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John

I read your articel at the web, it is always nice to read an impression about your own community by someone who are as you both out and into it.

It is always dificult to have an opinion about things as you need to be general and by that you in a way need to lie. I will give you some very short and not so well considered reflections.

For me as trained as a graphic designer and illustrator in between 1975 an 1980 it was not even in my mind to after the examina [high school] try to find an employment for me the only way was to set up your own designstudio together with friends.

We did so and stayed like that for 15 years. We were not that succesfull we just almost made money enough for our living, but we have other dreams we worked with strange projects setting up scenografies for balletgroups, painted watercolours in Provence. We were succesfull in our non-carrier [career], but we never reach any awards people was not impressed by our work. We did all kind of other things and with other people writing the historybooks we maybe should have been considered as extremly succesfull.

At the beginning of the 1980´s graphic design in Sweden still was much connected to commercial, advertisments and that area was not very political correct among us the students at the graphic design education. And there was a strange connection between graphic design and commersialism. The only way to be accepted was if you did something in the sprit of the experimental typographie of the constructivist and futurist era.

The world in Sweden at that time was extremly small, you could still reach a lot of people by magazines, the media situation today is so much more complex and for both good and bad, today I belive it is much more fun to be a graphic designer than it was 1980 because there is an more open mind and the connection between graphic design and "bad imaging of commersialism" is gone into the history books. But John sometimes when I tell about my reflections to young designers they do not belive me, and some peolpe who were activie during thie period do not either belive me.

Today as I left Stockholm 10 years ago I work alone in my studio and I miss the period of working in a group for different reason. I belive that you are able to create better design together with other people, you need the collective and individual position. So a country need graphic design companies. But as it is today the clients are more impressed by designers from London or New York.

The designer who were working with the graphic design profile for the new modern museum in Stockholm has lost his comission. The new chief David Elliott said that he didn´t like his work, he has been to influenced by the impression of how the museum looked like, he would like to have a profile more connected to the idea of the museum. So the comission went to the Tomato group from London, and the fees raised dramaticly.

Well John this was some rapid reflection about your articel, I liked this dialouge and maybe we could in a way do something for our magazine Tecknaren [for illustrators and designers].

And I would like to not suggest but lift a very spontanious and not very well considered idea but say like this SIDNEY 99 - Sweden could we in any form stimulate the possibilities to bring some deigners from Sweden to Sidney. Maybe some kind of exchange, there is founds [funds] for things like this in Sweden, and maybe we could start brainstorming.

Anders Suneson
[Immediate past Vice President ICOGRADA]
http://tecknadebilder.se

"Zanimljivo!"