Sweden

Lets all call Sweden and ask them something.

I’ve always wanted to go to Sweden, and since my passport just got renewed I might have to start planning a trip. So, what to do in Sweden? Where to go? What to see? What should I pack? Are they on the Euro? So many questions, and now I can get answers. How? By calling Sweden and talking to a Swede.

This has got to be one of the better tourism ad campaigns to surface in quite some time. No cheesy landscape shots with beautiful people doing all sorts of touristy things. With this campaign you can really call Sweden, and speak to a real Swede and ask them anything you want about their country. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend. I’m going to call Sweden and ask them anything and everything I can think of. Wanna ask Sweden something yourself? You can do it right here at Sweden’s dedicated Swedish Number website.

More Than Just Vodka.

Swedish Vodka maker Absolut has tapped into the “Maker” movement with a new mobile innovation lab built from shipping containers and other recycled materials. The Absolut Creative Space was designed by architects Astrid Skog and Charlotte Stuveback for Abslout earlier this year as a venue for creatives and innovators to produce unique with tools they might not have access to, in a collaborative environment. Inspiration was taken from Absolut’s production process and applied to each of the four individual spaces. The goal was to inspire and enable different types of work with limitless variations on the creative process.

Creative Space was first placed outside Färgfabriken in Stockholm Sweden. The containers occupy enough space to hold all four containers and create a common area in between. That space is a “Semi-Official Zone” according to the architects that designed the Creative Space, which is designed to welcome visitors and encourage them to come closer and get involved. In addition the area was softened with landscaping creating an even more relaxed and inviting space for the creatives using the space as well as guests.

I really hope Absolut brings this to the USA for a tour. I think it would be a blast to participate. The first link above takes you to the Absolut site with case studies of projects already completed.

An area of pallets with plants with meeting places surrounds the four containers.

When One Door Closes…

They say that when life closes one door it opens another. This has truly been the case for me this summer, what with having my job eliminated at Hallmark, and landing a steady design job before my last day at the big H. With that said, here is a video about doors. Shot entirely on an iPhone 6 with Hyperlapse and Cameo by Paul Trillo in Stockholm. It’s Friday. Enjoy.

ABSOLUT Glass.

ABSOLUT VODKA commissioned Designer Thomas Feichtner to design of a new vodka glass to compliment their new hand crafted small batch vodka , ABSOLUT ELYX. The vodka is distilled from wheat that is grown within a few miles of the distillery, in the original copper kettle from 1921 used by ABSOLUT.

Drawing inspiration from other design projects he has been working on, Feichtner created a three leg glass that is produced by hand with the highest quality workmanship of which was key to this vodka’s concept. The glass picks up formally on many of his previous works while retaining an independent character.

“I’m fascinated by the formal alternation between positive and negative, between sine and cosine. And here, I absolutely wanted to separate the glass’s body from the surface upon which it stands and thereby also create a visually independent and self-sufficient object,” Thomas Feichtner

To compliment the glass, and the special vodka ABSOLUT and Thomas Feichtner have created a unique cocktail to go in it. The “Absolut Feichtner” which is comprised of a bit of wheat syrup and lime juice, and a shot of Peychaud’s syrup and a dash of Angostura Bitters. I haven’t tried it yet, but the ABSOLUT web site describes it as “rather light in body with floral aromas, supporting the vodka’s natural taste. The soft coppery hue that refers back to its origin: The nearly 100-year-old copper kettle No. 51 in Åhus, Sweden.