Øistein Kristiansen, formerly known under his artist name Einstein Kristiansen (born 12 September 1965), is a Norwegian

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

, TV-host and co-founder of Singapore-based Earthtree Pte Ltd, who together with his two business partners Henry Steed and Mark Hillman, produces

children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television show, television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during ...

programming,

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

and image campaigns for

MTV Asia MTV was a pan-Asian music pay-television channel which launched on 3 May 1995 as a standalone pay television channel. It was owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. History MTV Asia was officially launched on 3 May 1995 as a 24-hour English-languag ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

network

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...

TV12 (present-day Okto channel).Knutsen, Annelise (2 March 2007)
Lager PC-spill og TV-serie
''

Sarpsborg Arbeiderblad ''Sarpsborg Arbeiderblad'' is a local newspaper in Sarpsborg, Norway. It is published six days a week. The chief editor is Bernt Frode Lyngstad. It was established in 1929, after the demise of ''Østfold Arbeiderblad'', and was affiliated with th ...

'' (in Norwegian)(9 June 2008)
Øistein er Norges Super Mario
''

'' (in Norwegian) Born in

Sarpsborg Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg. Sarpsborg is part of the fifth largest urban area in Norway when paired with neigh ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, Kristiansen grew up in

Greåker Greåker is a borough in the city of Sarpsborg, Norway, located 7 km west of the city centre. Before 1992 Greåker was a part of Tune municipality. It is situated at the river Glomma between Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad. The borough of Greåke ...

, a borough of Sarpsborg. He initially rose to fame for his

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...

work in

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s like ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', ''

ELLE ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

'', and ''

Mad Magazine Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to: Geography * Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia * Mád, a village in Hungary * Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code * Mad River (disambiguation), several r ...

''(22 April 2006)
Kids Carinval
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' after studying

cartooning A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. A keen traveller, Kristiansen was

backpacking Backpacking may refer to: * Backpacking (travel), low-cost, independent, international travel * Backpacking (hiking), trekking and camping overnight in the wilderness * Ultralight backpacking, a style of wilderness backpacking with an emphasis on ...

through

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

with the intention of travelling on to find work in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Finding himself stranded in Singapore and short of money, he was reduced to drawing

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

for

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

Clarke Quay Clarke Quay is a historical riverside quay in Singapore, located within the Singapore River Planning Area. The quay is situated upstream from the mouth of the Singapore River and Boat Quay. Etymology ''Clarke Quay'' was named after Sir Andre ...

. He found there was a demand for his quirky, childlike vision of the world, and soon enjoyed some celebrity as a cartoonist for the Singapore

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

, ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

''. His television career in Singapore began in the mid-1990s as an extra for Mediacorp drama productions, but he was not taken seriously in the local market until the year 2000, when

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

-base
CVA Productions
began production of the children's

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

comedy show Art Factory for three seasons. Subsequently, Kristiansen, together with Art Factory director Mark Hillman, co-produced a new show for MediaCorp. Cows n Crayons, Earthtree's first successful show, ran for two seasons. It was followed by Super Einstein, a

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

-themed

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

show, which ran for two seasons, and "Einstein's Tingkat", a

cooking Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...

and arts show. In 2005, Kristiansen appeared in a self-funded series of

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the human pelvis, pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" b ...

called "Right on Top". The series was transmitted on the

Nickelodeon Southeast Asia Nickelodeon is a pan-Asian pay television channel operated by Paramount Global, based in Singapore and broadcast to audiences in Southeast Asia and certain regions in Oceania like Polynesia and Papua New Guinea. The channel was launched on 16 J ...

feed. One season of "Art Mad", the show's long form, has been purchased for broadcast by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

corporation

Faber-Castell Faber-Castell AG is a manufacturer of pens, pencils, other office supplies (e.g., staplers, slide rules, erasers, rulers)Faber-Castell InternationalOffice Products and art supplies,Faber-Castell InternationalProducts for FineArts and FineWriting ...

for transmission in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. In 2011, Kristiansen started a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel named "Box Yourself".(14 May 2019)

''Box Yourself on YouTube'' On the channel he posts tutorials on how to create various items with

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light b ...

. The channel was started in 2011, but he did not post until 2014. The channel has since gained 783000 subscribers (as of November 19, 2021). In the channel description, Kristiansen describes the channel like this, "Think it, Make it! Box Yourself inspires kids all over the world to see themselves as designers, creators and makers. We make design easy, engaging and fun." He published a book entitled "Draw Robots with Øistein Kristiansen: Get The World To Draw! (Learn To Draw)" in March 2014.

TV-program

* ''Art Factory'' * ''Cows n Crayons'' * ''Super Einstein'' * ''Einstein's Tingkat'' * ''Right On Top'' * ''Art Mad'' * ''Wild About Cartoons'' * ''Christmas with Øistein'' * ''That's Imagination (2009)'' * Learn to Draw (2012) * Box Yourself (2013) * Box Yourself Minis (2015-2016) * Learn to Draw Minis (2014-2016) * Doodle (2015) * Box Ideas (2017)

Legal controversies regarding Kristiansen

Kristiansen's company, Earthtree Pte Ltd, was originally known as Einstein's Earthtree Pte Ltd. However, lawyers from The Roger Richman Agency, on behalf of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, issued warning letters to protect the image and identity of Albert Einstein. The lawyers also contested his use of the moniker "Einstein Kristiansen", and so in 2007, he changed his professional name back to his original name, Øistein Kristiansen.

References

External links

Oeistein Kristiansen Official Artist Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristiansen, Einstein Norwegian cartoonists Norwegian expatriates in Singapore Norwegian television personalities Living people 1965 births People from Sarpsborg Norwegian YouTubers