Icelandic Art of Living

Our content should always seek to espouse and elevate the Icelandic Art of Living, something we should use as an internal guide for storytelling and reinforcing brand image.

We define it as: “An extraordinary, everyday life connected to nature and meeting impossible challenges with optimism, joy, and humor.”

This lifestyle is about creating a unique, holistic life connected to nature and is non-hierarchical. It has more to do with people finding meaning in nature rather than earning accolades or winning competitions. The activity, whether it's cycling across glaciers, running over fjords, sailing in the rough seas of the West Fjords, surfing in the cold water of the Arctic, or just going for a simple walk up Esja is impressive enough because it takes place in Iceland and demands our respect and attention because of the sincere meaning experienced and expressed by the participants. It doesn't matter whether it is the "most" or "longest" or "highest" or "first" expedition of some kind or if the participant has won some sort of competition; it matters that the activity has been made part of the participant's daily life in a way which respects and draws on the beauty and power of the North.

66°North exists for the everyday exploration and enjoyment of nature. It just so happens that doing such things in Iceland requires absolutely world-class technical gear. This is at the heart of our brand promise and paradox.

Deeply connected to the Icelandic Art of Living are the concepts of þetta reddast and paradox.

þetta reddast

The 66˚North brand voice and Icelandic Art of Living draws on the spirit of “Þetta Reddast” the informal Icelandic motto, which loosely translates to “things will work out.” It’s often said in the face of a challenging or impossible-seeming situation, with a wildly optimistic, almost joyful spin and awareness that, after all, you are not in control of everything.

Why “Þetta reddast?”

-It’s authentic to Iceland.Because it is the voice of Iceland, 66˚North can “own" it internationally, and it will accurately express the spirit of the brand to international customers. This voice involves:

1. Optimism. The optimism of þetta reddast can seem inconceivable yet aspirational to outsiders.
2. Confidence. Assumes the impossible thing as obviously attainable: a nation of ~360,000 qualifying for the World Cup, herding sheep across a glacial river, surfing in the Arctic, etc.
3. Luck. Terrible weather, isolation, volcanoes, treacherous seas? Yet Icelanders are the most likely of any nation to believe they are lucky. The theme of possessing extraordinary luck, despite difficulty, is a unique message—particularly in these cynical times for Europe and the US.

Stands out in a crowd.

Other brands stop at the extraordinary thing, or the extraordinary image. Through the twist of perspective or inclusion of contrarian humor, 66˚North can grab the conscious attention of customers through something unexpected, and then hold the unconscious attention of those customers by introducing them to a paradox.

Allows us to maintain a hard edge while remaining accessible.

Þetta reddast allows us to put forth challenging, potentially intimidating activities or people, but with an air of levity that makes such stories accessible rather than intimidating.

Universal human experience.

Implicit inþetta reddast is that we are small and the world is large—we are not in control. The answer to this puzzle is at the heart of nearly every philosophical or religious tradition’s approach to discovering meaning. Nearly all people understand the spirit of this outlook and aspire to it.

How do we use þetta Reddast?

Instead of using the phrase “þetta reddast,” we will “show” it through the:

Contrasts and paradoxes

Words. There are forms of storytelling, such as “call and response” and inversion, both of which the brand has used successfully to place the reader in an unexpected world, exhibiting one of the core Icelandic paradoxes.

Images. An image—for example, a woman in a puffer—combined with a simple caption “Summer festival season” can have the same effect.

Confidence against the odds

Not all storytelling needs to have humor. We can get at the same paradoxes through stories in which extraordinary things seem everyday to Iceland(ers) through the confidence and the assumption that things will work out.

Directness

Þetta reddast is simple and direct in the face of overwhelming, even frightening complexity. One way our copy can be necessary besides avoiding length, is to let the beginning of any storytelling—whether the first two sentences of a social or blog post, or the first 10 seconds of a video— immediately get to the point, and set the stage for whatever paradox we are trying to communicate.

Call-and-response, a recent example (following an ABAB pattern)

Heroic difficulty + dismissiveness + heroic difficult + inversion

Heroic Difficulty

It’s been blowing here in the fjords today. So much that the State has issued a “red warning” for the first time in history.

Dismissiveness

whatever that means. (RESPONSE)

NOTE: If the call-and-response stopped here, the phrase wouldn’t be funny or interesting. In fact, it might come across as uninformed or confusing because the reader also doesn’t know what to make of a “red warning.” Also, dismissing difficulty is not “inverting it.” Inversion requires putting forth a contrary way to view the challenge. In the above, “Whatever that means” doesn’t provide a contrary view, but it does set up what follows.

Heroic Difficulty

Schools are cancelled and roads closed (CALL)

Add: Inversion

It’s my favorite kind of weather. (RESPONSE)

Result:

Boldness, humor, joy, Icelandic Art of Living

Paradox

A paradox is something that provides an unlikely, unexpected, and often competing internal logic. It contains two ideas that shouldn’t be true in combination but in fact are. This is why paradoxes attract the attention of our conscious mind and stick in the background of our unconscious mind. Iceland is filled with paradoxes.

Iceland

Beautiful, dangerous
Natural, otherworldly
Volcanic fire, Arctic snow
End of the earth, world development leader
Unlimited power, contained to small island
Transcendent experience, everyday

66ºNorth

Scientific, mystical
World class, unknown
Functional, fashionable
Complex engineering, simple appearance

There are many more paradoxes to find in Iceland, or with Icelanders. For instance, for someone like Rax or Olafur, part of what resonates so strongly is that their work may express abstract art/specific politics or that they may be one man/a global movement.

Our stories will resonate most strongly when we can bring out the paradoxes of Iceland and 66˚North through storytelling.