Published 4/3/2025
by
Our creative team
Welcome to Small Talks – a series of inspiring morning talks at byHands, Rathkes gate 4!
Small Talks #3 / Zarina Saidova / Friday 20. September at 08.30
The third edition of Small Talks was dedicated to illustrator Zarina Saidova, who finally returned to Norway!
In the talk “UDI, horse milk, and Danish bicycles” we heard what Zarina had been up to since she was last here. She shared how she managed to come back to Norway before the two-year entry ban was up — and what happened next. It was an exciting start to the day as Zarina summed up her year in 30 minutes!
Zarina M. Saidova (b. 1992) is an artist, illustrator, and comic creator from Kazakhstan, based in Oslo. She holds a master’s degree from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and is co-founder of the independent publishing house Træsh. Her work explores visual storytelling through comics, books, and exhibitions, often with playful and symbolic elements. In August, she returned to Norway after spending time in Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, and Denmark — and she shared the story of her past year with us.
Zarina is represented by us, look at her beautiful work.
Past events:
Small Talks #2 / Bjørn Brochmann / Thursday 14. August at 08.30
For the second edition of Small Talks, we invited freelance illustrator and perfume enthusiast Bjørn Brochmann.
Bjørn is a versatile illustrator whose work ranged from advertising and identity illustrations – including for Bokklubben – to award-winning editorial pieces for D2.
"Editorial Illustration, about falling flat on your face again and again, without losing heart."
Early Thursday morning, Bjørn visited byHands to talk about his illustrated reportages and reflect (with a fair bit of whining) on everything he had only understood in hindsight. Or in his own words: about everything that went wrong when you tried to be too good and weren’t quite as clever as you thought.
Thanks to everybody who came!
Here is Bjørn on instagram.
Small Talks #1 / Nora Brech / Friday 21. March at 08.30
For the very first edition of Small Talks, we had the pleasure of welcoming illustrator Nora Brech, in collaboration with our wonderful neighbor, Svovel – Norway’s finest children’s bookstore.
In the fall of 2024, Nora made a remarkable impression when she received the prestigious Brage Prize for her Billie and Bo series. A brilliant illustrator with a successful career spanning both her own publications and collaborations with authors, she has become one of Norway’s most prolific children’s book illustrators.
With passion and determination, she shared insights into her work and life as an illustrator during this inspiring morning session.
Noras portfolio
