Advertising January 21, 2016
Creative Couples Who Get S#IT Done: Fredrik Öst & Mangus Berg of Snask
Fun in Work? It's Possible.
by Lauren Festa
They say don’t mix business with pleasure, but for these creative couples, that’s just the perfect working formula between themselves and their clients in producing some of the best work in the industry today. For this series, we speak to couple who work and play together, and prove that there really is such thing as a better half. As for ‘who’, well, that depends on what day of the week it is.
It spells out and sounds out like snack and in a way, the work from Snask looks good enough to eat. The Stockholm-based ‘small design agency’ was started by a young, bold, edgy and self-confident couple and has expanded to include a young, bold, edgy and self-confident team. Fredrik Öst & Mangus Berg seek to challenge the design industry by doing things differently…REALLY! They create work that people like and want to aspire to. Having been around for since ’07, Snask is the perfect example of a new breed in the design world. They’ve been referred to as “the Disney Land of the design world”, although they would never refer to themselves as such. A few scrolls through their website and it’s clear, this is a duo that is as serious about design as they are about fun, never taking themselves too seriously. They are active in the design community, delivering keynotes to international conferences and the like. They share how they think, talk, lie, kiss and tell. Their mission is to paint the world pink (um, yes!) and if you purchase their book (that was made entirely in 72 hours) you will learn the Snask way to pee on yourself, tell pink lies, and find out why making enemies is a good thing. You can purchase this wisdom here.
Name: SNASK
Ages: 15-35
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Mood: Champagne, Rope in the Basement and Supernova.
Professional Titles: Different but not that many and not that important.
When did you set up shop?
My partner and I started Snask in 2007 because we found an obsolete industry run by conservative people (mostly old men with too much power) and felt that we wanted to do our own thing without being a part of that. Since then, it has been a great journey and thanks to going our own way we are now what we want to be and where we want to be.
What work are you most proud of?
We are most proud of ourselves as in our team. We’re excellent and we have so much fun together.
What upcoming work are you most excited about?
We are most excited about 2016 because we have a lot of new and fun projects, other than that we’re all one year closer to death so better hurry up to have fun!
What makes Snask different from other design agencies?
Snask is the new world order because we say so. Capiche? No, but perhaps we like to go west when everyone else goes east. Down when others go up and so on.
Tell us about your book. Why should we read it?
Because it’s the story of our first three years in the business and goes through our values and beliefs when it comes to life, lies and branding.
What is the best part about working together?
The best part about working together with my team is that everyone are incredibly great at what they’re doing and very responsible. You can count on them.
What is the worst part about working together?
The worst part about working with my team is that sometimes we’re all too quiet since we’re very focused at work. It’s the way everyone likes it here however but sometimes it gets dull for interns who thought they would drink champagne and listen to loud music all the time.

What is your daily M.O.?
Everyday we wake up with the goal in mind to have fun together and not punch slow walking people in the back of their heads.
Why do you choose to paint the world pink?
And what does that mean? Because we love that color. Also because that color seem to provoke our enemies: The conservative boring world. And by painting the world pink we mean to pain tolerance and acceptance for any human no matter age, gender, race, sexuality etc
Why is Snask “more than just an agency?”
Because we have so many parts that we do besides designing and filming. Our own: beer, book, bar, bike, conference, track &field events, food products etc.
What in the industry to you think needs the most changing? Or how do you want to change or see the industry change?
The new generations are slowly taking over. And they don’t do it the traditional way because the conservative old farts don’t really let them. So they do it online instead. The industry will become much more equal and already if you put your work online, most of the time it gets viewed depending on the work and not based on your gender, age or nationality.
What is the “old world” and who is your “biggest enemy?”
They are the conservative people. Basically people who work for keeping things the way they’ve always been, which is braindead since society never been the same ever. It’s the people and companies who believe that by controlling people they can win.
Get more Snask here.
Tags: advertisingd, Amazon, champagne, couples, Creative Couples, Design, Fredrik Öst, Mangus Berg, new world order, old world, pink, SNASK