Author: Igor

Madrid Instants

Last week we travelled to Madrid to work on a new City Guide. We loved the city and can’t wait to show you all the places we visited. Until then, here’s a small preview taken from our Instagram profile.

The views from the rooftop of El Círculo de Bellas Artes

Cacto Cacto, a shop selling only cacti and succulent plants

Toma Café, a cool coffee shop in the Malasaña neighbourhood

Kyle Hughes-Odgers exhibition at Swinton and Grant gallery

Federal Café in the hip neighbourhood of Conde Duque

Illustration museum Museo ABC

Pinar, a really nice menswear shop in the Barrio de las Letras neighbourhood

El Retiro park

November 24, 2015
Kristin Texeira

Kristin Texeira is an oil painter originally from Massachusetts. From her studio in Brooklyn, Kristin creates abstract colourful paintings to capture, document and preserve memories. We chat with Kristin to find out more about her earliest memories of painting, the influence of colour in her work and what happens on a normal day at her studio.

www.kristintexeira.com

Studio photographs by Julie Simon.

What are your earliest memories of painting?

I remember as a very young child a pair of feathery paintings above my mother’s couch. I would subconsciously study them – the way the colors and shapes interacted and overlapped, comparing and contrasting them. So, it all started with looking.

After that I can remember passing my hours filling coloring books – my strategy was to use as many colors from the crayon box as possible. I had little watercolor sets and my grandmother would let me paint on her walls and windowsills. I loved color from a young age. I would take the paint palettes from my classmates and mix their colors together to watch them all blend before washing them.

Please take us through a normal day at your studio and tell us a little about your work process.

I’m a big list-maker. My day usually starts with a coffee and a “to-do” list. There is a lot to balance between the act of making art and the business side of things. So, my lists usually include a few business oriented tasks: emails, updates, applications, and then there’s the good stuff – what I will make that day.

Most of my paintings begin in the form of writing. I try to free write everyday in search of inspiration. Writing helps me to preserve the present and unlock memories that I haven’t visited in a while. My paintings are these stories retold through the language of color.

Colour is clearly an essential aspect of your paintings. Please tell us in which ways it influences your work.

My life is categorized with color. Colors are evoked through interactions. I make playlists based on the colors of songs. I know certain friends will get along with each other based on their colors. I see colors in scents and sounds. It helps me define moments in time.

I paint to provide proof – for myself and others – of existing in these moments. Painting keeps me present and allows me to pay homage to the past. I gather colors daily as a reminder to remain awake and I paint the colors of the past to remedy nostalgia.

What other elements are an essential part of your work? Where do you draw inspiration from?

Travel plays an important role in my work. I’ve noticed a pattern where I never have a sense of my present home until I reach a new destination. Interacting with new environments allows the past to become a memory and therefore something I wish to preserve through painting. Being in new places and listening to the stories of strangers serves as great source material for my pieces. My desire to learn through travel and my artistic practice are intertwined.

What are you working on at the moment?

Though I look outwardly for inspiration, my work over the past few years has been mostly personal. I am continuing the search for beautiful interactions but, I am starting to gather other people’s memories as well.

I have had strangers come to me with memories that they want to preserve through paint. There have been families that have to sell their grandparent’s home and want a tangible map to remember. There have been couples that share a great adventure in a faraway place, walking me step-by-step through their memory, asking me to put it into paint. It’s amazing some of the stories people have shared and beautiful that they trust me with something so precious. I’m hoping to continue my own adventure and help many people along the way with remembering theirs.

November 16, 2015
Stephanie Specht

Stephanie Specht is a freelance graphic designer based in Antwerp, Belgium. Inspired by music, art and fashion, Stephanie describes her work as intuitive, abstract, typographic and minimalistic.

We chat with Stephanie to find out more about what made her become a graphic designer, her workspace and plans for the upcoming months.

www.stephaniespecht.com

Studio photographs by Christophe Derivière.

Please tell us a little about your background and education. The bio on your website mentions that you lived and worked in so many places before going back to Antwerp!

I was born in Antwerp and I studied Graphic Design at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts. I worked at a company for a year and quickly realized I didn’t belong in a structure like that. Also, the routine was killing my creativity. I wanted to do my own thing.

I became self-employed in 2007. Initially, my plan was to stay in Antwerp but, due to a past relationship, I moved to all those different places: Cape Town, Brussels, Princeton and New York. I was living a modern nomadic life which was really inspiring but at the same time exhausting. After a while I really felt I wanted to settle down somewhere. Suddenly I wanted the opposite lifestyle than the one I was living. I was used to working from ‘home’, wherever ‘home’ would be but, if I look back at those couple of years, I think I wasn’t really 100% focused on my work. There was too much distraction.

It’s only been since 2014 that things really started changing for me. I decided I would stay in Antwerp for a longer time. I did not plan on moving anywhere soon again. I became more focused on my work and somehow attracted more interesting clients.

What made you interested in graphic design in the first place?

Initially, I wanted to become an architect. In Antwerp, where I grew up, I started an architectural design course when I was 16. I didn’t know what graphic design was, but I’d always loved to draw. At one point, one of my teachers advised me to change direction since my maths weren’t good enough. So I started a more general art course, and instead of focusing on buildings, I began looking at the style of architectural movements (Bauhaus, Brutalism, De Stijl, Modernism). I became fascinated by the lettering on buildings. Only by looking at these typefaces, you could tell the years in which these buildings were built. During my last year in high school, a typography teacher introduced me to graphic design.

Tell us about your workspace, Studio Specht, and its uses.

I moved into my first real ‘office’ at the beginning of this year. I really dislike the word office – it’s more like a creation room, a work space, a studio! My studio is in an old building materials warehouse. There are 12 studios in total, all occupied by creatives. The interior was designed by Nicolas Petillon. The space is really rectangular and when he suggested to use a ceiling-high curtain line in the form of a wave through the space, my first reaction was ‘why break this space!?’ But he was right. The curtain gives the space even more ‘space.’ I can open the curtain wherever I want and change the whole room.

I also have a marble Knoll table in my meeting room. It belonged to my grandmother who passed away a few weeks before I opened up the studio and I inherited it. The curtain follows the shape of the table and this space now almost feels like a sanctuary. It’s beautiful. I decided to paint my floor apricot white which adds a certain warmth and feminine touch to the all concrete white space. I also have a lot of plants. It feels like a soft jungle. Every time I walk into the studio I feel inspired and happy. Nicolas did a great job, really.

The first couple of months I organized a few Open Days where people could just come, walk in and look at new works I produced. I have done some collaborations that I’m really happy with and those works are also on view here. From time to time, I get emails from people who want to make an appointment to come and have a look at my studio. Sometimes they are just curious to see where I work, sometimes they want to buy an illustration. It’s nice to meet people this way, because they are different to my clients.

How would you describe your work? Where do you draw inspiration from?

My work is intuitive, abstract, typographic and minimalistic. I love to find purity in lines and forms.

Music, art and fashion are a big source of inspiration for me – but it can be anything really; a conversation, a photograph…

Do you have a particular favourite piece of work or something you feel especially proud of?

I think the Up Up Up illustration is one of my favorite personal works now. I recently created the identity for this new music documentary television show called Off the Record. It was the first time I designed something for TV. I am very happy with the result. It’s great to see my designs moving on screen!

What are your plans for the upcoming months?

I just finished a really intense book project in New York. I was there for two months. I am really tired so I am working on just a few jobs – I need to relax a little. Right now I am working on a redesign for S Magazine. S is a deluxe art and fashion biannual committed to gorgeous fashion photography, intelligent long-form articles, and experimental visual art. The magazine often changes style (designer). They have an identity but they like to play around with different typography and layout within the magazine itself.

I’m also busy updating Belgian artist Leon Vranken’s website. His work is amazing – I love working with his beautiful images. I also might design some new book covers for Das Mag, a new young Amsterdam based publisher.

November 12, 2015
Radio Cascabel

Radio Cascabel is a musical and visual project started by Argentines Estefi Panizza and Diego Jalfen. Curating the most exciting Latin American sounds, Radio Cascabel offers playlists, sound design, live DJ sets and other musical and visual services. We talked to its two founders to find out more about how this project started, their recent move to London and the Latin American bands we should be listening to right now.

www.radiocascabel.com

How did you meet and how did Radio Cascabel start?

We met on a night out when we both went to see a cool DJ play at a bar in Buenos Aires. It was love at first sight 🙂

Diego worked for a big radio station in Buenos Aires and in advertisement. I, Stefi, was working as a psychologist and was also starting to show my work as a photographer.

Spring of 2013 marks an inflection point for us. The idea and concept behind Cascabel was born when we were living in Barcelona. We were at a party and we took a microphone which was on the stage, and started dancing and singing over the music. Everyone at the party was very excited and the day after that, our musical project started.

Tell us a little bit about all the different things you do with Radio Cascabel.

Have you ever imagined a platform that curates emerging Latin-American music and visual art? A Radio that spreads local sounds with a global spirit and timeless sounds? A radio that could provide a space for experimental music? These questions inspire us to keep on developing our project.

We search for new sounds and emerging visual artists all around Latin America. We develop an archive of the new, undiscovered and the impossible. We schedule all this music and broadcast a fresh streaming where new stuff can be listened to and artworks that have no place in traditional broadcasting can be enjoyed.

Cascabel is our world – the way we live, think and feel. It is also a lab for music experimentation.

You’ve recently moved to London to open a second office. What made you expand to the UK?

We wanted to have the opportunity to show all the new Latin American music we work with and to experience living in another country. London is a really musical city and it’s giving us the chance to connect countries, people, and languages through music. We’d like to change some stereotypical ideas of the music of our region. We love to offer an unexpected selection of music where listeners can discover new sounds.

What Latin American musicians should we be listening to right now?

We recommend all the artists we broadcast in Radio Cascabel. This is just a small selection: Bahía Inútil (Chile), Lucrecia Dalt (Colombia), Little Jesus (Mexico), Candelaria Zamar (Argentina), Nicolas Melmann (Argentina), Salt Cathedral (Colombia), Sobrenadar (Argentina) and Helado Negro (Ecuador/US).

What are your plans for the upcoming months?

We’re starting a monthly show on NTS Radio with some of the best tracks from our selection. Also, some others radio stations have shown interest in having the most exciting sounds from Latin American and the Southern Cone. We are so happy to find Londoners interested in our curated music playlists.

We also expect to increase our own audience on Radiocascabel.com and visit some friends in Ibiza and Madrid for New Year’s Eve.

November 9, 2015
Brothers We Stand

Founded by Jonathan Mitchell, Brothers We Stand is a new online retailer selling ethical menswear. Conceived as an alternative for the customer dissatisfied with fast fashion and its questionable practices, every product on the website features a footprint tab providing information on its social and environmental impact. Brothers We Stand stocks a stylish and sustainable range of products from its own brand and other like-minded labels.

We tried on some of its pieces and spoke with Jonathan about what made him start Brothers We Stand, working with friends and his future plans.

www.brotherswestand.com

What made you start Brothers We Stand?

I noticed that there was a growing number of menswear designers working to sustainable standards but that they were often hard to find. So I had the idea that it would be cool to bring them together. That’s it really!

Our aim is to provide a solution that allows style loving people to build a wardrobe made up of stylish and sustainably made menswear.

What’s the main criteria for a brand to be stocked at Brothers We Stand?

For us the product comes first, it’s got to be a great product. We search out pieces that are aesthetically pleasing, created to last and ethically and sustainably made.

Every product on the site has a different story but all have something about their manufacture that sets them apart from the norm. It could be that they are made from recycled materials, that they are made in a wind-powered factory or perhaps that they are hand-made in London.

The Level Collective t-shirt

The Level Collective t-shirt

Please tell us a little more about the different brands you stock at Brothers We Stand.

Seeing as you’re repping a Level Collective tee, let me tell you a bit more of them! Mark Musgrave is the creative head behind the brand and he collaborates with emerging illustrators to co-create prints for his bamboo and cotton tees and sweats. Mark’s designs are inspired by his personal love of the great outdoors and I love the gentle simplicity to his work. The garments are good quality and his bamboo tees are some of the softest t-shirts we’ve come across.

Elvis and Kresse are another brand and provide a good example of the diversity of materials the brands we work with use. They make phone cases, wallets and bags from upcycled fire hose and military parachute silk. Kresse’s had a fascination with waste since childhood and their story began when Kresse and her partner James met some people from the fire brigade and were invited to come and view their waste. They were brought to a ‘fire hose landfill’ where hoses which can survive for up to 25 years of active service are scrapped when they are too damaged to repair. Kresse says she fell in love with the ‘rich, lustrous coils of red.’!

James is a skilled craftsman and together they began experimenting with the hoses and started to make bags and wallets. Due to the hard exterior of the material it is hard to work with but they found the effort to be worthwhile and the resulting products highly durable. The couple have now been working with the material for ten years and perfectionism doesn’t even come close to describing how they’re constantly refining their products. Elvis spent an incredible five years perfecting a billfold wallet which apparently he still thinks can be improved further! Their pieces are beautiful and have a narrative to them that’s unrivalled due to the history of the fire hose.

These are just two examples but all the brands we work with have inspiring stories and it’s a privilege to work with them and sell their products.

Brothers We Stand sweatshirt

You’ve built Brothers We Stand alongside a group of friends, can you tell us more about them?

Brothers We Stand has got to where it is today thanks to the hard work and talents of a lot of people! Whilst I was planning the business I was working as a waiter with an agency which meant I met a lot of new people. One of the guys I got to know was Alex, a Romanian computer science student, and he ended up helping out with some of the coding I needed doing for the website. Luca Iiriti was the housemate of another waiter friend and he designed our pre-launch material which was crucial in getting the first brands on board. Then Gary, a long-time friend, designed our logo. Gary’s gone on to be a huge support and many a day I’ll interrupt his work at Sparks Studio asking him if he can help out with this or that!

Since we launched, Delia has organised brilliant parties, Rachel has taken really strong photos, Ashley has super charged our Twitter and Lisa has stitched labels for our own brand collection. Alex has repped us at parties and events and Jack has written copy (and is just about to start a fortnightly Brothers We Stand newsletter which I’m really excited about).

There are many others who have contributed and continue to do so and Brothers We Stand is the product of a lot of people’s imagination, insights and hard work. We hope that the end result is something that people love and can take as much enjoyment of being part of as we do.

What are Brothers We Stand’s future plans?

Our aim at Brothers We Stand is to provide a brilliant service that helps people build sustainable and ethical wardrobes. We just want to continue taking that forward and seek to continuously improve our service.

We’re also keen to work on interesting creative projects to show what a sustainable and ethical future for the fashion industry can look like. We’ve got a project in the works now and it’s set for launch March/April 2016 so watch this space!

Visit Brothers We Stand.

November 4, 2015