Anders

I’m on the tram swooping through Amsterdam with the new Modest Mouse album playing in my sound cancelling ear buds, and suddenly I feel that overlap between my present and teenage selves, and I feel just as fascinated by life and creativity as I did back then. What brings you back to yourself? My teenage self: in the art program in high school (Midgårdsskolan in Umeå), dreaming of being a comic artist because web comics were THE coolest, I thought. Narrative. Linework. Color.

The source of my frustration: this idea that there’s a formula for creativity that can be repeated endlessly and tapped for all its monetary value. It almost works that way, but in another, more important and real way, it doesn’t work that way at all. Let me try to untangle my brain in words.

I’m thinking that since I will be writing with an Amsterdam perspective, at least to some degree, I’d like to start by sharing my quick thoughts on being a creative in this city. For context, some background is needed, methinks. I have a B.F.A in Graphic Design from the Corcoran (at George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. This means I learned design in a US setting, with a US mindset on work, and a technical approach to design. It means I studied MORE design than ma