Elin Tjerngren
Elin Tjerngren wears many hats. She's a successful entrepreneur, a computer programmer, a ceramicist, a gadget geek, a photographer, a painter, and a host of other things, not least of which is my sister-in-law. She was born in northern Sweden, where she still lives, in 1973. Following her basic schooling she attended a technical gymnasium--roughly equivalent to American high school, but much more specialized--with the goal of becoming an electrician. After completing the three-year program, she applied to and was accepted by a nearby art school where she spent two years studying ceramics, drawing and painting, textiles, and photography. A period of media work and education culminated in a two-year Interactive Media program in Skellefteå, Sweden. In 1998 she and her partner, Jonas Persson, founded the web design agency Artopod. "At last," she says, "I managed to combine the artistic with the technical--and that's my current work as a web developer!"
A couple of weeks ago she was kind enough to take the time to answer a few of my questions about her work and her experiences as a professional "creative person."
MM: Were you a creative child? Did you always have an interest in "arts and crafts," or did that come to you later in life?
ET: I don't know...I think probably all children are creative if you let them be. I remember I got the little boy I was friends with to cut out and paint things in paper (I think we made a lot of paper dolls and bookmarks, and we designed our own flags and so on). When I went to högstadiet [jr. high/high school], I started drawing pencil sketches and a few years later I started with photography and calligraphy.
MM: You have a wide variety of creative interests, from pottery to painting to photography to cooking and beyond. Do you have a particular favorite among these?
ET: For now it's pottery, but it may be something else in a year! Actually, I'm trying to create an assortment of ceramics I can sell, and I think this is the first time I ever tried to think this way, to earn money out of an interest.
I'm currently a member of the board in the local photography club--that keeps the photo interest alive and results in a few photographs now and then, too.
MM: You work in IT, a field that is sometimes notoriously cerebral. Do you ever find your work at odds with your more artistic side?
ET: No, not at all. Programming is very creative. I've had trouble explaining this to some of the "artistic" people I meet. I was talking about this very subject to a group of creative women in a study circle, and most of them saw creativity as painting a picture, for instance. I consider creativity solving a specific problem in an inventive manner. We do that all the time in programming!
MM: Speaking of your work, tell me a little about the ideas behind Artopod and how you went about getting it off the ground.
ET: I met my future partner (both in life and work) at the school Interaktiva Medier and in 1998 we were asked if we wanted to start our own firm together with another couple who also attended there. We thought about it thorougly and decided ultimately to go our own way--we started our firm and they started theirs. When we started our web agency later that year, many of the businesses around Skellefteå didn't even know what the web was, and we had to explain! I still feel like it's a very interesting and rewarding occupation. We started slowly and now in 2004 we have picked up a nice mix of returning and new customers.
As many entrepreneurs, we had trouble with our name, but decided finally to make our own word that would work internationally: Artopod. It's a blending of Art and Pod - like a space pod with art.
MM: Do you have any special projects you're working on now?
ET: In work--our favourite ongoing project at the moment is MySQL?, a Swedish company with employees all around the world. Their product is an open-source database that many web developers (including me) work with daily, so it's an honour to be part of their website.
We work in Skellefteå, a small town, but with many really talented people in the media and music business, so at the moment we are meeting up with many of these small businesses to check out if we can cooperate more for all of our benefit. I feel like there's a lot of potential and it's up to us to make the best out of it--and that's very interesting!
MM: Where do you see yourself in the future, both professionally and personally?
ET: To be honest, I don't know. I often do things I just feel like doing, or have strong feeling I should do. As I mentioned, I have a goal to try and sell some of my ceramics, and I see myself spending 1-2 days a week with that and the rest of the work-week in making web pages!
I don't feel like an entrepreneur, but my personal interests tend to become my business!