Category: One Question Interview

  • Studio visit: ALOHA TATÁ

    Studio visit: ALOHA TATÁ

    Aida Menéndez is the founder of forthcoming fashion label ALOHA TATÁ. After studying Fashion Design at IED Madrid, this 23-year-old Spaniard decided to move to London to gain some industry experience doing several internships for different fashion houses.

    Aida is now back in her hometown, Gijón, working from her studio space on the launch of her new business. To find out more about ALOHA TATÁ we paid her a visit on our latest trip to Spain and asked her a couple of questions.

    Why did you decide to start your own fashion label?

    I founded ALOHA TATÁ because I wanted to start a project I truly believe in. After doing some internships at several fashion houses, I decided to start my own brand.

    In terms of timing, I don’t think there are good or bad moments for being self-employed if what you’re offering your customers is really worth it. I think that the best thing about working for yourself is the creative freedom and being able to spend a big amount of time on your own project.

    What are the challenges you have come across so far?

    Every day is a challenge, but I really enjoy seeing how I move forward and learn new skills. Designing my own website, visiting factories, modifying sewing patterns, creating data sheets…these are just a few of the challenges I come across every day at my
    studio.

     www.alohatata.com

     

     

  • In conversation: The Smails

    In conversation: The Smails

    Christopher Smail is a freelance arts journalist and editor living in Edinburgh. Christopher’s sister, Katy, is an illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York.

    When we met Christopher a couple of weeks ago and he told us about his sister, we thought it would be interesting to witness a conversation between these two siblings and find out more about their childhood and creative upbringing.

    Hey sis, what are you working on at the moment?

    At the moment I am working on some stock designs for my wedding stationary business, a job for seventeen magazine, a new print design and ideas for a new series of botanical inspired artworks.

    Cool, you recently finished a collaboration with the Danish kids clothing line Soft Gallery. What was that like?

    It was really wonderful because we have a very compatible aesthetic. They approached me because they liked my style, so felt comfortable to give me quite a bit of freedom with my ideas. For each design they gave me that season’s theme and colour palette and I kind of daydreamed from there.

    I appreciated that their style is very soft and dreamy, very artistic for a commercial project. So it was lovely.

    Where do you think your drawing talent comes from? There aren’t many people who draw in our bfamily?

    I’m not sure. Auntie Elizabeth was always very good at drawing. I remember sitting with her when I was little, just making her draw difficult things like crocodiles because I just thought it was so enchanting that she could do that.

    Other then that there are a lot of creative thinkers in our family. Mum is a very artistic person and you and our other brothers do creative things in writing, design and photography. I wasn’t actually very good at drawing when I was little, but like with anything in life, if you love it and practise and learn from the tricky bits you will grow and get better.

    I wonder how many other people in our family might have found drawing if they had had the time, space and encouragement to nurture the skill?

    Yeah that’s an interesting point. The further you go back in time, the harder it would have been for our relatives to do anything creative.

    Exactly. It just might not have been an option.

    Too busy being blacksmiths and pushing babies around in old-fashioned prams to draw probably.

    God that sounds bleak.

    Do you think our childhood influences your work?

    Yes. Definitely the purple hills, tangled woods, grey skies and gothic buildings of Edinburgh and the countryside where we grew up. Spending weekends making dens in the garden, running around by rivers and through botanic gardens.

    And it is interesting, the longer I live in a city the more drawn I am to drawing the wildflowers and botanicals that surrounded us as children. It is so therapeutic for me.

    What are some of your fondest memories of art school in Scotland?

    So many. Edinburgh is a wonderful place to study, just the right size and so inspiring. I made so many life long friends in those four years and felt so happy living with my three best friends. We would collaborate a lot, always be bouncing ideas off of each other. I really miss living in such a creative community.

    And we had so much fun! Lots of parties and dancing and birthday breakfasts and cosy coffee shops.

    Was your exchange in America, at Rhode Island School of Design important in your development as an
    artist?

    Yes very. As much as I loved ECA, it was a very relaxed, work it out yourself approach to learning and I was just this burning ball of ambition and motivation. I really wanted to be in a stricter working environment where I could be pushed.

    RISD certainly gave me that; the teaching was wonderful, the schedule was intense and it really accelerated my development. I think the American work ethic kind of chimed with me.

    And now you’re a citizen of the Republic of Brooklyn. What are your top drawing spots in the city?

    My apartment! The Brooklyn Botanical gardens and my friend Ariel Dearie’s flower studio. Right now I am looking for a studio to call my own.

    What’s your process when working at your desk? Do you have music on? A herbal tea perhaps?

    I go through phrases, Lately I have been listening to a lot of BBC Radio 4 online. It helps when I feel homesick! I love women’s hour, I like to feel like I am absorbing knowledge by osmosis whilst working on something else.

    And yes, usually a cup of herbal tea and Rosey the cat batting at my pencils as I sit amongst a messy sea of paper flowers.

    Ok a list of the biggest influences of your work, in different mediums? 

    Artists & Paintings: Ellsworth Kelly’s plant drawings, Matisse, Edward Gorey, Henry Darger and Egon Schiele.

    Books & authors: Nabokov, Les Enfants Terribles, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anais Nin, Isadora Duncan’s memoirs, Patti Smith, Tess of the D’Ubervilles and Sylvia Plath.

    For music I most like to draw to: Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Karen Dalton and Vashti
    Bunyan.

     www.whatktdoes.com

    www.whitecoffeemagazine.com/tag/christopher-smail

  • So It Goes Magazine

    So It Goes Magazine

    So It Goes is a biannual arts and culture magazine that has been conceived to be a a meeting place for a global network of photographers, journalists and other creatives. It is also creative agency that extends the magazine’s network and commitment to unique storytelling into branded film content, documentaries, featurettes and short films. 

    The debut issue was launched just a few weeks ago and we talked to James Wright, co-editor and founder of So It Goes, about his background and the idea of starting a magazine/creative agency.

    www.soitgoescreative.com

    Could you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background?

    I’m the Creative Director and Editor of So it Goes magazine. After having studied politics at Bristol University in the UK, I went on to work for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign in (rural…) Virginia, followed by 2 years in the New York film industry working for Bob Berney. Needless to say, my career in publishing was something of a segue…

    After my visa expired, I came back to the UK and co-founded the lifestyle brand Fourth & Main. F&M was a brand comprising two parts: a capsule menswear collection and a biannual arts and culture publication called Fourth & Main Journal. The title profiled a range of young talent across the arts and ran as a free title for three issues. Earlier this year, we felt the magazine deserved to be given a life force of its own as a paid publication, hence the new company and the birth of So it Goes magazine…

    How did you meet your co-editors?

    I’ve known my co-editors Josh Bullock and Lewis Carpenter for 15 years; we were all at school together and rather fortuitously all found ourselves in similar fields at a time when we were all looking for a new creative adventure. I’d worked with Josh at F&M and knew that our shared interests (and work ethic!) would make an excellent foundation for the new company.

    How did you come up with the idea of So It Goes as a creative agency and a magazine?

    Both Josh and my first love is cinema. At Fourth & Main we made 18 short films together, ranging from a video for the Sundance Film Festival, a docu-short with artist Alex Prager and a fashion editorial with James Bond’s new ‘Q’, Ben Whishaw. With So it Goes magazine, we saw the opportunity to pursue our film work inan even more active sense. The magazine affords us wonderful access to an incredibly diverse range of stories and storytellers. We decided that one arm of the business should feed the other – a story we’re researching, or an actor we’re shooting can and should be complemented by video work that we workshop, produce, edit and disseminate ourselves.

    We also saw the creative agency as an outlet to talk with brands who are looking to diversify their advertising by developing an innovative and forward-thinking approach to content curation.

    To those ends, we hope to bridge our passion for filmmaking with commercial considerations.

    What differentiates So It Goes from other arts and culture magazines that have been launched in the last couple of years?

    So it Goes was born out of shared desire to launch an independent magazine title that was at once intelligent, but not alienating. We strongly believed there was a market that wasn’t being catered for. When we looked at the newsstand, we didn’t see many publications that balanced well-shot and well-produced photo shoots (of primarily acting or musical talent) with long-form cultural or political commentary. It seemed like there was a hinterland between the two. Many people have said that you have to hone in on a target demographic, whether it be food, travel, politics or fashion, but we believed there was a cross-cultural niche to be filled. As a result, we devised a chapterised format for the magazine – ‘The Actors’, ‘The Directors’ ‘The Musicians’, ‘The Artists’, ‘The Collection’, ‘The Places’ and ‘The Writers’. From the beginning, we were seeking to bring about a return to long-form journalism. Whatever the current predilection for throwaway, bite-size commentary, we still believed there was an appetite for well-written pieces that are given the word count to cut to the heart of an issue or story.

    As a result, there’s a truly broad and dynamic range of content from photo shoots with young acting talent like Felicity Jones; interviews with the auteur of modern Hollywood, Paul Thomas Anderson and the linchpin of cult British cinema Michael Winterbottom; an original piece of non-fiction from the actor James Franco; an augmented reality spread with artist/rapper Yung Jake; long-form articles that address the future of modern espionage and many many more.

    For finding recommendations of similar bands to the ones mentioned by James in the interview, don’t forget to check music discovery platform www.bandnext.com

  • Alec Dudson: Intern Magazine

    Alec Dudson: Intern Magazine

    Intern magazine is a forthcoming, bi-monthly independent print publication concerned with interns and internships in the creative industries. We speak to Alec Dudson, its founder, to find our more about the intern culture and the magazine itself.

    For new creatives, it is now harder than ever to find employment? Is art school and design education enough to succeed in the creative industries?

    Alec: I think that the inference today, is that while education is of paramount importance in giving you the tools to fulfil creative briefs, without ‘industry experience’ this can be somewhat futile. This is by no means an absolute truth, more a belief that the industry (intentionally or otherwise) perpetuates.

    While it is incredibly tough to find work in the creative industries I hope the magazine can help people objectively approach the task of setting out on that path and offer at the very least, the awareness that there are other options opposed to moving between fruitless internships.

    How did the idea for the magazine come about? What inspired you to start the project?

    Alec: The idea for the magazine emerged from my own frustrations as an intern. Having finally found a “job” that I was truly passionate about, it became clear that the route to breaking into that world was one fraught with obstacles. It struck me that the year it took me to realise the way things really worked (in terms of internships) could have been improved somewhat if I had some idea of what was actually facing me. The entire project is geared towards assisting (in a variety of ways) those who are embarking on the perilous journey of becoming a full-time professional in the creative industries. Whether this is through advice, the tales of others, or by acting as a platform, we are looking to improve the intern experience. The best means with which we can achieve this, is through an engaging and frank debate which encourages the industries to assess intern culture reflexively and with a degree of foresight.

    We really hope Intern reaches its Kickstarter goal – the magazine is very current and will definitely make a difference in spotting and recognising new talent!

    intern-mag.com

  • One Question Interview: Derek Fernandes

    Derek Fernandes is a photographer and architecture student living in São Paulo, Brazil. We’ve been following Derek’s photographs for a while now, and we really like his vision and how he captures all his moments with film cameras. 

    We asked Derek about what makes him want to take photos and what he enjoys the most about the process.

    “Whenever I shoot, the most important for me is to show that I have a deep feeling about what is being photographed. I don’t like to direct people in my portraits, what I like most is to win their confidence and make them show their sensitive side. It is this mutual sensitivity what my work is based on.”

     www.derekfernandes.com

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