Erik has been creating provocative environments since the age of five, when he carved a New York City skyline into the headboard of his bed using a dry ballpoint pen. The goal of that early work, and all of his design work since, is twofold: to communicate intent, and make an audience wake up and pay attention. Although the attention his parents gave him was not exactly what he was hoping (especially after trying to implicate his twin brother), he now owns a design practice in midtown Manhattan named Clickspring, after the mechanism of a clock that activates the alarm or chime.
Erik began his career in the theater, creating groundbreaking sets for dramas, musicals, ballets and operas as a resident scenographer for the Malmö State Theater in Sweden. He went on to design for theaters and dance companies throughout Europe, garnering acclaim, including Prague’s prestigious Biennial Award for Scenography.
Returning to the US, Erik expanded his design practice to the business sector. In 1990, he co-founded the internationally recognized Production Design Group (PDG), where he focused his attention on broadcast design, winning the first of his seven Emmys and four BDAs (Broadcast Design Award). In 2006, Erik formed Clickspring Design, directing the design and creation of branded environments for consumer and broadcast use. When Erik isn’t creating memorable branded environments, he designs and builds clocks.
Erik has created branded environments for, among others:
BROADCAST ENVIRONMENTS
MSNBC (Emmy Award)
NBC — including NBC World Headquarters (BDA and World Gold BDA Awards), Nightly News with Brian Williams/Rock Center, Meet the Press (Emmy Nomination), Dateline (2 Emmy Awards)
CNN — including the Atlanta headquarters, CNNi, the 2012 Republican debates, and the 2008 CNN Election Center (Emmy Award, BDA Award), Anderson Copper 360˙ (BDA Award)
Fox News
Fox Business News
NTV, Istanbul
India Today, Delhi
E! News
ABC — The View, WABC
Channel 10 Tel Aviv
VTV, Vancouver B.C.
Channel 2 Jerusalem
PBS — Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (2 Emmy Awards), Between the Lions (Emmy Award)
CONSUMER ENVIRONMENTS
MetLife Central at the MetLife Stadium and at the Meadowlands (Event Design Silver Award)
Express Scripts, St. Louis (Marketing Lab)
Brown-Forman, Louisville (Brand Labs)
Tequila Herradura (Retail store, barrel house tasting room, train station, brand narrative)
Southern Comfort (Visitor’s locale, New Orleans)
Codage Skin Care, Paris, France
Peer Gynt Stemmet, Norway
Wii Sports Resort (Consumer event, NYC)
Schools For Tomorrow (Educational Forum), The New York Times
The Asia Pacific Economic Coop’s 2011 CEO Summit
Business and Investment in Qatar Forum
The NBC Experience (Retail store, NYC)
British Aeronautics, Washington D.C. (Corporate headquarters)
Home Depot (Urban theater lobby, NYC)
CORPORATE EVENTS
Avon
British Airways
General Motors
Sanofi Aventis
Sun Systems, Ricoh
Qwest
Home Depot
IBM
THEATER
Malmö Stadsteater, Malmö, Sweden
The Royal Opera, Stockholm, Sweden
Göteborg Stadsteater, Gothenburg, Sweden
Århus Theater, Århus, Denmark
Chateau Neuf, Oslo, Norway
Akerbrygge, Oslo, Norway
Nya Teater, Copenhagen, Denmark
Avignon Festival for Ballet, Avignon, France
The New Zealand Royal Ballet, Wellington
Grand Theater, Łódź, Poland