May Kolanj
I interned at Blankt, an award-winning art-tech startup on the mission of offering the world the most customizable posters of all time through an online interactive platform.
My contribution to the project was through designing patterns, elements, frames and templates for users to choose from as they create their own unique posters.
Anorther project I worked on with Familjen Design Agency, was for Norstedts Juridik, the leading supplier of legal information services in Sweden. I contributed to producing a visual interpretation of Sweden’s Law book for the year 2022, and a communication concept image of the many courses offered by Norstedts Juridik, these were used for various print and digital materials.
One of the projects I worked on during my time with Familjen Design Agency was for Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, the main company running the land-based public transport systems in Stockholm county. I created an illustrated manual for the vehicle decals for the new Roslagsbanan that I turned into a presentation video below.
The project was one of the assignments at Forsberg School for design. Updating today’s public signs to become more relevant and easy to react to. I chose to work on the priority seats sign and added a heart to show love and support.
BABAS Burgare is a restaurant, there you get your hamburger cooked with love.
BABAS Burger see every hamburger as a work of art. They’re inspired by people and interested in culture. That is why it is one of BABAS’ priorities to contribute to it and give back. During my internship with Dramaqueencomms in 2020, I had an assignment to illustrate several artists as part of BABAS Burger’s menu design.
Stray Data is my graduation project. The idea came in light of society’s lack of credibility over social media that has become the source of most of our information that we circulate and promote without fact checking the information we receive.
I started playing with a LaserJet printer; and found out a manual technique where I could change words as they are printed. I started navigating different placements of the printing papers and could stretch, distort, extend, and narrow them to the point that some words lost shape completely and became unreadable. The words I chose remained the same but the way they look is different now, echoing how the media portrays different realities to the one we actually live in.
The project was digitally projected in a public area where different words were scattered around the space allowing the physical elements to play a role in how the words were shown. People could walk around scanning a QR code to enter this virtual distorted reality, chasing the words until they are at the right angle to read.
This project was about exchanging lights by visiting the physical event. Here is an illustrative model about the event. The idea is to bring quantities of light and reflect through mirrors so you can redirect the beam to someone else as a reminder of kindness and empathy. Each participant of the event received a mirror to track the light and pass it to someone else.
This project was turned into a digital interactive space after social distance during Covid-19, where people can digitally send light to their loved ones without having to be in the same physical space especially during lockdown. To send a light now you can visit: passyourlight.se
Working on this assignment has introduced a gentle push to a new genre of music. The artist was inspired by Sweden’s glorious forest to create magic which inspired me to visually portray the Echo of sounds and beats.
Gringo Nordic is a curious coffee roasting company in Gothenburg, Sweden. They were planning to launch their most powerful Espresso, Hobo.
I tried to find inspirations for strength that echo the bitter and sharp taste of coffee. The Character I created has eyes wide open, filled with clear veins, expressing the intensity of the coffee and so his mustache symbolized solidity and confidence throughout the years.
