Royal Portarits

The African continent is often the theatre of such contrasts, where parallel worlds overlap in permanence, making it difficult for an outsider to analyze.

There are still several hundred monarchs on this continent. While some amongst them have been relegated to the level of touristic curiousities, others still maintain significant traditional and spiritual power. Born of dynasties which marked the history of Africa until the twentieth century, these kings are the source of underground power with which "modern governments" have to exist.
Contrary to the Indian Maharajas, they have survived the upheavals of history, and evolve in a parallel world but which is very real.

" Since information and ethnological research on African monarchs was rare, I started to investigate haphazardly, then went to meet the kings, beyond the cities often at the end of very bad roads.

In order to photograph them I had to submit almost always to complex protocols. I put in a lot of time, obstination and sometimes money. I was helped many times by intermediaries who were well known in the court. Without them, negitiations would have been impossible.

In three years, between 1988 and 1991, I undertook a dozen voyages which enabled me to spend almost twelve months in Africa. And yet I still didn't have time to go see the king of the Shiluks, a descendant of the black dynasties who reigned over Egypt, civil war in Sudan made the trip too complicated. During the same period, I went five times to Oyo( Nigeria ), without meeting the Alafin, whose Yoruba Kingdom dominated the south of Nigeria during several centuries." Photographs by Daniel LAINÉ

Disabled or chillin'?

Craft and art

‘oh, I thought it would be bigger’
© barnaby barford, 2006
porcelain, enamel paint, zinc discs, glass tubes, painted wooden base

Barnaby Barford is an artist and designer based in London his work crosses and blurs the boundaries between art, craft and design. Amazing work, juxtaposing the familiar with the very personal.

Third Uncle

(brian eno- bauhaus)
There were tims - There was pork - There are legs - There are skarks -
There was John - There are cliffs -There was mother - There's a poker...
There was you
Then there was you

There are scenes - There are blues - There are boots - There are shoes -
There are Turks - There are fools -They're in lockers - They're in schools...
They're in you
Then there was you

Burn my fingers - Burn my toes - Burn my uncle - Burn his books -
Burn his shoes - Cook the leather - Put it on me...
Does it fit me
Or you
It looks tight on you

Gods and mortals

I find adoration of humans hilarious:
religions are created every day by the
many followers. The true sign of our times.
In this case Maradona has a UK temple,
a site for "a true Scottish hero"!?...It seems
that coke inhaling is one of the attributes of
modern gods...I have hope in the end to
hypocrisy...But the heavens might
say otherwise.

Dutch humor

KesselsKramer is a company dedicated to disproving the unfair myth that the Dutch have no sense of humour.If you are patient and curious you might enjoy their work. My picks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Danish talent

Duckling is a post production house for high-end commercials,
feature films, documentary and music videos.

Heavy mental:David Byrne & Bruce Mau

A mutal interview between two very talented artists:
David Byrne: Musician
Bruce Mau: Graphic Designer
BM: You mention something here that is absolutely critical in my own practice.
Namely, the idea of taking the sensibilities developed in one medium and
deploying those to advantage in another. One thing I realised about my own
work is that I am a child of the cinema – the work I do in book design could
only have happened after the invention of the jump cut, the close up, the
montage. Almost all of my work is about sequence. If you look at any individual
image or page in my work, it seems dead-pan, dry and flat. All the action is
in the movement from one moment to another. And I know that when I take the
sensibilities that I have evolved in my approach to the book as a sequential
object, an object that unfolds in time, into a practice like, say, the design of a
landscape, I do it in a fundamentally different way than the traditional approach
to landscape.
DB: This cross-referencing from one discipline to another reminds me that I tend
to jump from one medium to another, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
It’s energising and refreshing. Somewhere I got the idea that cross-fertilisation
is good, that one discipline feeds the other and that each one can be entered
into with a sense of play. Not that play isn’t serious. I’m often not aware of the
inspiration that gets carried from one area over to another, which is fine.
I wouldn’t pretend to be a great virtuoso, but there are ways to express
the heart and mind that don’t require years of apprenticeship – and sometimes
a great craftsman or skilled player forgets that the communication is not in the
virtuosity, not that it hurts – one can lose sight of what’s important.
Another thing I’m often not aware of is where things are headed. In
retrospect things look like they were following a master plan, that there was a
carefully laid out route to arrive at something or other, but more often than not it
was intuition and accidents. The grand scheme may be there in the unconscious,
subtly guiding one’s attentiveness to pay attention to these accidents and
happenstance, but I’m often unaware of it.

Flashback

personal winter thoughts before the well known
spring industry fashion attack! My fall favorites:
Dior Fall 2006, and Margiela Fall 2006.

Audry Dancing ACDC

This ad is GENIOUS.

gifs

Ok GO!

Controversial work

"Following her enormously successful series 'Monkey Portraits', which debuted in October 2004, Jill Greenberg’s new work takes a more serious turn and has already hit a national nerve . "End Times" combines beautiful, poignant imagery, impeccably executed, with both political and personal relevance. Greenberg’s subject is taboo: children in pain. She utilizes this uncomfortable image as a way to break through to the pop mainstream and begin a national dialogue. Jill Greenberg's images are sharp and saturated, stunning and quirky; her work is soaked with realism and imagination."

This is a photo series that now is being titled as pure cruelty. I think the reaction is overwhelming and in that sense the message is confusing, not for that I think is bad work...Maybe not a thing to repeat. Really interesting but kind of disconnected with the real motif behind it. I recommend reading the press release on the site.

Line girl

From Brazil the awesome work of Raquel Falkenbach (what an awesome last name). She has this very hot work on illustration. I love the hand render quality of her work, so raw yet delicate: totally fashionable.

Girls with toys

When thinking about campaigns to promote sex products for women, I find the campaign made by "coco de mer" exquisite. This company has done in my opinion an excellent job of brand identity . The approach is very tasteful, the colors are sober and great art direction regarding images. The whole experience says erotic with no even a glance of the very familiar male oriented, but very cheap, sex imagery. It appeals to retro but it feels very contemporary and progressive. In the website there is a movie (HONEY AND BUNNY) by chapters that shows all the array of products they have and additionally manage to make the whole "informational" session a pleasure. Great stuff! Strong aesthetic sensibilities that highlights above all the feminine allure.

nordic look

Remo Stoller
Born Thun, Switzerland, 1977
Lives and works in Bern, Switzerland

Creepy and sexy?

Is creepy equivalent with sexy?
I have seen a couple of films made as advertisement campaigns for lingerie brands where the theme seems to be the same: creepy dark images of women in underwear. It feels so much the aesthetic of any horror film mixed with the night vision Paris Hilton infamous video that I ask my self: is the idea of "mystery" actually sexy, when it feels weak as even a mystery? Does Kate moss suffice to make the creepy, sexy? In my opinion she does look pretty funny and even possessed. It is like a zoolander version of the exorcist.Here is the campaign.

Motion and the city

Once I suggested to include in a luxury paint campaign a projection of a guy painting a whole facade of a building, one color , different buildings each night... Now I discover this idea of projection from Karolina Sobecka and her awesome moving tiger...The city then becomes a screen for a wild creature (inspired by William Blake). Beautiful.

sex and power

There are some stories that represent all the many things about cultures that you perceive but quite can't shortly tell without the story. I found one of those stories on the cultural approach of French soccer commentators to a game in terms of gender roles. Here is the very particular comment made by an American that lives in Paris:

"...This is the first time I’ve watched a world sporting event in France and I am pleased to report that their crap commentary is just as crap if not crapper than American crap commentary. With one large, beefy Freudian difference: French crap commentary has…Sex.

During yesterday’s Czech-Italy match I jotted down some of the highlights:

“L’équipe tchèque est séduisante.”
The Czech team is seductive.

“Ils subissent trop, les Italiens.”
The Italians are being too submissive.

Half time

“L’équipe tchèque n’est pas très romantique.”
The Czechs are not very romantic.

“Les Italiens préfèrent se faire dominer.”
The Italians prefer to be dominated."

one by Bukowski

Alone With Everybody

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind in there
and sometimes a soul,
and the women break vases against the walls
and the men drink too much
and nobody finds the one

but keep looking
crawling in and out of beds.
flesh covers the bone
and the flesh searches
for more than flesh.

there's no chance at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular fate.
nobody ever finds
the one.

the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill

nothing else fills.

A designers collective

late-night "quickie" weddings gone

concrete beauty

Everybody loves patterns

If you want to play for while creating stuff, this is an easy game.

An oportunity for war

This is a lock between mainstream culture
and subcultures:the "whores" and the "geeks"
come together to do "whores of warcraft" fast
on the very time consuming, mind numbing
videogame "craftwar".
The movie looks really funny.

Butt naked

I praise girls that take their sexuality as a celebration. This photographer has an extensive work on that premise on flikr. I like her sensibility, but sometimes the macabre takes things into scary land...Maybe an artistic statement. I prefer some division in the level of aggression suggested. I prefer the joy of naughtiness than the burden of deadful images. The images above are part of a series that find really sexy for its lightness. Anyhow, they are really committed artists to their kinkiness.

Burning Eno

When I got back home I found a message on the door
Sweet Regina's gone to China crosslegged on the floor
Of a burning jet that's smoothly flying
Burning airlines give you so much more
How does she intend to live when she's in far Cathay
I somehow can't imagine her just planting rice all day
Maybe she will do a bit of spying
With microcameras hidden in her hair
I guess Regina's on a plane a Newsweek on her knees
While miles below the curlews call from strangely stunted trees
The painted sage sits just as though he's flying
Regina's jet disturbs his wispy beard.
When you reach Kyoto send a postcard if you can
And please convey my fond regards to Chih-Hao's girl Yu-Lan
I heard a rumour they were getting married
But someone left the papers in Japan.
Left them in Japan.

Math is... long hair and fingernails!

I have to admit that I really appreciate the work of mathematicians. I secretly would like to have a math club to do some hardcore divisions. This story is about a Russian mathematic that is kind of a hermit and won a price for his work, but he prefers only to explain his achievements rather than to celebrate the explaining.

"He looked like Rasputin, with long hair and fingernails," Robert Greene of UCLA told The New York Times. When he spoke at Harvard, Perelman declared he would sacrifice some clarity and linearity for "liveliness," which apparently meant hardly writing down a thing during the entire lecture. (After, one mathematician thanked him for wasting so little chalk.) When the press began showing up at his appearances, Perelman packed it in and went home, though for the next year or two he maintained a correspondence with his peers, answering every question fired at him.Perelman's colleagues eventually ballooned his elegant short story into something more like War and Peace—all told about 1,000 pages have been published thus far to explain Perelman's work on Poincaré, and the ultimate conclusion is that Perelman was right. (The verdict is still out on the geometrization conjecture.)

"[Perelman] is very focused on mathematics," Morgan said. "When the conversation is mathematical, he is quite open and approachable." But when the conversation about math turned to million-dollar prizes and Fields medals, Perelman went AWOL.

Shooting color

Non-Format has always blown my mind with their straight foward clean design. This time they blow my mind with color. Some ads for coke.

Film document: graphic artists

The Run Up:
Featuring twenty-six of the most eminent artists of today, The Run Up is a visual and historical representation of contemporary art. The DVD is composed of one-on-one interviews with the artists that depict their personal journeys in finding their artistic style as well as creating a space for themselves within the art world.
Watch the trailers

world wide web search

Google the word failure and look the first name that is found as result. How long it will stay there?

this is Type Radio fm...

Eco-mean, dude!

Fake Forest makes eco-mean stuff.

“Eco-friendly” is how you feel when you buy something that seems good for the environment because it looks “green,” or the label has three bent arrows chasing each other in a triangular loop, or words like recycled, recyclable and natural, without defining what they mean. It's like, “Dude, I hope I'm saving the Earth!”

“Eco-mean” is how you feel when you stop hugging trees and start throwing rocks. Nah, not at the trees, but at companies that pose as your eco-friends instead of just explaining the materials used in their products and how they get produced from start to finish, so that people can make the most informed choices possible. It's like, “Dude, show me what you're made of!”

Fake Forest researches and designs products to have minimal impact on the Earth's resources. We consider and make known all ingredients, percentages, and processes.

Humor going global

This instance the Borat experiment is taken to the heartland of America, to of course make us laugh about the conventional, through the unconventional Kasahstani, Borat.

Images from my homeland

Alec Soth images are very similar to the cold and dark in Lynch's "eraserhead", not for that they fail to be sweet, hunting, and totally real. Beautiful images from the Missipi and Bogota.
- click on the image to go to his website-

Shift and the girls

If you like street fashion reports as much as I do, you can go to the link and look for the "girls on the street" archive.

daily show update on security

A 3am Joe Le taxi

fun videos

Bunny rabbits in my laptop

I prefer the sticker I made for my laptop, but those may be to ephemeral for some people...:" this time we etched a very cool bunny infused Tsunami"

Type meets illustration

Marian Bantjes started working in the field of visual communication in 1983, and subsequently worked for 10 years as a book typesetter (that is her education). From 1993 to 2002 she owned and ran a design firm with a partner, with 2 to 12 staff members, creating the usual gamut of materials for a wide range of corporate, education and arts-organizations (that is her experience). since 2003 she has crossed the boundaries between design, illustration and typography and currently works in this zone, mostly for other designers (that is her experiment). she is also in her 4th year on the british columbia board of the society of graphic- designers of canada (GDC/BC), writes about design for the design website speak up, and teaches typography through emily carr institute in vancouver.

what very big teeth you have!

Trusting naugthy

Lately I have come to contemplate that photographers are mostly succesful -or not- thanks to the interaction with the models. This thought has become clear after finding so many and different styles of photo work that show lifestyles and perspectives of beauty. So what we see is not only a vision but a relation. The clue then is to know how to develop relationships that are kind of ephemeral yet forceful. Here is an example of the work by Craig Cowling.

Oriental details

Sometimes excelence is an understatement: Zoren and Minori work mixes photo with illustration, collage and digital manipulation (my favorite). Their work is just amazing! Fashion images spill color allure anywhere.

Some vision

"I was born in London, on December 6th, 1968
to an American father and French Moroccan mother."
// Photographer, Phillip Toledano.

Celebrity Status

Helvetica goes to the big screen.
Why? beacuse it represents the zeitgeist of type!

Sex sells

A cliché, but it is this time executed in a new way. This is a publication that has many different interpretations of porn images by graphic designers. The book is so sweet to look at that it is sold in Paul Smith boutiques as an extending of the "lifestyle". Cool looking, but the whole idea is to easy for me to give total credit to the "creatives"...But that is the clue "concept " behind porn: easy and kinky -this one more "clean" thanks to design-

Design Buddy

We are in the process of putting together work for the collective we have for an exhibition. Printed compositions of 30"by 48" will be on display.

Takagi Masakatsu

The work of artist Takagi Masakatsu is based on images and music. I see lots of psicodelia, this is alterated visual perceptions...interesting crazy expansive images with a superb use of color.
I found his work outside the Apple -mecenic- work(mf inv patron protection). Nowdays his work is sold even in the Itunes...excelent work nonetheless.