PMFKA- SWEDEN-TOKYO

June 1, 2010

Artist Interview With PMFKA in Tokyo

This fine mind is one of our favorites artists from the Swedish graphic design scene—that is, if you can call his scene Swedish. After all, he has been a resident of Denmark, the United Kingdom and Japan for the last decade. The work of this Tokyo local, can be described as a multifunctional platform characterized by psychedelic aesthetics, bright colors and 3D. His work spans into the fields of art, music and fashion. His brilliant portfolio includes clients such as Adidas, Sixpack France, DC Shoes, Nudie jeans, Wesc, Junior Senior and Lo-Fi-Fnk. Through the years PMKFA has explored plenty of different styles, creating diverse work with a high level of quality.
http://www.pmkfa.com/
Interview by LL, Text By LK

A couple of weeks ago The Swede Beat’s Louise Lund went to Tokyo and met this brilliant designer in his office located in Aoyama, Tokyo sit down for a more in-depth talk with one of our favorite Swedish creators, “PMFKA” or simply Micke Thorsby.

So how come he made the move from a familiar London scene to Tokyo?
The choice was easy for me, my girlfriend had to move back and I had been to Tokyo before, so I was like there’s no other option than to move with her.

What’s your main source of inspirations?
It’s hard to pinpoint a specific source of inspirations, it all depends on what kind of project I’m working on.
Something that was pretty sick, was going to Greece and Athens, seeing the ruins of old Acropolis, the contrasts and standing in front of a big piece of history like that.
Just breathing old history and be standing in our present is a pretty insane feeling.

How do you look at the hype of being a Scandinavian person in Japan?
I think it’s a misconception that Scandinavian culture would be extra popular in Japan….everything is popular here.
I’ve gotten more recognition from the Western countries being here than from the local community.

How come you’re not working in Sweden?
I’m too restless to work within the Swedish design frame. I think my taste is too extrovert for that scene. I mean i defiantly think you can see some Swedish language in my work, but it’s nothing I strive to do.

Toughest transition with making the move to Tokyo?
Japan is a country with minimal immigration. The VISA situation is probably the trickiest and the rest sort of just comes along.
The social game is also hard to understand in the beginning. Meaning you’ll meet people get along, but maybe never see them again, there’s this layer you have to break through in order to be seen as a real friend.

How come you’re not working more with the music industry and what’s your relationship to music?
I wish I could work more with music projects, but unfortunately there’s no money in it and I have to pay my rent like everyone else.
Music is a big part of my life, it keeps me inspired and creates ideas for my projects, I DJ sometimes at smaller venues. Dropping dirty hip hop, Bmore and screw as you probably understand that scene is not overwhelmingly big in Tokyo, but it’s something I do for mine and my friends pleasure.

What would you say has been you best project so far?
I love all of my collaborations with French SixPack. But again, it’s hard to say something specific, I love the variety of projects I get.
The exhibition we did back in February was pretty insane. For that project I stepped out of my own box and created pieces made out of plastic cast, using techniques such as laser and wood cut.
Even though working with big companies may look impressive on your resume, I probably prefer to work with smaller ones, where the creative freedom is bigger and I feel you’re being a part of creating something major.

Who’s your favorite client?
One of my favourite clients are DC. They give me ultimate creative freedom as well as having a chunky budget to play around with. It’s like being a kid in a candy store. I’m moving forward in my collaboration with them and will do design for shoes as well as develop new packaging for them.

So we’ve been told that you’re also doing a little clothing line, tell me about it.
It’s just a small Tshirt line I started in 2006. The problem isn’t the demand for it, time management is an issue, it has to fall back in favor for my regular job. It’s hard to juggle it all, I mean there’s so much more to creating a line, being a sales rep and so on.
The small scale clothing line has its printer located in Osaka. From its start in 2006, about 2500 tshirts has been printed and sold under the PMFKA brand. It currently has about 20 retailers, mostly located in Europe.

On June 4th art lovers in big apple will be able to experience his art via the traveling art show hosted by Scion Audio/Visual. The alternative art gallery Eastern District in Bushwick, Brooklyn is opening its doors for gallery goers to view the abstract and avant-garde video work of 10 visual artists. PMFKA’s contribution is called ” Spectral Heights, a stop-motion piece, painting a vivid picture of abstract landscape. For this piece PMFKA also did the sound bits.

Tell us a about your contribution to Scions traveling Art show
I liked Sci-Fi before the whole computerized era, back when people worked with optic and usually very cheap solutions to create pictures beyond our normal world.

Below an interview made by Scion Installation 6 to promote the tour:

http://www.scion.com/installation/

Published by: The Swede Beat