Soul food

I'm in love with a brand. I know it's unorthodox, but this one deserves it. Since 1964 the company, Saltå Kvarn (Saltå Mill) in Järna, Sweden, has been in business – in the field of biodynamic and ecological crops.

If you walk into a fairly well stocked food shop in Sweden today, you will find anything from dried apricots and pineapple juice to bulgur wheat and rye flour. All ecologically grown. All biodynamic. By Saltå Kvarn.

A few years back Saltå Kvarn redesigned their packaging, giving the brand a real energy injection. It's a pleasure to see the retro looking packages in basic colours stand out from any food shelf. The packaging is what made me, and many others, I'm convinced, rediscover the brand. And it's a pleasure to buy biodynamic food when the whole experience feels good.

PS: If you're in Sweden, don't miss their sourdough baking courses, using their traditional stone ovens.

www.saltakvarn.se

guess my country

There has been a lot of focus on nation branding lately. At this year's Design Indaba (www.designindaba.com) in Cape Town in February, brand and design guru Wally Olins spoke about the nation as a brand. And in the September issue of Monocle (www.monocle.com) a whole section (40+ pages…) is dedicated to the basics of country construction. And honestly, we do have strong ideas about certain nations. Which country is associated with skillful engineering but a lack of emotionality? Where does a cheerful, blond, cross-country skier have his home?

Some nations lack images. Olins gave a good example:
– Ask someone in South America what they think about Lithuania. They don't.

Another issue that's currently on everybody's lips is global warming and the need for a change in our behaviour, or else we'll have to find ourselves a new home in a not too distant future. I'm just wondering which nation is going to be the first to make a real effort to become the "green nation", the nation we will all associate with ecological efforts and sustainable thinking.