Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Who are you:
Lina Zedig & Marcus Åhren
Your current job:
Owners//Designers of design studio Oyyo
In which city are you located?
Stockholm, Sweden
A word to define what kind of worker you are:
(L) meticulous
(M) spontaneous
What tools are essential to your life (app, software, etc..)
(L) Scissors, needles, sewing machines and other tools for stitching/trimming and working with our textiles are a big part of our everyday life in the studio. Nowadays do most of our design sketches in illustrator but we do use pen, paints and paper as well.
(M) For our production I would say quite a few different communication apps like Viber and Whatsapp are indispensable. Even though we spend a lot of time in India with our weavers there is still a need to communicate almost on a daily basis. And e-mail can be a too slow alternative.
What does your office space look like?
(L) It’s a bright space on street level with large windows to the street. It felt almost strange to have such a great space with access to the street and only use it as our studio space so last year we converted it into a combined showroom/studio/office.
What kind of music do you listen when you are working?
(M) Arthur Russell and Japanese covers of American rockabilly classics has been a reoccurring theme the last few months.
Do you have a way to organize your day to maximize your work?
(L) During the last year most of our time has been dedicated to our production and that has limited our creative work. Lately we have made it possible to shift our focus back to our creative work again. On a daily basis we try to take some time together in the morning to go through what’s needed to be done during the day.
What tips would you give to improve productivity?
I’m not sure, when it comes our production our main focus is quality. During the last decades the focus from buyers has been on finding the lowest price forcing weavers into weaving faster resulting in a lower quality. Working with handicraft I think we need to relate to productivity in another way.
You’re better than your colleagues to:
(L) Remember to bring all the things that might be needed on our trips
(M) Staying optimistic
What is the best advice anyone has given you?
(m) In India you are always given advice, pointers and guidelines on how to live a long healthy fulfilling life. They are all different coming from jains, hindus, muslims and christians. It’s a healthy mix of dietary restrictions, exercise regiments, religious activities and illegal drug intake. We consider them all and that’s a mind experiment in itself.
What is your best tip for saving time?
(m) Working with India where you relate to time in a different way has influenced my way of looking at our modern western society where we try to squeeze in more and more thing into our daily life. It has for example made me realize that things have to be able to take time and that you can’t do everything simultaneously.
What is your routine start and end of the day?
(L) Coming to the studio, turning on the stereo and making myself a pot of tea.
Aside from your computer and your phone, what gadget can you not you go without?
(m) My cameras
oyyo.se
