Velkommen til Klostervænget is a large tiled image in Viborg, made from 248 ceramic tiles for the people who live in the area — and for everyone passing by. The project gathers local stories, food, nature, everyday life and small pieces of history into one image: a way of noticing what is already there, and perhaps making the place feel a little more like home.
A preview of the large image.
Then tiles became T-shirts
Some of the tiles wanted to travel further than the wall. I began turning selected details from Velkommen til Klostervænget into T-shirts and small visual artefacts, each connected back to the larger story of the mural. The shirts carry the tile code of the original motif, so a print can work both as clothing and as answer to a curious question: — Where on the wall did this image come from?
Below is a collection of all T-shirt-connected tiles:
Beats and melodies, usually arrive in the morning. They come as they are, with no fancy wrapping.
I sometimes try to summon them, but much like deer and other wild animals music isn’t too interested in being herded by me, so I have to be swift and clever.
Usually I merely get to reach a guitar or one of my ukuleles.
Other times I can bundle the joy up a bit more, like here with my EP-40 and Ting:
Check out the lyrics : “I am in the corner. No one knows my name. I am in the corner. No one says my name. And even though that I am the baby around here — no one says my name.
Much like a passenger in an airport, I need to wait of the next flight. In these stretches, while waiting for music to land, I sit down with my instruments anyway. I sometimes film it.
Weird instruments collection
I have an extensive interest for electronic music and I seem to be collecting all kinds of instruments. The smaller and weirder the better.
I act a bit like a train spotter, but instead of trains, I make notes on new music gear and software: in a database in Notion, obviously. It keeps me from resorting to GAS — Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I guess I am a gear-spotting singer-song-writer with a fascination for crossbreeding the acoustic and the electronic.
Much like songs there are tiny sentences who lure themselves into existence and they seem to be neighbors to songs, but they are not music.
These sentences have no time to really inform me how they look – I get a glimpse, but that’s it.
So, my job is to let them manifest. So far they are tiny comics. So far they are here.
Sketchbook discoveries
Early baby-me made words. The first word my baby mouth spoke aloud was, according to my father, BoBo. Interestingly, BoBo was me.
There may have been other words my baby brain made, but my baby mouth could not yet form.
I am looking for those words and their meanings.
This is Bobo. His unique ability to unearth my original words fits his job description perfectly, so I hired him. Hence the Instagram handle: Bobo Labore.
— This is for the geeks: Like many others geeks, I was inspired by old geeks, like Albrecht Dürer. So, in the 1990’s, I used to sign my art prints with a monogram made of H and M. You can still find it in my logos.
Case you also like detail, here’s some detail information for you 👆 .
Now, to make this even weirder, see how the M overlaps the ring forming a “BO”? Pure magic.
We all know the importance of belonging. In this seven minute animated short film, entirely made by Henrik Malmgren, an old desperately lonely widow, makes a risky decision, that changes more than her own life.
An animated film for Viborg Municipality, created for staff meetings. It frames a conversation about the delicate balance between two extremes: becoming overly empathic or becoming too distant when supporting citizens affected by alcohol abuse.
Dealing with hard topics, using animation
Viborg Municipality hired me to make a film for all employees who, in their work, meet people struggling with alcohol misuse.
Because the subject is complex, and there are no easy solutions, there was no simple step-by-step guide to communicate either. Employees are often affected by feelings of powerlessness and frustration, and the film’s task was to act as a constructive conversation starter, without placing any individual citizens at the centre.
Here is a video-introduction to the project:
Animation as conversation starter
From my earlier work with films that open up conversations, I knew that animation can be used to get people talking about difficult things in a different way. During development, we therefore agreed with the specialist group that the film should be used in staff meetings, to raise the issue of how employees can maintain the balance between “understanding and becoming hardened” — keeping empathy for the citizen, but without being pulled too deeply into all the ups and downs experienced by people with addiction.
Finding a style that gives hope
While developing the visual design for the film At møde borgere med misbrug, it became clear that the imagery had to communicate the harsh reality without making the employees watching the film lose faith that they can help the citizen.
The finished film
The film is not released and lives its own life at employee meetings in Viborg municipality.
The film has been shown to employees like intended. Here is a short clip where the positive impact of the film is shared.
2D illustrations created for ‘Skolens tidsformer’, a film exploring a sociological perspective on how time is experienced, structured and negotiated in everyday school life.
Animation for science dissemination
GoodJobStudios was brought in to make 2d-illustrations for the film “Skolens tidsformer”, directed and composited by Jesper Fleng. The stop motion animation was created by Christophe Peladan — including crafting the charming puppets.
The film explains the academic paper “Tidspraktikker og tidsopfattelser i undervisningen: Et studie i lærerens tidsmæssige rammesætning“ [7 jan. 2020] by Malene Engsig Brodersen.
I really enjoyed diving into the curious universe that Christophe Peladan created. The slightly dreamy dimension was really fun to work with. After the project I took some time to color a few of the illustrations. (tap/click to see larger).
A dreamy Spinn-Off
The dreamy world we had created in the film, deserved further exploration and since I had a couple of left over drawings of a generic and imaginary sociologist, that didn’t make it into the film, he became the pivot.
The troubled face of the sociologist, kind of spoke to me, and I tried to capture that in a contemplative text about Time. The drawings from the 3 stages of his life combined with the different clocks from the film, made sense as illustrations
TED-Ed pairs educators with visual storytellers to turn complex topics into clear, engaging animated lessons — and GoodJobStudios has created four films for them so far.
GoodJobStudios has created films for TED-Ed on subjects ranging from quantum physics to why we feel awful when we’re sick. Each film needed its own visual language, shaped around the topic and the tone of the script.
Get it vs Feel it
The challenge is not only to make complex ideas understandable, but also memorable. A completely dry explanation can be accurate and still disappear from memory. Humor, character and visual metaphor help create the balance between “I get it” and “I feel it” — giving the viewer something to hold on to while the scientific details stay intact.
That the voice-over says “diarrhea” and then the friend takes a small step away, was something many noticed and really loved.
When working for TED-Ed, the script is already in place. My role, in these type of projects, begins from there: developing the visual storytelling in close collaboration with the educator or scientist, so the final film becomes clear, engaging and as accurate as possible.
Who’s at risk for colon cancer?
Colon cancer is common, but often preventable when found early. This film explains how screening can detect polyps before they become cancer, and who may be at increased risk. Educators in that project were Amit H. Sachdev and Frank G. Gress.
The surprising reason you feel awful when you’re sick
What feels like the flu may not be caused directly by the virus itself. The piece reveals how the body’s own immune response creates the aches, fever, tiredness and loss of appetite that make us feel sick. Educator in that project was Marco A. Sotomayor.
The mathematical secrets of Pascal’s triangle
At first glance, Pascal’s triangle looks like a neat stack of numbers. This film reveals the patterns, shortcuts and mathematical surprises hidden inside it. Educator in that project was Wajdi Mohamed Ratemi.
What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?
Made in co-operation with educator Chad Orzel, this film explains a concept within quantum physics, designed, animated and directed by Henrik Malmgren.
Animated films and app-based games created for substance abuse prevention workshops in Danish upper-secondary education, supporting discussion and reflection among students.
Animation as fascilitation tool
Søren Holm is a substance abuse prevention educator and addiction coach. Søren facilitates workshops (PAS and PAS-Light) in which he uses animated films and app-games — written and produced in co-operation with GoodJobStudios.
Søren also gives introductions to other educators on how to facilitate these animation supported PAS/PAS-Light workshops. Below he speaks at a PAS-Light introduction workshop, where he mensions the films about the animated character Peter.
Here is Søren Holm, at a workshop for teachers, speaking about the animated films about Peter – films used in substance abuse prevention workshops for highschoolers.
In the series for PAS, we made a story about Peter. It’s a subtly humorous set of four films about Peters downfall, from young promising carpenter with a girlfriend, to broke loner plotting a bank robbery.
In four parts Peter loses it all to his substance abuse. After each film, students are asked if Peter has a problem.
Induce productive discussions
The material is designed to induce productive discussions among students at danish highschools and trade schools, not to preach or scare anyone.
In a typical workshop students watch the animations and/or plays the app-games. Afterwards, in different ways, students get to share and reflect on how they relate to the particular substance the workshop is focused on.
From pilot to series and other media
What started as a small pilot test in 2016, developed into a tool-set consisting of animated films and two phone app games — all fully made by GoodJobStudios.
· Communication theory made easy
The very first animation in the PAS universe dives into the concept of Passive vs Agressive communication. The purpose is to invite students reflect on how they, and others, react and speak. Improving awareness can help our relationships and in extension how we speak about problems.
A limited character design can still carry refined messages. The abstraction allows the audience to fill in the gaps and still identify with the characters.
For “Neutralisering” we needed some additional voices, so (in order of appearance): Henrik Zacho, Rasmus Folsø Jensen, Mathilde Vinther, Laura Søndergaard Isaksen, Anne Hoberg Overgård and Peter Egern Meldgaard kindly stepped in.
· PAS Light : Norms and Values
Under PAS Light the focus is on alcohol. For this section GoodJobStudios co-wrote and produced two films and creates two phone app games: Velkommen til ‘Fællesskabet’ & Velkommen til ‘Værdiskabet’.
A film about what norms and values actually are, and why they matter.
An introduction to what alcohol potentially does to a group.
Animation for the documentary ‘Jagten på Dilmun’ that revisits the Danish exploration of the Bronze Age kingdom of Dilmun, in what is now Bahrain, initiated in the 1950s by P.V. Glob and Geoffrey Bibby.
GoodJobStudios was brought in to help illustrate what archaeological evidence alone cannot show: the world of a 4,000-year-old trading culture connecting Mesopotamia and the Indus, which may or may not have been the real-life Garden of Eden. In all, we created six and a half minutes of animation.
A selection of animation clips from the documentary, with music by Henrik Malmgren.
Working with director Teddy Bruslund and archaeologist Steffen Terp Laursen, we discussed how Dilmun’s temples, dwellings and rituals could be represented. Together, we shaped a visual world between archaeological evidence and mystery.
initial visual concept by Ruta Babelytevery first 2d/3d integration
Advanced animation for precision and mood
3D animation allowed us to integrate this illustrated world into Teddy’s moving live-action footage. For the mythological passages, including a passage from the Epic of Gilgamesh, we used the same assets to create animation with a flatter, 2D treatment, giving the myths a distinct visual language.
Vertical slices from four different animations clips capturing the visual style.
Dilmun’s ancient stamp seals have a particular appeal, and Teddy suggested using them as inspiration for the people inhabiting our world.
Although used for administrative and commercial purposes, Dilmun seal stamps were crafted with a strong sense of artistic beauty.
I designed the characters, which Ruta then modelled and rigged in Blender. She also camera-tracked the live-action footage so our animation could follow its movement. I handled shading, materials and most of the animation, with Ruta contributing additional animation.
character designcharacter model & rigshallow formshallow form : rendered
Ruta Babelyte and I ended up producing six and a half minutes of animation in Blender: from temples and rituals at Barbar and houses at Saar to city walls and towers guarded by stern Dilmunites.
A brief clip with animation stills from the film.
Credits
Director: Teddy Bruslund Character design, shading & lead animation: Henrik Malmgren, GoodJobStudios
Modelling, rigging, camera tracking & additional animation: Ruta Babelyte.
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