A pop icon who has set a great foot-print in music worldwide. Hit after hit and sales that shot to the sky. A star was born.

Radio-stations all over are playing his songs. MTV are sending out a little memory-trailer with a few words telling the story of Michael Jackson. Not a very long one – but I guess they will be putting something together to show some kind of tribute to “The King of Pop”. They are also displaying a sign with the artist’s name and the years he was alive, 1958 – 2009.

I made a stencil, or pictogram if you wish, that symbolizes one of his famous and characteristic poses. He was great performer and someone that really built a brand of himself and his name.

A pop icon is dead, so no more music from Michael Jackson - a sudden end to his life - at least from my point of view. I thought he would live much longer - even though one has seen a lot of changes to his appearance through the years. I remember rumours of him sleeping in gas chambers and many other things that could make one wonder why… but one thing is for sure – his name and music as a legendary performer will live on.

This time I have drawn a pictogram symbolising his hit “Smooth Criminal” – the characteristic view of Michael leaning forward in his white suite. I inverted it so it would be a clear pictogram and symbol.

Who hasn’t enjoyed a lot of his music through the years? ….... He must have inspired thousands of artist and creators all over the world! He has inspired with the music, performances, clothing videos and much more. He has definitely inspired me.
R. I. P. Michael

When I was designing the crown pictogram the other day I drew a few more. So I thought it would be nice to show this one too. It is a pictogram of a more strict crown – not like the other one that was more of a joyful character. I put in a slight shading to give it another kind of feeling without adding several colours and shapes. It gives a little bit more of a sophisticated look to it.

The crown is a symbol used many times to enhance the feeling of royalty and gives the logotype, or what ever it is for, a more reliable look.

This crown has three visible spikes – but there are several ways of portraying a crown. This one is very clear – that it is a crown pictogram.

A pictogram is a very interesting way of using symbols to group different categories in lots of ways. The good thing about a pictogram is that you can even use it in one colour. The symbol itself should be clear enough to understand without having to give it lots of colours. What one can say is, that if it works as a black and white symbol for instance, then it will usually work in other colour combinations too. It is not completely wrong to colour pictograms in lots of different colours and shades. It is just that you have to be more careful how clear the pictogram is. A pictogram sometimes comes with several other pictograms and then they have to go in style. Fit each other you can call it – look like they belong - a family.

This time I drew a crown – this will associate to royalty, kings and queens, etc. In this case I have made it look a bit more playful by adding circular shapes, a kind of ball, on top of each of the crown spikes. This almost gives it a more “Joker”-like look - a kinder and more joyful crown.

Keep on having fun being the king.

I have been in Thailand over Christmas and New year and am of flying again soon. I thought about different trips and alternatives and then just started to think about aeroplanes. They are very nice with their aerodynamic lines. Even passenger-planes and cargo planes usually look really cool. So I made a little pictogram of an aeroplane. This would be the view you would see from the gate when you are sitting and waiting to board the plane – and for your flight to take off. One could of course make a pictogram of the plane in the air – but I thought this would be a nice alternative.

Other places that look nice are the airports . They very often have a nice futuristic look – even if they are built for ages ago.

Fly soon and just don’t think of getting to the next destination. Look at all the planes and their aerodynamic style.

Niklas Waller and I have been working on some good projects lately and one of them is some kind of web-shop. I have designed a few different things that we will use. The client of course wants certain things that we have tried to fulfil. Other things that are important are to help your client to get the message out there – and to get the right feeling too.

Some things are very clear and needed in a web-shop environment - one is your shopping-cart. You want to know how much you have bought or are going to buy.

The shopping-cart is a clear symbol, but you still have to give the web-shop customer a clear pictogram that he will recognize immediately. I gave this pictogram a simple design… But I still wanted to give it some dimension - so you can see the shopping-cart is turned slightly towards you.

If you would like to use this idea – or design - feel free to send us an e-mail and we can discuss the matter. Don’t forget to pay when you are shopping!

I painted an aquarelle the other day with Obama. Then right away I thought it would be nice to make a pictogram out of that image. So I made some sketches and used the painting as reference. I made a little drop-shadow too just for this display – to give it some depth. As you can see I also moved the star and ”Obama” writing in onto his neck. It gave the text a clearer feeling.

The Obama pictogram could be nice as a little pin too or maybe even a T-shirt. Obama has a nicely designed logo already – but I thought his facial characteristics give a very nice look. A bit more personal… Shepard Fairey also mentions this in the interview he gave to Charlie Rose. (Under "News".)

I won’t be making any pins or t-shirts without checking with the President himself. Hope he enjoys the artwork anyway! I’ll right a message on Twitter and see if he responds – or someone from his staff anyway. Keep up the good work Mr. President.

This time I have been talking to Niklas and we had some ideas that we wanted to try out. So of course the new project has to have a name. So we had a little chat and thought of a few different ones. Then we decided on a name that has the word ”elephant” in it. So that got me thinking of making a logo as well.

When I started out searching for good reference pictures of elephants, I looked in some good animal-books and browsed google too. So I drew an elephant with swirls and twirls to give it a more graphic cool look. At the same time I thought of making a little pictogram too. One that was more in the same colour scheme and one where the elephant is just a silhouette. Elephants mostly hang out in the warmer part of our hemisphere – that’s why I made the pictogram in yellow and orange.

We will get back on more of this elephant-project later.

The fire engine is a really well-known symbol in our society. The firemen are everyday heroes I think. They put their lives at risk to save others - a very noble way of living. Of course there might be some cats to rescue - those that have climbed up in trees and can’t get down. Maybe somebody has fried some eggs too long and the smoke-alarm went off. Then I guess their lives aren’t at stake… but so many more times they might just be in the right place at the right time. So keep up the good work.

I have drawn a fire-truck in the very characteristic colour red. I don’t even know if there are any other fire-truck colours? If one shows this image to anybody – at least I think most of those I have shown it to say that they think it looks like a fire-truck or fire engine. This was my goal when I drew it! Still - I wanted it to look as plain as possible so one can easily recognise it - even if it was on a small little picture on a button or something like that.

Stay safe and try to remember to check if the oven and the iron are off before you leave the house….

When I grew up there always was a lot of milk served to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or even at tea-time. I remember staying with my grandparents and the milk-man came by and left a couple of bottles on the door-step. The milk came in glass bottles and had a cap made of tinfoil. The top layer of the milk was almost like cream. My grandfather said: “Let the boy drink all of the milk – it will make him strong”. That and some ginger snaps -. I can still remember those days like yesterday.

I have drunk a lot of milk all my life and still do. I guess the modern way of looking at drinking a lot of milk is to not drink the cream any more. The milk has a lot of calcium and strengthens your bones.

The pictogram I designed today is thinking of the old days. Today I’m not even sure if the kids know where milk comes from. So showing a cow in connection with milk could enlighten the modern kid. I think one could even print these cows on a t-shirt. Now, as you might have noticed, I like t-shirt prints a lot and think that you can print almost anything on a t-shirt.

Steve Wheeler has collected a few bottles over the years!

The leaf has extraordinary shapes and a very powerful look in its growth. All the veins are pumping out life to itself and the whole tree for that matter –a few water-drops rolling over the green leaf perhaps. There are different textures and thicknesses depending on climate and survival-technique for just that plant or tree.

This designed pictogram is a serrated leaf standing for fresh growth and good environment. Something I guess everyone could help out with. This is very common everywhere – if you turn on the news there is every so often a reportage about the environment. There is a lot you can do as an individual and of course if everyone pitches in there would be even better results.

The leaf is green to enhance the health and environmental feeling. The white “y” shape symbolises the leaf-veins and at the same time – you - or a human-being more exactly. That’s why I added the dot to make this clearer. So this could be used for an environmental cause or for a group wanting to show that they are helping too.

So I guess in many small ways we can all help. So maybe take a walk instead of the car. Maybe ride your bike to work. Maybe get a sailing boat on this vacation… Who knows just you might make a change!

The summer has really come forward now. Warm winds and people are enjoying the sun. A lot of people are out hanging at cafés or sun-bathing or just chilling in the shade drinking, something ice-cold. Then you might feel like talking to your friends about getting a cool symbol for your band ? or for the new team you are setting up. Why not just your closest friends wanting to unite a bit more? A cool symbol for the cool dudes that, you feel, that you are.

This could be for a bunch of guys with a cool attitude. A face looking up under the broad eye-brows and giving you "the look". Maybe you got to print up some cool "T-shirts" for the gang too. A screaming white "T" with "The dude" on the chest. A red cap or bag? A laptop-case if it is your work-buddies - or a neat sticker for the car window.

Or - this could just be a pictogram to use outside a restroom door.

Anyway it is a cool dude to give a real deal look. If you feel like it is the logo for your purpose - don't hesitate to ask us about it.

- And woman! Pictograms are used in lots of different ways. Today you can see pictograms on everything from dairy-products to toilet-doors and on the web. This is a symbol or little picture that illustrates in the simplest way what it stands for. This prevents us from having to use loads of text and verbal information. Other places where you can see lots of these symbols are airports and on road-signs.

There is a nice book written by Rayan Abdullah and Roger Hubner about pictograms. They have taken photos and collected lots of symbols and written the book: Pictograms Icons and Signs. (A guide to information graphics)

I have made a very typical symbol for rest-rooms this time. I made the background red to give it some extra visibility. The man and woman symbols have to be alike but still tell the difference, in a clear way, between gentlemen and ladies. I think this button kind of pictogram with the white reflection gives you an extra feeling for pushing it. So it could be made into a door-handle at the same time. I have made some signs for a company working with information-boards – these will of course be some of the symbols that I, or they, will use. This is a project that spans over some time so I might show you some more pictograms later on in the near future.

So now I’ve been away for a few days and have enjoyed every minute. Travelling really inspires you to lots of things - especially in design. Not to get too carried away I made a little ”pictogram” for coming home. The pictogram itself is a little box. To make it a little more “homey” I made a little roof so that it would feel like a little house. Very few people live in a building like that – but many people associate houses with some kind of living. So this symbolises my ”home”. I put a little text in the middle to make sure one would see that it is a pictogram representing home. The home-pictogram could also be used as an informative arrow and point out were one lives or where ”home” is for you. I used the same font as in the last ”Gone surfing” design to show that it can illustrate different feelings. Last time it was more of a soft and flowing font feel. This time it has a more ”correct” and appropriate style. I used a light blue background to enhance the information ratio. Like in some countries road-signs are blue with white print on them.

I’ve, as I said, got lots of fun ideas up my sleeve from this super trip – so see you soon with more design. Keep getting inspired!

The New Year is here and it calls for a symbol - a tree - a year of growth. So this is a new fresh year that’s coming a long. We are going to present several designs and groovy stuff this year. Come by and tag along on the tour.

For 2008 I’ve taken a look at the dynamics of the numbers zero and eight. It’s really a nice combo. Circles are always pleasant for the eye. These two numbers give an easy flowing feeling - an asymmetric symbol of a growing tree. You might even see that it’s a tree too. This is enhanced with the stem of the tree and its roots growing down into the ground. This gives the logo stamina and a bit more of an interesting approach. The circles of course show the two numbers and also symbolize the leaves.

A tree gives, with the roots in the ground and branches in the air, a “being” from two worlds just like a human, being a communicator between up and down. People have in olden days even worshiped trees.