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jbjb My name is Henrik Bodilsen, er, I m Danish, born in, bred in Copenhagen back in nineteen
sixty-eight. I, my mum is a teacher and dad is an engineer, em, went to school there,
em, and, obviously that was the early Seventies er, at a time of quite progressive, er, educational
changes to have, you know, case of being, you know, brought up and, and and taught and,
obviously very much in a midst of the er, sort of feminist movement etc. which had a
huge influence on, on my schooling and and everything. Em, went to school, um, and moved
around a bit in Denmark and after graduating from the equivalent to A-levels, I met a English
designer and at the time I was looking into doing architecture and various things in Denmark
and exploring doing the courses over there and there wasn t really much happening. Architecture
s always been a huge thing in Denmark but er, design course in general has not really
taken off apart from, say furniture and and sort of more craft based things, but graphic
design was not really a big sort of thing compared to the UK. So I started talking to
him and made a short trip to London and went round and had a good look at courses over
here, then decided to do my degree here. And so came over here in the Nineties and completed
my, em, degree in visual communication design em, at Ravensbourne College and, then, decided
that London was the cool place to be in, you know, enjoyed the, the scene and and obviously
the freedom of being in a big cosmopolitan place compared to Denmark which was hugely
different, you know, you know, than Copenhagen, for instance, you d still, you d still class
it as a village compared to, you know, to say London. So that obviously had it s appeal.
And, and started out after my degree working for a Swedish designer who needed somebody
who could obviously understand the language for various magazines he was doing and gradually
from there, em, looked around and, you know, started to sort of explore what I would liked
to do. And, em, didn t quite find the jobs that or the environments that I was sort of
expecting or comparing to I knew was happening back home. Didn t feel that, as a gay man,
that you perhaps were quite so accepted and tolerated in the design, sort of, industry.
Em, and, though you might have had people that you, you know, didn t mind, I think you
would always still, at that time, find that the design industry was quite conservative,
quite typically, white male orientated in in terms of, you know, you know who was boss
and who was calling the shots etc. and being Danish, I found it quite difficult to cope
with the, sort of shall we say, just general management skills that, that you were presented
with you know, and, and, coming from quite an orderly society where everything absolutely
works, you know, like clockwork, and it was quite a difference to go into sort of more
chaotic, you know, environments that you, you see in, in London design studios etc.
And so, it wasn t for me and I kind of set up, em, as a freelance designer and pretty
much done that, you know, ever since and, and worked independently and, and enjoyed
that and, it s meant that I ve been able to get involved with dealings of cultural er
projects, and education em, em, organisations more so than say work as a designer for more,
sort of commercially orientated, you know, projects, lot of my clients. Em, so, started
doing that and and, kind of left the suburbs of London and moved into Cavell Street in,
er, Whitechapel where I lived with er my partner for er three or four years and just was living
on the buzz that was there at the time, you know, round Brick Lane and and, and the whole
sort of, er, regeneration of of, of that area. Spitalfields and up through Shoreditch was,
you know, very exciting and very, sort of, you know it it was a challenge, certainly
because as, as, when you come from Denmark you know, and you re coming from em, very
orderly, very organised, sort of, very civilised sort of, you know, em, set up where nothing
much, you know, surprises you on a daily basis. But, you know, walking down Cavell Street
as often the only white person, you know, in a hugely em, or predominantly er Bangladeshi,
em..,er Cavell Street had surfeit of, I think, one or two mosques, certainly Muslim, you
know, areas, em, I think was just what gave that area it s, it s colour, it s, its, it
s er, it s buzz and and, em you know, we weren t living in a particularly sort of luxurious
place or whatever, but, you know, where we were was just, it was exhilarating because
it was er various jaunts, cultural vibe in the block that we lived and, and, and that,
er, you know, lead to getting involved with, with er people that lived in the area and,
and, in a way that you just wouldn t have if I d stayed out in say the suburbs and I
think that that was, you know, a great challenge and but em, it though it was a challenge,
it, it, you know, I ve always loved that about where I go to any city that you know, you,
you find the colourful places, you know, because that s what appeals to me, that s where, you
know, wherever I travel, I, you know, I m not saying, trying to get away from perhaps
what, what I grew up in. There is a, you know, you re seeking an alternative way of life.
Em I ve always said, you know, as a gay man, you know, considered myself the alternative,
you know, to, you know, that typical mainstream norm and I think that, that, that comes through
in, in, in what I choose to do and and what I get involved with and, em, and I think,
you know, it s it s, er that, that for me is is what life s about. It makes it interesting.
It makes it, you know, worth, you know, getting up every day whereas if I was in a nine to
five job, I just, just couldn t do it you know. I don t think, it would be, you know,
utterly tedious. And so, but em, it s been a challenge because I ve what, been in London
now, twenty years, and I think it s it, London also, obviously, is a tough place if you don
t have money, you don t have, em, the same sense of security that, say I might have had
if I had stayed in Denmark, but I think the restrictions of having that security will
also have brought about, you know, significant kind of personal, sort of, em, strains, in
the sense that you, one should lock yourself into, to the norm, you know. As a designer,
I think you, you take away what, what inspires you, you take away with you the creativity
and I think that s that s what s unique about London, and I think that s, you know, any
designer I think in, you know, would collect that from their own sort of experiences that
I think you need the challenges in order to, you know, to stay creative because without
it, I think you feel that, em, there s a, you know, that there s no spark. There s nothing
to inspire you. There s nothing to to move you on to want to do things better and to
help and promote things that that could create change for for this and I always compare of
course Denmark with, you know, with London in the sense that, you know, what if I stayed
there and and I I just have to remind myself that I think that it is, I could have stayed
in Denmark, and yeah, maybe I could have, you know, had a good life and and, you know,
pretty straightforward life. But I also think I would have missed out on huge opportunities
from, sort of, just personal gain of of being involved with cultural projects which em,
I ve I ve had an opportunity indeed to do here. Em, I ran my design studio for about
ten years and, together with my partner Andrew and we set up a small design studio in an
old petrol station in em, in East London, and er, not that the building itself or anything,
you know, resembled anything like a petrol station, but it was. And em, we were in the
old sort of shop unit and and sort of converted that into a, sort of studio space and em named
the company Unleaded which, you know, course, had the connotations of a petrol station but
it was also to do with computers and taking over and no longer using lead type for typography
etc. etc. so em double meanings somewhere. And we worked with er, various, er, companies,
er, like the Hayward Gallery and, er, Milton Keynes Gallery and other vocational organisations
like the Royal Society of Art and doing, em, lots of, em, educational cultural projects
and helping with the communications for their printing design and stuff. Em, and later on
I became involved with, em, an actors agency based in er, in London, em, and I ve been
doing so, ever since em Again it s, it s often projects that are people orientated that that
I m involved with because I think that s where, you know, that s where the challenges lie.
It s where, you know, you learn something new em, both personally and creatively and
and professionally and I think it s, that s the challenge that you get from being in
London which I think, compared to smaller cultures like Denmark, you know, it, it, it
s safer and it s more organised and it s more, you know, sort of evened out by, by it s sort
of normality if you like whereas London has huge differences you know. You turn a corner
and you know, it s a luxurious street and you go to the next one and you ve got deprived
council estates which, I think, most foreigners find a challenge, because it s, it s such
a shock to the system when you, when you walk through London to, to see those contrasts.
But I think that s also what makes it unique. But said, that said it it it is a challenge.
It s a huge challenge. Em, and I think it takes people, you know, by surprise when you
come here for the first time. and so I ve been working on and off on on various projects
and eventually gave up my design studio and I now work, em, for various companies in sort
of, marketing capacity where I m helping out with em promoting, er, the, the services of
of er you know, to the to the various companies and what what they, you know, need in terms
of promotion. Em and, I think it yeah, I think it, it it, it is what I enjoy the most because
I think the freedom of being freelance and and having that ability to stretch myself
and get involved in things which I probably couldn t do if I was in a nine to five job,
you know, is what carries me through, and and what makes me, accept, also, the limitation
that comes with that. And, that it, on one hand is the limitation perhaps in, you know,
financially, because you are not having the stability of of of a full time job. It it
s, it s what gives you em the flexibility to allow yourself, you know, to be involved
with particularly cultural projects which often are hugely demanding and, you know,
draining in in every possible way, you know, but you just simply couldn t do it if you
were working nine to five because of, you know, a stricter schedule than I think that
again, one of the things that that s unique, you know, about London in, in I think was
pretty much, you know, the reason why I decided, you know, to stay in London after my degree
and I think, where I ended up, after doing my degree in in in Whitechapel was, you know,
I think the, the the the spark or the kick that that that basically, you, set off my
next sort of two decades in being in London, so em, yeah PAGE PAGE h$jZ h$jZ h$jZ h$jZ
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