Ironflag

Ironflag is a new multidisciplinary studio based in Copenhagen. We caught up with art director Kasper Fjederholt to find out a little more about the studio...

Computer Arts: Tell us a little bit about Ironflag and the kind of work you produce?

Kasper Fjederholt: Mikkel Mller Andersen, Marco Pedrollo and myself are the three components making up the Ironflag unit. We have worked together for years, and earlier this year decided to form a commercial design business. Our studio stands on the street dividing Copenhagen's hippest residential neigbourhood and the red light district. We see the best of both worlds. The name is a homage to Wu-tang, plus a mix of Iron Maiden and Black Flag. Drawing on multi-disciplinary means is very important to us. Our service is graphic design, art direction and video production, primarily for the fashion and music industry.

CA: You all hail from very different backgrounds - how did you meet and how do your respective design backgrounds influence the work produced at Ironflag?
KF: Marco was two years in training at 2GD and then worked for four years at Gold Studio, a more experimental design studio, which definitely gives him a solid graphic design fundament, from which we all benefit. He was basically brought up in the industry. Myself and Mikkel come from similar Communication Design studies at The Danish Design School and Central Saint Martins, which was heavily concept and theory based, this is the driving force behind the art direction and organisation of the business.

We met through mutual friends and immediately found out that we had too many obscure interests in common not to start working together. Myself and Mikkel ran UFEX, a studio geared towards the art world, producing photographic work within a sculptural and installation context, something that can easily be used in commercial art direction. With Marco in the picture it's now grown into Ironflag, a multi-disciplinary design studio, where our different strengths and backgrounds form the basis.

CA: Much of the work you produce is for independent fashion labels - is this a conscious decision, and are there any other sectors that you'd like to work in?
KF: Generally it is a lot more fulfilling working with smaller labels. We have more creative freedom and it becomes a more engaging process with a result that can inspire us in more restricted projects. We have similar ideas about aesthetics, and when it comes to fashion imagery, our sculptural and installation art ambitions can be utilised here.

We are all avid consumers of books - an industry we haven't explored too much yet, but hopefully will soon, both commercially but also through self-initiated releases. Our catalogue is largely based on prior experimental work, something we hope to incorporate into a more commercial sphere.

CA: What kind of books to you intend to produce through Ironflag press?
KF: We intent to focus more on producing our own zines and art prints with different artists we share a common position with. We're in the middle of buying all the equipment for doing in-house printing, producing the first couple of zines and structuring the deals with the artists. So for now we keep it a bit lo-fi. We hope to have the first couple of zines and prints ready in spring 2012.

IRONFLAG