Erik Jonsson
Art Direction, Design & Branding
For work and related inquiries : erik — erikjonsson.se

I typically work as acting Art Director or Designer with a studio vendor and/or their team. I take on most type of design related projects with a few exceptions in regards to timing and business type. With the industry having shifted towards a model where management and talent no longer need to be in the same physical location I have shuffled as well. I generally work off-site by the virtues of Skype and Hangout video conferencing and while strange at first I found little actually changed in my day to day process.

 


The story so far

It all started for me for real when I got hooked on Cyberpunk in the mid 90s. When we replaced our Ataris with pc’s I got into designing ansi/ascii for the modem powered bulletin board systems along with doing graphics for the party driven demo scene. Spent most of school doing pixel graphics and music spun up on the hype around Spray & Razorfish.

So fresh out of graduation I jumped on my first job as a designer in the spring of 2000. Saw the boom and the crash. Kicked around a bunch of studios mixed with freelance commissions for some years. Spent some time working Cafe’s during the slow years. Got bored with that and started my own company in 2006 to capitalize on the upturn. Applied to Hyper Island to study in digital media program. I guess i wanted to tap in to whatever art school vibe I felt i missed out on spending years doing corporate design.

After the year in school I got an internship at Your Majesty in New York the summer of 2008, and when they offered to get me on full time i stuck around. Staid on through 2011 and moved over to London in the beginning of 2012 to join Stinkdigital as an Art Director. After a big year with Stink I got contacted by Fantasy Interactive to head up design in their London branch they were planning which saw me work harder than I ever had before. When another year had passed in London I decided to go full time freelance to regain some of the spark that initially saw me take up design back in the summer of 2000. To properly facilitate I relocated to the southern coastal city of Malmö to, like an artist should, find good space and light to work in : )

 

History

November 2013 to present
Freelancing Art Director and Designer

September 2012 – October 2013
Art Director at Fantasy Interactive London

January 2012 – August 2012
Art Director at Stinkdigital London

July 2008 – December 2011
Art Director at Your Majesty NYC

Nov 2009 – Jan 2010
Freelance designer at Blast Radius Amsterdam

August 2007 – June 2009
Student at Hyper Island

November 2007 – April 2008
Art Director at Duke

April 2007 – June 2007
Freelancer at Daddy

 

Recognition

Google: The Performing Arts
D&AD Wood Pencil (Digital Design – Websites)
Adobe Cutting Edge
FWA SOTD

Google: Inside Abbey Road
D&AD Wood Pencil (Digital Design – Websites)

Nike: My Time Is Now
Oneshow — Interactive Gold Website And Consumer Goods
Cannes Lions — Silver, Interactive Film
Cannes Lions — Bronze, Interactive Video
Cannes Lions — Bronze, User Experience
FWA — Site of the Day

Geox: Amphibiox
Oneshow — Interactive Gold User Experience Design / Visual Designx
Cannes Lions — Gold, Clothing, Footwear & Accessories
Cannes Lions — Silver, Photography
Cannes Lions — Bronze, Best use of Branded Content & Sponsorship
Cannes Lions — Bronze, User Experience
FWA — Site of the Day

Canon: Beyond the Still
Communicator Awards – Other – Distinction
Creativity 41 – Consumer Website – Honorable Mention

True North Snacks
Pixel Awards – Commerce – Winner
Creativity 39 – Gold
Davey Awards – Gold

Cisco: The Realm
HOW Magainze’s Interactive Annual – Merit
Creativity 39 – Gold

FWA Site of the Day — Google DevArt
FWA Site of the Day — The Good Food Fight @ C+B Europe
FWA Site of the Day — Fight for the Flavor @ C+P Europe

 

Network

Instagram Mostly cycling

Facebook Probably also mostly cycling

Strava Definetely all cycling

LinkedIn