On Sunday, 25th of August, our favorite Berlin glasses brand and client Lunettes has its summer sale and we made some flyers and posters for them.

Browse a huge selection of vintage frames, sunglasses and Lunettes Kollektion sample pieces at discounts of up to 80%.

Sunday, 25th of August
Torstr. 172, Berlin-Mitte, 11-19h
www.lunettes-selection.de

Maybe you’ve already seen it on Facebook, in stores like Motto or Do you read me or you even have been to the release party at Studio Chérie last week: the fifth issue of Œ Magazine is out now and once more we were responsible for the concept, art direction and production.
With the motto »Bright Young Hopefuls«, Œ#5 brings you another season of inspiring editorials interpreting the evolving fashion landscape of Germany. As usual, the production was a lot of fun - this time we used 17 different paper qualities and experimented with printing our illustrations in Pantone special colours on Mohawk’s amazing day-glo Britehue paper. So come on, get your copy here, it’s worth it!

Right now we are working on an extended online platform for Œ, so soon Œ will bring you even more details and background stories about the German fashion scene. We’ll keep you posted…

First photo below: Lisa & Lillian Stutz/Freiseindesign

Mostly, I am not a big fan of VICE Magazine, but the Vice TV productions sometimes are very recommendable. Berlin Fashion Week started today, but you might be interested in how the same event is celebrated in cities that don’t get as much attention as Paris, Milano or New York. In the series Fashion Week Internationale, journalist and ex model Charlet Duboc travels to e.g. Seoul, Jamaica, Tel Aviv and Nigeria and digs deeper into the countries’ culture, ideals of beauty and societal challenges. Find all episodes here or just search on Youtube.

On the occasion of Lette Verein‘s graduation exhibit »EPILOG« we are taking part in a panel discussion this Wednesday. Together with our team from Œ Magazine we will talk about how to work across disciplines like photography, fashion and graphic design.

Everybody is welcome to drop by for the exhibition’s finissage at Industriehalle / Schindler Campus on 12th of June – the talk will start at 5 p.m.

Images: Jannis Hell

It is on the day one year ago that I wrote about the book fair in Leipzig and also this year I saw a bunch of inspiring books there – content-wise as well as regarding the design and production.  I spent hours admiring the nominees and winners of the yearly award »Best Book Design From All Over The World« and the presentations of the students of different German book art study programmes, find some impressions in the pictures. Another highlight was the Korean Pavillon – every single book here could have won the best book award, in my opinion!
I concluded my weekend in Leipzig with a visit to »It’s a book, it’s a stage, it’s a public space«,  a meeting of small independent publishers, where I met friends who presented their cool project »Publishing as (part time) practice«. Check it out here, I heard they will come to Berlin with it, soon.

We love you too.

Thank you for the wonderful show at Volksbühne in Berlin yesterday night … all we are saying is give peace a chance!

Images top to bottom:
– 1969, Yoko Ono  | Clay Perry
– Yoko Ono und John Lennon – Bed-In for Peace, 1969. Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, 25.-31. März 1969
– Unknown
– Yoko Ono, thewire.co.uk
– War is over | imago

Örnsbergsauktionen is the name of an artist operated auction house for studio produced, independent design and craft. Its creators, Fredrik Paulsen, Simon Klenell and Kristoffer Sundin, were missing a platform for contemporary, unique design in Stockholm so they initiated the first Örnsbergsauktionen during Stockholm Design Week 2012. The idea of the auction is to open up the process between idea and finished product and to reduce the distance between designer and client. Now time has come for the second edition – until February, 8th you can check out and bid on a range of beautiful and somewhat crazy objects, bypassing the commercial demands of mass production!

Sculpture by Sara Lundkvist | Glasses by Silo Studio |  Tray by August Sörenson | Necklace by Maria E Harrysson

Images: Viktor Sjödin

Once more Berlin Fashion Week came and went; but some impressions are still lingering on. Like the presentation by Augustin Teboul, atmospherically illuminated by a wonderfully warm and bright light concept. The collection is black and dominated by intricate lace and crochet elements. As usual, you might say, but experts agreed upon a progress in Augustin Teboul’s work which in this collection became evident in more graphical and ethnical elements. Check out for yourselves here!

Harmony, balance and clarity – these sound like good principles for the new year, right? At least this is what the Pantone Color Institute promises us when they announce Emerald as the colour of the year 2013. “Emerald is a lively, radiant, lush, vivid, verdant green which brings a sense of clarity, renewal and rejuvenation, which is so important in today’s complex world”, comments Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone’s executive director. Last year’s Tangerine Tango had some impact in the fashion and beauty world – let’s see if we are going to paint our nails emerald green by the end of this year!

The team behind German typography and graphic design magazine Slanted discovered the amazing power of Cuban poster art and is planning on a special issue to give the Cuban artists an international voice. With 320 pages this Slanted issue will have an impressive coverage and exhibitions in Berlin, Leipzig and Paris will give deeper insights into Cuban design.
To make all these great plans reality, Slanted is dependent on the support of all you design enthusiasts out there: Via crowdfunding you can support the project by ordering copies in advance or buying hand-pressed prints signed by the artists. You can find the latest info on the project’s Facebook page.

When American publishing house Condé Nast opens its archives in New York, Paris, London and Milan for the first time you can be sure to see some of the world’s finest fashion photography! To be honest we even expected a more daring selection but nevertheless some real treasures could be found. Especially seeing the classic compositions of photography’s old masters such as Edward Steichen was truly amazing. In many images you see that fashion photography reflects the respective era, society and zeitgeist and does not just tell us about timeless beauty, as the exhibition’s title might suggest.

Like father, like son. Drew Tyndell, an artist working in Atlanta, Georgia, started out with graffiti, but his latest series of work clearly shows that growing up with an architect father has influenced him. Using different sized pieces of wood, Drew creates studies of beach and cabin homes. Impressive how the colours and structures add depth and a third dimension to the artworks. Check here for more variations!

What started out already in 1966 as a competition for the best posters in the GDR has become a dear recurring event: The exhibition »Die 100 besten Plakate des Jahres« (100 Best Posters of the Year) is once more on display at Kulturforum at Potsdamer Platz. 53 posters from Germany, 45 from Switzerland and 2 from Austria were awarded for their outstanding design, whereof 23 of the prize-winning entries are posters designed by students.
We were great fans of the posters by the following designers: Paula Troxler for a Moby Dick theater play, Valeria Gordeew for a masked ball at Udk Berlin, Markwald & Neusitzer for an exhibition of islandic artist erró, Björn-Christian Schiebe for the Museum of Natural Sciences.
Have a look at all winning posters here or check other dates of the travelling exhibition.

Yes, time is flying and once again we present the next issue of Œ Magazine. Eleven different paper qualities, an open-stitched binding in two colours and as the icing on the cake a holographic diffraction foil on the cover, we can’t ask for more! Surpassing the everyday standards in production, we are happy to work with experts Heenemann Druck and bookbinder Reinhart & Wasser. Production nerds, please enjoy some images of printing, binding and finishing!

We went out to see Sarah Illenbergers exhibition at voo store in Kreuzberg. Some of the exhibits apparently were done just at the same day but a lot of her work was familiar. Nevertheless it was nice to see some of the originals and the beetroot diamonds, the pomegranate and the blonde apple just made us smile!

Maven moved but we did not come far: from Adalbertstraße 4 to 9! Hello Muscle Temple, thanks for having us! (Yes, the new studio also has yellow-orangy window frames. You’ve got to stick to your principles!)

Right in time for Berlin Fashion Week, the lookbook we designed for eyewear label Lunettes Kollektion arrived from the printers. Great glasses, perfect models, beautiful photos shot by David Fischer and styled by Rainer Metz … a welcome dash of colour in Berlin’s grey weather. Check out the new Lunettes collection at the Collect Showroom!

Obviously, I bought these 1950s issues of »Country Fair« because I fell in love with their splendid cover illustrations. But also the magazine’s content is worth mentioning: lessons on how to shoot pheasants, articles on beekeeping and ads for harvesting machinery add up to an interesting reading. The genius behind the striking magazine covers is named John Hanna. He was an Australian who arrived in London in 1947, making his living as a commercial artist and cartoonist there until 1962. During his time in London he created over 50 covers for Country Fair, so the chances are quite good to hunt down some of them on Ebay!

After this year’s honeysuckle, the Pantone Color Institute has named »Tangerine Tango«, a radiant reddish orange, as the colour of the year 2012. As the emotional state and economic climate worldwide still are somewhat depressed, the colour is supposed to ”provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward”, as the Institute explains its decision. So let’s see where we come across this vibrant colour during the next months!
Pantone’s last years’ choices were Honeysuckle, Turquoise, Mimosa and Blue Iris.

As sad as this sounds, as beautiful is the work of artist Nick Georgiou. And here‘s what he says about it: “My art is inspired by the death of the printed word. Books and newspapers are becoming artifacts of the 21st century. As a society we’re shifting away from print consumption and heading straight towards full digital lives. My sculptures are products of their environment —both literally and figuratively. As often as I can, I use local newspapers to add authenticity, and the form the sculpture takes is a reflection of the personal connection I feel to that particular city.”