I’m Bodil, a book and identity designer from Trondheim, Norway, holding a PhD in Typography & Graphic Communication from the University of Reading. My research interest concentrates on the verbal and visual presentation of health messages on food labels dating from 1850 to 1970. Please read my blog and have a look at my work. Feel free to get in touch if you think there is something I can do for you. Get in touch ›
– a blog about my work, research, ideas, typography and passion for books.
TRAVEL, WORK AND INSPIRATION | Ten days in Berlin, bringing my design work from home, writing an application for a new project, visiting Fotografiska Berlin and The Buchstabenmuseum, drinking brilliant coffee, and buying too many books. It was a fantastic trip filled with interesting people, including the inspiring and talented Anja Lutz. Anja is an art book designer and co-founder of the publishing company The Green Box. She also founded A–Z, a space in Mitte Berlin dedicated to experimental graphic design.
PHD RESEARCH / INSPIRATION | Bringing my Mac, books, many articles and proper shoes to Norwich for a few days to write, think, be inspired, walk, drink good coffee – write more, read more, think more, drink more good coffee
TRAVEL AND INSPIRATION | Staying in London is always great, working in nice cafes, visiting bookstores and Tate Modern, walking along the streets looking for signs, typography and illustrations.
TRAVEL AND INSPIRATION | OFFF takes place in Barcelona annually and is inviting all those who are eager to learn to participate and get inspired in a three-day journey of conferences, workshops, activities and performances. It’s a combination of Offline/Online designers, Motion Designers, Thinkers, Sound Designers, Graphic Designers, Theorists, Developers, Professionals, Students… Putting the titles aside, OFFF is made for the curious.
Together with author Gunn Merete Roll and graphic designer Kirsten Stangvik I went to the OFFF festival in Barcelona in May to get three days of inspiration. Barcelona itself is fantastic and also very inspiring; Ten days looking at outstanding architecture, signs, typography, colors, the beach, tasting good coffee and food – just to mention something.
TRAVEL AND INSPIRATION | Went to London for a week to work and get inspiration. Bringing my Mac, working in cafes in my neighborhood, wandering around to look at typography, signs, visiting museums, galleries, bookstores, listening to Messiah by Handel in Royal Albert Hall, walking, drinking coffee. Having a great time. 15 years since I went to London College of Communication. Nice to be back.
WORK | A new client including two days workshop, resulted that I had to go to Brooklyn, New York. In familiar style I extended the trip with a week where I worked in different places, letting me be inspired by The Big City; wall illustrations, typography, galleries, shops, manholes, people, coffee, food, architecture and everything else New York has to offer.
It was freezing cold, but the coffee and the porridge was warm and delicious.
TRAVEL AND INSPIRATION | It´s always a great inspiration to visit Berlin. Even though it was a short trip this time, I brought my Mac and did some work. Otherwise I spent the days to let me inspire by everything Berlin has to offer; shops, wall illustrations, posters, signs, coffee, typography, smoothie, colours, the language and food to mention a few things. I also bought some books, one was Designing patterns by Lotta Kühlhorn, a great and inspiring book about how the author work and design various patterns.
WORK | Three years has passed by since I visited Beijing for first time to have preliminary discussion with the Norwegian embassy and to meet Professor Xiaoguang Qiao regarding a paper-cut exhibition in China in 2014.
After a lot of preparation, including designing a 120 pages catalogue, invitation, folder, poster, boards and wall texts – and an intensive final week for both Scandinavian and Chinese team members – October 1 we could finally open the first Paper Dialogues exhibition. It has become a beautiful an evocative installation in Today Art Museum in Beijing with artists Xiaoguang Qiao and Karen Bit Vejle. The official opening was October 5, a lot of people attended, including the Norwegian Ambassador Svein Sæther. The exhibition will also be shown in Liu Haisu Museum in Shanghai, Vigeland-museet in Oslo and in Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim. Read more about Paper Dialogues here.
See more from the catalogue here and the visual identity here.
INSPIRATION | Visiting Berlin and the International Design Festival was a great inspiration. I like to be inspired by many things; product design, typography in public spaces, colors, patterns, posters and cafes.
PERSONAL PROJECT, WORK | The starting point for my trip to Japan related to the support from The Scandinavia – Japan Sasakawa Foundation, was to gain an insight into Japanese visual communication.
I visited both Tokyo and Kyoto and documented in the first place the Japanese visual language using the camera. I started wide with many different directions; architecture, pattern, manhole covers, signs, clothing, food, stores, packaging design and posters. The result has been nearly 1000 images. In addition, I visited various galleries, and had specifically benefit from an exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery, where the award-winning graphic designer Rikako Nagashima showed various works. In addition, I worked on making contacts. I had a meeting with the Art Director Kaoru Matsuno at Hara Design Institute/Nippon Design Center. She works closely with Kenya Hara who is also the Art Director for Muji. In addition, I worked two days with Mr. Yamamzaki Yo, where I was trained in ancient Japanese bookbinding techniques. Mr. Yamazaki Yo is a renowned bookbinder in Tokyo.
Given the goal of the trip, it’s been an interesting journey. With the imagery I now hold, it will be interesting to go more in depth of Japanese design in order to relate it to Western design. The contact with Mr. Yamazaki Yo gave me not only a concrete introduction into Japanese bookbinding techniques, but there was also a fundamental insight into the Japanese way of life, aesthetics and accuracy. Kaoru Matsuno gave an insight into how Hara Design Institute works in various design processes.
The journey and the process has given me inspiration to convey impressions through both lectures and a book. The lectures are intended as a process description based on the experiences I have gained. The idea about the book is to create inspiration for both Japanese and Western designers.
An alternative, or as an addition, it is also possible to think of an exhibition. I have been in contact with Hagiso, a small, newly renovated Japanese house in Yanaka, north of Tokyo, that is a venue for art and other events. They are open to offer an exhibition space for the project. The idea of the exhibition is to introduce Japanese and Western design in a possible artistic context with the book and the bookbinding techniques as a starting point.
