Oma and Bella

How cute are these two!? I came across their cook book and discovered they are part of a wonderful documentary!  I just love them and Oma reminds me of my Omi so much!  Wonderbar!

Oma & Bella is an intimate glimpse into the world of Regina Karolinski (Oma) and Bella Katz, two friends who live together in Berlin. Having survived the Holocaust and then stayed in Germany after the war, it is the food they cook together that they remember their childhoods, maintain a bond to each other and answer questions of heritage, memory and identity.   For more info and to order your copy of there book (in both english and german)

OMA AND BELLA

Giopota

Good morning! Today I would like to talk a little bit about my illustrator friend Giopota. Born in 1988 in Caserta, since he was a child he loved drawing until he discovered the digital world and web design. Finished high school he decides to move to Milan where he works and studies a couple of years until he decides to study at the Fine Arts University of Bologna where he can practice his talent without leaving his passion for digital illustrations. While studying Giopota keeps working on personal projects between comics and illustrations. I have been following his work since he started posting his very first drawings and I'm always impressed how much he has grown up and how beautiful his illustrations are. His personal style is catchy, romantic, with touches of fantasy worlds and everyday-life situations which he is able to describe as poems. Dynamic and full of details, his drawings illustrate dream worlds in which I would like to go. Ah! Not to forget: bears are a constant is his works! Good job Giopota!

giopota.com

And don't forget to follow him on facebook! There, you will find his works in progress and more illustrations:

www.facebook.com/giopotart

Sand Project & Animal 2.0 prints

From left: 

Vivienne Westwood bag 

Christoph Lemaire shirt + Cutler and Gross sunglasses (B Magazine) 

Shirt (pop-fashion.com)

Kenzo printed shirt (farfetch.com)

Just before my vacations I fell in love with this kinds of patterns that I have named ''Animal 2.0''. There is something new and refreshing about these prints and I see an extremely stylish and chic potential in this trend. 

When I was on vacation I came across these beautiful patterns on the sand which reminded me of the ''animalic 2.0'' mood. When the tide goes down, sand and water reveal different patterns all along the beach and it is amazing to see how perfect this is. Sand Project is a collection of pictures which are in between graphism and photography and reveal the beauty of a natural process in continuous changing. The subjects are millions fragments and this confuses and makes us wonder what we are looking at. 

Pictures by Andrea Strata

Happy New Year!

Jon Sueda

A native of Hawaii, Sueda has practiced graphic design everywhere from Honolulu to the Netherlands. After returning to school to receive his MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts in 2002 Jon was invited to North Carolina State University as a designer in residence, followed by a stint in Holland where he did an internship with Studio Dumbar.In 2004 he founded Stripe, a collaborative graphic design studio based in San Francisco. Sueda's work has exhibited internationally by London's Architectural Association's Forms of Inquiry andCalifornia Dream at Galerie Anatome in Paris. He recently curated the exhibition Wide White Space at the CCA Wattis Institute and is the graphic designer for the 12th Istanbul Biennial in September 2011.He has recently launched a new design publication called "Task Newsletter." His clients include Art Center College of Design, CalArts, Chronicle Books, Nothing Moments Publishing, REDCAT Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, USC Roski School of Fine Arts, and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. (www.cca.ed)

www.stripesf.com

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Taylor & Andrea!

Designing Paper bags

Who ever thought about designing cool paper bags? DXG has! Last time I went to White fair in Milan I walked before this small, still beautiful stand. A paper bag not only contains your lovely purchases of the day (and make you really proud of them), but they also tell the shop you have been too. This may sound ''ok, whatever'': WRONG! This company has a great talent in communicating the brand in the best way making this free object a must have of the season. Ok, I exaggerated, but I don't think you would throw away these neat paper bags. I think designing a nice, communicative and effective paper bag is not a simple work and I like how DXG do it. Which is the best paper bag you have seen or you keep? 

http://www.dxg.it/

World Wild Men - Free my skin now!

Call it love at first sight or just insatiable need, I just fell in love with this brand. First of all, not only the products are organic, but also World Wild Men is active in spreading and educate about the importance of using organic products and doing the best to be a sustainable brand. No tests on animals, no GMO, they avoid the use of colors and synthetic perfumes and no harmful chemicals are used for the formulation of their products. Second, this is a just-for-men skincare brand, which makes me happy because we do have our needs: shaving makes our face skin is drier and sensitive, we do have greasy skin and larger pores. Third, the commercials are hilarious! ''Peu lisse'' means ''smooth skin'', but sounds like police. And, We can always trust our lawyer (advocat=avocado), mostly when it is organic. Genius! 

Because I now feel the urge to have all their products, I'll write down wherever I can find them, and no, no, no one will stop me! 

Thank you for making my day WWM.

www.worldwildmen.com

Marble and Rhombi

Who inspired the other? Or, is it the same person?

Questions I will never find the answer to. So, this is interesting to find such uncommon combination in a print! I wouldn't be surprised finding it in a old italian building, but the contrast between marble stone in rhombi shape on paper or textile is quite inspiring and Kenzo's collaboration with Vans is lovely and fun.

http://vadikmarmeladov.com/

http://www.kenzo.com/

Frederic Teschner

Inspiring works! I am looking for some inspirations for my final presentation.. Great website and graphics! Love it!

www.fredericteschner.com

Adeline Mollard

Adeline Mollard is a swiss, 27 years old, graphic designer, art director and editor. She graduated at the Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL) and she works as a freelance between Berlin, New York and Zürich. She had been editor and designer at Gestalten publishers and art director of OPAK magazine with Floyd Schulze.

I find her work really clean and inspiring. Great use of fonts and I like some editorial choices. Makes me want to do more graphic design. I have thing with graphic design though: either you are great or you just can't ... Adeline is great then.

www.adelinemollard.ch

Image source: andreastrata@hotmail.com

Image source: www.adelinemollard.ch

Image source: www.adelinemollard.ch

Benjamin Hubert: the material driven design has a new website

Has you might have notices I have a particular passion for Benjamin Hubert. I love his concrete/terracotta lamps and he fascinates me with simple, yet fresh and clean new lines. The fil rouge of his portfolio is the constant research in materials: it is there where he takes inspiration from, Materials driven design. The new website have been designed to convey in the best way the method behind this young designer. Beautiful full screen images with a selection of international photographers including Richard Boll and a global richer experience. The All Of the Above studio have delivered a wonderful job.

Visit the new website: www.benjaminhubert.co.uk

It's all about layers

Harmen Liemburg is a graphic designer from Netherlands. Studied at the Gerrit Rietveld academy and soon became a member of a new breed of designers, one that is closely linked to the world of art, education and museums. His portfolio is vast and has no limits of typology, but always effective and fun. Transformation and collage are two of the main constants in his production. And how to deny that ''it's about layers...''! 

www.harmenliemburg.nl

Perfume test: the infograph of the results

Here the results of the questionnaire I have sent a month ago. This is a summary of the answers which I made a little more easier to read. This was fun! I took my time in doing it, but I'm happy that I finally found the time to make some order in all the informations I am getting from tests and research. 

My thesis is taking shape and some prototypes are almost ready. I hope to share the products as soon as I have some good pictures!

Jeremy Scott's unicorns print

via www.madblog.org

Sulki & Min

www.sulki-min.com

Parisian buildings texture

I had to write a friday night short post about this. If someone had been to Paris might or might not have seen this texture on buildings, this picture in particular was taken on the Seine side of the Louvre Museum. I don't know if it is me, but I just kept seeing this texture everywhere in Paris. If someone asked me which is the typical parisian texture, I would have no doubts. Is this a personal issue of someone can relate to that? Sorry, probably this was not necessary, but I just can't not think of Paris when I see this (which doesn't look really parisian at a first sight...). Ok, you can go back to party now. Have a great weekend!

Handmade wallpaper decoration

This detail fascinated me in S.M.Novella perfume store in Florence. After the flood of 1966, the wallpaper was completely ruined by the water and the humidity. This is a detail of the restored wallpaper, handmade in France.

Green & Spring

Each bird characterizes a different fragrance of these skincare handmade products. Aren't they lovely? I love the classical drawing with this modern look. I think you can easily find this line in London, let me know how they smell if it happens to pass before them!

greenandspring.com

Artist of the week: Luci Gutiérrez

I love Luci!  Luci Gutiérrez is an illustrator in press, publications and advertising.   She is also the co-editor of Garabbattage, a small publishing house and the author of several books!  Her work has been contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post and La Cama de Pandora (a fiction blog of the spanish newspaper el mundo).  In an interview with The New Yorker  she describes her work:  

Your work has an immediately apparent sense of humor. Yet I don’t think of you as a “funny” artist. How do you view the relationship between humor and your work?

I think sense of humor is a question of survival. I’m not interested in humor per se, but irony and black humor. I think these forms are a way of channelling hidden feelings. I feel like it also allows for a certain freedom from inhibition in drawing, which is something that’s harder to get in life for me.