| Saying hello to strangers

The MOO Blog

Saying hello to strangers

13th March 2009 by Denise

We work with a wonderful collection of designers and illustrators here at MOO, so that no matter how skilled – or unskilled – you think you are, you’ll always be able to create a great pack of Business Cards or MiniCards to promote yourself, or your business.

Recently we’ve expanded our collection, to add new designs from creative duo, Benrik. Their quirky sense of humour had everyone at MOO Towers smiling, and so we thought we’d ask them a few questions to find out what makes them tick.

1. Hello, lets get straight down to business: who are you, what do you do and where do you do it?

We are Ben Carey and Henrik Delehag, otherwise known as Benrik. We write and design ‘This Diary Will Change Your Life’, an annual series which has sold half a million copies worldwide and enjoys a small but potent cult following. It consists of daily and weekly tasks that you must comply with. The idea is that it will definitely change your life, but not necessarily for the better. Sample tasks include: “This week, open a home restaurant” or “Today, hire a prostitute for a non-sexual purpose”.

We do all this from London, although Ben is half-French, half-kiwi, and Henrik is 100% Swedish.

2. When did you start designing, and what gave you the drive?

Benrik’s aim is to design people’s lives, helping to remodel them into more creative shapes. The Diary dictates your life for the year, pushing you down alternative paths. In the same vein, our MOO cards give you the legitimacy to introduce yourself complete strangers, without coming across as a psychopath. It’s a proper beautifully-printed card range, therefore it must necessarily constitute acceptable social behaviour.

3. What do you want people to feel when they see your work?

Our work is very prescriptive. People should feel inspired to follow our instructions without worrying themselves unduly about the consequences.

4. What is the best thing about your job?

We get to execute whatever ideas we come up with, relatively free of constraints. Our latest big scheme is www.thisadwillchangeyourlife.com, a web start-up that claims online ads back from the corporations and lets any blogger, designer or other budding creative showcase their genius across the internet.