ELECTRONIC MUSIC DESIGN
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So-Me
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Breakfast Design
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Typeholics
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Sanghon Kim
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Kam Tang
Graphic designer and DJ from France At Ed Banger Records, So-Me is the one doing the heavy lifting. A true renaissance man, So-Me directs most of the music videos, designs everything from the album art to the t-shirts, and in the past few years he’s expanded into production and DJing. In short, when you think of Ed Banger product, you’re thinking of So-Me’s work, and that reality is something he takes seriously. We get to know him a lot better, and here’s what happened…
Justice logo by So-Me
Being the face of a brand takes a certain something. First of all, you have to enjoy all the attention. Second of all, you need to have a certain amount of faith in the brain. Those are the people who actually do all the heavy lifting.
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EMD: So first of all, Ed Banger. How did you meet Pedro Winter, and how did your partnership with him take shape? SM: We met at a....party. He needed somebody to design stuff, I needed to work. It was about six years ago. I did my first work for him, and the very first Ed Banger visual, and it’s lasted till today.
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EMD: You’ve designed basically every Ed Banger album cover, and even though the images tend to be quite different, they do seem to be united by a particular aesthetic. If you had to put it into words, what’s that look all about? SM: First of all, thank you. People usually think they’re all the same! I try to differentiate every work for Ed Banger. But indeed, they are probably united
I’m a craftsman. If you build the imagery, you don’t need to be in the spotlight. You serve a cause. I’m fine with that. by the fact that it’s me doing them. I mean; it’s my hand! So it’s always a bit similar. It’s, “so-me”, haha. EMD: It’s funny, not a lot of people seem to know your name, but after Pedro, you ‘re probably more important to the Ed Banger brand than anybody. You’ve worked on a lot of the videos, you design the album art for them. Do you like working in the background, or do you sometimes wish you had a little more attention? SM: I’m a craftsman. It makes sense. If you build the imagery, you don’t ‘Justice - Waters of Nazareth’ by Justice. 77
need to be in the spotlight. You serve a cause. I’m fine with that. EMD: What would you say you’re influenced by, and why? SM: The awkwardness of non-designers who happen to design at some point, for some reason. Like a restaurant sign made by the cook. It’s like a child’s drawing. Someone who doesn’t “know” the rules usually creates something beautiful, almost perfect. EMD: As long as we’re on the subject, what about people working today that impress you? How about other craftsmen the world should know about? SM: The world should know about the Belgian crew called the ERS. They’re primarily based in graffiti, which is one of the main visual fields I know about these days. A bunch of 7 over-talented guys who draw and paint like no other. EMD: Finally, you must be creating stuff all the time. Doodling on sketchpads, screwing around on photoshop, whatever. How many hours a day do you work on everything, from music and design to whatever else? SM: The question is how many hours a day do I sleep? I’d say eight. The rest is that. But I’m lazing around as much as I can. Deadlines rule my world. EMD: Does that stuff sometimes wind up turning into other projects for other people, or does Ed Banger have you on some kind of exclusivity deal? SM: Well, as far as music graphics, I only focus on Ed Banger, which is my mothership. I wouldn’t want similar acts to have similar graphics. It would be confusing and weaken our imagery. But I can and do work in different fields for different people all the time. EMD: Thanks a lot for your time. SM: No problem, have a nice day.
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‘Justice - DVNO’ released on Ed Banger Records in 2008. 9
Why is Jens Grรถnberg talking about blow jobs? We were lucky enough to get an interview with the graphic designer and illustrator Jens Grรถnberg who alone runs Breakfast Design in Malmรถ, Sweden. We get to know him better and how his relationship with the international superstar dj Axwell first started.
‘Axwell feat. Max C - I Found U’ released on Axtone records in 2007. The artwork is inspired by ‘Tron’.
EMD: Hello Jens! How are you today? JG: Hello, thank you I’m fine. I’m a little stressed today because I’m leaving for the US on December the 14th and I will be gone for a month and there’s a lot of work to be completed before I go. Now I work both day and night. EMD: Are you going on a business travel or on vacation? JG: It’s a sort of vacation. I will bring my laptop and try to get some work done. My wife’s brother and sister are from the US, so we go there every year to visit them. I will work from there and that usually works out pretty good. EMD: Where did you study and what year? JG: You know, I am 100% self-taught. I have never studied anything in the direction of graphic design. I have always been drawing a lot ever since I was a kid. When I was going to choose a high school to go to, I chose an economical school and that school was the only school that did not offer illustra-
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tion as a subject. I don’t know why I chose that school, but I completed my three years, hehe. In high school I was getting really into interested in the whole computer scene. I was playing around in Photoshop 2.5 and the older versions of Illustrator, such as Illustrator 4.0. Later on I started working as a computer technician at Ericsson in Sweden. When I was working at Ericsson there was an old man, 60 years old so, who was just about to go off with pension and he came by my office when I was drawing on a piece of paper and said to me: “Why are you working here with computers? You should work with something like graphic design.” At first I was a little unsure but he kept on. “My brother runs a company in Malmö. You should start working for him.” I said OK and I went with him to Malmö. I brought with me a tube of some drawings that I have done and he gave me a job as an apprentice, so I got barely paid, but they tutor
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I am 100% selftaught. I have never studied anything in the direction of graphic design. I have always been drawing a lot ever since I was a kid.
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I do all my work on windows computers. That is pretty unusual in MY industry.
me in the beginning. I was 20 years old back then. I worked there for 4-5 years and after that I quit and started up my own company. EMD: Can you tell me a little bit about what the best and the worse part of your job is? JG: That’s a tricky question. I think the best is when you work on a project that you really enjoy. It’s not finished yet, but you feel that what you do is really really good. It’s like when you are almost done with a really good book; it feels so good to read it, but when you are finished you feel a little empty inside. It’s over and the project done. A real downer of some sort. You almost feel like you are never going to do anything as good as this again. But hopefully you will of course, hehe. EMD: How does a normal work day look like to you? JG: I used to have a studio in Malmö, but then we moved out to a farm outside of Malmö and then I started to
work a lot from home and that works really well. I go to work at 7 o’clock and at 9 o’clock I drive my daughter to the kindergarden and I’m back around 10 o’clock. After that I work to around 2 o’clock and then I take a break. I usually work until 7 or 8 o’clock, but often I end up working until 10 or 11 in the evening, but I prefer to do as much work as possible before lunch, in the morning. That is my prime time without any doubt. That is why it’s called Breakfast Design; I do most of my work around breakfast time. My work gets worse and worse during the day and in the evening I draw like a 5-year old, haha. EMD: You work on a Mac I presume? JG: No, infact I don’t. I do all my work on windows computers. That is pretty unusual in my industry. I have been working for computers for so long and there was a time when Windows was the majority of the market and it was only media and advertisement
Cover art for Axwell’s remix of ‘Walk With Me’ by Nanchang Nancy & Prok & Fitch. 15
companies who ran on a Mac. In the 90s all the games came for Windows only. I started to try out to do some 3d work. I started using a software called “3D Studio”. I fell in love the software, but it was only available for Windows. I wanted to run all my software seamlessly without any problems and on my Windows computer I had Photoshop, Illustrator and 3D Studio and that was all I needed. But I think that if I switched to a Mac now it wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but it just turned out this way. No politics involved. Plus you get a faster PC for the same amount of money as a Mac. A little more processor power. And back in the days that was important to me. I didn’t want to go the bank to take up a loan to buy a Mac. That’s a big reason I didn’t go with a Mac in the first place. But I have been thinking of getting a MacBook Pro as my next computer. But honestly I don’t think too much of
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the hardware. Like I said; what I need is Photoshop, Illustrator and 3D Studio. I think I will do fine on a not too kickass computer. I mean, there are a lot of people who are really obsessed of running a lot of
If Axwell has a track called ‘Blow Job’, then he wants a design that reflects or has something to do with a blow job. plugins, filters, blah blah blah, this and that. I mean that it’s better to know everything about one software instead of knowing a little bit of 20 different softwares. If you know everything about Illustrator you can work with Illustrator 9.0 without any problems. There’s a such big update hysteria now a days. “Are you running CS5 or CS4?
You have to update!”. Use what you have and learn your softwares inside out. EMD: How would you describe your creative process and where do you find your inspiration? JG: My whole concept or principals if that’s what you would call it, is that I’m very flexible drawing wise. I can draw for children’s books and I can also draw more technical or realistic stuff. It all depends on what kind of project I’m working on. But for example the work I’ve done for Axwell and Axtone Records; it’s very often that when I do artwork for his music, Axwell wants the name of the track to come out in the design. If Axwell has a track called ‘Blow Job’, then he wants a design that reflects or has something to do with a blow job, haha. And if a track is called “Kiss of Love” for example, then he wants the track do have something to do with
PROK & FITCH PRES. NANCHANG NANCY
WALK WITH ME INCL. AXWELL VS DADDY’S GROOVE REMIX
Nanchang Nancy & Prok & Fitch - Walk With Me (Axwell vs. Daddy’s Groove Remix) released in 2009.
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a kiss, love or maybe some lips. I can’t do something entirely different, because that is important to him. It’s like making the cover of a book. Axwell comes to me with a track and I listen to it to hear if there’s some sort of uptempo stuff or if it feels hardcore. Then I start writing down some ideas. When I did the work for “Teenage Crime” I felt like I wanted to present the crime part of the track. And then I came up with the idea that some guys were suppost to wait for a person in a back alley. Waiting for him to beat him up or rob him for money or something. Some of them had a weapon and some other guys had a baseball bat in their hand and stood waiting. When I sent the idea to Axwell I said it was a good idea. But after a couple of hours he mailed me back and said that he had given it some more thought and that he didn’t really like the weapons. He wasn’t fond of the idea that they were going to beat someone up as he doesn’t like violence. I took away the weapons and now they were only standing there waiting. But Axwell still thought that it reminded a bit too much of violence. It ended up with that I removed one more man for each time we mailed back and forth. So in the end there was only one man standing there, alone waiting for nobody else, haha! But it ended up great anyway. It became more real. So that was my creative process. But I mean; Axwell is not an underground house artist. His music is pretty commercial and people already have an impression of how house music Ibiza style should look like. It’s supposed to be really “in your face” and there’s gold, silver, shiny, explosions, sparkling and expensive looking stuff. I try to make it commercial house style, but also with a little quality touch. I mean; it won’t work out to make an Axwell logo which is rusty and grungy, but if I try to make it look like it’s made out of a thousand diamonds it stands out like “chi-ching”; it looks a bit cheesy, but it works perfectly, haha.
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EMD: Did it take you long before you found your own personal style that you are satisfied with? JG: Yes, that’s a way to put it. I mean, when it comes to drawings, I have to draw a lot of different styles. I have one style for when I’m drawing realistic drawings and a different style when I draw other kinds of drawings. In the beginning it took a lot of time before I was satisfied with my work. And after a while I was able to draw my drawings faster and faster, and that was because I was beginning to hit my own personal style. I don’t have to think so much anymore. It only happens. But I think it can be a bit dangerous to find your own personal style within electronic dance music, because the industry is always evolving. What’s cool
my online portfolio has no meaning TO me when it comes to hitting new clients. People are not surfing around the web looking for illustrators or graphic designers. It’s all about recommendations. and what’s in at the moment. It’s more important to be able to develop your style a little bit all the time, layout and design wise. Some stuff that might be super cool one day is boring and out of fashion the next day, so it’s not easy to know. EMD: Do you remember the first drawing you drew? And how old were you? JG: Aaah, that’s a hard one. I have been drawing all my life, but I think it was when I was a small child and stayed at my grandmother’s house. It was around eastern and she drew an outline of an egg with flowers and bondings on a piece of paper for me to colorize. We did that every day for the whole easter vacation. I remember thinking she was the best one to draw
in the whole world, haha. EMD: How much has your online portfolio helped you to get new clients? JG: I think my online portfolio has no meaning to me when it comes to hitting new clients. People are not surfing around the web looking for illustrators or graphic designers. But if a customers of mine recommends me to someone else and they call me and would like to see some more of my work and maybe figure out a style they’d like their design to look like, then it might become handy to have an online portfolio to refer to. It works well as a reference. Actually, I should just write a list of different styles I can handle and number then one, two, three, four and so on, almost the way you order a meal from McDonalds, haha. But I think it is really important to have a Facebook page where you can upload your work and people can easily click “Like”. It’s easy for upcoming customers to see what you have made lately. It gives the information directly to your clients, because it’s shown in your newsfeed etc. EMD: Do you use social media a lot? JG: No, I don’t. But I’m going to start using it a lot, because I think it’s a really good thing to use Facebook and Twitter a lot. EMD: You have done all the artwork for Axwell and Axtone Records. How did you get this client and how long have you been working for them? JG: You know, Axwell and I went to the same school in Lund when we were kids. I have known him since I was 13 or 14 years old. And already at that time Axwell was making music and entered some local “demo competitions” as it was called back in the days where people show off their music productions and their graphics made on a computer. It was some sort of “hacker meeting”. Axwell was doing music and I was doing graphics at these meetings and that’s how we became friends. So I started doing graphics for him since day one, but that is many years ago. But when we grew up I started my own
‘Axwell & Dirty South - Open Your Heart’. Released on Axtone in 2008. 19
company in Malmö and he moved to Stockholm. In the beginning he was a very very small client of mine. It was almost nothing. He had more outcomes than incomes and there was actually no money in his budget for graphics, but now he is a really big client of mine.
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I have never gone to any of his gigs. I like the music, but I prefer to sit behind the computer and design.
EMD: Do you remember the first artwork you did for Axwell? JG: Well, that was before he called himself Axwell. He has had many aliases, but back then he was called OXL. That was in 1995. And already at that time he did a lot of white labels and then it was when it first started. The first artwork I did for Axtone records was Together which was released in 2005, but before that I did a lot of web design and did a lot of photographing. I remember the first time we went on a “photoshoot” if that’s what you could call it. We wanted some sort of “high tech” background for the pictures and then we started to brainstorm where the closest place that looks a little high tech. Then we thought of Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. That’s a little high tech. And there’s planes flying all over the world. So we went there with an old camera, Sony Cybershot or something, and started taking photos of him. Back then we were daydreaming and hoping that he would ever get a gig outside of Sweden and how fantastic it would be, and we were joking that it looked like he was already an international DJ because of the airport and all
the CD cases he were carrying and so on. But now he is constantly traveling. EMD: Do you still have the artwork you did for his first white label? JG: Haha, I don’t think so. If it still exists then it has be in some box in Axwell’s attic or something. He couldn’t really afford to have the vinyl’s pressed with graphics so the white labels mostly consisted of simple typography with the title of the track and so on. It was nothing special. EMD: Are you interested in electronic dance music yourself? JG: Yes, infact I am. I am very interested in the music and everything that has to do with it. It’s form and everything. But I’m really not that interested in the whole commercial house scene. I’m interested in Axwell and his career, but I have never seen Axwell live. I have never gone to any of his gigs or to clubs even though he has invited me many many times. I like the music, but I have never liked the club culture. I prefer to sit behind the computer and design, haha. And from there I can check out youtube and see a lot of visuals and graphics that I have done, but I sit behind a computer in a small house on a farm in Sweden. I like that feeling and the contrast. EMD: How’s it like to see your work in real life? JG: I enjoy it. In the beginning when I was drawing for a news paper, I was always waiting for my drawings to be printed so I could go to the store and open the news paper and flip through to see my drawings. That feeling was fantastic. It’s still a great feeling,
Axwell ‘Axwell -- Submariner Submariner’released releasedon onAxtone Axtone Records in 2007 20
‘Axwell + Sebastian Ingrosso Salem Al Fakir - It’s True’. Released on Axtone Records in 2008.
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but now a days I’m not as good as I used to when it comes to keep an extra copy of the things I have made. But what I enjoy even more is that people from all over the world has seen my work. Every day I get emails from people around the world. Yesterday I got an email from two guys from England who had an argument about Axwell’s logo. One of the guys meant that the logo was a heart turned upside down and the other one meant that it was a spade. The truth is that they are both right. In the beginning it was a spade. But in the version where it doesn’t say Axwell under the spade, the spades “foot” is gone and it becomes a heart upside down. And afterwards Axwell started to develope a whole concept around this heart turned upside down. EMD: I know that Axwell is really picky about his music, but is it the same way about his taste of graphics? JG: Yes. Axwell either likes it or he doesn’t like it, nothing in between. It has never happened that I’ve sent something to Axwell and he is like: “Hmmm… It looks okay. That will do for now.” that is something he would never say. But there was this one time when I did the work for a track called “Sign Your Name” that I really liked the artwork. It looked a little kitchy, sci-fi and cosmic’ish. I thought it was perfect and I loved everything about it. Axwell didn’t like it and said that it was that good, but it was good enough, haha. I think it was because it wasn’t his own track, but only a track released on his label. That was the first time that ever happened. EMD: You live in Sweden, but you have received a lot of offers from international potential clients. Do you like to work with Swedish or foreign clients? JG: In the beginning I was only thinking of working so I could feed my wife and kids and it’s always just been me and I haven’t had all the time in the world. I have some big clients here in Sweden. I just don’t have more time. It’s as simple as that. I haven’t promoted myself in eight or nine years. I accept the job offers I got time for. I’m 22
focused on only working with Swedish clients or only with international clients. I choose the clients I feel inspiring and the ones I know I can deliver a good result to. You know, even though Axwell is a huge artist and Axtone is a big label I think there’s almost no money for graphics or design in dance music. I get offers from small labels that have seen Axtone’s graphics and thinks the graphic looks great and would like to get a price quote on some of the work. And it always ends up them saying something like: “No sorry, it’s too expensive…” EMD: Have you done artwork for any other artists? JG: Yes, I have. Infact I just did a logotype for a Swedish band called ‘Bauer and Lanford’. It turned out real nice. It’s nothing like what I did for Axwell. EMD: Do you have anything to say to the upcoming graphic designers who looks at your work as a source for inspiration? JG: Like I said earlier; make sure you learn all your software from inside out. The software should never be factor that decides how the result will look like. I mean, if I write something and I’d like to have a shock-red outline stroke, then I want to be able to do it straight away and not have to try and try and try, and in the end saying: “Screw that, I’ll do something else.” Learn the software so well that it’s only yourself and your creative ideas that run the show, not the software. EMD: Thanks a lot for your time. JG: No problem. I hope my answers where not too difficult to understand.
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Talk to the hand... or Fukkk Offf! A germany based design company with only three employees. Let’s see what Felix Schlßter and the rest of Typeholics can show us of graphic design the have done for music artists. Or will they just tell us to Fukkk Offf?
Artwork for ‘Fukkk Offf’ by Typeholics.
Typeholics is a design office, which was founded in 1998 by Felix Schlüter in Hamburg. Felix and his three employees Henning Weskamp, Sebastian and Benjamin Rohde Kakrow have specialized on the music world. Today they focus on the music scene in Hamburg. Besides designing logos and cover artwork for various bands and artists, Typeholics design graphics for record labels, festival organizers, skateboard manufacturers and clothing brands. They do print media, web graphics, music videos, clothing and stage design. In addition, in 2003 Typoholics released the book “Hamburg City Graffiti”, showing the graffiti, text and picture scene in Hamburg between 1983 and 2003.
Artwork for ‘Fukkk Offf’s by Typeholics.
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Vinyl cover for ‘Fukkk Offf’s latest EP ‘Worldwide’.
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Graphic designer and illustrator Sanghon Kim A fine-art and graphic-design graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Sanghon Kim is a talented jack-of-all-trades capable of moving from watercolours to computer work in his search for a strong visual universe.
‘Overmars Kunsthalle Musik Für Die Eisen Mädchen’ by Sanghon Kim.
Sanghon Kim is a Korean illustrator and graphic designer. With so many strings to his bow, it should come as no surprise that he’s already a favorite with a number of labels and artists. He has done work for people like Röyksopp, AIR, Hermes, Lacoste, and Tate Modern. Having studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Kim definitely has a ‘french-touch’ that is lavish, but restrained. His real talent lies in his versatility. His art of mixing techniques gives the work an air of mystery; you’re never sure whether you’re looking at a photomontage, computer graphics or an actual drawing, which is undoubtedly part of his plan to hide his tracks, unnerve the viewer and create dissonant feelings. Some of his recent work for the Institubes Record Label exhibits a cartoon sensibility similar to Lee Dongi’s paintings. He recently participated in the highly publicized ‘The Art of Music‘ show alongside other talents like SoMe, Ryan Waller, and Josh Petherick. This show that was organized by the acclaimed ILL studio, exhibited young artists who mainly work in the music business. Kam’s airy, poetic and unique style has allowed him to adapt to different types of work, including fashion, illustration, typography and graphic design. Many will agree that Kim’s work really stands out in a group who rely heavily on graphic colors, hand-drawn type, and decorative compositions.
Artwork for the electronic downtempo duo ‘Air’ from France. 32
Artwork for ‘Röyksopp’ by Sanghon Kim.
‘49 Percent’ was released on Röyksopp’s album ‘The Understanding’. 33
Artwork for the Norwegian electronica duo ‘Röyksopp’ by Sanghon Kim.
Read on as Kam Tang pushes the button Kam Tang has produced graphic work for clients ranging from Sony and Nike to The Chemical Brothers and Gnarls Barkley. We meet the illustrator as he moves from book covers to a personal book project
Back cover of ‘The Chemical Brothers’ album ‘Push The Button’. Released in 2005.
Before Kam Tang learned to use a computer, he used to painstakingly hand-render his detailed, complex drawings using Rotring pens and French curves. His working process still involves hand-drawn originals, although the computer allows Tang to tighten up work in a fraction of the time. For a perfectionist like Tang, vector-based illustration is a mixed blessing. 'It opens up another can of worms. With pen and paper you try to be the best draughtsman you can. With the computer you try to be the best line manipulator you can,' he explains. 'Nobody is ever going to see that detail; the reproduction is never going to capture that finesse. But you know deep down, and you're the one that's got to live with the image. If you're going to do it, you might as well do it properly.' Ask Tang what inspires his exquisite images, and he'll talk about the delicate nature of lace, birds, plants, 'natural
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phenomena, strange bulbous turnips and stuff like that', he laughs. 'There's something very pure about why a vegetable or a turnip is the way it is; how it functions either to survive or just to be beautiful.' He's got a pragmatic side too, though - both Tang's degree and his Royal College of Art MA are in graphics. 'I thought design would be the best way to develop my skills while
also aiming towards a living of sorts,' he explains. He doesn't like the label 'illustrator', preferring the more ambiguous title 'creative'. 'To be honest, I'm more interested in the ideas than the physical, artistic process of imagemaking,' he says. Working from his south London home, Tang likes to get out and about when drawing. 'It makes me feel a bit more detached from my work,' he explains. His clients include The Guardian, Wired, Arena, Wallpaper, Adidas, Nike, Sony and the Royal Mail. His designs have appeared on packaging for artists such as The Chemical Brothers, Athlete,
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Manic Street Preachers and Gnarls Barkley. You can even buy a Kam Tang mural, in four rolls of wallpaper from Maxalot. He enjoyed working with design group Tappin Gofton on the cover of The Chemical Brothers' last album Push The Button. 'It was exciting because it was taking my work in a different direction,' he comments.
With pen and paper you try to be the best draughtsman you can. With the computer you try to be the best line manipulator you can.
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