Name/s:
Åke Brattberg and Daniel Achilles

Age:
ÅKE: 21 and working on 22

DANIEL: 26

Location:
ÅKE: Right now Falköping, Sweden but soon New York, US

DANIEL: Stockholm, Sweden and Miami, US

Mac or PC:
ÅKE: Both, though I mostly been working on Mac lately. Mac stands more for creativity than PC. PC stands for programming, scripting and stuff like that.

DANIEL: Mac all the way

Site(s):
ÅKE & DANIEL: www.precinct.net

The Boss:
ÅKE: I think that would be me right now but it has been David Warner from Razorfish NY for quite a while before that. David is great! Achilles is also my boss sometimes. He comes with great ideas!

DANIEL: Hmm, yeah Åke is the boss, right.

Design education:
ÅKE: 3 years media communication.
RMI Berghs (on distance, Graphic Design)
Hyperisland - School of New Media Design (2 years)

DANIEL: Autodidakt, life and Hyper Island I guess.

Hunk, spunk or flunk:
ÅKE: Cant make up my mind. I think Hunk sometimes but mostly Spunk. Yeah, Spunk it is!

DANIEL: I'm 100% Spunk, but also 100% Spank.

Disgusting personal habits:
ÅKE: To have all the latest cool products out there. Keeps taking all my money from my pocket. Ehh... I also fart sometimes.

DANIEL: Buying stuff isn't disgusting, I do it all the time. I don't think I have any really disgusting habits at all, well atleast thats what I think. Me being single at the moment maybe ... no forget it.

Nice personal habits:
ÅKE: Intrested in every aspect of things. Like design. I want to learn everything. Dont really now if this is good though, takes a lot of time to now almost everything about sometihng. But its fun to know! Knowledge is power!

DANIEL: I never fight, thats a nice habit.

Hobbies off the net:
ÅKE: I have many hobbies. Skateboarding, Snowboarding and Paintballing. I also play drums in a band called Traktorpuller. To watch movies and play some cool games is also something I do at nights. Quake I rocks!

DANIEL: Yup, I got tons of them. DJ:ing and producing music, tops the list but beer, Final Fantasy (I - IIX) and sex are probobly on it aswell. I don´t think any of my music is on the web at the moment but I'll make more money if you buy it in a shop : )

Favourite quote:
ÅKE: "Dont belive this man, he knows what he is talking about!"

DANIEL: "I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.", is one of them.

What do you know about Australian web designers:
ÅKE: Well, I know Justin Foxs and your work. Isnt www.invertebrae.com from Australia too? Me Like! Other then that it not very much. I would like a lesson about famous and great designers from Australia. Could anybody teach me?

DANIEL: Not much, like Åke I know Justin Foxs work but thats about it.

How did you first learn of the internet:
ÅKE: In the early 1995 I began to surf on the internet. It was because of my program at Highschool were I studied Media Communication. I began with more traditional design but as fast as I got this assignment about doing a page on Internet I only made webdesign after that. It was so fun! My brother (Pål) had been doing stuff earlier than me so soon we began to compete in a way and we learned a lot from eachother. We still do. He is a great programmer now.

DANIEL: Well I didn't start using the net on a regual basis until late 1996 but my first time on it must have been on the Amiga in the early 90:s.

What do you like/hate about the net:
ÅKE: I cant say I hate that much but if I could take away sites and files it would probably be all the childporno and stuff like that. I like all kinds of stuff on the internet. All the inspiring ideas and experimental design. I also like that you can find almost everything that you want to know more about. Its a great medium!

DANIEL: I love the freedom and the fact that you can publish something right now, almost for free, and miljons of people can see it straight away. That's kind of cool. I can't say I hate anything about the web but sure there are some downsides to it.

What drew you to web design:
ÅKE: The feeling to create something new. Something that never had been done before. I later understand this was really hard to do.

DANIEL: I wanted to explore new ways of publishing. The net is like printin some way, in print yo u van choose paper, on the web animation and so on. I wanted to be able to use all kinds of techniques for expressing myself. I still do print, and I love it, but I also love the net.

What is your working style (Photoshop, etc):
ÅKE: I have began evolving from only Photoshop to Illustrator and Photoshop. I first make the layout and not a very detailed site in Illustrator and then take it into Photoshop but it depends what kind of project it is ofcourse. When I am about to make animations I use Imageready. I also like working really hard with pixels. Moving them back and forth, back and forth.

DANIEL: I often start out by getting an idea from a picture or something I saw last night out. Then I use a pen and paper to do some sketches. The thing is I work in different ways all the time, so it's quite hard to explain it excactly. But during "production" I work with photoshop, Illustrator, bbedit, img ready, strata and more but sure PS is the most important tool for me when it comes to design for the web.

Do you think that Flash is cool or overused:
ÅKE: Its cool and overused. You can do very neat and cool stuff and there is very many people doing it. I think it could used for better things then just interesting animations. With Flash 4 it has open a whole new thinking behind the program. You can now do really cool applications and so on.

DANIEL: Flash is both cool and overused. I like som nice extra featuresdone in flash but I don't like people doing flash sites with everything moving around all the time just because they can. Flash is a way of presenting an idea nothing else. Like I said before, one dosn't use a 300g/m2 coted paper to take down notes on, you use it to act as intermediary beetween yourself and the viewer. Sites like Once upon a forrest is an example of good use of flash.

Do you prefer technologically advanced sites or sites with simple but good design:
ÅKE: I admire technolically sites but they generaly seems to have poor design. Thats too bad. I would say I prefer simple good design with some great/neat technological stuff.

DANIEL: Simple good design.

Do you have any cool design tips:
ÅKE: Sit up late and stare into the monitor. Something will make you want to design something neat.

DANIEL: Get a good idea before you do something, don't be afraid of people that claims everything is a ripof. They don't know what they are talking about. Sure there is some real ripofs out there but liking the same style of design as someone else doesn´t meen that you are a ripper.

Favourite sites:
ÅKE: www.volumeone.com, www.shift.jp.org, www.threeoh.com, www.uploading.com, www.famewhore.com, www.wired.com, www.webmonkey.com. email me for more : )

DANIEL: Too many, famewhore, futurefarmers, volumeone, the list is long.

Favourite designers: (Web or otherwise)
ÅKE: To many. Well, some of them are Zuzana Licko, Rick Poynor, David Carson, Matt Owens...

DANIEL: Designers Republic, Matt Owens,

Design styles you hate:
ÅKE: I dont know if I hate any particular style. Maybe the style were people steal other designs and tell everybody thay did it themself. I hate that kind of style.

DANIEL: I can't pick out a specific design style I don't like, all kinds of design can be done in a good or a bad way. I can get blown away by designs that are so far from what I do.

Do you think web designers will become the design elite:
ÅKE: Hard question. There has been more and more webdesign influense in other mediums but I am not sure we will conquer the world as webdesigners. Well, maybe for a little while. I think a really good printperson is more worth than a really good web designer. Maybe.

DANIEL: No, I don't wanna think about designers as print designers and web designers. Some designers will be the elite some will not. Right now it's this big hype about webdesign and sure, since I'm being hyped I shouldn't complain about it.

Do you see yourself as an influential web designer:
ÅKE: Heh, well I wish! Maybe for some people yes, sometimes I get very nice emails that tells me that I am doing a really good job. I wish I could inspire those people that inspires me.

DANIEL: To some I hope, but not in general. I'm trying to come up with new ideas all the time and not only do what everybody else is doing. The problem is that some just see the suface, the pictures and so and don't think about what they are trying to say. Sure, alot of my work looks the way it does just because it's "nice looking" but sometimes there is apiont to the selection of images, words and grafics.

How would you like to be remembered:
ÅKE: As the crazy boy who always did what he felt like doing and as a kid that never wanted to grow up.

DANIEL: Rich, good looking and a hell of a nice guy.

Any final comments:
ÅKE: Feels cool to be interviewed. Thanks alot!

DANIEL: Oh, shit ... I don't know, be excelent to each other maybe. Respect people which work you admire but remember that they are the same as you, only a little better maybe, so don't take shit from them.

Thanks Åke & Daniel!