Oh Yeah Studio

What are some of your earliest creative memories and what lead you into design?

I grew up in a industrial town so creativity was not part of my life for many years. What lead me into design was pretty random. I knew I wanted to create and had a vision of making the world a better place, but I wasn’t actually good at anything. I started writing, taking photographs and thinking of making movies and music, but didn’t feel I had the talent and didn’t have any friends that were interested in these things. After many years without doing anything after high school, I tried out a web design and graphic design class in 2002. This was the first time I felt that this was something I managed. I got good feedback and grades so went on studied graphic design.

When did you fall in love with design and how did you get started?

I started to fall in love with design when I studied graphic design in Oslo and visual communication at Central st. Martins in London. When I studied I didn't know what to do. I wasn't satisfied enough. I learnt about type, colours, grids, rules, concepts, but that wasn't enough. I wanted to dig deeper. I was searching for answers, or a formula, so I could create images with only shapes and colors to stimulate inherent emotions all humans are. I wanted the viewer to feel one or more of the inherent emotions all humans have, like sadness, disgust, hate, happiness and so on. Emotions are a necessary part of life, affecting how you feel, how you behave and how you think. So I didn’t actually fall in love with design, but how visual work could change a person's way of thinking.

I worked freelance after school and got my first design job in 2007 and I loved it. I worked day and night for many years and wanted to do everything that could help me make better work. I was very curious and that is probably why I have worked with digital design, graphic design, motion, illustration and art. One of my first freelance jobs was making Identity for a Michelin Star restaurant, whinebottle design and a campaign website for Burton.

Some of my first projects in my design agency was websites, catalogues, posters and identities. They were really good jobs, great people and good projects, but I was very stubborn and had my own vision so I wasn’t the best colleague at that time. I quit after one year in my 3 first jobs. Tips for not to do things. Be nice and work hard :)

Oh Yeah Studio was established in 2009 by me and partner Christina, it has developed from a hobby-project into what it is today, a multidisciplinary design studio. First it was just a playground where we could be creative without clients and we called it Oh Yeah Studio, doing after dinner. This was a place where we could do whatever we wanted without other people telling you to ’change that’ and ’do that’. First we had just exhibitions and such, but as we developed our own style and expression it became clear that we both wanted to collaborate and see what we could get out of merging our styles and ideas. After a while we got some attention because of the artistic approach and worked with international clients after two years.

Give us the elevator pitch on what you do. 

I work as a designer in my own company Oh Yeah Studio, but I also work as a teacher at Kristiania college and work as Creative Director in Bekk Consulting. My aim is to seduce, inspire and create emotional responses to all visual projects. I work widely within the design disciplines. In addition I also work with personal projects, such as exhibitions, graphical prints, posters and murals. My clients are Nike, Adobe, Unicef, Red Cross, Adidas, ESPN and Burton.

What qualities and skills to you look for in a graduate?

The qualities I look for is a combination of curiosity, playfulness, uniqueness with good craftsmanship. I also look for students that have different qualities or superpower skills. The students that impress me are students that have great concepts and inspiring visual work, but also can do something more like do motion or code.