John Bengtsson

John Bengtsson
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Välkommen! I’m John, a graphic designer with a BFA from Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden. Some of my works include Tangents – a magazine for digital natives, the title design and poster for this short film, Rosetta – a book publisher of Swedish literature in bilingual editions, the lookbook for the Beckmans fashion graduation show 2018, AFU – a poetic archive over UFO sightings & this publication with proposals on how to make the Öresund region a better place. I also like to make fonts in my spare time.

Tangents

Tangents is a music magazine for digital natives. Translating the way we navigate the web to printed matter. A magazine that aims to combine seemingly different music related topics by proposing how they connect with each other.

The magazine's look is heavily inspired by traditional large format newspapers like The New York Times. In contrast, through eliminating headlines and blurring the start- and endpoints of the pieces, the layout allows the reader to move through articles, quotes, forum posts and interviews in a non-hierarchical way.

The result is a more internet-inspired structure where the reader should be able to dive into the magazine at any page and move on from there in any direction.

By linking the texts through underlining the contact points, the connections and transitions are made easier for the reader to follow.

This first issue deals with the topics of noise, repetitive music and techno culture.

We brought some green crayons to the release party and encouraged the guests to draw anything they wanted on the cover. An homage to all those mindless scribbles people have done on newspapers through the years.

Made in collaboration with Sara Dunker, Måns Peterson & Reidar Pritzel.

Printed at Newspaper Club, London, in broadsheet format with an edition of 50.

Wasteland

Poster and title design for Gustav Bondeson’s short film Wasteland.

In collaboration with Måns Peterson.

Wasteland won the award for Best Drama at Chicago CineYouth Festival 2019 and it's available for streaming here.

Rosetta

A fictitious book publisher of Swedish literature in bilingual editions.

Each book contains a Swedish version and a version in the reader's native language. Shown here is the Arabic version, but there are versions in Kurdish, Spanish, Farsi, Serbian, Thai and many other languages.

The books can be ordered on the publisher's website, and they are also available for free to download as both audio- and ebooks.

AFU

Website with an interactive map over alleged UFO sightings in Sweden.

While searching the Archives for the Unexplained, we came across an Excel document titled ScanCat, which consists of thousands of UFO reportings, most of them from Sweden. We decided to make that document more fun and engaging by bringing the data to life and focusing on the vague, abstract, almost poetic quotes from the reports.

Concept, design and some development together with Måns Peterson, Anna Febe Knutsson & Adam Siversen Ljung.

The project was part of a design relay where the whole class worked on repurposing existing digital archives in teams of four. More credits can be found on the site.

Graduation show 2018

Lookbook for the seasonal fashion graduation show at Beckmans College of Design.

A catalog of 56 pages, printed in 500 copies to be handed out to the visitors of the runway show.

To emphasize the freshness, nowness and brandnewness of the haute couture, we took inspiration from sketch book collages for our layout and chose to work with wrapping plastic material as means of expression.

Art Direction & Graphic Design: Agnes Moström, Sara Dunker, Hannah Green Youngblood & me
Photography: Amanda Nilsson
Makeup: Josephine Golan
Hair: Ina Palm
Models: Mikas, Stockholmsgruppen, Nisch Management & Slash.ten

Öresundsregionen

A publication with some proposals on how to make the Öresund region feel more united and bring the cities and their inhabitants closer to each other.

The proposed flag is a mixture of the Swedish and the Danish and itself becomes a stylized image of the Öresund Bridge.

The proposed currency is called Örepund. The value of the currency lies between the Danish and the Swedish krona and the physical notes contain illustrations of characteristic phenomena from the region — the design tradition, bicycles, wind turbines, vegetarian food and architecture.

The new subway system would add new stations to the already existing railway system. You should be able to get from Folkets Park in Malmö to Nørre­port in Copenhagen without transfers, ID controls or unnecessary waiting times.

An interlanguage starts to be used in the public transport system to make it easier for both Swedes and Danes to understand, and soon most Öresund residents refer to an emergency brake as nødbromse and to an exit as utgang.

Two typefaces in progress

Björkis is the working name for this typeface inspired by political posters from the 60's and 70's.





❷ This is Äsch, or Aesch. Either one is fine – it doesn't mind!

Education

2017 — 2020
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Beckmans College of Design, Stockholm

2014 — 2016
GRAPHIC DESIGN & COMMUNICATION
Södra Vätterbygdens Folkhögskola, Jönköping

2013 — 2014
FILM STUDIES
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg

2012 — 2013
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Hellidens Folkhögskola, Tidaholm

2012
MODERN DESIGN IN SCANDINAVIA
Lund University, Lund

Experience

2021 – Present
JUNIOR DESIGNER
Essen International, Stockholm

2019
2 MONTH INTERNSHIP
Lundgren+Lindqvist, Gothenburg

2016
4 MONTH INTERNSHIP
Ritator, Stockholm