Inspiration

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in skateboard shops, record stores, video rentals and other similar places of business. These were the organic places to meet like minded people and share sub cultural experiences. The people working at these places were often young adults with passion for their occupation, they often became role models that(luckily for me) let us younger people hang out and listen to all the knowledge and wisdom(good and bad) they had acquired so far. A great place for inspiration and networking, before the internet and social media.

During my higher education in Sydney, I also spent a lot of my freetime at galleries and exploring the versatile and creative art scene. Anything and everything from photography, film making, music, paintings and street art catched my attention and influenced me in a big way. But foremost it was as with the shops growing up, a social melting pot and great atmosphere for exchanging knowledge and experience.

All these places had the common characteristics that even though they were places of business, they always had a door open and to some extent felt a lot more like being in someone's home. A lot of these places also operated with multiple purposes, eg; A storefront gallery and clothing shop, with a backroom for working. It was mostly about lifestyle and the culture, with niche brands with quality over quantity in focus. A perfect fit for consumers and practitioners of individualism, a place where being yourself is encouraged and embraced.

Concept

Living in Oslo 2013, I met and teamed up with Joakim Karlsen. A photographer with a background in sales and service design for major corporate companies. With a collective big bag of tricks and a large hunger for work, we decided to have a go at building our own future and place of work.

We started with a crash course in running a business and all the administrative backbone of a company(taxes and operational systems were set in system), then planned out skill sets and mapping networks. The findings lead us to start the Creative Studio called Majonajs, a name playing with our vision of happy consumers and real life interactions. We also used our network of skilled artists and designers to set up a little agency, called Show & Tellroom we then set out to promote work by friends from all over the world.

It came together by remixing the word Mayonnaise, merging Majo with Najs(Swedish for nice). Using Majo(shortened from Major) as the “extra” and connecting this back to the “fat” food product, and combining it with Najs as in “good”. Symbolically it could be written as “X”(Extra) & “+”(Good), which is visually used to create patterns and dividers in the main identity.

Fun fact, some of the inspiration came from a viral video about some heavy tractor enthusiastic people:

DE E NAJS

Mixed Business

A dream of mine was that one day be able to have a more diverse approach to everyday work, by combining different types of professions one would create more breathing room for creativity. Ideas sometimes need to grow in peace, therefore focusing on other types of businesses would help keep the temperature down in a hectic environment.

The dream spot would have an open front(like the galleries I frequently visited earlier in life), with activities that encourage hanging out(café, exhibitions, shop etc.)and a back office area for production and design work.

But even though we never got this far(yet?), we had the amazing opportunity to be part of two different places here in Oslo.

First office was part of Studio Enogførti, a creative co-work space located at Bjølsen. It housed a wide range of people, from Architects, Artists, Designers to Craftsmen. Aside from having our own office with desks and a complete photo studio, we helped organize and promote exhibitions, film premiers, concerts and parties at the facilities.

The second office was located at Whitelight Studios in Tøyen, a large professional film and photography studio in downtown Oslo. The venue had multiple large rooms for studio production, but also several rooms used by other businesses as showrooms and offices.

With Majonajs, we worked with a wide range of projects for both large established companies and startups. Providing services such as; identity and strategy, marketing, graphic design, photography, video production, motion graphics, illustration, some/content and a showroom to exhibit great brands and products we believed in.

Mission Statement

We are Majonajs, a strategic branding agency.
Our mission is to help our clients grow their businesses by crafting and putting brand strategies into action.

We love finding - and solving - creative problems

Our work typically starts out with the brand identity.
We design the visual identity and help the business implement it.
Majonajs’ two key partners - Jimmy and Joakim - merge their design and retail experience and offer the clients a forceful combination of communication skills and commercial know-how.

Smiles are better than likes

This is what we believe in. Here is to the return of the happy customer.
Customers interacting with the brand in real-life is more rewarding for both parties.
A like or a retweet is fleeting compared to the value that arises from the physical interaction between the customer and the business.

Name

Majonajs

Office Location

Oslo:
#1. Studio EnOgFørti - Bergensgata 41, Bjølsen.
#2. Whitelight Studios - Borggata 9, Tøyen.

Services

Creative Studio & Brand Agents.

– Identity
– Strategy
– Marketing
– Graphic Design
– Photography
– Video Production
– Motion Graphics
– Illustration
– SoMe/Content
– Showroom

Year

2014-2019