[GfxD] What is your REAL name?
[MC] Mikael Cedergren

What is your date of birth (day/month/year)?
28:th of April, 1979

Where are you from - tell us a bit about yourself?
I grew up in a rather small harbour city in south Sweden, went to school there, and got my first job as a web designer and graphic artist there. However, many other tasks was included in my job description so I tried about everything in the computer world. About a year later I got employed at Boss Media, an online casino manufacturer, again as a web designer and graphic artist. Now I quite recently started up my own firm offering my services in graphic production such as DVD/CD/VHS covers, posters, CD-interfaces, websites and more. There are to many low quality productions out there, created without the slightest idea of the task in hand.

Describe briefly a typical day that you go through?
I wake up around 9 o'clock in the morning, get ready for work and does my everyday tasks at Boss Media. Nothing exciting though, but my mind wander of all day trying to come up with original and new graphic creations. I'm extremely interested in the way an image communicates with the eye and thus I think about it a lot, trying to use my knowledge in my creations. Unfortunately I'm currently employed at a firm I really dislike and that I'm unhappy with. But often if I can get the time to get my ideas down on screen after work I do so. Sometimes staying up very late, just trying to finish it. But it's a lot of fun, the creative process feels almost easier in the late night.

What is your nickname/handle and what's the story behind it?
I was trying to create more of a specific brand that worked well with the style I have, and I wanted to get away from the domain cedergren.nu which was my previous "alias". I came up with "SoulMethod" which emphasizes exactly what I stand for and does - using software's and technology to realize my ideas and also designing with a lot of soul and emotions into it. I design and create using the essence of my soul, bringing as much life to my creations as I possibly can.

What is the name and address of your website?
SoulMethod, http://www.soulmethod.net

Is this your first website? And how long have you had it for?
No, it's not. I made my first website several years ago, not much to look at but it awoke a interest in me. Now I've recreated it so many times I can't count. I've had it for about 3 years now, but the site has been redesigned several times during this time, and I didn't buy the soulmethod.net domain until about half a year ago.

Do you have any other sites that we should know about/be on the look out for in the future?
If so, keep a look out on SoulMethod since all projects will likely be posted here.

Do you design and create all of your art/images/layouts?
Everything, I take extra pride in using my own material as deep as I can go, and I really try not to copy others since I feel it's not my creation if I do that. However, sometimes some of my artworks resemble other artists' artworks, but unfortunately most things has been done already. It's just a question of which artist the beholder saw first.

I try to shoot my own material with my digital camera, creating my own 3D structures and combining it all my self. The less material I use from others the more proud I get about the result.

What programs do you use to create your work?
Oh, that's a lot. The most used ones are Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Illustrator and Poser. But I also use other software's if needed. Flash and Dreamweaver is used for the online productions.

When designing do you use plug-ins and filters and if so what are they?
Seldom. Sometimes I use KPT Vector Effects in illustrator, but I don't like filters and plug-ins since they often reduces the amount of control I have over the creation and you can often see that it was created in a specific filter/plug-in. So, for example - if I want fire, I draw it by hand inside the software using the most basic filters at the most.

Do you use programming languages on your site such as ASP, PHP, CGI etc.? If so, tell us how you learnt them?
On my first job I kind of picked up a few programming languages on the way such as PHP, a little bit of Perl and JavaScript. I've also tested out Pascal, but I'm not the least interested in programming. This is something I've just picked up along the way.

What type of content do you have on your website?
SoulMethod is a online portfolio for me to display my works, photos, art, print, web - everything I've worked with. It also functions as a gateway to my freelance business.

What's your site's traffic levels like? Give us your average hits/visits statistics?
It varies alot, but I have about 100-150 per day, although - I'm really hoping to increase this number.

Give a brief description of why we should visit your site? What does it offer?
Since it's an online portfolio it offers nothing but visual experiences, want to see something different and all in all just look at a cool site - check SoulMethod out. And also if you are interested in my freelance services of course.

What is your favorite food?
Ah, love pizza and kebab. But my favorite is varied depending on my mood.

Favorite desert?
The same here, but a big fav is my fathers home made vanilla ice cream. Yes, and apple pie too. Yummy!

Favorite videogame?
Unreal Tournament is amazing, simple to get into, lots of action and eye candy. I want a videogame to be easy to learn and have more of a sports direction. No enormous worlds, just plain fun when you feel like playing. Other favorites are Max Payne, Pinball games, Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, Worms. I think it's always more fun to play with someone else, either on team or against. But I want it to be a real person, not multiplayer internet.

Favorite artist/band and music genre?
My two favorite artists differ quite a bit: Michael Jackson and Marilyn Manson. I have no specific genre I like particularly though. Music is a good inspiration when creating my art and I must say that Marilyn Manson is more popular at that time.

Favorite color?
Red, passion, heat - it shows.

What are your Likes?
Hard to say, I like most pleasures in life. I greatly appreciate movies for instance, and the smell of night. I love kids to, and of course expressing my artistic freedom.

What are your Dislikes?
I really detest narrow minded people in most forms. The lack of freedom and the wallpapers in my bathroom. Pink ones with red flowers, schhheeezzzz.

Favorite website(s) you visit besides yours and why?
www.gamespot.com, great resource for gaming, cool design and nice site structure. www.deviantart.com, online community for art. Not too cool, but very useful.

Who is your host and why have you chose them?
It's a Swedish company called Citynetwork (www.citynetwork.se) and I chose these because of their good reputation and their prices are pretty low considering what you get.

Do you make any money from your site?
None what so ever, if you don't count my freelance work.

Has your site ever been hacked or stolen? If so tell us more:
Nah, but ripped a few times. Luckily this spreads around the internet like fire and I got to know quite quickly. There are many weird and dishonest people on the internet, but there are also many good hearted and kind people to.

How long are you usually online for per day?
Including my job I'm online about 10-12 hours a day. I was practically born with a net-cable stuck up my ass. Hope I can say that.

Tell us about some of your online activities that you like to do?
Keeping my site up to date, browse around for new influences in the visual art area, take part of some of the communities. Mostly it's work related.

Tell us about some of your offline activities that you like to do?
I like to excercise, badminton, squash, martial arts, well... about anything that I find fun. And of course, one big time offline activity is creating my art in either form. Digital artworks, photography, freehand drawings and similar.

What do you think of the Biomutation website?
I think its kind of neat.

Closing Remark:
Finally, thank you for reading this interview and giving an interest in my life. I'll keep producing my creations, trying to get better all the time and perhaps in the future you'll hear my name be told with a tone of respect. And finally a few tips for all you artists out there: If you do a production to someone else, don't wander of in your own mind. The product you are creating is intended to be viewed by a certain group of people and the product MUST be directed to this group. Otherwise you have failed, no matter how good it looks. Also don't copy others, you don't evolve that way and don't use advanced filters. By using them you loose a lot of the control you have over your artwork. Art is freedom - remember that.