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My name is: Johan Löfström

I live in Gävle, Sweden, Scandinavia, Northern Europe.

I was born in december 1971. If someone asks me about my age, i will have to calculate it, every time.

Buy less crap – work less – live more – feel richer

I am:

Industrial Designer & Product Developer

Artist (painting, experimental electronic music, writer) Graphic Designer

Extremely creative mind with speed, positivity and cris-crossing between many different interesting topics at the same time.

Trying to live extremely green and with a minimal carbon footprint. I am having a devoted "green focus" and trying to replace obsolete and inefficient products in my life and hopefully influence some others around me. I am extremely extreme in my green and anti-consumeristic living pattern. I am partner in a little design shop that makes new decorative and useful products from second-hand-clothing, unwanted materials and old flea-market-stuff and so on.

Some of the things I have done to improve my life

I sold my car in 1999. (I used to have a need for a car when I was younger and working a lot) My apartment building is heated with a centralized citywide system of bio-fuels. I try to be way below the average numbers on all aspects of my carbon footprint and climate impact. I always walk or ride bicycle within the city. I work from home.

I eat more and more vegetarian food. Eat a lot more fish and very rarely meat. I have developed several methods of smart cooking that use much less electricity. I very rarely buy and boil groceries that need long boiling times like potatoes, rice, pasta. I never buy or store any frozen foods at home, so I have turned of my deepfreezer. I try to abstain from buying exotic imported fruits, bottled water, imported beer, wine or ice cream. I have drastically reduced my electricity bill, and the energy company is generating around half of its power from hydro-power-plants, about 35-40% nuclear power and only about 5% from coal and diesel.

One whole year I did an experiment when I only bought food (2007 was my personal Buy-Nothing-Year) And I chose the groceries with least amount of packaging and the most locally produced I could find. I recycle extremely meticulously, already when I choose products in the shops I think about how to dismantle the materials for recycling. And as a result of these things I have drastically changed my habits and minimized my total garbage waste to 1-2kg per year.

I am very careful with my clothes so that they last longer, and try to keep them clean so I do not have to wash them too often. When I wash I use only low-temperature programs. I do not have any telephone anymore. It was just a waste of time and money. I never buy a new object on impulse. I very rarely buy new presents for other people, I try to create something unique and special, it gets more personal that way. And I have told my family and friends many times that I do not need new and expensive gifts for christmas or birthdays, it is enough with eating food and enjoying their company.

I do not subscribe to the general life style that here in Sweden involves redecorating your rooms constantly, just because you are a bit fed up or bored with the colour of the walls. And the way of buying new crappy furniture, on that enormous warehouse, which will break down within 2 years, and you just throw it away, to buy new furniture, in another enormous warehouse. And they are forced to work like worker bees for more than 40 hours per week at something they really hate doing, just to pay for the interest rates on the big wall-mounted flat-TV and the furniture that will soon break down.

Now, if someone will claim that my extensive computer use is a waste, i can argue that my current computer have replaced all of the following objects (and services) from my life : TV, Cinema, DVD-player, CD-player, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Maps, Games, Telephones, Typewriter, Calculators, Mail, Paying my bills, Musical Instruments. Google Earth and Panoramio and Flickr have reduced my vacations and travelling by a lot. I do not travel anymore to other cities to go to concerts or art exhibitions. (it is much more marvellous to watch TED-talks, Discovery Channel and GreenTV online than it is to fly to Thailand one week each year)

I spent a bit more money when I bought computers, so that they will last longer and suit my purposes. My previous Apple G3 worked perfectly for more than 11 years. I now have a Apple Mini that is extremely small and energy efficient. I still use the same monitor that I bought in 1996!!! (but i am looking for a new one that will be most energy efficient and last many years)

I have experience from

Theoretic education in the swedish school system (but I do not know how large part of it that i picked up there, or if my collected knowledge only came to me later, from living, and from other sources)

Graduated in Graphic design (1986-1989)

summer school for digital 3D animation using open source software, Blender (2008)

Almost a degree in Bachelor of Arts at a community college: for Furniture design, Industrial design, product development, service design, Applied Sustainability Methods (2007-2010)

Working at a cinema (1983-1995)

Working at a print house (1989-)

Working at advertising agencies (very little with internet and web pages)(1995-2003)

Self-employed as a day-trader in swedish stock, fund and futures market (1990-)

Painting art works and exhibiting them in different places (1995-)

Living within a Buy Nothing Year-project, sponsored by AdBusters Buy Nothing Day (2007)

Making experimental electronic music (2007-)

Making animated films (2008-)

Living abroad in Cork on Ireland (3 months in 2000) and on Malta (6 months in 2004)

Writing and ranting about stuff that is so obvious to me, but not to anyone else (1999-) I hope i will never stop caring, or learning. And I hope I will never accept and stand in line and be silent.

Notes

Some personal web pages:

My design company: www.yeahvle.se[1] (in swedish only)

Photo gallery of my art and furniture: design.yeahvle.se[2]

Music: Latki.bandcamp.com[3]

panoramio.com/user/yeahvle[4]

edgeig.blogspot.com[5]

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