EVE RYDAY

/Uglylogo/Your Friends/Ian Albinson/plus Graffi ti Polaroids,Everyday Fashion & more

7 044610 021829

ISBN 7044610021829��-9

EVERYDAYMAGAZINE A magazine about graphic design & more

№1January2010

NOK: 79,- EUR: 8,- USD: 11,-

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

elcome to the fi rst edition of EVERYDAY MAGAZINE. There are many magazines about graphic design, and they all mostly focus on the works done by graphic designers. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but as of 2010 the internet is overfl owing with inspirational blogs showing all kinds of work from all over the world. We feel that the magazine, an analogue format in a digital world, should function more as a calmer storyteller, rather than doing on paper what the internet already does for free without consuming our planets valuable forests.

In EVERYDAY MAGAZINE we put the people

before the work, not the work before the people. In fact, we don't show you any works at all. Instead, we talk to people we fi nd interesting within the fi eld of graphic design, photography and art and try to show you their story, how they work and live. Why and how is to us more important than what.

In this issue you can read about a young and upcoming illustrator, two young graphic designers and a web designer moonlighting as a carpenter as well as an industrial designer.

If we've succeded, your grandchildren can pick up this magazine from a box in the future, and still fi nd the stories interesting to read.

elcome to the fi rst edition of

Mikael S. FløysandEditor in chief

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EVERYDAY MAGAZINE ISSUE 01, JANUARY 2010

Founder & Editor: Mikael S. FløysandArt Director: Mikael S. Fløysand

Web:[email protected]

Adress:Kirkeveien 1550451 OSLO

Norway

Typography:Univers LT Std,Plantin Std & Akkurat Light Pro

Paper:Scandia Yellow 150g

Cover photo:Mikael S. Fløysand

PICTURESPICTURES

CHATTERCHATTER

TALKSTALKS

The home of Eli Rose and Gui, Tokyo.

Silk screen printing with Uglylogo.

Scary Monsters & Super Creeps.

Inside the Studio of Your Friends.

A talk with Your Friendsdesign agency.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Graffiti polaroids by Aroe.

Ian Albinson & his eco-ambitions.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Mikael Fløysand– Editor in chief, art director, photographer & writer

Henrik Wold KraglundWriter

Ian AlbinsonPhotographer.

Sindre RosnessPhotographer & model

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ELI & GUI

Eli Rose is a model & DJ living with her boyfriend Gui who is a graphic designer. They live in an apartment in Tokyo with their cat.

PHOTOGR APHERThe Selby

Eli & Gui love each other, but make sure to save some love for their little cat so it won't get jelous.

Even dj's/models and designers have to do the dishes manually. Their kitchen is nice, but lo-fi .

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Eli loves to buy anything antique. Clothes, books, shoes and obviously clockwork as well.

Gui on the other hand, is more interested in stuff like horse masks. It's good for scaring people.

Not very surprisingly, most of the shoes belong to Eli.

At the far end of the appartment next to the bedroom, they have a large walk-in closet.

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–YOURFRIENDS

Your Friends consists of Carl Gürgens and Henrik Fjeldberg, a two man graphic design studio located in Fredensborgveien 6, Oslo, Norway.They recently moved into their new studio, and they're very pleased with their new location. The studio consists of a large room with a bookshelf along the wall (with quite an expanding library), two desks with macbook pros and external monitors, and a table with chairs for coffee breaks and client meetings. They also have a nice little kitchen, but they didn't want it to be photo-graphed as they claimed it wasn't fi nished.

Read more about Carl & Henrik in the inteview on page 25.

PHOTOGR APHERMikael S. Fløysand

Like any good graphic design studio, Your Friends are young at heart. The offi ce space sports different toy objects scattered around.

Ideas come and go, and if all you have avilable for writing it down is a napkin, then a napkin it is.

The studio has a large bookshelf at one end, with an expanding library of graphic design related books as well as magazines and paperwork.

Right next to the entry to the studio, Carl and Henrik have a spot for their coats and jackets. Their very own tote bag also rests here.

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EVERYDAY MAGAZINE №1 | 15

WRITERAroe

PHOTOGR APHERAroe

Like Lipstick Traces

Like Lipstick Traces is a book published by Dokument Forlag.It contains polaroids from 9 profi lic graf-fi ti writers collecte over three years. The writers were not given any guidelines for how the pictures should be taken, and the result is a collection of pictures that represents their personal perspectives.

he question of whether you can make it into history is a very hard ques-tion indeed, because it leads to a situation where you have two ways to answer and one of them can make you look very arro-gant. However, with regard to my person-al life, it's impossible for me not to make it into my family's history. I'm the father of four children, I have a brother and a sister, and a long-term girlfriend who I'm sure one day will be my wife. So in that respect I will always be remembered.

In terms of graffi ti, it's a combina-tion of luck, will, ability, passion and the ability to capture other writer's or the public's attention, and then holding it without disappointing them whilst keep-ing yourself in the spotlight long enough to make a mark. Whether or not I have achieved this is not something I would choose to answer. There are shortcuts to infamy which a lot of people take, but

they end up being remembered in a nega-tive way rather than being respected by their peers, which by all accounts tend to last longer. The graffi ti scene in the U.K, London particularly, thrives on toys crossing and backgrounding more capable writers' pieces in order to gain notoriety which has led to a situation not dissimilar to the lunatics taking over the asylum. In reality, I can see no end to this until graffi ti, other than tagging, in our capital is completely dead. Which is, in short, a tragedy: a short-term gain is always a long-term loss.

Secret stories.The drive or force for me personally is the pursuit of doing the best piece that I can, which I have never managed to do. I spent many wasted years in graffi ti not focusing on what I wanted, or what I thought I wanted. Years of ugly tags, unfi nished pieces and tons of lame rub-

bish that earnt me no respect from other writers, or if I'm honest, even myself. I took som time away from graffi ti in the late nineties and thought a lot about what writing meant to me, and what re-ally controlled it and how the fame game worked. As soon as it becomes clear that if you are honest and accept that it's nothing more than painting to collect props, the easier your goal is to achieve.

This moment of understanding opened every door that had previously existed and the game began. We formed a notorious crew that redressed the who's who list in our country in a dramatic fashion that remains to this day. Every week trying to paint something new, or twist something old and give it a new life, pushing better concepts, bigger produc-tions, better colours and refi ning tech-niques in the quest for that impossible, perfect piece.

Instant photographyI found the polaroid quite diffi cult to use and ended up wasting a lot of fi lm with pictures that were too blurry, to-tally out of focus, too dark or bleached out completely. However, some pictures were really nice and certainly captured things in a way that a regular camera could not. It was also quite funny, I would often take it out with me in my bag and then forget that I had it with me and miss perfect opportunities for killer pictures. Sometimes I would be really busy and not bring the camera out with me for months at a time. During the project I broke the original camera and I had to replace it with one that was a bit different and that I found easier to use. That said, I have not taken a single Polaroid photo since the project fi nished and possibly never will again.

I FOUND THE POLAROID QUITE DIFFICULT TO USE, AND ENDED UP

WASTING A LOT OF FILM ON BLURRY SHOTS


Top left: Brighton. England, 11.2006Top right: Haywards heath. 01.2007Bottom left: Terror fabulous. Brigthton, EnglandBottom right: Brighton. England. 08.2006

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Top left: Ljubljana, Slovenia. 01.01.2006Botttom left: Italy. 30.12 2005Top right: Brighton, England. 09.2006Bottom right: Record gems. 08.2005

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Frode found his old t-shirt in the closet at the studio, and decided to wear it so he wouldn't mess up the one he was originally wearing. Silk screen printing is messy stuff.

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glylogo, or Frode Skaren is an illustrator/graphic designer from Kvinesdal, Norway. We meet him at the paper department at Norway Designs in Oslo, where he is about to purchase pa-per for his new silkscreening project. We enter the store wondering what he might look like, and spot a guy who fi ts the the image in our heads about a young aspir-ing artist. After he closes his paper deal he asks us if we've eaten lunch, we say no and he then proceeds to ask us if we eat junk food. Ten minutes later we're at the burger shop close to the silkscreen studio he uses.

I always eat lunch here when I'm printing, he says. I know it's not healthy but it's so close to the studio. He makes fun of me as I spend a lot of time framing a picture of him eating the hamburger. My brother is a photographer, he's also just like that, he says. He'll wait forever before pressing the button, waiting for people to forget they're being photo-graphed and act natural.

After fi nishing our food, we walk the short road up to the silkscreen studio. Frode calls the overseer, who he men-tions is a bit strict about letting strangers

WRITERMikael S. Fløysand


Being a graphic designer, illustrator, silk screen enthusiast and father, Frode Skaren shows us his silk screen routines and talks about his life as a young designer/illustrator.

into the studio. Luckily, he agrees to let us join Frode into the silkscreen studio. We enter the studio, which looks like ex-pected, not too messy, but not too orga-nized either. Paint and different objects related to silkscreen printing are scat-tered around. Frode points at one of the dressers labeled "the fi ttest" and pulls out different sketches and silkscreen origi-nals. He shows some skethces that never got printed, and the original of him and Mads Omlands Big Venn print. He care-fully explains the process of printing the different layers on top of each other.

When I work together with Mads, we usually just draw together, building on what the other person does. Though it's usually I who arrange the layers and col-ors for the silk screen process, as I have a better understanding of what needs to go where for it to come out right.

EducationFrode just fi nished his bachelor in Visual Communication at the Oslo National Academy of arts before summer 2009, and says he really enjoyed his school days. I would like to fi nish my masters degree too, but then my wife back back home

got pregnant, so I kinda had to leave Oslo and get back home.

I knew at the beginning of the edu-cation that I wanted to try silk screen printing, so I signed up on one of the courses as soon as I could. I remember I got there late, which wasn't very popular with the teacher. I remeber the fi rst thing I screen printed was a Kanye West song I was into at the moment. It said the good life with an illustration (laughs). But I re-ally enjoyed it, and started doing it more and more.

We ask him about more about the education, if silk screen printing is com-monly practised among the students, and are kinda surprised that it is not some-

thing many of the students at Visual Communication do a lot.

It's something you have to to on your own in addition to the other school as-signments, and it takes a lot of time. You have to work a lot if you want to get good at it, and you have to sacrifi ce other things. For instance, one of the last big parties that were held at the school, everyone was there but us. While they were drinking and having fun with the others students, we were here in the stu-dio, doing silk screen printing. So doesn't come for free at all. To me it's all worth it though.

Frode continues to show us the pro-cess of printing, today he's just gonna

Frode is concentated while applying the black paint that is going to become the second layer for his thank you cards.

As we were waiting for the green light, Frode got worried that I might get hit by the passing bus while taking this picture. Luckily, I survived.

Frode enjoying his hamburger, he usually eats at the same hamburger joint everytime he's printing, as it's very close to the studio.

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5 WHILE THEY WERE DRINKING AND HAVING FUN WITH THE OTHERS STUDENTS, WE WERE HERE IN THE STUDIO, DOING SILK SCREEN PRINTING.

WHILE THEY WERE DRINKING AND HAVING FUN WITH THE OTHERS STUDENTS, WE WERE HERE IN THE STUDIO, DOING SILK SCREEN

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WE ALWAYS DO SOMETHING WRONG AT

THE SILK SCREEN STUDIO. WE'LL FORGET TO CAP A

BOTTLE, SPILL SOME PAINT OR MAYBE EVEN RIP A

FRAME. ONE TIME THOUGH, WE DID EVERYTHING BY

THE BOOK. AFTER THAT WE GOT OUR OWN KEYS

TO THE STUDIO.

WE ALWAYS DO SOMETHING WRONG AT

THE SILK SCREEN STUDIO. WE'LL FORGET TO CAP A

BOTTLE, SPILL SOME PAINT OR MAYBE EVEN RIP A

FRAME. ONE TIME THOUGH, WE DID EVERYTHING BY

THE BOOK. AFTER THAT WE GOT OUR OWN KEYS

TO THE STUDIO.

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Frode gets a call while he's busy printing, and has to tell the person on the other end to call back later.

Carefully carrying the frame from one room to another, making sure it doesn't rip. The fragile frames do that quite easily.

The fl oor has seen many years of young students come and go, and not every drop of paint is used for printing. Some ends up on the fl oor.

Bendik got to be Frodes assistant during the printing process, he even got to do a print all by himself.

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Uglylogo/Frode Skaren

print a small card that says thank you in black and purple letters. I got the idea a while ago, when a girl from England commented on something I posted on my blog, telling me it was nice or some-thing. So I thought, if a girl from another country takes the trouble to comment on something I made, why not send them a proper reply. So I got the idea to make small cards and mail it to people, not just give them a reply on the internet. It'll only cost me about 5 kroner (ca 1$), and imagine how much of a happy surprise it would be for them.

The way I see it there are two ways of promoting yourself as a graphic designer, one is to go around to all the agencies telling them you are the best designer in the world, another is to just be pa-tient and generally nice to people. And I choose that last approach.

PrintingFrode takes opens a bottle of black paint and pours it over the silk screen frame. You have to do one layer for each color he says, so it's kind of a time consum-ing process. But when you've done ev-erything right you have a very effective

way of making a great number of prints. Also, for me as a former student at the National Academy of Arts, I don't pay for anything but the paper, so it's a great way of cheap printing if you're up for it.

Another student appears, he's going to print something as well. He shows us the cleaning room where they clean the frames. If you're not thorough when cleaning the frames after use, you'll make a ghost of your print on the frame. And then the next person who is going to print something completely different may get a ghost of your print. And that probably isn't going to be appreciated at all.

He fi nishes washing of every remnant of paint on the frame, assuring that the next person who uses it won't get a sur-prise, and we rejoin Frode who's getting ready to do what at least he came here for, printing his cards.

The fi rst sheets always get ruined no matter what he complains. You have to get into the fl ow and eventu-ally the press will tune in. Like now, the upper right print gets messy because of too much paint. I'm not sure why that's happening, but it doesn't matter that much since I'm printing 4 cards

Uglylogo is the name of illustrator Frode Skaren. According to him, he only uses the alias Uglylogo when he's acting as an illustrator. As a graphic designer, his name is still just Frode Skaren.He currently resides in Kvinesdal, Norway with his wife and baby daughter, where he's having his studio set up in the old barn they live in.He also occationally works together with Mats Omland under the name The Fittest.

www.uglylogo.com

www.uglylogo-the-blog.blogspot.com

www.wearethefi ttest.blogspot.com

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All black is the color that covers the silk screen frame. Frode wears his protective clothing so he won't spoil his clothes.

Frode explains the process of printing in layers, placing the original of the layer he's going to print on top of the already printed matter.

The fi nished thank you cards, drying and waiting to be cut and hopefully mailed to friends and strangers.

We get shown the process of washing, which is quite a messy experience. But it's important to do it properly, frode stresses.

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on each paper, so I'll stil get 3 of them come out right.

The overseer that we've been warned about enters the room, and turns out to be a nice guy after all. He attended the National Academy of Arts himself in his youth, and now both prints him-self and function as an overseer for the schools silk screen studio. He explains that though not many of the students at Visual Communication use the studio, they really should because it teaches you the very basics of printing things that should be experienced with your own eyes and hands. Much like a photogra-pher should experience the darkroom process, even in a digital age like ours.

Frode asks him about his little prob-lem about the ink bleeding, and he quikly solves it by adjusting something on the press. After he leaves us, Frode talks warmly about him: You can't learn stuff like that in a year. He's both been printing and working here for years, and knows this equipment in and out. I didn't have a clue about why the ink was bleed-ing in the corner, and he just came in and fi xed it like that. That's experience.

We tell him that we were expecting someone much more strict after what he told us before, and he just laughs. He's strict all right. He'll fi nd something to yell at us about almost every time. We always do something wrong when we're in the studio. We'll forget to cap a bot-

tle, spill some paint or maybe even rip a frame. One time though, we did every-thing by the books. After that he was so pleased with us that he gave us our own keys to the studio so we could come and go as we please, laughs.

Frode recruits Bendik as his personal assistant and entrusts him to place the fi nished paper prints to dry as they get

fi nished. We event get to try to print one ourselves, and it comes out nicely.

The thank you postcards are fi nished, and Frode now has a nice number he can send out to fans and friends. It's all about self promotion he says, but not in an intruding way. I've had nice exposure on the internet, many blogs have picked up my works and featured them, in fact, most of the commisions I get arent't from Norway but from countries like England who've seen my work on the internet. It's all about selling yourself but without coming off like a total douche. And I think I've managed that, he fi nishes as we walk out of the studio and into the cold Norwegian night.

IT'S ALL ABOUT SELF PROMOTION.

In this room, the word cool does not mean anything at all.

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YOUR FRIENDSIn this room, the word cool does not mean anything at all.


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enrik Fjeldberg and Carl Gürgens met as they studied graphic de-sign at MI in Oslo. After their studies at MI, they both got accepted at Central St. Martins in London, and it was here they started their cooperation on school assignments as well as freelance work. After one year at Central St. martins Carl moved back to Norway and started a bachelor in Visual Communication at The National Academy of Arts in Oslo, while Henrik stayed behind and complet-ed his education in London. While Carl fi nished his fi nal year at The National Academy of Arts, including an internship at Node Berlin, Henrik worked at the de-sign agency Uniform until they in June 2008 established Your Friends.

How did your educations from The National Academy of Arts in Oslo and Central St. Martins, London contribute in shaping you as graphic designers?

At Central St. Martins the most im-portant thing is that you're allowed to interpret things in your own way. The education is quite free, and the school allows for the students to fi nd their own way of working.

WRITERHenrik Wold Kraglund


They've nearly been labeled fundamentalists.But Your Friends just doesn't belive in form over function. Rather, they think that people need to be educated on what graphic design is really about.

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Your Friends is a small agency, but that doesn't mean their office is small. Henrik sits behind the computer, while Carl is on the phone.

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Carl and Henrik in the other end of their office, meant for coffee breaks and client meetings. Henriks prefers wearing slippers at work.

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Carl looking serious while being interviewed by our journalist. Unlike Henrik, Carl seems to prefer wearing his real shoes inside.

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This desk belongs to Carl, and like many young graphic designers these days, he also seems to have a love for trendy bikes.

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Your Friends were had just returned from a trip to Tokyo when we met them, and some of the material they printed there was on the floor.

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St. Martins favor concept and idea before form.

How was the first period after you started Your Friends?

It's hard to point at anything in par-ticular, but we definitely learned ex-tremely much in a very short time. The amount of work was surprisingly large from the very beginning, and the combi-nation of design and administrative work has turned out to be nearly 50/50. Also, there's a lot of client meetings.

When you start your own business, you have to cherish business just as much as design. We've been very lucky with our customers. One job has led to the next, usually bigger and more comprehensive.

What kind of approach do you have when it comes to Visual Communication?

We're especially interested in printed matter, and the little web design we do are often related to print based jobs. Your Friends focus on communicating in sur-prising ways.

To surprise the client, to do something the client didn't think was possible. We've been called fundamentalists in our ap-

proach to Visual Communication, but we think it's important to show that graphic design is more than a surface. Good ideas live longer than fancy decorations.

We do art direction, which, truth be told, is a pretty watered out term. To us it means to always be involved in every step in the process from the very early stages, and we're more than willing to partake in the editorial work. We're extremely fo-cused on being there for the entire pro-cess, and we think this is something that makes the results better.

How do you start a creative process?It has some connections to our name,

Your Friends. We work together with the client, and we ask the right questions. We're also critical about what questions the client is asking.

– A project always starts with thorough research, both on verbal and visual ref-erences. Vi also do thorough research on the concept, and reflect over nearly everything there is to reflect on. Vi try to find a way that isn't there in the first place.

Do you work in a special way, any routines?

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notice as you fi nish school, that the need to learn is still there. And that is a need that should always be present.

And ongoing dialogue with the cli-ent is also important. If you don't meet any resistance, you haven't challenged enough.

What are your sources of inspiration? Any role models in visual communication, that has an had an impact on what you do today?

The study culture that has been going on outside of Norway. The world of de-sign that lies outside the largest agencies. Countries like France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and England, have an entire different approach to graphic design. They're dedicated people with an ownership to what they do, and that's inspiring.

Henrik mentions Alan Fletcher as one of his main inspirational sources, while Carl mentions Experimental Jetset, not necessarily because of the visuals, but because of their simple communication.

Direct communication is extremely valuable. That is something that norwe-gians aren't very good at interpreting. As long as things look good, that's enough.

"Kult" (cool) is the most overused word in Norway. In this offi ce, that word doesn't exist. We want to show what design can be. We work big, with small things.

Are there any side projects alongside Your Friends that you work on?

I'm working on a font for Gestalten. I have the rights, while Gestalten is the distributor, says Carl.

We're typography nerds, and we would like to do more fonts. It's impor-tant to work on private projects, and we have many thoughts and plans, but little time. We get our way with many of our ideas while working with Your Friends though, that helps a little.

Any visions for the future?I would like to be able to tell a random

person that I'm a graphic designer, and that person would know what I am do-ing. But that may be an impossible goal, Henrik fi nishes.

Visit www.yourfriends.no to view works.

OFTEN WE HAVE TO SCHOOL OUR CLIENTS, MAKE THEM CONSCIOUS ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE ASKED US TO DO FOR THEM.

Every process starts intuitive, but you have to set certain boundaries and put the ideas into a system before you do anything visual. It's about what kind of feeling you get about the project. We wait a rather long time before we do anything connected to form, and we want to have our clients with us on our thoughts be-fore we present anything visual. Often we have to school the clients, make them conscious about what they've asked us to do for them. Not only for ourselves, but people need to be taught what design ac-tually is. Many clients don't understand what Your Friends actually are able to offer.

Do you have a special kind of clients?We've worked a lot with customers

from the cultural spectrum, which again

has developed to larger culture projects that are more commercial. It has been a steep climb, but not in any conscious way. It became so, more or less randomly. We were very lucky with our fi rst clients, like The National Academy of Arts, and then it just went onward from there.

Are you so privileged that you are able to reject clients?

We're not in a situation where we can pick and choose at all, but there has of course been instances where we've said no. We say no to projects we don't see any potential in. We also don't like it if we're brought in at the end of the pro-cess, like when someone has a concept and everything ready and think "now we just need to slap some design on it and it's ready to go".

We don't want to do just fi nishing.

Do you have any dream clients?Oh, it's that question again. We always

struggle with that. (laughs) I can't name any names, but we want to work with clients who understand design. We just want to do really good jobs, expand our spectrum, open peoples eyes to what we think is good design. It's also very inspir-ing to work with things you don't know anything about, with a client relationship based on mutual respect for each others fi eld of expertise.

It's important that we learn something from the projects. That's something you

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Taking responsibility, and getting dads help in doing so.

BUILDING AN ECO-FRIENDLY HOUSE IN VERMONTTaking responsibility, and getting dads help in doing so.


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aedia and Ian Albinson are used to thinking outside the box. So when the artistic couple - she's an animator, he's a designer and media producer - started house hunting, it's not surprising that their search took an unconventional turn.

They yearned for community, prox-imity to farmer's markets, and a space uniquely suited to their tastes. They also wanted to live green. To them, this meant more than adding eco-friendly-looking fi nishes. It meant fi nding - or building - a house with passive heating and cooling capabilities and energy-effi -cient insulation and using Energy Star-rated appliances and lighting. It meant avoiding fossil fuels. And it meant using as many green building materials as pos-sible, and choosing a spot located within walking distance, not driving distance, of daily activities.

After a fruitless search in the Boston area, where their jobs are based, they

veered north. "We thought we could af-ford to buy land and build the house we wanted in Vermont," says Ian, 33. They found a 15,682-square-foot parcel near the town center in Bristol - and arranged telecommuting gigs with their companies.

Green moneyThen they had to fi nd a mortgage. A green house costs more to build (even though, when fi nished, it's often worth more) than a non-green house of the same size and in the same location. But the loan offi cers whom the Albinsons spoke to couldn't take this into account when determining an appropriate loan size; there weren't any other local houses like it on the market with which they could compare. "The people doing the appraisal had no clue what we were try-ing to do," Ian says. "They just didn't have the knowledge about sustainable design and building to understand its

WRITERChristie Matheson

PHOTOGR APHERIan Albinson

Ian Albinson and his girlfriend Raedia decided to build their own house. Not just any house, their dream house is both practical and striving for a 5 Star Plus Energy rating. And they did it all themselves, with a lot of help from contractors and a helpful dad.

Ian may own the house, but his dad is helping him fi nish it. When Ian is too tired to work, his dad doesn't hesitate to shake him up.

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The original drawing plans for the house. His dad drew those as well.

Ians dad working on the exterior of the house.

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The small model of the house Ian and Rae dreamt up, ready to be set into life in full scale.

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Winter has come, and the exterior of the house is finished and bathing in the sunset of Vermont.

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value." But Ian and Raedia, 27, success-fully argued their case. "Ultimately, the bank designed a new green building loan program based on us," Ian adds trium-phantly.

They broke ground in May 2007. "We studied shelter magazines and collected designs we liked," Raedia says. "Flooring, details, materials… there's so much to think about." Ian's dad, a master wood-worker who lives in nearby New Haven, Vermont, drew up the house plans. They positioned the house and the windows to maximize passive heating and cooling and natural light.

What have you been doing on your own exactly? Are you supervising builders, or did you, say, pour the slab yourself, etc?

Since we both work full-time, the main construction of the house, includ-ing concrete, framing, systems etc. were done by a great group of contractors. The design, research and interior/exte-rior fi nishing (painting, cabinetry, land-scaping etc.) is being done by us with a ton of help from my folks.

We would have liked to have worked more on the construction, to keep costs down, but working and living 4 hours away in Boston didn't help.

Sourcing cost-effective green ma-terials proved the most challenging. While ecofriendly materials are more widely available than ever, they found that many come with a big price tag.

"Focusing on green materials that we could actually afford helped us narrow things down," Ian says.

Presumably you're steering clear of the dreaded concrete?

Would have liked to, but since the site is sloped and we wanted to cut into it to give us downstairs rooms, there was quite a bit. We tried to use as much fl y ash as we could in the mix, but even that needs to be transported from great dis-tances. There are no simple "green" solu-tions with concrete, but it's an extremely versatile material that lasts for decades.

SalvagingThey skipped the expensive Paperstone counters (made of recycled paper) and instead chose more affordable Marmoleum (a green fl ooring and countertop material). They opted out of big-ticket items like an induction cook-top and photovoltaic solar panels but splurged on a geothermal heating sys-tem. "We had the option of going with an effi cient propane-based furnace, but stuck with our no-fossil-fuel mandate," Ian says - plus, he estimates the system

will pay for itself in 10 to 12 years.One of the Albinsons' cost-cutting,

and ultra green, tricks: using castoffs from other construction projects. "We went to places that carry Marmoleum and asked them for remnants," Ian says.

"You have to go to a lot of showrooms and look in the back." They used as many reclaimed and salvaged materials as possible, such as a substantial set of 500-year-old Douglas fi r support beams and drawers and doors left over from a woodworking company's other projects.

FloorworkI'm surpised you desided not to roll with wood (or even bamboo) for the main living area. What made you go with carpet?

We went back and forth between wood and carpet, but the latter ended up being much cheaper, quicker to install, quieter, cleaner (in terms in capturing dust etc. instead of "dust bunnies" which you of-

ten get with wood fl oors) and it's cozier.We used Shaw brand, a very tight ber-

ber weave, which should last 10 years or more, and can be fully recycled by the company. Carpet made from recycled content was another option, but it tends to be much more plush, loose weave, which doesn't last as long.

As for wood, Bamboo was out since it's very hard to know what the com-panies are like that export from China (human rights, sustainability etc.) and local hardwoods (New England region and Canada) were more expensive per square foot. Install can also be expensive, or time consuming if you do it yourself. That's for pre-fi nished wood.

Unfi nished can be cheaper, but then you're still nailing or gluing it down your-self, renting the big ass sander, then fi n-ishing and it's never going to be as good as pre-fi nished's 10 coats and UV cure treatment processes.

Are the bathroom fl oors marmoleum too? Did you consider cork for anywhere as a fl ooring solution?

Yup, both the master and utility room/guest bathroom have marmoleum as the fl ooring as well as the vanity counter tops. We've also used it for the kitchen counters and will for the offi ce desk and

built-in unit behind that. Looked at cork, loved it, but it's just too darn expensive. All the marmoleum that we've used have been remnants, and run about $1.33 sq ft, which is incredibly cheap. Cork starts around $4.50

Not every material in the house is completely green, nor is the home fully carbon-neutral. "We still pull energy from the electric grid," Ian says. Still, compared with a conventional home, this is a seriously earth-friendly abode. No one looking at it would ever know the Albinsons chose concrete made with fl y ash (a greener alternative to standard concrete) for the foundation and slab, or that all the wood comes from carefully managed sources.

To off set the costs of their green choices, they've tackled most of the in-terior work on their own, from painting with low-VOC paint to fl oor installations. But it's been worth it. "It can be depress-

ing at times to live in an unfi nished house. It's tempting just to do things the conventional way," Ian says. "But you always have to keep in mind that being green really is important."

THEY JUST DIDN'T HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND BUILD-ING TO UNDERSTAND ITS VALUE.

The main goal is a super insulated house, that requires minimum energy to run. The overall design of the house and placement on the land takes into account passive heating and cooling, reducing the mechanical systems that we'll need over the changing seasons. Vermont can have extremely cold winters, as well hot and humid summers, so the systems used need to cover a large range of temperatures. One aspect that was very important to me was to see if we could reduce our fossil fuel use, meaning no natural gas (which is scarce in VT anyway), propane (widely used), or oil (also widely used). An all electric house however can skyrocket utility bills, depending on what you're running, so we decided to offset this with a geothermal heat pump system for our main heating/cooling and hot water heating. Regarding electricity, Vermont is lucky that a very high percentage of its power comes from either hydro or nuclear, two very clean sources (nuclear has larger implications of course), as well as cow power at a slightly extra cost, and so all electric seemed to make the most sense.

As it stands now, a geothermal system will be combined with an HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator) and hydronic heating/cooling furnace, similar to traditional forced air systems. An HRV however is a air circulation system that provides constant fi ltered fresh air from outside, while at the same time removing the stale air from inside. The recovery part is that it transfers the temperature of the inside air back to the new air coming in, keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. What this type of system gives us is excellent indoor air quality year round, and the ability to heat or cool the air cleanly via its hybronic coil.

About the house design6

Ians dad is a master woodworker, and building cabinets for the offi ce space is just a walk in the park.

6

The exterior of the house, now with fi nished concrete steps.

7

Rae is working on the fl oor made of leftover pieces of marmoleum, it's quite like putting together a large puzzle.

8

8

Visit www.vtecobuilder.com for more pictures and updates about the project.

7

54 | EVERYDAY MAGAZINE №1

SCARY MONSTERS & SUPER CREEPS

Photographer: Sindre RosnessModels: Sindre Rosness, Mikael S. Fløysand, Jens Bjørklund, Mari Hagen Nilsen, Eirik stiansen & Kasper Amundsen TuvnesLocation: Party at Kirkeveien 155, Oslo, winter 2009

Jens is wearing a striped shirt from H&M, & black jeans from Nudie


Mari is wearing a dress from Top Shop & a white cardigan from Gina Tricot. Mikael is wearing a grey shirt from H&M & black jeans from Nudie. Ingar is wearing a shirt from NY.


Sindre is wearing a striped shirt from H&M, a black Cardigan from Selected Homme & grey jeans from Acne. Knife from Fiskars.

WOR K ING H ARD OR H ARDLY WOR K ING?

WOR K ING

62 | EVERYDAY MAGAZINE №1

Phographer: Mikael S. FløysandModels: Sindre Rosness & Kasper Amundsen TuvnesLocation: Kitchen/Office/LivingroomOslo, winter 2009



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