Workspace for the soul

Tomorrow I'm moving in to my new shared workspace in the eastern part of Copenhagen (Østerbro). It's really tiny but I'm looking forward to have a place outside my (also tiny) home where I can work with all the fun projects coming up this spring.

When I grow up I'll have a place like this one below. It used to belong to italian architect Achille Castiglioni and is actually a museum you can visit if you are ever in Milan. In the words of one of my favourite fictional characters: "Isn't it dreamy...?"

So we move on. Constantly.

Things were a mess for quite a long time. I never imagined the road back to normal would be so bumpy and long. This blog, used to be home for a lot of good ideas and my own little corner of the great wide web. I kind of miss that. Blogging was so unpretentious and relaxed and fun and inspiring. I miss that too!
I decided quite some time ago that I was going to quit blogging for the magazine because staying to long in the same place always kills my creativity. Finally I got around writing that e-mail saying I wanted to quit. So now I'm here.

I will use this space to share whatever happens to be on my mind or in front of my eyes.
It won't be like before, because there is no such thing as a constant. Everything is moving. Always.

This is an image of an artwork by artist Ayan Farah. A projection of light that resembles the sun shining through two windows. I saw something similar to this at Malmö Konsthall once. There is always a possibility to create a little sunshine where there is none.

Thank you thank you thank you!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has left me London tips, I'm feeling so excited about this trip now! You are the sweetest!
I have a feeling that the upcoming weeks I won't be the most frequent blogger, since I started a new job last week. It's at a small book publishing company and I'm very happy about it, since I always dreamt about designing books for a living. Jubii!! But, you know what it's like when you start a new job, it can be quite exhausting. If it's quiet here, you can always pop by my other blog @ Elle interiör, that one is updated at least a couple of times a week.

The London trip is this upcoming weekend and one thing I will be sure to do is to have Afternoon tea at some really nice place. Teapot above is by Ettore Sottsass. Like a building almost.

News news news!

I've started to blog for swedish ELLE Decor! This blog will be focusing on smart small space soloutions and inspiration for those of us who live with few m². The blog is in swedish with a summary in english so I hope some of you will follow me over there. 50 danska kvadrat will stay here, and continue as usual :) Looking forward to seeing you over at Elle's!
Follow the link here: http://vinklar.elleinterior.se/

So long for a little week!

I'm going away for a few days to teach a workshop in illustration here. I'm excited to meet with the students and Becci and I hope to inspire and surprise them a bit. A lot of exciting things are happening in my life right now (finally!) and I hope to share some of it with you soon. Until then, take care and visit some of the excellent blogs in my blogroll! See you in a little week!

Animated gif via ffffound

Wallpaper for Bungalow 5

I made this december wallpaper that you can download over at Bungalow 5.  There are also a few of my limited edition prints left to buy at Cinnober bookshop. A perfect christmas gift :)

Emma Busk

2011 Calendar sneak peak!

Me and Becs are working on our 2011 calendar. Picking 365 sticks was a hard job but it will be worth it for sure. We are hoping to get it ready and printed by the end of this month and this limited edition series will be sold through this blog and our website, possibly somewhere else too, but I'll keep you posted on that!
Have a great weekend!

Beneath still waters...

This is an illustration I made recently for the swedish magazine Aluma. I wonder if I will ever grow tierd of putting noses on things.

ⓒ Emma Margareta

Small exhibition at Cinnober

My favourite bookshop here in Copenhagen is Cinnober. They have the best supply of wonderful illustration, graphic design and architectual litterature and everytime I go there I want to buy it all. Cinnober is located in the centre of Copenhagen, close to the shopping street Strøget so if you are in town you should definately pay it a visit! Starting on tuesday the 2nd of february they will be selling some of my limited edition prints and I'm very happy to be in such good company!
How to find the shop here!


cinnobershop.dk
emmamargareta.com

Michaela's birthday!

This is what she got from me!

Necklace by Emma Margareta

A gift to a very dear friend!

Very intense workshop together with my old friend Emma! We made graphics for this board wich later was given to another friend as a birthday gift. Everything was made by hand and each of the little squares in the top layer had to be cut out separately before spray painting.
It took us a few hours but I'm quite pleased with the result!

A bit like a ferry

Can you believe that I am going to work in THIS building for the next couple of weeks? This is so so strange and especially to me since I'm really afraid of hights (I started crying while climbing the tower of Vor frelsers kirke in Copenhagen a couple of years ago!!)
Yesterday I visited the designstudio I am going to work with for the first time and it was such a weird experience. This house was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and was, upon it's completion in 2005, the tallest building in Scandinavia.
I can understand the necessity to build really tall buildings in cities where space is limited, but this is Malmö! The building has apartments as well as office spaces and the office where I am going to work is on the 19th floor (out of 54) so it's not even halfway up, and I must say (even on a cloudy day) the view was spectacular!
I'm not the biggest fan of this type of architecture, neither interior or exterior. Apart from the view, it felt abit like being on a ferry or on an airplane. How do you get a cosy, homey feeling in a space like that? And I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where the windows just opens 10 cm! Where there is only one way out!
For an office, it works just great and I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks (especially to work together with the nice and talented people there!) and maybe I can start dressing more stewardess-like to match the interior!

About the calendar

Alot of people have been e-mailing me, wondering how they pay for the calendar. I've never sold anything over the internet before so it was a bit confusing to start with. But now I've set up a PayPal account to use for the payments. I'm very happy about all the response and the nice comments! Thank you!
If you want order a calendar, the price is 6 euros (shipping is 4.75 within the EU and 6.59 to the rest of the world)
Just send an e-mail to Kollega@kollegaworks.com with your name and your shipping adress!
Have a very nice day!

Vases and faces

I like this vase by Frank Kerdil for PO!
Most people are familiar with the Rubin vase, the famous set of optical illusions developed around 1915 by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin in wich you can either see a vase, or two faces.
This is not the first time the optical illusion has been made into a real 3D object. I found out that in 1977, a vase was made to celebrate the silver jubilee of queen Elisabeth of England. On one side you have the silhouette of Queen Elisabeth, and on the other, the one of Prince Philip. If you follow the contour of the vase, one profile morphes seamlessly into the other. The vase is therefore assymetrical!
You can view a video of this here!

vase2face from PO

"The queens speach" via Grand illusions

An illustration I made a few years ago!

The calendar is printed!

Finally the calendar is printed and ready! Me and Rebecca are very happy with the result! It's for sale and for 6 euros+shipping ( 4.75 within the EU and 6.59 to the rest of the world). The calendar mesaures 29,7 x42 cm (11.8 x 16.5 in) and is printed on pale blue 160 gr paper.
Just send us an e-mail with your shipping adress to kollega@kollegaworks.com and we'll send it to you first thing after Christmas!
We use PayPal for the payments.
I'm off to spend the holidays with my family in Gotland now, but I'll be back after Christmas! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!



If you are interested in buying our 2009 calendar, send us an email kollega@kollegaworks.com

Our new 2009 calendar!

Me and my friend Rebecca made this calendar this weekend!
We hope that 2009 will be the best year ever, and maybe humanity will even discover a new planet this year and maybe, maybe, it will look something like this..



Kollega

The calendar is printed on pale blue 160 gr paper, and mesaures 29,7 x42 cm (11.8 x 16.5 in) and is for sale to anyone who also believes in a happy 2009! We will send it to you, no matter where you are! Just send us an e-mail at kollega@kollegaworks.com and we'll figure it out!
The calendar is 6 euro+shipping ( 4.75 within the EU and 6.59 to the rest of the world) and the color of it is slightly darker than the image above.

Similarity

In my work I often tend to be inspired by things that looks a bit like my own work. Even if my work is mostly 2D I often find inspiration in both architecture and interiors.
Chroma Lab is a Boston-based studio that focuses on renovating and repainting old furniture and I like their bold colours! I found this chest of drawers and it looks alot like a calender card I made last year together with Rebecca at Kollega, don't you think?
Maybe this piece of furniture would not go into my home, but I think it's fun and refreshing!





from Kollega

Big love!

I fall in love with old cabinets. Is that a fetisch?
Our appartment is on the 5th floor and there is no elevator in the building but i have managed to talk my dear boyfriend into helping me carry three huge ones, two of them found in our garbage room, all the way up to our place. Now there is definately no room for more cabinets in our 50 m2 but I still secretly admire pictures of pretty ones on the web.
Like this one f.ex!



from: Design Sponge

And this one is one I built for an exhibition as a part of my master project in illustration!



from: Emma Margareta