the emotional power, so rich and graceful.

Thank you, to all wonderful music artists and composers that has blessed me with the soundtrack of my life. And thank you all engineers and designers that has made it possible to carry around a full-scale orchestra in my pocket to plug it into my ears and mind.

Reference: ÅKERLUND014
Title: Judogi
Date: 2021
Author: Unknown
Details: Judogi is the formal Japanese name for the traditional uniform used for Judo practice and competition
Media: Fashion item
Credit: wikipedia.org/judogi

Description: I was born with two great interests in life: Art and sports. These were also the two things I had talent for. Drawing and gymnastics. My other older brother, Martin, got violently assaulted by a gang one night when he was out in the city. Martin wanted to protect me and teach me how to defend myself. I was 5 years old. My mom took me to a karate club, but the sensei advised me to start with judo instead because I was so young. It was the perfect match for me. It suited my body composition.

In many ways I grew up on the judo mat. I had fantastic judo coaches and met some of my best friends in the dojo. I have learned so much from judo. Balance. Respect. Timing. Discipline. To train hard. Practice. To win, lose, fall, rise. In my teens the more playful judo training transformed into a more elite oriented practice. I trained every day a couple of hours after school. I won the Swedish youth championships at the age of 18, received medals in some international competitions and was part of the Swedish youth and junior national teams and selected to represent my country at the first European youth Olympic games, where I lost my first match and got knocked out of the tournament.

I decided to give up all competition in judo when I was 20 and dedicate my time to train to become an artist. It is said that judo is not a sport, it is a way of life, and for me that rings true. I have taken a lot from what I have learned from judo into my creative practice. Perhaps my interest for the body in motion and timing that are such important components in animation comes from my background as a judoka. Although I never started to train in karate as I first wanted, I am still working hard to paint Mr Miyagi’s fence, as part of my daily creative practice.

Reference: ÅKERLUND015
Title: Att Misslyckas Som Människa [To Fail as a Human Being]
Date: 2016
Author: Joakim Pirinen
Details: Illustrated publication created by Joakim Pirinen, a Swedish illustrator, author, and comic creator
Media: Publication
Credit: goodreads.com/att-misslyckas-som-m-nniska

Description: I have always been fascinated by animated film and comic books. Its visual storytelling appeals to me. One of my favourite artists when coming of age was the Swedish illustrator Joakim Pirinen. His work is far from the Disney or Marvel universes I was well acquainted with from childhood. They were like visual poetry. Complex, dark, wicked, mind blowing. To me it was like the visual equivalent of punk. Freedom in a pen.

Joakim Pirinen’s antihero “Sugar-Conny” was a comic book that resonated with the rebellious thoughts, feelings, and energy of my teenage mind. To me the stories were never something that represented reality. This manifesto for freedom to express any thoughts and feelings within the square of a comic book strip, a canvas, a sculpture, a scene, a film frame, has followed me through my artistic practice.

Joakim Pirinen has also been a companion throughout the years. The book “To Fail as a Human” is in his later production. The antihero Sugar-Conny is sitting in the middle of the cover, aged, and confused, with an incomprehensible sense of discomfort in his face. Placed in an abstractly shaped apartment, watching a triangular TV. To me the drawing captures a lot of the feeling of alienation that sometimes strikes me in the middle of the civilisation we have created for ourselves. This cover image fills me with that rebellious teenage energy again. I want to stand up and walk out from my own tiny room full of abstract objects and a screen loaded with endless entertainment. The image ignites that creative fire within and fuels my ambition to re-design everything for the better.

Reference: ÅKERLUND016
Title: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
Date: 2006
Author: David Lynch
Details: An autobiography and self-help guide comprising 84 vignette-like chapters, commenting on a wide range of topics "from metaphysics to the importance of screening your movie before a test audience"
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Catching_the_Big_Fish

Description: A fascinating artist with an interesting take on creativity. He describes how meditation has been an important companion in finding his ideas. To me it strengthens the notion that an idea is perhaps not your own. It is greater than yourself. If you receive a great idea, it is your responsibility as an artist to take good care of it. Garden it like a seed. Give it love.

Reference: ÅKERLUND017
Title: Lump of Clay
Date: NA
Author: NA
Details: Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals.Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay particles, but become hard, brittle and non–plastic upon drying or firing.
Media: Material
Credit: wikipedia.org/clay

Description: Cheap toy clay will do fine. Nothing fancy, just as long as it has formative qualities to make a rough shape that you can feel in your hand.

Reference: ÅKERLUND018
Title: Simple Wooden Pencil
Date: NA
Author: NA
Details: A pencil is an implement for writing or drawing, constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core in a protective casing that prevents the core from being broken or marking the user's hand
Media: Stationary
Credit: wikipedia.org/Pencil

Description: I am quite old-school when it comes to tools, at least in the beginning of a creative process. I like to sketch by hand. Using a simple wooden pencil. Preferably a B grade. Sometimes in blue. With a good eraser.

Reference: ÅKERLUND019
Title: Notebook. White paper. No lines or dots.
Date: NA
Author: Isak Åkerlund
Details: A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as recording notes or memoranda, other writing, drawing or scrapbooking.
Media: Stationary
Credit: wikipedia.org/Notebook

Description: That is a must-have. Or a couple of them actually, in different sizes and paper thickness. White paper. No lines or dots.

Reference: ÅKERLUND020
Title: A Couple of Marker Pens
Date: NA
Author: NA
Details: A pen which has its own ink source and a tip made of porous, pressed fibers such as felt.
Media: Stationary
Credit: wikipedia.org/Marker_pen

Description: For rough colouring of sketches, a couple of marker pens. Cool grey scale for shadows. Or just water colour for everything. But I have started to do a lot of my colouring process in Photoshop nowadays.

Reference: ÅKERLUND021
Title: Switch to the Computer
Date: NA
Author: NA
Details: A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically.
Media: Hardware
Credit: wikipedia.org/Computer

Description: I usually switch from my notebook to the computer and stay there for the design development. There are some amazing digital tools to help realise your vision.

Reference: ÅKERLUND022
Title: Personal Favourite Digital Tools
Date: NA
Author: NA
Details: List of digital software programmes
Media: Software
Credit: Various

Description: These are my personal favourites: Adobe illustrator for graphic design work; Rhinoceros for 3D modelling and product design; Maya and After Effects for animation; and Photoshop for image editing.

Reference: ÅKERLUND023
Title: Self-portrait
Date: 1895
Author: Helene Schjerfbeck
Details: Oil on Canvas
Media: Painting
Credit: royalacademy.org.uk

Description: I feed on images like a whale on plankton. Especially since I am fond of film and animation. I go for a series of images, and I choose one of my favourite painters, Helene Schjerfbeck, and her self-portraits. They are like animated sequences of a lifetime as well as a progression of painting technique and style. From naturalistic into almost abstract. Those self-portraits are fantastic paintings, and they represent art to observe and reflect about life. Trying to understand and express what it means to be a human being.

Reference: ÅKERLUND024
Title: Field
Date: 1989—2003
Author: Antony Gormley
Details: A sculpture consisting of approx. 35,000 individual terracotta figures, each between 8 and 26 cm high, installed on the floor of a room facing the viewer. The figures were sculpted in Cholula, Mexico by about 60 members of a Texca family of brickmakers, under the supervision of the artist.
Media: Sculpture
Credit: wikipedia.org/Field_(sculpture)

Description: Not one object, but thousands of them. Small characters in clay with big hollow eyes filling up the gallery floor. I saw it when I was quite young, and it made a lasting impression on me. I bought a poster which stayed with me for many years. It was like looking into my own mind. I was fascinated by how much character can be created with such small means. A piece of clay roughly shaped by hand with so much personality. I also loved how the piece was made as a collective effort, by many people.