Interview with Swedish duo Jakobson & Zillèn!

Affectionately known as "the Swedes", photographer Tove Jakobsson and art director Malin Zillén form a stunning duo at Confiture Parisienne. Here are a few questions about their meeting, their work and their inspirations...


Hej Tove and Malin, how did you meet?

Tove In 2006 we had our first daughters and we met at a parent-baby day organised by a Swedish cultural centre.

Malin: We had been living in France for a while but when we had our first child, we thought it would be nice to meet other Swedish mums for the culture, the language... But in the end we talked more about photography and creation than anything else.

Introduce us to your agency?

Malin: Tove and I started our agency a year ago, the lockdown was a very creative period for us. Before that, we already worked together a lot, I often called on Tove and vice versa when her clients were looking for an art director.
We had common ideas for years that we wanted to develop together, so we thought it was the right time. In the beginning, we worked a lot from a distance or at Tove's place. I had hundreds of ideas a day, so we started to put all that together and it worked well, we got requests quickly. It was in October that we met Laura and Nadège, who were looking for co-workers. Once we were settled, we became a real agency!

Tove: Yes, in early 2020. As all our other projects had been put on hold, we had time to really do what we wanted to do.

How would you define your style?

Tove: There is a retro touch and at the same time there is freshness and modernity. It's a new mix.

Malin: It's very colourful and a bit retro let's say, we find a balance in that but we really like to create. If they don't exist, we create the objects we want to use, real effects with the light if needed, we don't add much with Photoshop.

How do you find your inspiration for your projects?

Tove: We are both fans of Wes Anderson, the old packaging and British style school posters that used to be in classrooms.
By the way, I am a bit of a detail person because I always enlarge an image to 100%, that's my perfectionist side and I don't want to see any flaws, even the ones that people can't see. I find it hard to hear phrases like: "Anyway, it's just to post on Instagram, we won't see".

Malin: Sometimes she retouches things that nobody will see! But she doesn't want to do work that she's not proud to put her name on.
About director Wes Anderson, there's a lot of symmetry in his style, the colours are a bit vintage. We also look at old wallpaper, things you find at flea markets. I also like prints, I do a lot of them, it takes time and research. We like to take the time to appreciate a room, a lighting or a motif.

Who does what in the agency?

Malin: I'm an art director and illustrator. Tove is the photographer, she does the retouching and also does some editing. Then, on the technical side, Tove works a lot on Photoshop and After Effect for everything that has to do with light, etc. I'm more involved in the technical side of things. I'm more into animation and drawing. We both bring ideas but we have our own way of adding our expertise, it's really a team effort.

Tove : The ideas, we find them a bit together even if we have two very distinct jobs...

How do you integrate your influences in your creations?

Tove: We try to find original projects like the Bento MakeUp project. We were looking for a new way to present make-up which is always presented in a rather cold way. We thought of making a bento but all the objects would be make-up, a new way of showing things.

Malin: Our main characteristic is that we like to tell stories. Clients contact us because they feel the humour in our photos, we add a bit of fun. We do a lot of staging with food and we will never do things because it is "pretty", we want to tell a story.

Can you tell us about a project that has particularly marked you?

Tove: We were at the Grande Epicerie and we discovered the brand Confiture Parisienne, the pots are beautiful and really original. And so, very inspired, we contacted them. Nadège answered us within the hour! It was very motivating! We met and by chance, there was a co-working place available in the jam factory.

You collaborated with Confiture Parisienne on the Tartinables project by Juan Arbelaez, the packaging has a vintage style, what inspired you?
Malin: These are old postcards that we reworked, the theme of this box was travel and the recipes of the Tartinables were inspired by four different countries. That's how the idea of postcards came to us, it's graphic, it tells stories and it's also a way of keeping in touch with people. Nadège and Laura loved the idea.

What advice would you give to people who want to go down this road?

Malin: Working non-stop even if you have another job on the side. For example, I used to do illustrations every day when my clients weren't interested at all and I posted them on Instagram to get feedback.

Tove: That's the advantage of social networks, you can show your work. Before, you had to make an appointment and show your portfolio. Social networks make it easier. You also have to find your style.


How do you adapt to a brand?

Tove: It comes with time, with working with light. It's really with experience. I've been an assistant to a lot of photographers and I've seen different ways of using light.

Malin: It's the other way around. I've worked in art direction for a lot of different brands but I've never had my own style. I was educated in the United States and there you had to be able to work for a museum as well as for a soda or clothing brand. You adapt a lot, you have to find the angle that the brand wants to take and you do what they ask.

Do you have any exciting projects for the end of the year?

Tove: We have a new client, that motivates us a lot because it is a lot of work! Ambience, videos, packshots, and lots of different things. We are always full of ideas and lately we have had a lot of clients, so we don't have much time to work on our own projects.