Intermission: About Me

Hi,

So I was just going to write something short about myself, my background and what I currently do. Since I have been writing a lot about my thoughts in regards to design and drawing, I guess this really should have come a lot earlier so that you can weigh my opinions in accordance with your own goals and views as in comparison to mine.

My name is Jens (if you didn't already know) and I'm a swede, currently also living in Sweden. I grew up on a farm, where we mainly kept horses, and there were plenty of forest to run around in. On my mothers side, the family is mainly composed of engineers, designers, architects, artists etc. My dads side of the family is working class people, my dad used to be an electrician (although he's really intelligent and has struggled hard to work his way up in the world, and succeeded. I'm quite proud of him). I also have two sisters, and then two step sisters in later years.

I've always drawn more than the average kid around me, but despite growing up in the family I did, I never really realised that drawing for a living was even a valid option for a career. So after having studied the Science Program during high school, and after my year in the military, I went to University to study Industrial Engineering and Management. I loved being a student, but didn't like the potential career paths and the courses. So after two years, of which one was spent pretty much in agony about the choice to drop out. In hindsight, I should just have switched programs and begun to study Industrial Design Engineering (which is what I'm currently doing, at the same school). I was rather tired at school though, and decided I would try to pursue illustration and concept art, a goal I had had, but never dared pursuing properly, since I was 16. So in June 2012 I sat down and started to study real hard to reach a professional level. I quickly developed a lot of skill, though still pretty laughable in comparison to where I'm at now (hopefully the same will go for where I'm at in 3 years from in comparison to now). As winter came, I started to feel alone, not being able to discuss or get feedback from anyone around me about thee things, and so I decided to apply to a design school. I decided on FZD because 1. It fitted my budget, 2. I was very impressed by what I saw online and 3. They had a batch starting in just a few months from then. So I quickly built a portfolio to submit, and then submitted it and was accepted. All about my experiences in Singapore you can read in my earlier journal about it =]

After FZD it wasn't easy to find work, not for anyone I knew looking at that time either. I've heard several theories about why the job market right then was so harsh, but let's not go into that. I was lucky enough to find employment as a construction carpenter at quit small firm. During the next eight months (we're in May 2014 now) I had the amazing opportunity to learn a completely new craft, and to see a lot of cool environments and to grow my understanding about how the world around us is built and reshaped for humans. We built offices, crawled in attics and vents at hospitals and medical institutions, helped maintaining old churches and even rebuilt and expanded the morgue and crematory (I see dead people erryday, yesh) to mention a few. Anyway, it was quite busy for a while, and I tried to do as much studies and freelance I could on the side of it. In January 2015 the workload at the firm started to slow down a lot, and I felt this was the opportunity to take leave and give another serious go at my dreams. Some of my experiences building offices for designers and engineers had made me realise the importance, at last, of having a degree. So I applied for University once again, this time in Industrial Design Engineering, and was accepted. Simultaneously freelance as a concept artist/illustrator picked up in a major way, and I was even receiving mails from studios if I would be interested in applying for them!

I've decided to stick with my education until I have at least earned a bachelors degree. And this education is awesome! My school has incredible resources, workshops and labs (like a 3d printing lab, and they are even building a virtual reality lab!). My goal is still to work within the confines of the entertainment industry in the end. I believe that as games get's more advanced in terms of physics and graphics, and as virtual reality is looking to be a major thing soon, that the industry will be screaming for highly technically competent designers in the future. People who aren't just creative and can create cool looking stuff, but people who can actually create fantastical designs that will work realistically in a more and more realistic game environment.

Since I have a lot of courses passed from my first time in school, I can't study full time and will still keep up as much freelance work on the side as possible. Right now, nothing I've done is 'out there', but with some hard work and luck it would be awesome to see at least one project I have the privilege to work on realised before I graduate =]

Anyway, considering that this is supposed to be the short summary of what I've been up to, I better stop now. There will be more later, I'm sure =]