Print Magazine invited 12 leading visual artists to create a design for a cause to be printed on tote bags. One hundred percent of the profits from these bags will go to the causes chosen by the artists. Now they are inviting you to submit your design as well! Three winning designs and artists will be featured in the magazine. One winner will have his or her creation printed onto a bag… Please head over to Print Mag for more information >

Last week in Paris we met Silas and Kristian, the people behind Soulland, and they shared their beautiful autumn/winter 2010 lookbook with us. The book is designed by Marco Pedrollo and shot by Nikolaj Holm Møller. The cold, desolate snow landscapes of Denmark and Norway form a fantastic decor for the beautiful autumn and winter collection of Soulland. More images after the click > Read the rest of this entry »

Carine Collin, a french graphic designer living and working in Brussels, just updated her website with some very nice work. Definitely worth a visit.

Swedish designer Daniel Carlsten recently launched his own business after five years as an art director, graphic designer and illustrator at the creative collective Acne. He shows us a really nice portfolio. Personal favorites are the ‘Acne Paper Invite’ and his – very well executed – paper crafted food.

Lenancker Romain, a French based graphic designer and Illustrator emailed us to show his beautiful work. Love his colorful view, the playful paper cuts & folds and clear graphics.

Last week we met talented creatives and reviewed their portfolio’s at the Blend New Talent Night. We were very excited to meet such passionate and talented people and so we left Pakhuis de Zwijger with a fresh dose of inspiration.

Our favorite was definitely last years graduate from the HKU Ashkan Honarvar with his dark, horrifying but lovely collages and paintings. His former classmate, Sylvia Stølan, creates more poetic and sparkling collages and illustrations and did some nice projects here in Utrecht.
More illustration; Hedof caught our eyes with his very nice screenprinted posters – a lovely style.
Adriane Galijasevic overwhelmed us with her energy and enormous amount of stories she put in the jeans she creates.
Promising talent Renata Sifrar showed us a mix of graphic, photographic and illustrational works…
And last but not least: Les Ponies Lilas. Three young girls with a shit load of energy and positivity writing, illustrating and photographing all things they like (dutch only). They’ve made some very nice t-shirts (soon online) and made a very nice illustration of Bas en myself as a present for us – How nice! Keep an eye on all these talents!

Friday october 30 Fontanel and Nieuwe Garde organizing a new issue of 60 Minute Magazine during the ‘Internationaal Beeldfestival Rotterdam‘. Participants will get 60 minutes to create a complete magazine issue – if you’re around, want to share your creativity in journalism, graphic design, photography, illustration or anything else, email them to get on the list. I’ll be there to do a short presentation on our work to inspire, and during the process to coach a bit in the art direction. Hope to see you there…

Beautiful work on the quite abstract and minimalistic website of Central Office & Co., the studio of Max Erdenberger.

Finally, after years (!) my good friend Marcel Kampman plugged his universe with ours. It became an inspiring, crazy, beautiful, happy and everything-in-between portfolio/blog/give it a name… Just like Marcel. haha

Rishi Sodha, the founder of Designers Against Human Rights Abuse (DAHRA) just contacted us to tell about their second book ‘3 Minutes‘. In 3 Minutes creatives were each given a 3 minute audio interview with a Tibetan refugee to translate using primarily typography into a 16 printed page booklet. These booklets were then combined with an 11th booklet with the original interviews in to form the book, which comes in an embossed black slip case.

3 Minutes, featuring Bibliotheque, Brighten the Corners, Stefan Gandl (NeubauBerlin), Alex Haigh (Thinkdust / HypeforType), Nick Hard (Research Studios), Jeff Knowles (Research Studios), Abbott Miller (Pentagram), Si Scott, Paul Skerm, Un.titled.

Very, very nice project – and since all the proceeds are going to Tibet Relief Fund we all need to buy one!

Fantastic video work by graphic designer Adam Guzman and Julia Tsao for Nosaj Thing. “As the graphics become more spatial, the performer flattens, becoming a 2-D cutout version of himself.”

Thank you Bas & Nalden for sharing!

As Benji Holroyd says: “I translate ethnic slurs for refugees, write award-winning operas and manage time efficiently. I woo women with my sensuous and god like dancing, I can ride a mountain bike up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and cook thirty-minute brownies in twenty minutes, but my real passion is visual communication.”
He just updated me with some new and fresh work. Pictured above, Naantalin Kaivohoune, the Summer Club, Finland. Check his website for more.

Belgium based graphic designer Geoffrey Brusatto e-mailed me to tell he updated his website. He defiantly is my favorite designer of today!

My Dutch friends at Fontanel made a nice overview of the 2009 graduation shows of the dutch academies. Tonight the show of the design department at HKU will take place with the graduation project of Jonathan Looman (the code boy behind Anothersomething). Curious to that one!

Just got back from a short evening between new dutch talents at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam where I’ve mastered at the 5th Blend x Streetlab New Talent Portfolio Night. There were three people at my table worth publishing.

1. Floor de Bruin is a fashion designer with a define eye for simplicity. Her graduation collection from 2007 is a beautiful series of garments with straight lines and contrasts. At this moment she is moving towards photography and design, so keep an eye on her.

2. Samantha van der Werff creates fantastic sculptural paper installations along with some fresh and joyful graphic design… Looks promising!

3. (pictured above) This is definitely my favorite for today! Sujata Majumdar takes simplicity to a next level. Serene and sober landscapes accompanied with landscape-like pieces of meat, sharp lines in urban settings and melancholic views over mountains and waters… Lovely!

Very inspiring work by Copenhagen based art director / studio Mark Brunswicker.

Beautiful graphic and illustrative works from Japan by Fumihito Yamamura.

Hermès teamed up with Designboom for ‘les cravates par Hermès‘. A competition to design a pattern that could be either a re-interpretation of the Hermès classic patterns or something completely different. The deadline is august 05, 2009.

‘Artists create to bring something into the world that couldn’t exist without them.’

Gino Orlandi contacted me to tell about his recently published eBook Fuel for Art. It counts 78 pages and it’s quite an interesting handbook about how to start a business with your creativity using the web. It’s a useful guide for designers, illustrators, photographers and any visual artist and it’s full of tips about branding yourself, setting goals for your art career and become a little more commercially minded without selling your soul…

I have the privilege to give away two eBooks (worth $37). If you want to get your hands on it, twitter me @Anothercompany with your best tip on selling your art online.

A lovely video by Cool Hunting. They asked a little printing studio in São Paulo to make a poster for their 99% conference. Fantastic to see this craftsmanship and the love for the work on a 1929 German letterpress.