Still at the airport, we were so full of energy that we decided to take a selfie together – it’s not easy to pack six people on the screen of an iPhone. Ula suggested we should lie down on the floor and take the picture from above, but the prospect of spending the weekend at the airport police station didn’t appeal to us.

What was appealing were the natural circumstances that our colleagues from Metro Branding work in – near the seaside. We were wondering if such views outside the window favor creativity or… idleness. Kari Steinnes Christffersen, head of graphic designing at Metro Branding, told us that the sound of waves has a soothing effect after difficult talks with customers:)

But we didn’t go there to admire the wonders of nature, we wanted to share our knowledge and experience. Both these things turned out very useful when we found out that we weren’t going to work on computers (like we usually do). We got equipped with pencils, paints, modeling clay and other materials – and the creativity class started. Two topics were developed by the Norwegians, and two by our team.
“It was surprising how different the topics were. Ours were very down-to-earth (about the increase in the number of smartphones and the changes in flights from Norway to Poland), while yours were more sociological (one was about the stereotypes in Polish-Norwegian relations, the other one about how each nationality copes with life difficulties)” said Paal-Andre Schwital, head of Metro Branding.

Four Polish-Norwegian teams were formed, and each of them was assigned a task. The competition was harsh, but we all played fair and lending scissors wasn’t a problem… It’s worth noticing that we communicated using a specific mixture of English and curses in our native languages – especially that making infographics in InDesign has made us forget how easy it is to pinch your finger with a pin. “It was cool to watch other people at work. Even though the task was untypical because we had to work manually, it turned out we are similar artistic souls. Even if we perceive various things differently, we are able to find common solutions” said Carla Espinoza-Saenz, graphic designer at Metro Branding.

And we did it. Here are the results of our creation. “I hope there will be a chance to carry out more projects together, because the collaboration was great” said Madeleine Maraz Melsom, graphic designer at Metro Branding.

Querulous Poles and cold Norwegians – stereotypes in our life. Infographic by Karolina Evju, Carla Espinoza-Saenz and Magda Kozińska.

Flights between Poland and Norway – 10 years ago and today. Infographic by Karl Petter Knutsen, Martin Berulfsena, Tomek Abelec and Robert Wawryło.

Smartphone statistics in Poland and Norway. Infographic by Kari Steinnes Christoffersen, Madeleine Maraz Melsom and Ewelina Jamka.

Even though it was the first visit to Norway for some of us (read about how we remembered it), this wasn’t our first common project. Remember our interactive infographic Superhero never dies?