Why is two better than one?

D: In the artistic field it is always better to be more than one. When you’re all by yourself there comes a point when you cannot judge your own work anymore. It’s good to get another opinion. You make each other better in the end.

F: That’s very simple: Because there are two brains instead of one and four hands instead of two. This means more creativity, more input. When you work alone you are never really confronted with criticism, and criticism is very important. Being two multiples our possibilities. For example we can go to different meetings at the same time or if one of us goes on holidays it doesn’t mean that the workflow stops. It also reassures our clients, because they know there’s always a back up.

Isn’t two harder than one?

F: No. Of course you have to deal with being confronted to another opinion and you have to let go a bit of your own idea sometimes, but that’s not really difficult.

D: You have to find compromises of course and you have to adapt yourself a bit, but it’s not harder, no.

Does 1+1 always equal 2?

F: I’d say 1+1 makes 3: Because it triples the possibilities.

D: It makes three because we created a third entity: Face to Face Design. It’s something that could theoretically even continue without us one day.

Do either of you ever wish it was just 1? (Be honest!)

F: No. Of course things are not always perfect, but it’s always better than being alone.

D: No. We function really well together and never have fights actually.

Is 2 better than 3? In French they say never 2 without 3…

F: Three is great! It means some fresh air, even more ideas and two more hands to help. That’s why we almost always have interns. And we are just in the beginning, maybe we’ll really be three one day.

D: Just when we have a bad intern, then we think two might be better (laughter).

Can you remember a life without your +1?

D: My memory is actually quite vague. I remember I was working home alone and tried to organise myself somehow…

F: I remember quite well. There were no fixed hours, I was working at night a lot, and it was very flexible. Now our hours resemble those of civil servants (laughter). Everything is much more structured. But that’s also because I have kids now.

Is it all 50/50?

D: Nearly. Just when it comes to some of our old clients we work separately. The spirit is definitely 50/50. But we are not pedantic when it comes to that, we don’t calculate the hours we work or things like that.

F: We basically divide everything, also money-wise. But we don’t compare all the receipts to calculate every single cent. I think that’s also one of the reasons why we don’t fight. It’s completely like being in a couple, actually.

Photographer Pauline Miko

rueblanche.be

(This feature was first published in the white album)

1. Copy and paste this link onto your wall http://itunes.apple.com/be/app/the-word-neighbourhood-life/id419048887?mt=8

2. Add a message to the post encouraging your friends to do the same. Something along the lines of “Win a Word goodie bag by posting this link on your wall.” (Extra points will be scored for originality here).

3. Take a screenshot of the post, and email it to wewrite@thewordmagazine.be

We have 15 goodie bags to dish out, so the 15 first readers to email us their screenshots will get theirs. And, as mentioned, those readers that make a particular effort in terms of originality of tone and efficiency of message will get extra love. Promised.

Follow Damien on Twitter for wordplays and jokes.

Graphic designer Emil Kozak posing for the Braun Cruzer campaign

“I guess what really hooked me on skateboarding was the creativity,” he says from Barcelona, where he moved to from his native Denmark for, as he puts it, his ‘love of skateboard (and his girlfriend).” After an initial phase of lots of “staring at the ceiling because of the language barrier”, Emil managed to set up a design practice in the city that focuses on art direction, graphic design, illustration and communication for well-known, influential culture and fashion imprints such as Eastpak, Burton or Nike. ‘Danish design made in Barcelona’ became his tag line. Think Northern pragmatism with Southern warmth.

Today, Emil’s inspiration net is cast slightly wider, with everything from mother nature and photography to surfing and pop culture giving him enough material for reflection and creation. And, with a visual style that tilts towards the playful and good-humoured, it is no wonder he has taken his art to, well, the canvas.

Read our Q&A with the man-of-the-moment below.

How would you describe yourself in one sentence?

Graphic designer by day, artist at night.

How did you get into art?

It has been a slow process of realizing that my main voice is visual in some sense.

How would you describe your art to someone who hadn’t seen it before?

Naive, bold, positive and simple. I love simplicity. I like to speak as clear and precise about a certain theme… I feel simplicity does that.

What was the reason for your breakthrough? Luck? Talent? Stamina?

I mix of the above. I also think I have been fortunate to have long periods of uninterrupted reflection, which might get some balls rolling. Especially when I moved to Spain from my native Denmark. I often found myself in situations of staring at the ceiling because of the language barrier. Now I speak Spanish fluently, though.

Why did you start working with skateboards instead of canvases?

I started when I began skateboarding, itʼs quite common that skateboarders customize the board and griptape etc. I think skateboarding is a very creative game. Itʼs about making something out of nothing. A skateboarder sees a playground when other people see an empty parking lot. It is like this imaginary world that you can go to when the other one sucks.

How long have you been skateboarding?

I got a skateboard when I was around seven years old (a little orange plastic board) that I used to play with in my grandparentsʼ living room. Throughout my early teenage years I got obsessed with skateboarding and I spent a lot of years studying magazines, movies and skating the streets of my city. But what really hooked me on skateboarding was the creativity: ripping with style, the colors, the music and the visual marks blew my mind. From there on it kinda influenced every part of my life and way of thinking.

Why do you live in Barcelona? Tell us about your studio and the art and board scene there.

I am from a small island in the south of Denmark. From a city called Maribo. I moved to Spain a bit more than five years ago. My girlfriend is from Valencia and we wanted to live together in a place that was kind of “in between” our two backgrounds. We also decided on Barcelona for practical reasons… The airport, its central location and the fact that we had a lot of friends already living in Barcelona. On top of that, the art scene etc. is pretty exciting here… lots of stuff going on! Good graffiti and great places to hang out with a skateboard. With my studio I focus on art direction, brand/identity development, graphic design, illustration and communication for a wide range of clients. The studio was established in 2003 and has been working with the most well-known and influential brands in arts and culture, fashion and entertainment. Usually clients contact me because they are looking for something visually strong, with a contemporary twist – Danish design made in Barcelona!

Perfect start to your day? Perfect end to your day?

Surfing at sunrise, and having a beer at sunset…

How long does it usually take you to work on a piece of art?

A lifetime plus one to 30 hours…approximately.

Whatʼs your favorite subject to paint?

Anything that somehow relates to western culture and the human condition.

What do you think makes a painting an artwork?

It all comes down to context. In this day and age anything can be considered art….it just depends on the context.

Whatʼs your favorite piece of work so far?

The Kindergarten Legends. They are ideas from when I was in kindergarten myself. I remember that we used to tell stories about other kids who had apple trees growing in their tummies, because they had swallowed the seeds from an apple. We actually believed it – I love the surreal imagination that kids have!

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Skateboards, Alicia, the city, the nature, sentences out of context, logos, typography, my brother, ping pong, surfing, guitars, handwriting, photography, books, paint, doodles, animals, children, pop culture and pretty much everything in between!

What people and artists do you admire?

Iʼm fascinated by creative people who have had a life-long creative career. People like Milton Glaser, Man Ray, David Lynch, Herb Lubalin and many many more…

Name the last three things you bought?

The book ‘Niagara’ by Alec Soth, an Olympus point-and-shoot camera from the 80s for only three Euros and a flashlight.

What do you do in your free time?

I spend time with friends and family. I also enjoy surfing, books and lazy days at the beach.

What are you most proud of?

Working on my own, and being in control of my own path.

What projects do you have coming up?

Iʼm in the midst of creating a surf brand. It explores the phenomenon of localism, but from a different angle. Instead of the surfers being the ‘locals’, the point is Mother Nature being the rightful owner of a given area. Sharks, water, whales etc. Humans are NOT the center of the universe. It is called ‘Locals Only’. I recently also did a collaboration with Braun cruZer for one of their product lines. At first it might seem an unusual thing for me to team up with the guys from Braun but actually it was a cool combo. After all, just like my work theirs also revolves around style. And besides Iʼm into beards myself and like to express my personality with the way I look.

Photography Joke De Wilde

To make it as relevant and timely an app as possible, we’d love to hear your thoughts on a few issues. So, please be so kind as to take the required 4 minutes (tops!) to fill out the questionnaire below.

To thank you for taking the time to answer these 12 questions, we’ll randomly pick two of you to win a bottle of champagne as well as a bottle of vodka.

Photography Melika Ngombe

1. Sir lounge-a-lot

Very rarely does a lounge chair manage to balance both the lounging and the sitting in equal measure. Either you end up on the floor, the chair’s lounging attributes obviously more at work than its seating ones. Or you end up assuming the posture of an uptight librarian, the seating attribute evidently pushed to the extreme. In steps Marina Bautier. Her impeccable Cruise chair offers just the balance we long for in lounge chairs: the right amount of stoop coupled with the right amount of support. With a width of 72cm, its seating space is plentiful, although the chair remains discreet thanks to its light oak frame, and its one-click foldaway system.

Cruiser chair in leather (€1,316), in canvas (€1,084) Available from Espoo, Antwerp

2. Rock’n rolla

At first sight, a rocking stool could strike you as one of those ideas that sounded good on paper but somehow just didn’t translate well in actual form. Call us traditionalists, but whatever is going to be rocking our world needs to have a sizeable backrest and a pair of perfectly (height) proportioned armrests. So it came as a little bit of a surprise to find that Feld’s Monarchy stool, designed by Yiannis Ghikas, managed to sustain our slouching figures just about right. A sturdy knee-height stool with a rhythmic rock to it, the Monarchy does induce you into meditation although its unsupportive nature – it is a stool after all – means you’ll always be kept on your feet.

Monarchy stool in lacquer (€295) Monarchy stool in oil varnish (€375) feld.be

3. Power to the people

A slap in the face of the throw-away generation, Sugru is what butterfingers the world over have been longing for. An innovative, versatile and flexible material, Sugru is a plasticine-like texture which will basically extend the lease of life of pretty much anything you own – and improve it along the way. Invented by RCA graduate and product designer Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh in conjunction with two material scientists, the chameleon-like solution comes in a range of four colours (blue, orange, black and green), is beautifully packaged and is pretty much one of the most ingenious little inventions we’ve come across in a while.

Sugru’s smart hacks 5gr pack (€7) Sugru’s smart hacks super pack (€13) sugru.com

4. For business or leisure

One often underestimates just how much your travel gear says about you. Conscious of its internationalite clientele’s needs, Delvaux has re-edited its classic range of stylish yet discreet travel goods. Featuring essentials such as the trolley case, the duffle bag, the business case, or the laptop pouch (pictured), each bag of the 10-item Airess collection also comes with a kit of moisturizing goodies by Shu Uemura. Treat yourself to an upgrade in the leather world and you might just get one in the leisure world.

Airess laptop pouch 13’ (€150) delvaux.be

5. Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the loveliest of them all ?

Three elements make a mirror: its shape, its treatment of material and its fixing system, the latter often receiving less attention than its two former acolytes. This realisation forms the basis of Benoit Deneufbourg’s Crossed Out mirror, an inside out reflection on mirrors as we know them. This is how it works. Two slanted pieces of wood slit to perfection, allow for a round-edged mirror sheet to be slotted in and attached straight onto your wall. Bringing the forgotten to the fore, this is simple genius that just needed to be thought of.

Crossed Out mirror (€220) benoitdnb.com

6. So solid

Every talent has its tools of the trade. Photographers use Photoshop, graphic designers dabble in Indesign whilst product designers muck about in Solidworks. The package of choice for studios from Brussels to Barcelona, the 3D CAD software contains a complete suite of built-in simulation, routing and presentation tools which allow you to draw and design your prototype, test it through simulation, calculate its productivity efficiency as well as create model animations and photorealistic renderings. A pre-requisite to any meaningful design career, this is the software that’ll turn your napkin doodle into a multimillion-euro business.

Solidworks Premium Available online from solidworks.com

To put it in the words of the game’s creator: “…The game is to be played as often as you can, in order to be prepared for any kind of disaster. The game is to be played with anything you can lay your hands on as a pawn. You just have to feel that this button or sipping top or whatever you use has the potential to represent you and save the earth. Best played with two or three survivors. You’re free to decide what to do with them when you reach the centre square and win the game.”

Monopoly it ain’t. Then again they say love is the new green…

Illustrations Félicie Haymoz, photography Aggloweb

A pawn of choice

The domino was covered in shiny tacky stickers. When it fell on the "I love you" sticker, she had to kiss all of us. Love conquers all... yet she sort of lost the game.

That's my blue bird of paradise car! I came second, thanks to its powerfull non-toxic engine.

The five of us were full of Christmas cake and eager to win the race...

The winner of the game, the Red Horse gave a vigorous speech about how wooden toys would overcome and save the earth.

This is a good demonstration of how to hide under the table when you cross the TWISTER path on number 36. Also, you'll need a huge stack of chocolates to eat when arriving in the Swiss Shelter.

1. LOCAL RUDE BOYS NEEDED – Our March edition’s Fashion Special will capture the flamboyant and fickle world of rudeboy fashion. Sheep-skinned leather coats, Adidas tracksuit bottoms, white sox, Sebago’s and Louis Vuitton slinger-bags. Not to poke fun at, but rather, to immortalise. Know a bad boy with a blingy sense of (street) fashion? Have a penchant for mixing sportswear with luxury brands (think Scappa and D&G)? Want to give your neighbourhood thug some love? Email n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be with some pictures. Budgets are inexistent, but we have a load of perfumes (Giorgio Armani, Kenzo and Burberry) to giveaway to those of you who can help. The shoot takes place this Thursday morning, in Brussels.

2. SOMEONE WITH A CAR – The latest issue still needs to make it over to Leuven. Approximately 25 points need to be served, which should take you a maximum of 4 hours (it’s a small town, and they’re mostly in the center). The job pays 60 euros. Interested? Email n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be now. The Leuven round needs to be done this week.

3. CALL TO ALL DJs – Some of you might have heard that we’re organising a photography exhibition in April (more info soon to follow), during artbrussels. As such, we’ll also be throwing a party on 24th April 2010, which is the closing weekend of artbrussels. Thus, our call to all DJs to send us examples of their tastes in the shape of a 1/2 hour mix. Those DJs we fall for will be invited to play our party. Mixes should be sent to n.lewis@thewordmagazine.be before Sunday 14th February 2010.

4. INTERN NEEDED – As part of the photography exhibition we’re organising in April, we’re looking for an art history/curating/events student to intern with us on a full-time basis from 15th February to 30th April. Your responsibilities will vary: everything from liasing with our many sponsors to driving the communications push and assisting the curator in implementing her artistic direction. Applications (CV + covering letter) should be sent to h.judah@thewordmagazine.be before Friday 12th February 2010.

5. SOME MORE MORNING AFTER POSTS – We still owe you at least three posts following January’s Morning After Issue: a round-up of some of our favourite Sunday morning tracks, a test (together with Alex from on-point) of some legal drug that’s been worrying members of parliament from Berlin to Barcelona and back, and an illustrated game (and visually-enacted rule book) created by Felicie. They’re there, ready to be published, we just need to bring a couple of finishing touches to them (been a while since we last skinned up) and then we’re a go. Look out for them this week and during the course of next week.

6. CONCERT TICKETS TO WIN -  We still have a pair of tickets to the Menahan Street Band playing Het Depot on 13th February 2010. First reader to email wewrite@thewordmagazine.be with Menahan Street Band specified in the title box will be on the concert’s guest list.

7. TWITTER FOLLOWING – We know Belgium’s been slow on the Twitter uptake, so we wanted to do our part. As well as ourselves (@NicholasTheWord), here are a couple of local cats worth following: @karenVG83 (for fashion and geekiness), @on_point (for culture, music and video), @plmd (mainly for graphic design and some laughter), @Kunstart (for local culture updates), @Knotoryus (for music and culture) and @LaidBackRadio (also for music and culture as well as the best online radio online). For the novices out there, trend a topic by adding a hashtag (#) in front of it. Ours, for example, is #thewordmagazine (add it in all tweets concerning the magazine). @on-point’s hashtag of choice is #imjustsaying (one we plan on pushing too). We’re just saying (Belgian) people, get with it and follow.

And that’s our Monday morning bit of news. A lovely week to all of you…

Photography Yassin Serghini, Art direction Melisande McBurnie, Defacto model Lalita Davis

The shot we ran with

For Amazon links:

Design Revolution (Thames & Hudson), Remake it Home (Thames & Hudson), Birth of the Cool (Prestel Publishing), Like Lipstick Traces (Dokument Press), Men in the Cities (Schirmer/Mosel), 60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future (Thames & Hudson), Tatoo Book (Maurizio Carraini)

Tryouts

And more tryouts

With a piece on how going cold turkey affects talent (put together by Randa), a photography feature on taking the first metro of the morning (as captured by Ulrike), a look into some of the most outrageous apocalyptic claims ever made (written by Nick Amies), a guide to preparing for a binge (developed by a Coast), a sit-down with Lacoste artistic director Christophe Lemaire (who talked to Hettie), a day-to-day documenting of the rotting effects time going past has on your morning fry-up (painstakingly photographed by Sarah) as well as a realisation that the dealers have indeed outsmarted the boys in blue (made by Alex), The Morning After Issue most definitely lives up to its name.

Add to it our Car Special – with illustrated car tests by Pierre-Philippe and a visit to Imperia - and let’s just say we’re chuffed with our first 100 pages of content for this new decade.

This first edition of 2010 also comes with some changes on the design side: a slightly wider grid to allow for more content on each page, the introduction of tags (yes yes, like those you see on blogs) and other print-online crossovers (most of the magazine’s content will now be brought to life on the blog so stay tuned) as well as an even bolder spine. Oh, and our eponymous Post-it page has been replaced…

Back from the printers on Friday, subscribers will get it first, with the rest of you having to wait until next week. (Subscription information an distribution points here)

All books available from Amazon:

Studio Culture (2009) by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy – Unit Editons

Antwerp Street Style (2009) by Jens Mollenvanger – Ludion

Bibliographic (2009) by Jason Godfrey – Laurence King

Oil (2009) by Edward Burtynsky – Steidl/Corcoran

American Power (2009) by Mitch Epstein – Steidl

Born in the Streets (2009) – Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

This Book is Elektronic (2009) – Ludion

Photography Yassin Serghini, Art Direction Melisande McBurnie

Photography Yassin Serghini, Art Direction Melisande McBurnie

Photography Yassin Serghini, Art Direction Melisande McBurnie

Edited by Brussels-based journalist Guy Dittrich, the guide continues in its quest to, as he puts it, “give the design-savvy traveller a snapshot of the best of the best a city has to offer.”

Confirming its reputation for shining a new light on citites you thought you knew, the guide casts  a wide – and very sharp – eye over Brussels, with Guy (who is also responsible for the guide’s Prague, Frankfurt and Munich versions) digging deep into the city’s arteries to reveal his pick of design, architecture, travel, culture, food and retail outposts worth a nod. The ususal suspects are all present (Chez Moeder Lambic‘s cellar for example) as are rather more daring inclusions (Ingo Maurer‘s lighting for the Atomium to name but one). Combining its customary mix of arresting photography, crunchy wordbites and useful tips, the W* guide remains one of the most exhaustive directories available to the city-hopper and, although really meant for the Prada-totting traveler, will also appeal to locals seeking to re-discover their city’s cool-factor.

Make sure to tag along to Sterling Books this Friday 4th December 2009 from 19h00 to get a first peek at what made the pages, and what didn’t…

Wallpaper* City Guide Brussels, available from Amazon

An inside spread showing a view over Brussels

A map of Brussels gets the W* touch

Dissecting Brussels by districts

An inside spread with essential information

The Wallpaper* City Guide Brussels'cover

Jatopa - Studio Job facades

An outlying Amsterdam housing project is now the home to 800 square metres of ornamental friezes designed by Studio Job. Decorating the façade of 5 large new buildings commissioned as part of a development by Far West, the designs feature a rich collection of the Studio’s iconic graphics, from gymnasts to guns, insects to syringes, fighter jets to flowers.

We’ve been corresponding a lot recently with Studio Job – they’re putting together a special something for our Heritage issue in December – so when they send us a little email about a project they’ve been working on in Amsterdam, we felt that we had to go up and take a look. It seemed particularly intriguing since the work formed part of a social housing project and as such contrasted pretty dramatically with other their other recent activities (the giant Swarovski crystal-studded globe that they lent for the Viktor and Rolf catwalk show in Paris, for example).

The building project, Jatopa, is in the far west of Amsterdam, in an area known for its high unemployment and large immigrant population. It’s not the kind of area that usually makes it onto the route map of cultural tourists. After a long ride on the city’s light rail system I finally got to the area at the end of the working day on a rainy Wednesday.  I (predictably) got lost (twice) and wandered around the streets checking out Turkish and North African bakeries, mother and baby care centres and schools for children with special needs. There were wide cycle lanes, clean playgrounds and when I finally stopped to ask directions, people were friendly and helpful – this may have been an area with problems, but it felt as though a large amount of investment, infrastructure and goodwill were being pumped into it.

Jatopa - Studio Job facades

Job and Nynke’s involvement dates back 5 years, when they were contacted by Gabi Prechtl of Kunst en Bedrijf, an organisation that matches artists to architectural projects. “When I went to the site a few years ago I saw a huge chance to make a change in Amsterdam, and I wanted to see if the director of the development was interested in combining it with an Art or Design project and he was, and this was the first big project.” At that time Studio Job was still a young and less known design outfit; this was to be the first time that they were involved in a project of this scale.

Because of the nature of the development, the budget for the art was tiny, so Gabi and the architect decided to use an existing aspect of the building’s design. “The lintels and concrete panels were already on the plan – so we made an extra effort to make them nicer.” Gabi’s brief to the Studio was to produce work for a public space that must be interesting to all kinds of people from different cultural backgrounds. “It’s not easy to find a new way of communicating with a society and community like this.”

Jatopa - Studio Job Facades

Studio Job’s work has been known for its provocative edge, and certainly on other projects they have seemed to enjoy winding people up. This last April, for example, they displayed stained glass windows featuring missiles and monsters at a seminary in Milan and were certainly ready for the priests to raise objections. The friezes for Jatopa certainly pull no punches –  there are spermatozoa and death’s head skulls laced in there alongside the flora and fauna, not to mention the reference to socialist art that comes from both the location and the format. “I don’t think it’s provocative,” shrugs Gabi with a smile. Well, this is Amsterdam – there’s a heck of a lot worse on public display around these parts if you take a wrong turning. “There are a lot of images on the friezes, so you can pick what you see; it can be nice and easy, or maybe not, like the real world.”

For Gabi, the architectural significance of the project is particularly exciting; “Dutch architects are wary of using ornaments,” she explains. “But now it’s changing; this project is quite big for Holland.”

Jatopa - Studio Job Friezes

Back on the street at Jatopa, residents are starting to come home from work. The housing complex covers almost a whole block of the neighbourhood and the buildings alternate between private apartments and social housing. I get talking to one of the residents of a private block and he lets me into the building to show me the garden – it’s communal, shared between private and social blocks. I ask him who maintains it? He admits that the space is paid for by the owner-occupiers, but he explains that he likes the idea that he’s part of an important social change in the area. The private block is fully occupied, and my new friend greets the other residents as they walk past him; they have formed a housing corporation and the buzz of social cooperation is in the air. I ask what he thinks of the artwork on the outside of the building – he says that he’s very proud to live somewhere so beautiful, (although he can’t remember the name of the artist).

When tenants started moving into the area at the beginning of September, Gabi helped put together a glossy brochure about the friezes that was given out to everyone in the block; “they can read about it, pick out their own building in the photographs and show other,” she explains. “You can really recognise the buildings now and that works – it’s different from the other blocks.”

Kunst en Bedrijf is still involved in two other art and design projects; a pair of sculptures that will be ready late next spring and a staircase to go into a building slated to complete in 2011. “This renovation and renewal project is a huge operation;” Gabi admits. “It will take a lot of time to change the area, but Far West is really interested in putting effort into the cultural and social side of the development.”

Christien Meindertsma’s project to discover all the products made from a single pig (the titular 05049) ended up taking her 3 years, and included such unexpected products as wine, carbonless paper, zinc, medicine capsules, paint, cigarettes, toothpaste, heart valves and train brakes. The products were all exhibited at an installation in Rotterdam last year; for the book she has photographed them all on a 1:1 scale.

This is both a beautifully produced object (we particularly love the stud on the cover) and a very revealing piece of research; it totally chimed with our fondness for great graphic design and restless inquiry into the peculiar workings of the modern world.

Many thanks to Lisbeth Juul of the INDEX awards who very sweetly gave us a copy of PIG 05049, which won INDEX’s  Play category.

The book is available via Amazon.com. A limited edition of 50 have also been produced with pigskin covers and photo of Pig 05049.

The night’s invitees read like a guest list at a design geek’s surprise birthday bash, with big name agencies such as Spin, Biblioteque, APFEL and Tomato all present, as well as Adrian Shaugnessy (Studio Culture’s author and former agency director at Intro), Patrick Burgoyne (editor of Creative Review), Tony Hung (responsible for shaping Kylie Minogue‘s graphic identity) and, a personal favourite, Neville Brody (celebrated, amongst others, for his work with the now defunct The Face and for designing the record sleeves of Depeche Mode).

Big shout out to Frédéric at Coast (the only Belgium agency included in the book) for his account of the night’s happenings (white wine galore and a curry at Busaba Thai, although I personally would have opted for their Pad Kwetio), for sending through the pictures and for hauling a copy of the book (soon to be reviewed) back from his London trip for us.

And of course, we wish nothing but the best to Unit Editions…

Coast's Frederic Vanhorenbeke and Studio Culture author Adrian Shaugnessy

Published, edited and created out of Ghent (Belgium), TICKL, which bills itself as an ‘erotic cabinet’, was launched by photographer Carmen de Vos in 2007 to appease and nurture her obvious love of the instant photographic mode.

Content-wise, the story is simple: tasty teases, erotic explicitness and raunchy ravings. Add to that a little spanking here and there and you’ll be hooked in no time, trust me.

Aesthetically, the magazine stands out too. Designed by agency Afreux, the thick paper stock, the Dymo titles, the interior’s slanted grid as well as the light fluorescent highlights reveals a subdued appreciation for simplicity. As my mother used to say, “presentation is half the battle won” and this battle has clearlybeen won.

The fourth issue's content page

The magazine’s photographic features are cinematic in their nature – suggestive rather than revealing yet always immaculate in their conception:

One feature of the magazine we’ve taken a special shine to is the ads, seemingly art directed and shot by TICKL’s creative folk themselves. Check this one out, for Belgian beer Vedette, seen on the back cover of the latest issue:

The catalogue’s inside goes further yet in its art direction’s simplicity, with the paper stock’s alternating colour, a seemingly fluorescent Orange used for intros and, our favourite, imposing red dots rather daringly “dropped” onto several photographs.

A gem we wished we’d get more off…