I Like: Jimmy Carter: The Number One Human Rights Abuse

"With his signature resolve, former US President Jimmy Carter dives into three unexpected reasons why the mistreatment of women and girls continues in so many manifestations in so many parts of the world, both developed and developing. The final reason he gives? “In general, men don’t give a damn.”"

TED Talks

I Like: Advanced Style

Images from the Advanced style blog.

Hi Everyone,

I have been awfully quiet lately, I have been busy enjoying London city; cognac and cocktails in dim-lit  pubs and hidden bars, long walks and exhibitions but also my new hobby; kick boxing - and of course, new exciting projects!

I will exhibit with my Bat Country Collective gang this spring in east London so I am looking forward to that and will keep you posted, until I can share all the new stuff with you I wanted to share a short documentary that I really liked, "Advanced Style", based on Ari Seth Cohen's blog with the same name.





I am well aware of that there's more important things going on in this world then fashion and elderly women walking around the streets of New York dressing how ever they feel like but this is about more if you ask me and in a world obsessed and focused on young people and beauty how inspirational and cool it is to see women at the age of 70-100 being happy, confident, absolutely gorgeous and enjoying life!

See it and let me know what you think.

That's it for now, enjoy your weekend!

I Like: The first Law of Kipple

Today is the last day of London Design week so if you are in London, don't miss Dan Tobin Smith's The First Law of Kipple installation in east London, I think thefourohfive describe it better then I do;

"Created from thousands of disparate objects collected by Tobin Smith and donated by the public, The First Law of Kipple brings our material culture into sharp focus and questions notions of beauty and usefulness in design. What underscores this is the sheer number of pop-culture items on display; forgotten icons and obsolesce crowding around your feet."

To read the full article go to; http://www.thefourohfive.com/news/article/the-first-law-of-kipple-141

I Like: People who try to make a difference

I find it quite disturbing and sad that if I ever post something with a political context on Twitter or on Facebook, then hardly anyone likes or comment on it - it's as if people quickly ignore it and move on. It seems like pics of cute kittens, caffe lattes and God knows what is more important then politics that affects our everyday life and our future. Isn't that a bit frightening?

Does this come from a feeling of not having any power, why care about politics when I can't change anything anyway? Or does people generally think that politics are completely unimportant?

Thankfully everyone doesn't close their eyes or glue them to the television or is stuck googling kittens, some actually try to make a difference and make a change. I am unfortunately not one of them but I salute and give props to those who do and join in as often as I can and guess what - they do make a difference and they do change things.

I am talking about organizations like Avaaz.org and SumOfUs and there are many more. All we lazy souls need to do thanks to these dedicated people who take on greedy unethical corporations and politicians is to sign up to their mailing lists or get on their websites now and then and see what campaigns that are on and which ones we would like to support and with a simple click sign and join in - I mean, what is there not to like here? A few seconds and you have actually taken part in something and maybe helped make the world a better place?

Come on, for the sake of all kittens, join in ;)

Avaaz.org
SumOfUs

I Like: The Invisible Bike Helmet

When Anna Haupt and Terese Astin were studying Industrial Design at the University of Lund in Sweden they had an idea; to make a more comfortable, safe and also invisible bike helmet. That was in 2005, now here it is;



Pretty cool if you ask me. For more info about the invisible bike helmet click here

I Like: Food For Thought, Adam Curtis

Adam Curtis documentaries are something everyone should have a look at so I thought that I should share my two favourites;  "The Century of Self" and "The Trap - What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom".

Watch Them. It is an order.

I Like: Green Porno by Isabella Rossellini

I haven't blogged about this before but now thanks to Blogger making it possible to share content from youtube I can actually post the complete films. This brilliant project by Isabella Rossellini is a few years old and is teaching us about the complex and sometimes completely insane sex life's of animals.

People who claim that homosexuality is "unnatural" should for an example watch these and do their home work. Home sexuality is very common in the natural world.

Anyways, enjoy!

I Like: Work for Money, Design for Love

It has now been 2 and a half year since I graduated from Camberwell College of Arts and I remember the stress, what do I do now? I did not study to become a Doctor, a nurse or a teacher, I went for a ego trip and my dream instead, to use what I felt was my biggest asset, my creativity,  and turn it into my profession.

Yes, I decided to put myself heavily in debt and try to make a living out of drawing and knew that once I graduated I would not be guaranteed a job just because I had a degree, no, I would get a job depending on if the client liked my drawing style and visual language or not.

Quite a tuff deal.

And while College and University courses are great for development, learning who you are and how you work, learning skills and getting a portfolio together there is seldom any talk about how to actually survive once you enter the real world. You might practice writing a cv and discuss what your niche is, but is it enough to send a cv around to get work today?

How do you actually approach clients and get work and how do you charge for your work? How do you brand and promote yourself ? And what about legal matters, moral and integrity issues and copyright?

I have survived for 2 and a half years now (yeay, it's worth a little celebration!) so I most have been doing some things right but now I found a very good book, "Work for Money, Design For Love" by David Airey, that discuss all these matters and that I had to share with you.

It is written in a very straight forward and honest way which almost makes it feel as if you are having a cup of tea with the author while he tells you about his own experiences and what he has learned from his years as a freelance designer and what others in the same industry has shared with him. The book deals with subject from working at home vs having a studio, how to handle projects and clients, how to set up your own business, integrity issues etc.

Somethings you will already know, somethings will make your brain shout out a little "ah". I do recommend it.

You can get your copy here

I Like: Santogold

It makes me so unbelievably happy when a woman hits the music industry with integrity and refuse to bend her back and objectify herself but knows what she wants and how she wants it, and when she actually has skills, soul and brain it is even better. Santogold is one of them and I cannot believe that she has not been grammy nominated or got more of her tracks on rotation, this song writer and artist is amazing so I had to make sure you have not missed her, so here's some Santogold classics for you;

Santogold L.E.S Artistes

Santogold Creator

Santogold Starstruck

I Like: Laurent Chehere's Flying Houses

I thought that it could be nice to post projects that I find really inspiring now and then and to start this new inspiration section I wanted to introduce the French photographer Laurent Chehere (and as I am a nice person I do not steal images from people's websites and blog them, I have asked him for his permission to do so and he was very nice and said yes, thanks Laurent!)

I do like stories of people who suddenly decide to change their lives and live their dreams and Laurent is one of them. He used to work within advertising but left his job one day and decided to go travelling around the world with his camera, when he returned to France he knew what he wanted to do with his life, he would live his two passions; travelling and photography, and he has done so ever since.

Laurent draws inspiration from exploring cities, suburbs, countries and architecture and one of my favourite projects is his "Flying Houses" that I am showing above.

To see more of Laurent's work click here