Svenni, tell our readers about your background in graphic design and your affection for typography.

“During my time studying at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, I got really into typography. In fact, my graduation project was a typeface.

There's something about only using text that I find fascinating; it's the restrictions that it brings to design, I think. Plus, it's also about the hierarchy of the information. How will other people read it? Will the placement of the text affect the message? It's really interesting stuff!

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But, to be honest, I enjoy exploring the whole scope of graphic design. There's always something new that takes my interest.”

Before Klang, you were the CDO for QuizUp. How did you end up working at Plain Vanilla?

“During the early stages of QuizUp, when Plain Vanilla was still operating out of San Francisco, I was working as a designer for the advertising agency, Jónsson and Le'Macks. At the time, Plain Vanilla was a client of ours and, seeing as I was really interested in the digital side of design rather than print, I took the lead on the QuizUp project. I eventually ended up joining Plain Vanilla not that long after.”

 

How did you end up working with Klang?

“I've known Mundi and Ívar for a looonnngg time; they've been nagging me to join Klang ever since they relocated to Berlin, but, the QuizUp project was too good of an opportunity to give up at the time. Once the QuizUp team disbanded, the Klang guys snapped me up! Plus, I've previously lived in Berlin, so it was an easy move.

I remember them spending endless hours throwing ideas around for a concept that could be game-changing, if you pardon the pun. It seemed like a cool idea at the time – this was about 10 years ago – and now it's becoming a reality as Seed!”

So, you've had your ears chewed off about Seed for a while. What's it like to now be a part of the project since you've known of it for about a decade?

“Well, previously, the project was very complex, with lots of different UI ideas and references. But, at some point, everything just clicked and seemed very doable, although I had no clue how to realise some of their ideas.

It wasn't until I delved into colonization simulation games like RimWorld and Prison Architect that I could envision the concepts laid out by Mundi and Ívar.”

Who or what would you say is your biggest design inspiration?

“I'd say, Paul Rand, because he's such a bad ass. Take the story behind the NeXT logo, for example. His confidence in and the passion behind his work is super admirable.”

What's your favourite game ever?

“It's a hard choice between Super Mario World for the SNES or Quake 3. Both are quite different, but I certainly spent many hours playing both!”

Stay tuned, readers, for the next part of Who's this Klanger?