Creative generalist, Gothenburg
Otis Lindqvist
I design and build small sites, write the words that go on them, and once a year I record something that has nothing to do with either. One person, four or five projects, all of them finished. The planner below is the honest version of that sentence.
- 34-36 Kajplats Books, building the stock list
- 37 Open. Calls, small fixes, one day of writing
- 38-41 The Ferry Hour, second edit
- 33 Letters no. 214 went out on time
About
A short bio
Eight years on my own, four before that inside a publisher, and a fairly clear idea of what I am for.
I grew up between a print shop and a boatyard, which is a decent explanation for how I work now. I spent four years in-house at a publisher here in Gothenburg, doing covers, then the site, then the newsletter, then the ordering system, in the way that happens at a company of eleven people. I went out on my own in 2018 and have been booked ever since, mostly by people who found me through somebody I worked for two jobs ago.
What I am good at is holding several parts of a small job at once, so nobody has to translate between three suppliers. What I am not is a department. If your project needs six people it needs six people, and I will say so in the first email rather than the fourth month.
Outside the work: a tenor horn I play badly in a neighborhood brass band on Tuesdays, a newsletter that has gone out every second Sunday since 2019, and one paper planner a year that never gets thrown away.
What I take on
- Small sites, start to finish, including the words
- Naming, launch copy and the labels on the buttons
- One recorded piece a year, under an hour
- A month standing in when somebody leaves
- Telling you the thing you want is not the thing you need
What I pass on
- Anything with six approvers and no decider
- A logo on its own, with no site behind it
- Retainers I would not be able to keep
- Work that has to start the week it is asked for
- Rewriting somebody else's half-finished code
What I do
Four lanes
The work splits four ways. The bar says how much of a working year each one actually takes, which is usually the more useful number.
Sites
Design and build for people who need the whole thing: structure, words, pictures and the code underneath. I do not hand off to a developer halfway, which is why these take a while and why they hold together afterward.
From $6,400
45%
Words
Naming, launch copy, catalog paragraphs, a page that has never quite said the right thing. Often the cheapest way to fix a site that is otherwise fine, and the one I am asked for most.
From $1,800
20%
Sound
Short documentary pieces and installations, recorded and cut. I take exactly one a year, it always runs over, and it is usually the thing I am proudest of at the end of it.
From $4,200
25%
Standing in
A month inside a small team when somebody leaves and the work cannot wait. Remote, four days a week, an agreed last day, and files left in a state the next person can pick up.
$5,600 a month
10%
Planner
The year on one sheet
The same A2 sheet that hangs on my kitchen wall, marked in pencil every January. The line is where we are now.
- Finished
- Running now
- Planned
- Havsvind Site, words, photography
- Tvatten Name and launch copy
- The Ferry Hour Recording, thirty-one crossings
- Kastellgatan Bageri Site and ordering page
- Fyra Rum Name and shop copy
- Standing in at Norrback One month, four days a week
- Kajplats Books Site and stock list
- The Ferry Hour Second edit and mix
- Letters from a Small Room Newsletter, every second Sunday
- Almanacka Next year's version, given away
- Open Kept clear. This is what you are asking about
Eleven projects, thirty-eight weeks blocked out, seven weeks kept deliberately open. Two ran over: the ferry piece by eight weeks, the bookshop by one. Nothing was handed on to anybody else.
Selected work
What the blocks were
Six of the jobs from the planner, and how many weeks each one really took rather than how many were quoted.
Kept count
Some numbers I keep
41
Projects finished
Since going out on my own in 2018
214
Letters sent
Every second Sunday, mostly on time
9
Planners on the wall
One a year, none thrown away
1
Instrument I nearly play
Tenor horn. Tuesdays, badly
Kept in pencil on the back of the planner, which is where I keep most things. None of these are impressive. All of them are true.
Right now
What is on the desk
Rewritten every few weeks, which is the only promise this block makes.
Updated week 36
Building
A searchable stock list for a bookshop
Eleven thousand titles, nineteen years of category names. Live in October.
Cutting
The second edit of a fifty-two minute piece
Recorded on night ferries over eleven months. Eight weeks over, and worth it.
Reading
A very long book about the Gota canal
And a short one about typesetting. One of them at a time.
Listening
Brass band recordings from the 1970s
For research to begin with, and then mostly for pleasure.
References
What people say afterward
The marked lines are the parts I would have marked myself.
He finished a week early, which nobody does.
We had been quoted by two agencies and both wanted a paid discovery phase before they would say a number. Otis looked at what we already had, told us what he would keep, and gave us a date. He finished a week early, which nobody does, and the words on the site are still his.
Hanna Sjoberg Runs a two-boat ferry line HavsvindOne person, and somehow fewer meetings.
I was nervous about hiring one man for something three suppliers had already failed at. It turned out to be the reason it worked. One person, and somehow fewer meetings. He also told us to stop paying for two things we were not using, which covered a third of his invoice.
Anna Kallstrom Baker, Kastellgatan Bakery siteHe said no to half of what we asked for.
He said no to half of what we asked for and was right about most of it. What came back was smaller than the brief and considerably better, and our booksellers could actually read it. I have sent four other publishers to him since.
Ingela Roos Publisher, autumn list Catalog copyA month of his time saved us a hire.
Our designer left three weeks before a launch. A month of his time saved us a hire we could not have made in time, and he left every file in a state that anyone could pick up on the Monday after he went. That last part is rarer than the first.
Dario Neves Product lead, Norrback Standing inRecord
Where all of this came from
The long version is on one page, and there is a PDF if you are the sort of person who needs one.
Work
Gothenburg
Sites, words and recorded pieces for small companies, publishers and public bodies. Four or five projects a year, every one of them start to finish. N...
Norrback and four others
One month a year inside a small team when somebody leaves and the work cannot wait. Remote, four days a week, and always with an agreed last day. Five...
A publishing house, Gothenburg
Covers and catalogs to begin with, then the website, then the newsletter, then the ordering system, in the way that happens at a company of eleven peo...
A print shop, Majorna
Two years of setting other people's files right, which is still the most useful design education I have had. Also where I learned to ask what somethin...
Trained
HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg
Three years, mostly print. Two of the people I still work with I met in that room.
A short course, Copenhagen
Six weeks in the evenings, which is where the sound work started and where I found out how much of it is patience rather than equipment.
Things that got made
Documentary, 52 minutes
Thirty-one crossings on the last ferry of the night, over eleven months. Nine voices, no narration.
A tool, given away
Prints the year as a single wall planner. Around three hundred people a month use it and it costs me forty dollars a year.
Installation, city museum
One October storm recorded through four windows in the same building, on a loop in a stairwell.
Newsletter, every second Sunday
Two hundred and fourteen issues about work, and occasionally about a brass band. Around nine hundred readers, none of them bought.
Talks and teaching
A talk, twice
On what a generalist can and cannot do for a small company, given honestly enough that two people in the room decided not to hire me.
A two-day workshop
For designers who have to write the words as well. Run three times, each time shorter than the last.
HDK-Valand
Two afternoons a year with third-year students, which is the only teaching I am any good at.
Elsewhere
Where else I am
The first two are the ones I actually keep up with. The last one I update roughly once a year, out of duty.
Get in touch
Two weeks open in November
Tell me what the thing is, roughly when you need it, and what you have already got. Three sentences is plenty for a first email.
The most useful first message tells me where the site is, what stands on it now, and roughly when you would like to be living in it.
Received. I read everything myself and reply within two working days, usually the same day if it is a short question.