Snask’s Make Enemies & Gain Fans
Reading Make Enemies and Gain Fans by self-proclaimed “rock-star” design, branding and film agency Snask is like opening a door and having a disco ball, big type, glitter, a string of curses, and a conga-line of ambitious interns and associates in ironic T-shirts tumble out. The Stockholm-based firm (whose name means, variously, candy, filth, and gossip), redefines the fairly straightforward genre of “design bible” into something of a design lifestyle guide. Part company history, part inspirational manifesto, it is filled with strong pronouncements and a theatrical streak of self promotion. As Snask themselves say, “We believe in standing out and have opinions to stand up for.”
The company’s distinctive style includes bold simple type, vibrant color and inventive hand made design solutions. They think big, make physical design which they film and photograph, and have deployed cakes, embroidery, dirt, smoke and human-sized hand-crafted plywood letters in project solutions. (See our report on their 26 x 42 foot “poster”—complete with crane—for the Malmo Festival) More than just sitting around doing design, Snask have launched a beer, a record label, a bicycle, and a festival among other projects, showcasing a remarkable ability to make a success of seemingly random undertakings. Significantly, “By trying the impossible one should reach the highest grade of the possible”, a quote by playwright and polymath August Strindberg features prominently in the book.
The pink first edition of Make Enemies (2012) was, according to company lore, dashed off in 72 hours by Snask founders Fredrik Öst and Magnus Berg and sold out globally within a year. This second, revised and expanded gold edition updates the story and fleshes out the portfolio of work including projects for The Washington Post, Nordea, Scandanavia’s largest investment bank, and a Swedish political youth party. When asked why they created the book in the first place, Berg states they wanted to, “show that we are fucked up people who just decided to start up an agency based on our own principals and that mistakes were the fastest way to learn.”
The book is organized in three sections. The first is a shameless blow by blow company history going back to their schooldays, girlfriends and djing gigs in England and a introduction to all the talent that has passed in and out of the studio. Part 2 is the book’s raison d’etre with recommendations for creative integrity, taking risks, challenging corporate culture, and well, just living better. Snask speak in declarations with chapters such as “Show your Balls” and “Pee on Yourself” (ie. dont take yourself too seriously) coexisting alongside more nuanced advice like having a “Niche and Edge” (dont try to be everything to every client) and “Deathbed should be Fun” (essentially do something you love and have no regrets). The current edition’s Part 3 has new stories, an afterword, recent work and the Snask Manifesto—a kinder, gentler, more professionally finessed series of the commandments that resound throughout the book.
Significantly Snask has made something of a business taking their show on the road with a feverish schedule of international speaking engagements, often with a band in tow. Cumulatively the fearlessness, passion and drive are infectious, so much so that the Snask persona risks overshadowing the company’s actual work. Still, they make you want to get up and do something, anything, everything.
Snask is not likely to give tips about type and grids. But they will kick you in the ass.
