Blog of Emelie Ivansson

Finally updated my portfolio today.

Figured I should document the workflow of my latest project. Mostly because it was an interesting and pretty intense journey, with a very tight deadline where I really got to know my own strengths and weaknesses, and how I react in the situation of not being able to find the inspiration when I really do need it. Unfortunately I cant display any of the actual design or the name of the client.

Brief: Design of Logotype and Website
Client: Newly founded Marketing company
Timeline: 48h

1. KNOWLEDGE - Started off with some research, to get to know the client, its values and its competitors.

2. INSPIRATION - Gone looking for inspiration, online, in the local vintage-store and in the surrounding back and forth from the gym.

3. SKETCHY - Got all the ideas onto the Muji notepad, for some reason, the first idea is always the best one, although you don’t know it until you spent 20 h coming up with a bunch of less better ideas^^.

3. REVIEW & REST - After a not very smart attempted to calm myself down over my lack of ideas and the pressuring timeline with too much wine, I finally sent out the first round to the client for review. 10 Logo directions, 4 site directions. I’m happy about the logos. But not really feeling the site design, just can’t seem to find my ideas.

3. FEEDBACK & ROUND 2 - As hoped, they client liked the Logo I liked as well, which was the first one I did, of course :P. But for the site, as I knew, not quite the right direction. They deleted some keywords from the brief, which might have screwed with my head a bit.

A 15 min bus ride, typing down a bunch of random keywords on my iphone, 5 min staring down at my white kitchen table, 2 min staring at my Notepad, and everything just cleared, I got a totally new idea which I really liked, I got hella excited, got it all from the visuals in my head onto the Photoshop canvas. Got it sent off to the client for Round 2, fingers crossed.

4. THE VERDICT -

” Emelie,

YES.
This is why I love what I do, it’s not always fun and easy, most often not, it demands hella lot of focus and it’s really frustrating when you can’t seem to find the inspiration, which also makes it really awesome, when you do “nail” it. It’s a kick, and it’s real, and the satisfaction of succeeding makes me happy, and the best part is that it was me myself who achieved it, I didn’t have anyone else make me happy, I made it all myself. Lol, this turned into some cheesy, deep shit, always. But still, think about it, most often its someone else brining you happiness, which also means, they can take it away, But this was all on me, and I’m gonna keep being happy about it, kuz I did something really cool. And yes I do realize it sounds like work is all that matters in life, but thats bullshit, kuz this is not work, this is my awesome life. So fuck that.

Latest work, Art direction/design and html/xml development. Got the brief from a small start up hotel to create their website, with the desire to inspire to spend a night or two on the Swedish country side. To experience the personality and uniqueness of both the hotel and its surrounding.

Launch site

Been quite busy lately, working on a few projects, and I figured it was time to present my latest accomplishments. Photographer Micheal Sugrue contacted me in December, with the brief to design and develop his new blog, showcasing a various range of content divided into categories. The design is based on his existing Portfolio site. The task required a bit more advanced Wordpress coding than I’ve been doing in the past, so it was a very interesting project that I learn a lot from. As a complement to the blog I also created an html email Newsletter that’s going to be sent out to Michael’s clients, partners, etc.

On the note, I had a great time last night, meeting up with Michael for drinks, it’s funny kuz i’ve been doing some freelance work for him, but we’d never actually met. Since he was in London for work this week, he proposed to meet up. It was really nice and we had a bunch of interesting conversations. I Love meeting new inspiring people, and honestly, that doesn’t happen as often here in London as it did in back in SF. Made me miss SF, and Americans.

This have actually been a very productive and good day. Went to visit one of my favorite agencies in the morning, followed by lunch with my absolute favorite person, Monica. Afterwards I placed myself at BrainWash, a cafe, to get some work done, and I got plenty of work done, sweet. I also got to listen to a very painful discussion between a couple, where they were trying to figure out what to do with their relationship, please don’t have those kinds of discussions out in the public. Made me feel sick and got me thinking about stuff I don’t want to be thinking about. Yea My hair looks long.

Kinda realized that the life of Self-employment and Finalproject is hella great. You can be wherever in the world you like, work whenever and enjoying the sun all other hours of the day. Or just..  work when it is not sunny.

Here’s the freelance design work I did recently. A Campaign site, Logo design and two similar websites for two different educations.

I like Wordpress, yep. Haven’t really used it before, just for this blog which, as you can see,  is the most simple blog ever. But after getting this freelance work for Galaxen Creative, I’ve actually started to realize it’s really good. They needed a site that they would be able to easily update on there own and I was choosing between Wordpress and Drupal. Figured I had more experience with Wordpress and that it a bit easier to use. Also a good tool to know, I hope. So started with the site today. W’ll see how it will work out. I’ll keep you posted.

Wedding photography today, so much fun!

Not only with the module, also with the freelance commission for Mejeriet. Niklas called and needed to have the site online in only one weeks time.This meant I had to work with the group project during the days and with the website during the nights and the whole weekend as well.

They were going to have a youth conference were they was suppose to show the result in just a few days. Afterwards I realized that taking on so much work wasn’t such a good idea. For the reason that I worked all night and didn’t get that much sleep I had a really hard time focusing on the group project during the days. This of course affected the mood in the group in a bad way, I’m truly sorry for that.

During the weekend I spend all days and nights in school to finish up with the website. Working all nights in jail (the school, for those who don’t know, it’s an old jail) really freaked me out. It was very windy outside so it was these strange sounds all the time, but every time when I stopped my music to listen were it came from, it stopped. I was so scared. But the night after I made a flash motion with a watchdog that took care of me, so I didn’t have to be scared any more.

Anyway, here’s the link to the website if you’d like to check it out. Its not finished jet, but it’s a start anyway, and remember it my first flash-site. www.mejan.nu