Written by Vincent Klaiber on July 26th with 1 Comment

What do we really know about what happens in a designers head? Where does all the ideas come from? How do they get their ideas to work on paper? We will never know the ultimate answer to these questions, but today we a little bit closer to the goal.

Jonas Eriksson is born and raised in Malmo, Sweden. When he was about twenty years old he started to be interested in design. Which six years later has led him to great success.

Welcome to Wordrom, please introduce yourself. Give us a little background bio about yourself, tell us where you’re from.

Thanks! I am Jonas Eriksson, born and located in Sweden. I recently turned 26, thereby the last 6 years have all been dedicated to Design. It started with studies, then internship at a Swedish agency and then its been moving forward in the right direction at various agencies and companies. At the moment I do freelance work for different agencies around the world, mostly in NYC. Freelancing has its ups and downs. I like the freedom, but as a designer the business side can get frustrating at times, since I mostly just want to sit and design stuff in Photoshop.

Your work is pretty unique and full of creativity. Where does your inspiration come from?

People around me that have the same levels of strong will and creativity as myself. Listening to music and watching Mad Men is also a great inspiration source for me. I do think it is crucial though to take a break from everything every now and then, otherwise I might get bored and end up less creative.

Could you tell us about your process? What does your workflow look like?

Coffee – looking for inspiration – more coffee and then experimenting :)

What do you consider your major influences to be? What are your favorite sources of inspiration? Do you find yourself browsing any online design communities or websites?

When I do web designs I get most of my inspiration from Fashion Magazine editorials because I like the clean layout and the bold, dare typography. When I do artwork and illustrations I get the inspiration from everywhere and everything. Like movies, music, magazines and old art/Photos from the 70-80s.

Do you work in a office? What does your workstation look like? What tools and applications do you mainly use?

As a freelancer I work mostly from home, and off course, I use a mac. I just bought a macbook pro 15″ with an external 20″ Cinema screen. I also have a Wacom that is mostly collecting dust under the table. As for softwares I use Photoshop, illustrator, Flash and Cinema4D.

Are you a 9-5 worker or a night-owl? Do you have a normal or peculiar structure to your workday? How does a typical day looks like for you?

I am a morning person, I like to wake up early and start working right away. Sometimes I even bring my breakfast to the computer even though I know that it is not very healthy. My working days usually ends late and I like to go out for a run or hit the gym almost every day once I feel satisfied by the work I have done during the day.

What’s been your most challenging project so far in your career? What was challenging about it? And how did you overcome those challenges?

I don´t think there is one particular project that has been the most challenging. I have had many projects though with tight deadlines and clients giving feedback in the last minute which is most frustrating. But I guess thats part of the game and you just have to live with it.

Which is your favorite piece of work that you have created so far and why? What was the inspiration and idea behind it?

My favorite work that I have done is probably the 3500 website that educates about the current extinction of the tiger. Even though the web site has not yet been fully developed it stands for a good cause and the feedback from people everywhere have been most positive. This was also a charity project and I spent many hours from my spare time trying to make a great website production. The site will go live hopefully this year.

What kind of developments do you see in the future, regarding the type of work you do?

I like to learn new stuff and I think that it is crucial to be opened to new things to be able to stay a live in this extremely fast moving business.

Thanks again for providing Wordrom with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

It has been said many times before but it is so true – Do your own thing, be personal and let your work show it.

Where can we find you in the cyberspace?

Portfolio: http://www.imjonas.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/imjonas
Behance: http://www.behance.net/jonaseriksson
Cargo: http://www.cargocollective.com/jonaseriksson
Krop: http://www.krop.com/jonaseriksson
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40825889@N05/

About Vincent Klaiber

A few years ago, Vincent became interested in design and constructing web. He founded and built up Wordrom with the idea to share good ideas and inspiration, he will also do his best to make Wordrom an interesting place. Thanks!

Jonas Eriksson Interview