“I live for art and soccer”. We forgot to ask about his preferences on football –he sounded as a sensible person, so he could be a fan of any team except Real Madrid (sorry, no link to this company, over my dead body)-, but Lando Ettrick has shared with us his views about art. Born in Arizona, raised in Brooklyn, at present he lives in Venice (California) where he runs Shape & Colors.

He does design, art direction, type design and advertising, but we have specially enjoyed his drawings. “According to my mother, I have literally been drawing since I could hold a crayon, so I guess ‘illustration’ has always been a part of my life,” says, but at the same time he doesn’t consider himself an illustrator because “I’m a maker of stuff that tries to do it pretty”. Anyway, he recognizes that illustration is his ‘original sin’, since “it brought me to type, which led me to design”. Many of his works, the ones that we have liked more, are in black and white: “my graphic training takes over as I illustrate; I have noticed a need to provide a maximum impact in a minimum of time that makes me steer away from working more in color”.

Advertising is another of his main areas of interest. He loves it not only because “it provides a grand stage to reach an audience”, but also for facing “the challenge of entertaining while making sure the focus is on the product”. Above you can find an example of his campaign for the U.S. Army, with references to the Civil Rights Movement.

He moved to Los Angeles strictly for work, but he values the city for its “history, culture, wealth, celebrity, technology and creativity; it’s an open minded (for the most part) place and has beautiful spots. And you cannot beat the weather”. About the artistic landscape, Ettrick distinguish between those who “do it for the love of the craft”, and those who “do it for the money, making a considerable living pretending to be in the first group”. But he doesn’t appreciate the difference with New York, where “there is a tremendous heritage of art and a ton of talent, but there are hangers on and poseurs too”.

BY // Marcos Mallada

We would like to pay a little homage to Monocle on its third anniversary. Since it was born -February of 2007-, this project has taken the lifestyle magazines to a new level. But tagging it as lifestyle is quite limited, because it covers a wide range of subjects: global affairs, design, business, travels and culture.

Monocle is a real global publication. Its headquarter is in London, but they have offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Zurich and New York, and a vast net of contributors in the world. With ten issues per year and a huge amount of content -220 pages-, the magazine has its complement in the website, that provides extras as broadcasts about themes that doesn’t appear on the print version. They also have an online shop and stores in London and Los Angeles.

About the magazine properly, it’s a feast for the eyes. The textual contents have an unquestionable quality, sometimes with a dangerous inclination to preaching, but that has charmed us is the meticulous visual treatment. The page layout is dynamic without loosing its common elegant landmark. They profusely use illustrations and the photographic work matches with the rest of the elements. At last, we must mention the pagination, since it hasn’t to be easy to stick together a magazine with such amount of ads (we talk about Monocle as a sign of pity, these guys need some promotion to fed their children). Our sincere admiration for Yoshitsugu Takagi  (designer), Richard Spencer Powell (creative director) and Rose Percy (photo director).

Although it counts with a large staff, Monocle is mainly a personal effort of Tyler Brûlé. He is a Canadian journalist with a long experience in the British media, including receiving a bullet when he was covering the latest Afghanistan war. But he became famous as the creator of Wallpaper*, the Bible of  ‘trendy’ publications, that he left in 2002. He is also the founder of Winkreative, an international creative agency.

BY // Marcos Mallada

“Tourrorist”. That’s the word that Rodney Evans has coined to title his series of images around places full of Chinese tourists. This Australian photographer, based in Shanghai since 2005, explains that the play on word come from the fact that “I come from Australia where there is lot of space and used to enjoy shooting in isolation. But now in China that is impossible as the other tourists embed themselves into my scenes, and at times I become the subject of their images. So I guess to me, the other tourists have become like tourist terrors, so I turned my camera onto them and featured them as close up subjects.”

Despite that loss of ‘intimacy’, he also points out a positive side of the Chinese tourism, a sort of sincere approach to the places, because “in the post September 11th world, traveling has added complexity and hassle, and in some places has lost its innocence.” Those photographs are also focused in bizarre elements of the places, but Evans clarifies that “of course some of my images have been selected because they are somewhat idiosyncratic and kitsch – but that is mainly to my (or other western) eyes.  Chinese people do not seem to recognize the kitsch as being kitsch, but rather as being mundane.”

Evans also works as fashion and advertising photographer, but it’s in his travels where he finds material for more personal projects. In his trip to Israel and Petra (Jordan) he got some amazing pictures in the Old City of Jerusalem “of a platoon of elite paratroopers that were graduating and receiving their guns”. He remarks that he had no problems at all for using his camera:  “I was right in the middle of them snapping away.  No one even cared.  Admittedly my bags had been screened, but the country is so used to living side by side with the army that it’s just an aspect of life.”

He has recently opened Central Studio, a fully equipped studio that can be rented to professionals in advertising and fashion photography, also suitable for organizing events. This new activity is taking most of his time, but he is also “working with a gallery in Melbourne, curating an exhibition of photography from China for later in the year.”

BY // Marcos Mallada

We always bring you cutting edge technology, and the Dirkon is a good example. Forget about those automatic digital cameras that a lower primate could master and try to get a shot with this cute toy.

There are a lot of pinhole cameras around the web, handmade devices that allow to the photographer to get interesting effects. The Dirkon is a special case. It was ‘released’ in 1979, in the Czechoslovakian magazine ABC mladých techniků a přírodovědců (ABC of Young Technicians and Natural Scientists). The publication gave the 35mm film camera cutout as a present to the readers. It was designed by Martin Pilný, Mirek Kolář and Richard Vyškovský.

To be honest, it’s not the most user-friendly tool that we have worked with. Fitting the rolls and advancing the film is sort of nightmare, it requires long expositions –of course with a manual shutter- and certainly is not so hard as an anything-proof Zenit. An advice, cover the inside with black electrical tape to light-tight it. If you want to try something challenging, get your brand-new Dirkon here.

BY // Marcos Mallada

This video’s main purpose is to be shown to firms in Holland that have a potential interest in coming to the Chinese market, so it will stress the opportunities of the Asian country and the advantages of using Dutch Design Workspace to give the first step.

Dutch Design Workspace is formed for four partners: DutchDFA, Shanghai Creative Industry Centre, Dutch Consulate General in Shanghai and FAR architecture and design center.

In a warm Shanghai’s winter afternoon (yes, of course it’s ironic), we headed to Suzhou Creek’s bank with our spirit and illusions high. Surprisingly, we had enough common sense to assure a usable image, having a first attempt in a small pond. And then to the river. Too many things could go wrong, and Murphy’s Law worked perfectly. One letter reversed in the fall, and the flows did the rest. We didn’t get our great photography, but we had a good time and nobody finished in jail. By the way, if any member of the security forces reads this, you must know, sir, that all images are completely fake -the effect of a graphics editing program- and, of course, nobody really threw anything into the river.

We have implemented EZ image, and the one dedicated to the ephemerid, in luminous trays, napkins and wine buckets for the opening party. The waiter’s aprons have been specially considered, since they present a detail-oriented design -printed on both sides- and which spells out the name of the Italian firm when the waiting staff is aligned together.

We are particularly proud about the ice cubes with the EZ logo. It’s not only a classy touch in cocktails, but also the molds are conceived as a promotional gift.