Name:
Thomas Brodahl

Age:
23

Location:
Luxembourg, EUROPE

Mac or PC:
MAC all the way

Site/s:
surfstation.lu
surf.lu
xtrapop.com

One thing I have always wanted to ask you, you are from Norway, a country not really renowned for its surfing, so what's with all the surf related domain names:
Thats a pretty good question. I actually registered surfstation.lu back in 97 thinking i would make a portal site for Luxembourgish websurfers...i made some tests with it, and it was kinda cool, but was much too much work and not very rewarding. Then i wanted to start up a webdesign company, and needed a name..... i alreaddy had surfstation, and discovered that surf.lu was still free, so i thought, i would just stick with it.

Surfstation is going great, what were your original intentions behind setting it up:
To give something back to the webdesign community, and at the same time get to collaborate with great designers that i respected. I think the idea was to just do all the things that we wished other sites would do. Really push content AND design instead of just one or the other. We also figured that if it went really well, we would become superstars and chicks would chase us wherever we went.....we're still waiting for that to happen....not there just yet.

Who/what inspired you to start it up:
I was intrigued by the webdesign community which i had first discovered through digitalthread, then three.oh, and finally k10k. After surfing around and being inspired for some 6 months, i was really getting into the various styles and sites, but i was always wanting more. Errol invited me to be part of Mental.nu and I was thrilled, finally i would get a chance to be part of something collaborative with great designers. The months came and went, and mental never really got going. There seemed to be a slump in internet creativity at the time...kiiroi and artistica seemed stagnated (no updates for months) and uploading closed its doors. Frustrated by this, and the fact that mental was not coming together, i started thinking about doing something myself. I wanted something with tons of content, and fresh design. I asked Germàn and Yohan if they would like to start surfstation with me, and they both jumped on the idea. 3 months later we launched our first issue.

You have jokingly called Jade and I "the enemy" a couple of times, do you feel there is any competition between the main design news sites:
I really don't think so. I mean we all want OUR own site to be the best, but i think we all mutually appreciate what the others are doing, and have very friendly and cooperative relationships. Don't get me wrong, you are the enemy, but for entirely different reasons! :)

The team behind Surfstation all have fairly similar design styles, do you agree:
Initially perhaps. German, Yohan, and I all love the grungy more textured and messy approach to webdesign, as do Ryan and Errol, but i think we have all grown as designers since we started Surfstation, and i think you see more and more of the sections expanding into different styles than they did in the first issues. I still think our styles fit well together, i just think there is more diversity now.

Where do you see Surfstation heading in the future:
We're just gonna push it, and see how far we can take it. Ideally, i would be able to quit my job, move to the carribean, sit on the beach and do Surfstation full-time, but i really don't see that happening anytime soon. I think we're gonna take it one month at a time, and see where it takes us... so far we are having a lot of fun doing it and as long as that is the case we'll keep jammin' out new stuff.

Do you have any other projects? If so tell us about them:
Well there was mental, but that died out. Now my time is mostly spent working for clients, and bustin my ass to get new issues of surfstation out there. I've also been hustling to get my personal-portfolio site up.

I finally launched XTRAPOP.com a few weeks back. Its not meant to be a big thing, just a place where i'm gonna try to show some of my other works, the stuff appart from Surfstation. Gonna keep putting some of my photography up there, and basically just have an archive of my designs...both commercial and personal work. I keep forgetting stuff that i have done...this way i am better able to keep a track of things. Also since i plan to move to London this summer i figured it was about time to get a propper presentation together.

Who/what influences your own personal design work:
I actually draw a lot of inspiration from the web. Looking at other design sites, and looking through exhibition sites, etc. Lately i've been buying more books, and getting more interested in print design, and try to mix in different inspirations in my work. In terms of people that inspire me....the surfstation boys deffinitely keep my juices flowing constantly....whether its Yohan showing me secret backdoors into EvilPupil, or Ryan busting out some ultrasmooth flash interfaces, or German messing up his screen in the most beautiful chaos, or Errol laying down some good'ol dirt, they all inspire me tremendously. Certainly other designers impress and inspire me as well....Bradley, Mike Young, Cina, Joshua, to name but a few.

What do you know about Australian design/designers:
I don't know that much, but i do know that the few i know are seriously talented. You and Jade, Justin Fox, and a few others are deffinitely up there with the best of them. Appart from that i really don;t have much to go on.

Any final comments:
I much prefer asking the questions as opposed to answering them!! haha... thanks for the interview bro.