Designer, artist and business conversationalist – Podcast interview

Conversations at the root of all human questions and evolution

As you probably know, I was interviewed by @keva Epale for the

#thinkandspeakspositive #podcast, and was able to share and elaborate on

my journey (20+ years in advertising, marketing & branding)

so far, incorporating art, graffiti, sustainability business

development, graphicdesign and meditation and shifting different

#mindsets or rather #frameofminds, while maintaining a personal

#lifeworkbalance.

The interview became a 40 min session (you can find the podcast on your favourite player) where we covered a few bases, amongst other items the aspect of transitioning onward #lifelonglearning or levelling up from graphic designer to become a more strategic impact business developer combining sustainability, design, marketing & communication.


Markets are conversations

In my experience, it is when we are approached by another person or have a conversation with, that we get to know more about ourselves, maybe the fact that we are mirroring eachother?

The accumulated values are stored in my “bank of experience”, is ready to breathe life and provide value for my next platform, so I begin anywhere…

I discovered the "cluetrain manifesto" (2000) around 2005, which for me at least frames the discourse about shopping, push/pull strategies in a less "salesy" manner, and focus on a more dialogue-, and humanbased (beyond b2c, b2b methodology) social interaction.

Being interesting "enough" for an interview, was a bit of a surprise for me. Personally I did not realise what I have done /my legacy/, was remarkable "enough" or even stuck out, but understood in the process, that my passion, my drive and motivation has become my “secret sauce” and my assets.

HEADLINES OF THE PODCAST INTERVIEW

1: Senior designer to leading businesses in sustainability

My journey:

I have worked in marketing & advertising since 1995 and have worked with disciplines such as marketing, communication & webdesign, and it has given me lot of tools and methods to solve the clients challenges, to develop a mutual understanding of where we are starting from, where we want to be and HOW we are going to get there, whether it was lack of proper website, getting a great turnout for events or brand building and IDs.

I am a certified “sustainable business change manager

and did a project for a market leading ICT distribution, who could start unlocking the business potential within the SDGs, and pursue a stronger social license to operate but are putting all my energy and desires into applying my insights into becoming a “impact business development”, combining UX, impact assessment and sustainability.

I might be an unique blend of many spices, and the merging of CX/UX, value based customer journeys, digital ecosystem, connected strategies are where I gonna place my bet for investing in my future self.

HEADLINES OF THE PODCAST INTERVIEW

2: Street art, empowering creativity and the business eye

Another aspect of my journey and what I am bringing along, is how I use my art output as creative fuel to ventilate or even challenge myself. My way into a profession as a graphic designer took off, when I did my first proper graffiti piece in 1986, and I was quickly drawn to everything that did NOT resemble “classic New York” graffiti, with more focus on the shapes, the dynamics of negative space of the entities called “letters”.

I have made a seperate website for my artistic outputs, (check it out!). One of highlights kicked off by my artistic pursuit, happened, when I was personally invited by one of the early kings of graffiti, to contribute to Graffiti 50, an international art book covering 50 years of urban interactions. From creativity running wild on murals, doing commissioned jobs or even hitting walls internationally has testified that even I might be unknown to a lot of people, but my “niche” or style is personal and unique, so I am grateful for the “shine”, since my works and words are part of documented Art history.

I have painted in Russia, UK, Viet Nam, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand and other countries, so please so reach out in you are looking for artists, or have available wall spaces and visit my webshop for the latest original, and one-off works.

Take a listen to from 18 mins. mark in the podcast interview about street art, graffiti and how letters become letterscapes and how it transforms my outlook on typography, graphic design and communication.

HEADLINES OF THE PODCAST INTERVIEW

3: Meditation, the joyful and peaceful source of progress

In the year 1999/2000 I was traveling 11 months with backpack from Denmark to New Zealand. When I returned to DK, I started practicing daily meditation. The state of being detached for the “rat race” from time to time, changed my perspective on life, the values and my purpose. Teaching and practicing meditation for 20 years and counting, has given me confidence, balance and emotional surplus to stand in front of people, presenting somewhat complex topics and communicating the “experience of..” instead of a traditional product sales pitch.

Meditation and the effects of the practice has carried me along, provided me personal sustainability. My view upon being “outside and inside the jobmarket”, shifting through steady jobs and freelancing making parallels with supply/demand approach has me resilient.

In the podcast I am sharing some of my experiences and perspectives on circular movements, “circular economy.. anyone?” and how I see the personal transformations in correlation to innate state of our sublte system (chakras) are entry points or rather “wheels”, which governs and sustains our personal and psychlogical balance.

This is the type of meditation I have practiced since 2000, and so if you are interested, go to: Sahajayoga.dk by the way; the meditation is always free!

HEADLINES OF THE PODCAST INTERVIEW

4: Let's create a change together!

We need to integrate to regenerate to change the way, on how we are managing companies of utilizing NOT “femine/masculine” but go beyond the gender equality, and beyond our concepts and personas of emotions, and take action in order to reconnect.On that note, I picked my “manifesto” for the session, which proved to be a special song, encapsulating my journey so far.

– Have a listen below and find out which song it is!

During the interview, my attention was directed to this album by Fleetwood Mac, it kinda eyed me from the shelves, as my manifesto VINYL, not word.. it became a fitting song.

Thank you for listening, hope that I could inspire, and remember to expand enthusiasm! let's get social and continue the conversation.