Inteview with Seen

found inTypeAuthorYear
downloadsUpstream 9Diskmagazine
interviews
Balance
Archmage - Connor - D'fence - ...
t8/94
added 2/98
The father of demo design?

"Genious designer", "arrogant idiot", and "very funny" is just a little
amount of the statements you can get about this colourful Danish founder
of Melon Dezign. We FOCUS on...

·SEEN / MELON DEZIGN


By Mount

Name: Henrik Lund Mikkelsen
Handle: Seen
Group: Melon Dezign
Former groups: Anubis, (old) Kefrens, Rebels, Alliance Design/Quartex
Function: Graphics, design
Age: 14 years this summer (mentally that is, ed.)
In the scene since: 1989
Occupation: Unemployed globetrotter
Resident: The Caribian
Most known productions: S.O.S. demo, Tetris intro, various Crystal crack intros.


                                                                               ¡
























In  late 1991 and especially early 1992
the scene saw something completely new:
happy    colours,   different   design,
childish  drawings  by  a  group  which
insisted  on  having their name spelled
wrongly.   The  group  was Melon Dezign
and  the  two  main men behind was Walt
and Seen.
After  being  known  mostly for Crystal
crack  intros,  the S.O.S.  trackmo was
the first bigger Melon project by Seen.
But  his  real  breakthrough  was  when
making  the  ideas and graphics for the
Tetris   intro  which  won  the  40  kb
competition  at  The  Party  2.  It was
clear  that  not  only the routines but
also the design counted a lot.

Though  most  don't  exactly  admit  to
admire  Melon's design they have been a
big source of inspiration.  The idea in


the black and white Melon logo has been
used   by  several  other  groups  like
Lemon., TSL, and Nemol.
- It's very lame that people just steal
ideas   instead   of   doing  something
original,  says Seen who, despite he is
not   very  tall,  doesn't  mind  being
provoking.
At  The  Party 1993 he was about to sue
the  arrangers  since he meant that the
copyrights  to  the  simple  party logo
belonged  to  him.   The  logo was made
when Seen was one of the succesful main
organizers of The Party in 1991.

Melon dezign was born with the death of
Seen's     former    group,    Alliance
Design/Quartex.   He  felt inspired and
startet  Melon as a subgroup of Crystal
together  with Paleface who he had been
working together with for a long time.


The Firm
Seen   has  always  had  ambitions  and
believe  in  that  Melon Dezign is more
than  just  a normal demogroup.  Though
people  had  problems  with  it  in the
beginning,   Melon  insited  on  having
Dezign written with z.
Like all other groups, Melon wants high
class  members.  Headhunting is however
not   their  style.   Seen  never  asks
people   to  join,  they  have  to  ask
themselves.    For  a  long  time  only
friends  of  Seen  could  join, even if
they  were French.  And Seen has a good
explaination to that.
-  Why  the  hell  should I be in group
with someone I don't know or like?

There  might  be a new situation though
since  Seen  erlier this year travelled
the Caribian.


Melon  was meant as a firm but till now
only   one  game  has  been  sold,  the
platform  game  Naughty Ones.  There is
"no  shit  organisation  at all" in the
group  and  concerning  the leadership,
Seen doesn't doubt...
-  Me,  me,  me, myself and I!  Walt is
suspended from Melon Dezign for a while
because he is insane in the brain.




0450850









Compared  to  a  couple  of  years  ago
design  seems  to  much  more important
today.  Seen has another impression.
-  It  is not!  Just look at most stuff
released....

Chaos  is  the  total  opponent to Seen
when  it  comes  to  the  importance of
design vs.  code.
-  How  could  I possibly disagree with
someone like -CHAOS-?...
He  is the grandfather to us all in the
scene,  right?   If  thousands  of dots
makes  him  horny that's up to him.  If
things  don't  look  nice  I think they
suck.

People   seem  to  be  writing  credits
everywhere and the sizes are growing.
- I think it's great that people bother
to  make  their  initials so enormously


big that even my grandmother don't need
glasses   to   read  them.   With  this
development the credits for logos might
soon be bigger than the logos!
In  Melon  productions  we  only  write
credits  if  we  feel  like it and even
then  you  can't be sure if you've been
fooled...


When  discussing  new styles and design
in   general   the  difference  between
"original"  and  "ugly" doesn't need to
be  so big.  But the answer can be much
easier:
- Melon!

"The  original  and  best!" is how Seen
describes  the  Melon  style  and has a
simple answer to which Melon production
he thinks is best:


- The latest because it shows the state
of mind that we're in!

Melon's   thirdwinning   demo   at  the
Assembly  '93  was  called Romantic but
most  people were wondering WHAT was so
romantic about it?
-  Just  about  everything,  except the
hidden  part!   I mean, Banna's singing
and  faders  are  just  what would make
every  girl's heart melt.  Nobody dared
to do this except us.

Romantic was one of the "biggest" Melon
productions   through  the  last  year.
Normally  they  prefer making intros of
10-60  seconds.   But  they don't think
their productions are too small.
-   They   are  more  than  big  enough
already!



With    his    attitude   it's   rather
interesting  if  Seen  has  respect for
other  groups  or non-Melon productions
at all.
-  I  like  the "Ottifanten" intro from
Thrust  and  "Bar  Brian"  from  Plasma
Force.....   Movement  are original and
know  how  to make good design.  That's
why   it's   the   only  group  we  can
cooperate with.
From  years  ago  I have always admired
Open  Eyes  for  his  total  control of
colours.  Others?....  Nah, all a bunch
of Andromeda clones!

The raw news
"To be disbanded" was an article in RAW
predicting  the  death  of Melon Dezign
which Seen doesn't quite understand.
-  I'm  shocked  to  hear  that we died
before  x-mas, I was totally unaware of
that!

But  Seen  doesn't doubt the reason for
such rumours.
- RAW is in serious need of interesting
articles  and  they see no other way of
getting  them  than  trying to provoke.
Lord  Helmet  wanted to make a joke but
only made a fool of himself.
And  contrary  to popular belief we are
not   an  "independent"  group,  but  a
subdivision of Crystal!
RAW  is  a bad copy of Zine, so I don't
read it!

So  yet  there are no plans of stopping
Melon Dezign.
-  Are  you  mad?   Shut  down the only
group  with a Caribian beach section...
The Melon spirit will never die.

One  of the biggest wells of creativity
and  visual  abstraction  in  the media


market  is  the  24 hour channel, Music
Television.   It  would  be  obvious to
think  that  the  Melon productions are
being influenced by MTV.
- They are not!  We get our inspiration
from  abstract  German  movies from the
tventies  and thirties!  (No bullshit!)
Neither Walt or I have MTV so you can't
accuse us for stealing form there.
I  get  ideas everywhere.  The end logo
in  the  Tetris intro was an idea I got
while  I  was  in the bathroom.  I just
ran  out,  threw  Walt away and startet
drawing till the end.

Half man, half melon
After  seeing Seen's (former) apartment
you  can't  help  thinking:  Is Melon a
disease?   With melon stickers, poster,
pens,  workbench  icons  and the heater
painted   half  white,  half  black  it


doesn't look like a normal relationship
to this red and greeen fruit.
- Yes, Melon is a disease, and there is
no cure!

Melon   is  a  religion  aswell.   When
visiting  the  Italian  city, Florence,
Seen  went  drinking  with  some of his
class mates.  They headed for a bar but
Seen flatly refused to enter the place.
It was called Andromeda Bar....

Seen  was once a member of Kefrens, but
not  the  group which had succes in the
last couple of years.  Seen was in what
today   is  called  Old  Kefrens  (with
Promax,  Metallion  etc.) which died in
the  beginning  of 1991.  That might be
one of the reason why a kind of war was
started  between  Melon  Dezign and the
reborn  Kefrens  with  new  people like


Laxity.
After  several hate productions against
each  other the small war between Melon
Dezign  and Kefrens reached it's climax
at  The Party 2.  But after at long and
loud  argument  in  the  cafeteria they
agreed on a kind of peace.  However the
peace  didn't last longer that till the
release  of  Desert  Dream  which had a
part   with   a   Melon  attacking  the
pyramids.   The  demo  didn't have that
much effect on the relationship between
the  two  groups though.  At least both
groups  attended  the  small Fishintrip
shortly afterwards.
The small war was according to Seen not
just  for  getting PR.  He was sorry to
hear  that  Kefrens  was  dying  in the
beginning of this year but whether this
was only to keep the joke about beating
"the  evil  King  Kefren"  in  the game


Naughty Ones, Seen doesn't want to say.


0080251









²¢3¾5Melon.'s war against Kefrens brought
²many amusing things to the scene...¾0

After    Lemon.     in    their   first
production,   Announce,   had   a  logo
looking  very  much  similar to Melon's
classic  black/white this new group was
also  a  Human  Target for Melon.  When


asking  people  to  order seats for the
Melon party they wrote "Lemon.  already
did" and drew a toilet....

Seen has mixed feelings when explaining
his  general  opinion  about  the scene
today.
-    Like    everybody    else    being
interviewed,  I  think  it was better a
few   years  ago,  but  then  again,  I
thought the same back then...

Without  Melon  the scene wouldn't have
been the same today.
The  modem  scene  is  strange though I
like  playing  around  there sometimes.
Normally  I  get free access.  And if I
don't I just DMS the workbench disk and
uploads it under a funny name.

Especially  the  French  Melon  members


have  a high travel activity to parties
but  according to Seen it's not because
of their big interest in the scene.
- No, they come to get harddrives!

Scene Gods
There  have  always been gods.  It is a
bit unpleasant to be one - too much fan
mail!

After   recieving   many   hundreds  of
letters,   Walt   and   Seen   promised
membership  of  Melon Dezign to the one
who  would send the letter number 1000.
But who did that?
- Laxity did. No further comment.

Originality
-  Just like Boris Valejo and scanners,
demo  graphics  is  improving  all  the
time!    No,   seriously  I  think  the


graphics of today lacks originality.
The  average  demo of today features an
awful  lot  of boring coding, graphics,
music   and  dragons  but  lacks  soul,
humour and ideas!
I  don't  care  shit  about the hardest
maths  in  a routine if it doesn't look
interesting.

Enough has been written about the Melon
party  disaster in autumn '93 but still
at   least  a  comment  to  this  event
couldn't be left out.
-  Melon  Birthday  Party was a succes!
Who  else  can  say  that more than 150
people  came  to  congratulate  them at
their birthday???

Blind Melon
-    Ahhhh...    our   infamous   video
division.   I  love them!  Too bad they


aren't able to see our productions.

Though  for  a  long  time making crack
intros  Seen  didn't see any problem in
making games himself.
-  Earlier  we  released  Naughty  Ones
(under  the Interactivision label, ed.)
and   another   game  is  about  to  be
released.    Both   of  them  are  pure
platform  fun  (don't go and buy them -
they're crap!).

Naughty  Ones  was  in  most  mags well
recieved,   mostly   because   of   the
gameplay.   Amiga  Format gave the game
an  overall of 86% and said:  "It can't
boast  flash  graphics or a huge number
of levels, but what Naughty Ones has is
stacks  of gameplay.  It's an original,
enjoyable   and   challenging  platform
romp".


The graphics in the game was given 7/10
and    described    as    "simple   but
effective...  clear, bright and bouncy,
but not too cutesy".  Demoscene viewers
will   probably  describe  it  as  pure
melonmania....

When  looking  at  especially  the game
characters, Jim and John, the influence
from Bitmap Brothers is obvious.
-  Yeah,  Bitmap  Brothers  truely make
some   great   games   both  conserning
gamplay  and  design  in  the  smallest
details.

But  this will probably not be the last
entertainment   software  we  see  from
Seen.
-  When  I  return from the Caribian in
about  half a year (after eating melons
every day!) we plan to start a software


company by the name of Melon deZign!

Though    he    has   experienced   the
environment,   Seen   can't  give  much
advice of how to survive and win in the
jungle of software houses.
-  Just don't believe anyone!  Else you
will be cheated.


Commercials   and   media  manipulation
should   something  that  Melon  Dezign
think    about    when    maing   their
productions.
-   The   commercials  shows  that  the
civilized    world    have   become   a
commercial   copy   of  itself.   Media
manipulation is a horrible thing!

But  Seen  is aware of his influence on
people.


-  Yes!   And  I  would  be stupid if I
didn't admit that I like it very much.
Mostly when you spread a production you
know  as much about the effect of it as
when  throwing  a  stone  in the ocean.
But  once  I saw an article about Melon
in   which  the  writer  had  had  done
analysis   on  the  texts  in  all  our
productions.  Really amazing.

With  his  abilities  to release simple
but  effective messages and productions
Seen  easily  can see himself doing PR,
design or commercials in the future.
-  Yes,  for  Ted  Bates!   (a  leading
advertising  agency  in  Denmark, ed.).
An   alternative   job   could   be....
organizer of The Party IV!





·CONTRAST


Mr. Hyde / Andromeda:
Seen   is   a  graphician  with  strong
opinions.   My  first impression of him
was  rather bad since he at The Party 2
critizised  the  design  in Point Blank
for  being a total Melon design rip-off
and  Mirror  for  being boring.  But he
does like to provoke.
Melon   Dezign  have  in  general  nice
design and among that has Seen no doubt
been a major factor in the  development
of Amiga demo design.
It is a shame that the Melon coders has
to suffer and only make intros.
Seen  is  very  ambitious  and believes
strongly   in   their  projects  though
others  dislike  them,  e.g.  the intro
from The Party 3.





Estrup/Static Bytes:
I don't exactly admire Seen's graphical
talents.   But  I do like his distanced
way  of looking at the scene.  My talks
with him are mostly less than 50% about
computers.
It  is really incredible that there can
be as much devil-may-careness as common
sence   in   such  a  small  man.   His
seriousness is very varying.
I would nearly say that he made me feel
a   kind   of   cannibal   when  eating
melons....
Seen  is  definately  a  nice guy which
took me some time to find out.

Ra/Sanity:
1m61,  56 kg, blue eyes, blond hair, he


is  the  only guy who don't take kiloes
of  fat  day  after  day in this scene.
Perhaps  we should learn lessons of the
real life from Seen.
Fairfax,   Dr   Awesome,  Hof,  Peachy,
Joachim, and you Mikael Balle, together
in  community, we should show the right
attitude  to all the future mag readers
who  will  try  to  stop  eating 2 days
before parties, just to lose small part
of fat in their face.
I like his graphics.  He is better than
Fairfax and Danny.