Can you please introduce yourself for those who aren’t aware of who you are and what you do.
My name is Daniel Brokstad – I’m a graphic designer from Norway, born and raised in the small town of Stavanger. However in recent years I have found myself to be moving around the world rather than staying in Norway. When working as a freelancer I have the amazing opportunity of being able to travel the world while working. Currently I’m staying in New York.

What is your favorite facet of work that you do?
I think the favorite parts of my work is illustrative typography, branding and packaging design.

What inspires you to keep doing what you’re doing?
The sense of creating something awesome, to create something that other people will appreciate. For me there is a feeling of accomplishment in designing or by making something creatively. This is a sensation I might even be addicted to, and I can’t live without. So I’ll always continue to stay creative.

How do you feel about the change of the industry? seeing how a lot of your work is stationary or print oriented…
Yes, I’m a big fan of printed media. There’s elements of printed design that simply can’t be replaced by digital media, in particular regarding different printing methods, the texture of different material and how it feels in your hands, or even the smell. However do I fully understand the shift in the industry, as I also love the convenience of having everything digitally. While I love music and movie streaming as an example, I also believe people will buy a physical copy of something if they really appreciate it, since it feels like something more unique and special. It’s actually owning it for real, instead of only a digital copy. Printed media might be on a steady decline, but I think it might go the way of the vinyl, of having steady rising interest as well for people who appreciate the medium.

What era of design would you say is the most inspirational for the work you do?
While some of my work might be very illustrative and maximalist, I still do work that can be very minimalistic and graphic as a contrast. Because of this, I think I’d say 1960s swiss design is most likely the era I enjoy the most. Undoubtedly something timeless with this graphic and minimalist approach. It might be a very stereotypical answer. I think it’s a design style and period that resonates with so many people because of how much of a “pure” design style it is, boiling it down to heavy focus on clean type, grid systems and geometric shapes.

We’ve noticed your color selection is a small range of particular colors, is there a reason for this?

Haha, completely unintentional! I guess the colour palette and range I use is most likely reflecting my taste of colours. Even if some projects are completely unrelated, they might be a bit within the same “universe of colour” as I tend to be dragged in that direction. But of course I never let myself be restricted to only a certain range of colours – and I’d choose what I feel would be suiting most to the design I’m working on.

We’ve seen a trend of a lot of designers talking about specific types of books they read, is there anything you are currently reading at the moment?

Design wise my choice of books tends to be very visual. More imagery for inspiration rather than pure reading. I was recently going through the backlog of previous Tokyo Type Directors Club books. As for novels, I usually stick to crime. There’s tons of great crime authors in Scandinavia, and Jo Nesbø is my personal favourite.

Can you share one of your most passionate projects that you have created or are currently creating?
I would love to talk about my current projects, but sadly they have to stay under wrap for now. The only project I’m free to talk about is a personal typography project I’m working on that hopefully I’ll be releasing soon. The current project name is “Funtography”(subject to change), but it’s simply about having fun by creating typography based on real life objects. It will most likely be an ongoing project that I’ll do on the side when I have free time. It’s meant to emphasis on having fun with design and not always taking it too serious, as a reaction to daily design work that might sometimes be really demanding and stressing. It’s my healing for not getting burned out.