Viktor's creations are brilliant in terms of meaning as well as designs. His work is appreciated all over the web and I am sure he will continue making headlines with his awesome projects. We are glad to have him for an interview with us. Check it out below with some his incredible designs:
Viktor, let's start with a brief introduction of yours.
Ok, I’m a 28 year old guy from Uppsala in Sweden who enjoys doing graphic design and digital illustrations.
What influences the designer within you?
Lots of stuff. Looking at all kinds of images and photos, watching films and commercials, listening to music and people. It’s hard to tell where ideas come from originally, I guess it’s just a melt pot of
all impressions.
Have you always wanted to become a graphic designer?
Not really, but I came across Illustrator in school, which I really enjoyed. I’ve been more interested in film and music most of my life, but then I felt confident with working with digital images, it suited me quite fine, since I’m not very good at painting or drawing. Now, I think I’ve found my “home” in graphic design and digital art, although I still have ideas for film and music projects.
Would you like to describe your thought process while preparing such clever posters?
Thanks for the compliment! I sit and look at lots of objects and shapes and just wait ‘til I get some ideas that could work. Then I just drag and drop some anchor points in Illustrator, until I’m happy with it. That’s basically it, although the amount of time can really vary. Often, I spend more time looking at stuff and thinking, than actually working on the image itself.
Let's talk about your 'Honest Logos' series. I loved it!
That’s great! I’m glad you like them. I’m still amazed about how much publicity that project got, it was initially just a personal little project, goofing around with some silly adbusting. I started with ‘Cat Videos’ and from the reactions on it, I thought I’d give it a shot, trying to do a couple of more.
You're going to have your first art show due in September. Tell us something about it.
It’s just a selection of all my work so far, so there’s no theme. I called the art show ‘2011: a hertz odyssey’ and made the poster look like the original sci-fi movie, which I thought was an accurate approach. I've made lots of film posters and parody images, so it was relevant, I think. Most of the selected work is also made this year. I’m really looking forward to it, I’m very excited and a bit anxious too, but in a positive way. It’s quite strange to see your work in physical form, hanging on the walls. I had a spontaneous art show in Stockholm a week ago, and it was really great to see my posters together in a crowded room. It’s very different from just seeing them in my computer, so it will be great to do this again, with people walking around and looking at my work.
You can join the event here: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135388603218354
I know it'd be difficult to pick for you but we would love to know which creation by you is the closest to your heart. And why?
I would have to pick my poster for ‘Coffee and cigarettes’, which was one of the first movie posters I made. It was also the first one to get pretty much attention on the Internet, people still write to me and want to buy it. I think it’s a pretty good description and summary of what I do; it’s very simple and minimalist, but contains some good ideas.
Which project has been the most challenging one for you?
I think that would be a logo I did for a company. It was a great experience, and it took quite a while to get to the finish line. I wouldn’t call it frustrating, but it was definitely a challenge to satisfy someone’s expectations and demands, I did lots of different versions and drafts. I learned a lot from this, since I often just do work for myself, without having to clear things and adjust to someone
else's thoughts and ideas.
Share the best compliment you've ever received for your work.
Every time someone buys my work and puts it on their walls, that’s the best compliment I could ever get. Also, a quite new experience is when magazines and people writing books contact me and want to feature my work. That’s very nice, as well.
Do you have any dream project?
I have lots of different ideas for all kinds of stuff; art, music and film. I really want to release an album and make a feature film, before I die. It would be quite nice to have a major exhibition some time, as well.
What do you do in your free time? What are the other things that interests you?
I listen to lots of music, trying to keep up with new stuff and also cover old music in all kinds of genres. I’m a frequent visitor at Metacritic.com, for example. Of course, film is a major interest of mine. I work extra at a movie theatre and I’m involved in Uppsala International Short Film Festival, which is due in October. This year it celebrates 30 years of screening short film, and I’m also very happy with the trailer for the festival, which I’ve been doing since 2007. I’m very excited to publish it online soon and see the reactions from visitors.
Many of our readers would draw inspiration from you. What message do you have for them?
That’s very flattering to hear, thank you. I guess it’s all about doing stuff for yourself, without thinking about how people would react to it. A bit of a cliché maybe, but I think it’s very important to just continue doing things that you enjoy and feel good about. But still, it’s always good to have some amount of self-criticism, before presenting work to other people. Oh, always do a quick image Google to see if someone has already thought of your idea. I have scrapped lots of ideas after seeing that it already exists. It sucks, but it’s necessary.
Viktor, thanks for this awesome interview. We love what you're doing. Wish you all the success and keep creating!
Check out Viktor's full portfolio on Behance.
Buy his creations at Redubble.
Follow him on Twitter.
To read more interviews of inspiring people like Viktor, you can subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also choose to receive updates via email.
Join our Facebook page:
who is the author of this article/interview?