Den Bosch Erasmus

2006-04-26T15:32:00.000+01:00

|WWW.ASTATOCDR.BLOGSPOT.COM

in Porto

2006-03-06T14:27:00.000Z

I live here since seven years, brought to the Fine Art School to learn Communication Design by an exciting need. With almost 1 million habitants next to the mouth of Rio Douro it's the second biggest city in Portugal. But Porto was never a cosmopolitan place to be and I'm not sure if it is right now. When I arrived here for the first time, there were no blacks nor eastern country people, and the only "outsiders" were the students a and a few chinese restaurant owners. Things are changing, and that has to be good because extreme-right-wings are starting to get on my nerves.
Porto grew from lots of small neighbourhoods with their own local rules. Today, the feeling you get when travelling randomly through streets is still similar to the one you get when walking in a very poor interior portuguese village. Or worse, because it comes with places full of junkies, car parkers and homeless people. After a while you have to know when and where to be to avoid being robbed everyday. Keeping an hand on your pocket thinking that there is more good in the world than bad helps you get through the end end of the street with your back straight and upped chin. The growing economic crisis is affecting the middle class and the precarious employment life style is starting to make people go insane.
A Sunday evening in a shopping mall is enough for distinguish all the casts that nobly carry their specific dress codes and transport their original life style to the new social zoos... There, they have a roof... and air-conditioned, Timberland and Nike. That's the normal Porto. I live the shamelessly arty Porto and every weekend we have two new bars, four different openings, ten new club parties, twenty live-acts and fifty new something else. It's too much. It's too much offer to play the same game. And focus can be lost when sitting in the right chair in the right snack bar... The southern European 5 minute café ritual can easily be extended to a three hour conversation on design, plus going for a beer with friends and waking up with another hangover. Making a list of things to do for the day is now the only thing that allows me to keep up to the rhythm of this city. Sometimes I write down the word dinner so that I don't forget to eat, seriously.
I've been five months way, and I lost a big part of the healthy routine I had. But in trade, I learn a better way to use solitude. Today I'm going to post this text and e-mail a recent friend, clean up the living room, lunch in Belas Artes Café at half past noon. I'll sketch some basic furniture to organise CDs while there is nobody there, meet with a teacher at 5 P.M.. One hour later I'l meet that recent-friend and co-worker on a Festival organization to discuss the program with the owner of a cinema/club. I hope to have that done at half past seven, when I'll probably meet my girlfriend on the way back home. I wish I had the time to mail a box to a record shop in Lisboa but I don't. I also should design four covers to two magazines and two books, plus one new house style with logotype and all that jazz. I wish I could write another Nova Emoção song and I wish I could go with my brother to the studios at his school and work with my computer over his drum beats. we will put a show together. I wanted to meet with a friend to exchange some information about my staying in Holland and to know about Porto while I was gone, and meet two friends to talk about the work to an individual exhibition... but I can't. I also have to work on the next VEC album and co-produce an E.P. for a possible CDR release and go to the Erasmus office to check some paper work... I should lose at least an hour listening to music and read an article that doesn't talk about the Oscars. I will not talk about the Oscars, a lot has been said already. I want to e-mail Meinhard and visit the atelier of J. Marçal to see his new china ink strips. I have to free some space in my Hard-Drive and buy nice trousers and I would love to visit my first sex shop to buy a nice little present to spice things up... I should pay the electricity bills but I will be very glad if I have the scheduled things done before meeting Silvina. Wish me luck.

P.S.: By the time I posted this, I was able to read the article, lunch and post this. I got 8 hours left untill I'm exhausted. Good thing I woke up at half past ten.

From Ástato with Love

2006-02-16T16:42:00.000Z

1º Aniversário da Ástato
EFM makes you cry, de Último
Holanda, de VEC

Sábado, 18 de Fevereiro de 2006, 11:00H
Passos Manuel, Edifício do Coliseu do Porto, Rua Passos Manuel, Porto

"É aqui que a liberdade musical encontra o seu território."
Hugo Oliveira, sobre a Ástato CDR.

Mas também sabemos falar de nós mesmos na terceira pessoa.
A Ástato CDR é o lado mais visível e também o primeiro impulso criativo da media-label Ástato que passado um ano começa a raiar a noite portuense com o brilho da nova música electrónica portuguesa. Inicialmente a falta de dinheiro para um investimento maior fez com que optassem corajosamente por suportes e estratégias económicas: CDRoms, weblogs e flyers que servem de capas... Assim nasceu a Ástato CDR e com ela boa música de dança.

A noite começará ao cuidado das melodias da música techno de Último, que apresentará EFM makes you cry. Na interpretação das quatro faixas que constituem a terceira edição da CDR esperam-se diferentes emoções pautadas por bem-estar e aprumado trato no timbre. Seguir-se-á o primeiro concerto em Portugal, apresentação do album Holanda, do Volante Euro Continental (VEC, duo constituído por Albino J. Tavares e Ana). Depois de terem presenteado Den Bosch, com trechos dançáveis de Nova Emoção, mostrarão até que ponto desenvolveram o trabalho nos Países Baixos.
Adiante, já pelas 3 da matina, a festa desenvolve-se ao som da selecção musical da dupla de DJs +1 com um toque editorial em laptop assinado por Ana.

Programa:
11:00H +1 e Ana (DJ Set)
01:00H Último (ao vivo)
02:00H VEC (ao vivo)
03:00H +1 e Ana (DJ Set)

Ástato.

Please, go home......

2006-01-30T20:42:00.000Z

Hello, my name is Mark, little Mark, Dj Mark or whatever you want to call me......... I am 1.75 tall, 67 kg and I have blond hair.
I am typical dutch guy.....
Am I?

This is my first blog and it will probably be my last...

I just wanted to tell you, Albino & Joao, that I had a great time with you guys. We discussed the subject over and over again, about why you didn't like it over here, the reasons, our backgrounds and the solutions. I think Joao was right about most of the things about Holland in his previous post(s). I am not going to defend my country, I don't feel the need to do that. Den Bosch was not a good place for you and not for me either. (Probably Rotterdam should be your Holland.)

Now that you are done here, please think about some good things:
Think about our trip to Brussels, about our beersdays, about our beer-and-mixing nights at my place, about our nights at the Plein and about our great Nathan Fake night in Utrecht. We had some experiences together wich I will never forget.
What I have learnt from you guys is to have more fun in what I do. I think we often take ourselves to seriously over here. What did you learn from me? We talked about almost everything in the last 6 months, so you can save it for yourselves.
(Probably more than only making good bamisoups en eating good "nastyballs" ;)

It was not my intention to make this an official goodbye-speach, alltough it's pretty emotional right now that I am realising that you will return home tomorrow.
But we will meet soon, I almost booked my ticket to Porto so you can show me your town, your home, your school: your life. You made me curious about your country.You wanted me to be curious. Well...It worked out!

Albino just called me so I will be at your place in about 10 minutes to drink cheap port and nasty gin-tonics and listen to good music. I have to finish this now:

Greetings from a 'typical dutch guy',
allthough my smile had never been fake,

HOUDOEEEEHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

your friend Mark, little Mark, Dj Mark or whatever you want to call me.........
I am 1.75 tall, 67 kg and I have blond hair. I am typical dutch guy.....

Was I?

Something nice for us.

2006-01-19T19:10:00.000Z

Pela primeira vez fomos citados por alguém que não conhecemos pessoalmente. Depois do chorrilho de críticas desmotivantes que seguiu o lançamento em Junho de 2005, agora sabemos que para alguém estivemos à frente do Jesper Dahlback... Não é um chart do NME, mas é muito bom saber que o disco não toca só nos nossos leitores. Obrigado pela atenção, Larry Levan (não será o prematuramente desaparecido de Chicago, mas antes o do Forum Net DJ.

"Larry Levan
Posted: 03/July/05 at 19:44 | IP Logged
Group: Groupie | Joined: 03/August/04 | Location: Portugal | Posts: 56

JULY CHARTS:

Booka Shade-Mandarine E.P. (Get Physical)
Marc Romboy-Jack Is Back (Systematic)
Bangkok Impact-Do It (Créme)
Vários-Rub n Tug present Campfire (Eskimo)
Lindstromm-I Feel Space (Feedelity)
Thomas Barfod-1995/My Drums (Get Physical)
LCD Soundsystem-Disco Infiltrator (François K mixes) (DFA)
Lotterboys-Heroine (Eskimo)
Vários-Acid...Can You Jack? (Soul Jazz)
Audio Bullys feat. Nancy Sinatra-Shot You Down (Virgin)
Isolée-We Are Monster (Playhouse)
Vec-Hi! Love To Dance (Ástato CD-R)
Freaks vs Swag-You Ain`t House (Wash House)
Jesper Dahlback-Faxman/Acid In My Head (Blank)
Vários-Disco Sucks 1 (F.C. Edits)"

Hehehe...

VEC GRÁFICO | In love winner

2006-01-19T18:26:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | After John Maeda

2006-01-19T18:21:00.000Z

Dutch Design Details 2

2006-01-16T15:53:00.000Z

"O mais apaixonante na condição do exilado é a possibilidade de ver de fora. O exterior imenso por oposição ao interior infimo. Uma espécie de pele, fronteira razoável, mas que tudo clarifica esfriando ainda mais a razão, separando as águas."
Fernando José Pereira

Sinalização de paragem onde se se consegue ler o mais importante à distância, dos quatro passeios alfluentes ao cruzamento.

3 cabines telefónicas triangulares. Não é por acaso que as abelhas fazem favos com meia dúzia de lados. Estas cabines, podem formar conjuntos de 6, criando uma espécie de prisma hexagonal que, dos prismas que se podem articular em padrão (triangular, quadrangular, pentagonal e hexagonal) é o que contem mais espaço útil.

Limites dos passeios em puzzle, para não descarrilarem com o tempo.

Fendas para a roda da frente da bicicleta. Substituem o descanso, permitindo que pare 5 minutos em frente ao clube de vídeo sem encostar a bicla à montra.

Lately...

2006-01-09T15:05:00.000Z

Find out who's fake !

2006-01-09T14:30:00.000Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

i got this link at Kaus Wunderlich blog.

2 typosters

2006-01-09T13:35:00.000Z

Less than a second | Menos de um segundo

2006-01-02T10:10:00.000Z

My love...

2005-12-31T14:31:00.000Z

I shouldn't have chose to spend christmas alone, to walk alone, to dance alone, talk alone, sing alone, cook alone, to take photos alone... for a more hedonistic purpose: New Years Eve at NOW & WOW.
I felt guilty in a way and decided to do my time.
So I dedicated myself to music production, and 4 new Ana tracks were conceived during this hollidays.
So I designed the sketch for a publication that will be available in a few weeks here in Holland and in the end of January in Portugal.
And I also re-wrote something (please pardon all my typos):

Ideas for free! - We are now dealing with one of the most delicate issues of contemporary society. - I'm going to adopt a baby a tell him about everything I know!

The DJ culture is not so old that one cannot trace its birth with relative easiness. By the beginning of the 1980's decade it was already normal that clubs and pubs were organizing parties where live music was being replaced by a kind of entertainment that still depends, on its vast majority, on the edition skills of a single man: the Disk Jockey. In just 20 years the DJ cult has changed from something concerned with small circles of entertainment to some kind of telecommunications business jovial face. Take Optimus Hype @ Meco as an example, a portuguese summer festival sponsored by Optimus (a portuguese telecommunications operator). I guess there's nothing twisted with this. The central theme here is not sponsoring. The big question is much more wide than that, and DJ culture is just an introducing metaphor and illustration to what is slowly happening to other spheres of mass communication.

October, 2005
When someone spots for the first time a small corner inside a bar, next to a whisky and vodka machine, where there is a screen with someone dressed like a bartender touching it every ten seconds someone might think he is checking every order into the processor and calculating bills. I base this premiss on my own cultural background.
There are lights blinking and even smoke machines. Different night, different bar and different people dancing to no DJ. Turns out, besides his drink-mixing skills, the bartender also owns audio-mixing intuition.

In Holland there are around ten big companies that make DJ software. There is an application that works on Windows XP platform and any personal computer with a touch-screen can run it. The interface is very similar to the one from the more known Traktor DJ Studio and not only bartenders are using it. I witnessed already DJs (that is, men that don't serve drinks that night) using it. The companies that sell this services do more than programming, or they would stop getting money after every small dance-entertainment-business bought one copy of its creation. They also establish protocols with the institution that controls copyrights in Holland and every month, in return for specified fees, they mail a new CD-ROM with 400 MP3 tracks to the paying bars. The first doubt that comes to one's mind may be about he nature of software: Is it a set of ideas or is it a material thing? If something was taught to the users this last times, is that a computer generated image, text or video, is as material as the meaning it comes out from a painting, book or film. The fundamental difference is that it can be copied with very little or even no amount of financial investment. Duplicating a file has null costs and tends to be very fast.

As Andrew Brown (November 19, 2005, The Guardian) said:
"In the beginning, computer software was neither patented nor copyright. For so long as the machines had no users, only programmers, this made sense. But in the mid-1970s, people started to see they could make money out of software. This is not easy or obvious, because when I make a copy of your program, you still have the original, which works just as well as it ever did."
Later in the same article he also rephrases Thomas Jefferson statement meaning that when one shares an idea nothing is lost so, naturally, it cannot fit in the same market standards has oil or rice. The logic of economy is the one from trade. It is logical that one gets compensation for losing a bread but not from instant free-cost copying.
Excessive commercial orientated production has shown its claws to the industrialized world in 1929. By that time it happened with material property.

Nowadays the bartender can easily replace the "vinyl DJ". Midi-controler-or-not, playlists-or-not, auto-mix-or-not, random-or-not, everything is possible!-or-not!
It's not possible to play non-authorized songs. And I don't obviously mean author-authorized, but software-company-and-intellectual-property-institution-authorized. Those systems are connected to the internet and content management is enforced from the source. If not, that control is already codified on the software.
Nothing truly dangerous yet, but to a kid that usually goes out on weekends it's already too easy to understand what kind of environment a place normally has just by knowing the brand they use for DJing. "Oh! Fuck... It's Xenox... Lets get out of here." Worse, a regular MP3 CD won't work unless the system is illegally cracked. Even if you want to hear your own music (you produced) and/or the track has no copyright limitation. And if that kind of impediments to free culture are not illegal, they should be.

I predict that in about 9/10 years, a big part of the commercial and underground artists field of action (visit cards, video clips, music production, logotypes, posters, flyers, personal invitations, furniture design, corporate identity, merchandising, clothes...) will have already suffered a gentle but strong turn on the authorship responsibilities. I mean that these kind of products will probably be projected, not by highly particularly trained professionals, but by other workers. Personal secretaries and civil constructors with a little help from the right software and hardware will be able to design proper solutions for particular cases. Type scanners, 3 axis scanners, laser printers, all kind of recorders (...) will allow the middle class person to be so much of a consumer as a producer. Urban landscape will evolve to a point where real time advertising mixes with information, where personal tools have as many communicative power as corporate media interests. Small MP3Player-Digital-Camera-TouchscreenTV-Computer-Telephones with GPS are already connected to the internet through public places access points.

Power VS control.
The individual lifestyle might not permit the actual public of mass communication to identify its own capabilities, and therefore the personal representations will probably be less effective than the collective representations. By the year 2006, more than 50% of the world population is already living in metropolis (cities with more than 1 million habitants). And the a big part of this metropolitan-people hasn't even touched a computer yet. Most of the macro cities are located in underdeveloped countries.
For example, China gigantic concentrations of human beings have just recently started to receive the even bigger amount of innovations that developed civilizations have created in the last decades. Lets not make the mistake of thinking that european, japanese and american cultures are fully aware and in great control of the media society. In fact, changes are less visible in slow motion.
If we combine this facts to the small but effective modifications happening in the name of intellectual property industries' interests, the most objective result will so disappointing as the one predicted by George Orwell in 1984.
Society always needed the feeling that everything is under control to maintain order, and news companies, cannot just tell the people, that the public can say and "write" everything they need to be said and written for them. The list is endless: music, manifests, news, radio and TV programs, web-sites, software, movies, documents, laws and even money. That would simply generate chaos the same way it would happen if the pope came to some balcony and said to a million christians: "God exists only as a concept! You know? Like an idea and even less than a cartoon character..."
The most conscious news and media corporations have definitely no need to bring some light and responsibility to the actual consumer. What most clever cultural content producers are doing, is exactly the opposite: getting the public lazy and comfortable in it's new in-materialism. Cheap fun orientated gadgets, automatic content filters, 100$ Laptops (without Hard Disk what can ultimately get young children used not to record information - for educational purposes - they say), software that installs itself on a computer that prevents copies being made and breaks the machine if an attempt is made to remove it...

Whether it is Sony, the government, a travel agency, or some american cracker mafia gang that ends up working, controlling and owning with the user's tools, doesn't really matter now. What's important is to understand this are changing times. And the time to take reasonable and responsible attitudes is now. Tools are built, we just have to use them for higher purposes that the ones seen in commercials. Allow me to remember that we are dealing with one of the most delicate issues of contemporary society with one perfect example:
"The public project that sequenced the human genome, led by Sir John Sulston and Bob Waterston, defined itself as in opposition to patenting data. This wasn't just an idealistic stance. (...) Sulston now, after his Nobel prize, spends much of his time campaigning for public access to scientific knowledge and its fruits." (Andrew Brown) Now the bird flu virus DNA sequence is available for the public and according to some scientific opinions, it's easier and cheaper to sequence it than it is to build an atomic bomb. It seems scary but that is precisely why there is no point in continuing to fear the unknown, praising the wisdom of the fool procreating happily ever after. 25 000 thousand years ago we were maybe 2 or 3 Homo Sapiens-Sapiens. 50 years ago we were 2.5 billion. We are now 6.5 billion and counting. The good thing is that laziness can go sideways, and the same way it may help controling information, it may stop all nutjobs arround the world from trying to sequence the bird flu virus DNA, or make every one to work a lot and earn a lot money to buy 60 Gigabytes of new audio-tracks. "In the US, for instance, it is illegal to copy your own CDs on to your own iPod. Obviously, this is a law that is broken all the time, or nobody would ever buy an iPod. The 60GB model sells for $350 (£200); to fill it up with freshly downloaded content from the Apple store could easily cost another $25,000."

Even so things are tending to a kind of comfortable fear control. In my opinion, if nothing is done now, the general public of the future will hardly imagine what might have been with a little bit more responsibility before... If you don't believe in me ask that guy in the metro station next, to Ástato projection, uploading images and downloading old-school New Emotion, making a video-clip for Memorex in 2016.

Now I don't feel guilty if there is another snowstorm and people sleep on the streets and outside the club!

This text wasn't finished until I wrote this paragraph. There is one thing I didn't mentioned but I didn't forget. It's Rotterdam. Rotterdam is different from all the other cities in Holland. Most people say it's grey, and ugly and that it has the highest criminality rate in Holland and I still feel safer there. Most people say it has one of the worst art and design schools I could go here in Holland. "Willem de Kooning!!? There was evaluation of schools made some time ago and that school was one of the worst! Den Bosch it's lecker!" Maybe you have the best architectural environment in Holland and the best conditions, and more and better work space, and more freedom and innovative teaching systems. But what does that worth if you don't share your life outside it... Because of my old good friend Meinhard, Rotterdam was the place for me to be in Holland.

Have a nice 2006!

: ) :

2005-12-22T14:10:00.000Z

Wolk, a work from Rob Donkers (a friend of friends)! I think it's made on Max MSP. I also liked other stuff like boom boom du terre or pakman this last one it's a giant leap for weather TV announcements.
The site: http://www.robdonkers.nl/.

The dark side: (
"As things stand now, the geniuses of computer technology will give us Star Wars, and tell us that is the answer to nuclear war. They will give us artificial intelligence, and tell us that this is the way to self-knowledge. They will give us instantaneous global communication, and tell us this is the way to mutual understanding. They will give us Virtual Reality and tell us this is the answer to spiritual poverty. But that is only the way of the technician, the fact-mongerer, the information junkie, and the technological idiot.
Here is what Henry David Thoreau told us: "All our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end." Here is what Goethe told us: "One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it is possible, speak a few reasonable words." And here is what Socrates told us: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
The complete lecture is available here. And it worths ten minutes or fifteen, despite it is a little bit too much religious...

Bored to hell!

2005-12-22T12:37:00.000Z

Desinspirado é sinónimo de triste. Não estou habituado à falta de musas e muito menos ao descontentamento conformado. Não que seja mimado ao ponto de ter sempre tudo o que quero mas... Aqui deixo uma articulação de palavras que só a muito custo consigo escrever:

Olá por aí festa
Baby Manhã
Amanhã livro rápido breve
depois trelo lorpa
Design pilar
a pilar com ela
nhê cócó
xixicama.
Vem uma bomba e morrem todos.

In English now:
You know what? I don't like it here... I don't like it here in this house on one of the most problematic neighborhoods in Holland, and that's not even the problem, (most of you don't know how it is back in my Porto). The social problems here in 's-Hertogenbosch are not car-parkers, drug addicts, ugly hoes, dirty streets nor lack of economic power.
Here people are more polite in shops, bars, public services, everywhere... Generally speaking dutch folks smile a lot more than portuguese. And for me, the worst of it all, is that it's never as fake as most portuguese do. You get it? I believe there's no reason to smile if its raining, if you had a bad day and you are never going to see me again for the rest of your life. But you smile truthfully. I don't know why... Maybe it's because you are happy to have a good paying job, a beautiful wife and two healthy kids. That should make it...
Even so... If it depends on me Den Bosch is a part of my past. There are somethings I'll never forget, I know.
Mark (big), if you read this, you asked me what I first thought of our class the first time. I told you I did not have an opinion at that time and that I didn't thought anything at all. Honestly, you all seemed to me quite closed... Nothing strange. In Portugal most people don't give themselves at first sight. The problem is when it takes more than 3 months to arrange a meeting outside school. You and Mark (DJ), were exceptional with us. By having known you I can, (between many other things), go back to Portugal and say that I've been in my dutch friend's rooms drinking a couple of beers and listening to music. But even with your effort to become a little bit portuguese, I don't like it here... I'm so sorry that tears almost come to my eyes as I'm writing this.
Let me explain.
Since I'm here I think I have been seeing about thirty movies a month... Maybe more. Hollywood is just two minutes away and there I find Cannes, Rotterdam Film Festival, Teen Adventures, Action, Pixar, whatever... But in Porto I can meet about thirty guys a month. And they will much probably say "Hi!" to me if after one week I see them again.
Here I spend minimum 8 hours a day in front of the laptop. Dividing the time between school works, DVD playing, making music, designing for clients in Portugal, informing friends and documenting life, like in this case... I bless my laptop.
In Porto I spend about 8 hours a day with my friends...
Weather reports are always the first excuse. But I think it's deeper than that. It seems to me that my generation (people between 20 an 30) have lots of social pressure on their shoulders, here. It's like a transition ritual...
Facts:
Every student gets a good scholarship from the government that will be taken away if the student fails a couple of years.
Most of dutch youngsters stop depending on their parents at age 18, maybe earlier.
Dutch students have part time jobs at least one day a week. Washing cars, driving cabs, whatever...
And if I take our professional world has an example, dutch design has, indeed, a tradition of good design, undeniable. You are forced to keep it up by doing everything school asks you.
You have a much better social state and corruption it's null when compared to the Portuguese politics.
But you know what? It doesn't make me happy. At all! And one thing I'm almost sure you have trouble imaging is the pleasure in leaving obligations behind waiting for me to finish my beer drinking and time killing... sitting and laughing with my friends in the portuguese spring sun!

What next? Public Touch Screen Graphic Design Pay Boxes... Design it yourself!

2005-12-22T12:30:00.001Z

Taken from http://burnfield.com/peter/work/marie-frans/

"Marie Frans is a new swedish photographer’s agency, representing four photographers (one of them being my favourite Daniel Norrby). Me and Martin Ström were asked to create their graphic identity and website.
I am very interested in business cards in general. The fact that a small 90x50 mm paper card should represent a person and sometimes even a company is to me very fascinating. I do like the idea of giving something away — as you do with business cards — and I think that aspect of the business card is more interesting than the actual information part (the info you can at most times find elsewere if needed).
One thing that was important when creating the Marie Frans graphic identity, was the fact that Marie Frans is a small company with a limited budget and a company that might be in a completly different place (in terms of people and location) in a near future. A solution that was cheap to produce and easy to update was to prefer.
Since Marie Frans works within the field of commercial photography — with most clients beeing advertising agencies and magazines — leaving a trace is important. The most logic thing to leave behind would be some kind of reproduced photo, why then not make these photographs into the business cards? A business card containing the usual contact information but also beeing a photo by one of the photographers represented by the agency. Of course — such a solution would probably turn out quite expensive; reproducing photos in 4 color, on nice paper etc. And the biggest problem; having to stick to one or at least a limited amount of photos. The solution is very simple: let’s print the business cards at an instant photo development service, where people go to print their digital photos. Not only is such a solution quite cheap (about 1.2o € / business card), it’s very easy to update with new photos and new contact information and it is easy to make more of them without having to make new offset plates etc. And a nice bonus feature — it differs very much from other agencies glossy identities, and deals with a kind of honesty (to the object, purpose, material etc) that I would like to think is important in my work.
After some research, I found out that one of Swedens biggest photo chains Expert not only offers you the opportunity to upload pictures over the internet for printing but has a service where they split up you photo into 4 smaller photos: a 100x150 picture becomes four times 50x75 — perfect for business cards. After a couple of try-outs (especially with the typography, since it had problems turning out nice in small sizes) a final result was reached. The first round of business cards comes on two different photos, but when needed Marie Frans can simply upload a new one (with the contact info added on top) at expert.se, wait a couple of days, pick up at the local Expert store, cut two times and tada — four new business cards."

2 New Ana Releases!

2005-12-21T18:57:00.000Z

Download for free.

Incidências descoordenadas.

2005-12-21T17:24:00.000Z

Fiz um trabalho sobre propaganda.

Página 6

Capa

Hoje em dia, a maior parte do meu tempo passa-se em frente a um computador. Talvez sejam questões socias, estou a modos que emigrado para os meandros da Europa, reforçadas pela necessidade que tenho de comunicar fixando e afixando aquilo em que penso. Já há muito tempo que invisto muita da minha energia em tentar compreender o vasto mundo dos "novos" meios de comunicação para massas. Vendo bem as coisas, digo mesmo que não entrei para este curso à toa. Não que soubesse das disciplinas e de toda a orientação do curso, mas antes porque assim que li a palvra comunicação no curso, me apercebi que a sua natureza, somada à noção de design (entendendo design como projecto e afim concretização) teria todo o interesse para quem visa fazer parte da sociedade global.
Assim permito-me, ao fim de mais de seis anos a estudar as especificidades da comunicação sensorial, concluir coisas. Porque não? Quem mais o poderá fazer com tanta liberdade senão um estudante?
Li numa revista de autor, constituída na sua quase totalidade por citações, que ser honesto é perigoso se não se fôr estúpido, Buckminster Fuller, Winston Churchill ou coisa do género. Aqui busílis não é o conceito de honestidade, embora pense que seja de igual modo inultrapassável. O que mais toca é o facto de eu também ter tido a ideia de elaborar uma revista cheia de "abre aspas... fecha aspas". Alguém o fez primeiro. E... enquanto descobria isso, folheava as primeiras páginas divertindo-me do mesmo modo que uma observação de um masturbação lenta faz sentir o voyeur. Contentado pelo reflexo de ideias fabulosas. Depois disso veio o desânimo: o cllimax não era só meu e do emissor. Pior! A revista era gratuita!

Quando me revejo em ideias similares às minhas na actuação de alguém distante invade-me quase sempre uma sensação-cocktail de contentamento e revolta. Em dose certa e com a proximidade certa a boa bebedeira é certa. Pode dar vómitos. O envenenamento é garantido quando o copo é servido por alguém de quem não gosto e a bulha é certa quando sei que o emissor não percebe muito do que está a fazer. Retraio-me tantas vezes de regurgitar no meu reflexo que agora já não tenho paciência para falsas modéstias e prefiro sempre aproveitar aquilo que de bom pode vir da situação. É quase sempre aí que me sinto cumplice de uma ideia colectiva e não quando a maioria aprova. Onde os flyers do Passos dizem isto é um Flyer do Passos Manuel depois dos meus postais de Turismo dizerem This is a Tourism Postcard. Quando os posters desenhados à mão pelos observadores com citações de outros já vêm depois dos meus.
Como se ficasse calado quando os gajos da LEX Records começam a chamar Emotion à musica que fazem depois de a muito custo ter respondido a meio mundo cada vez que me perguntou que tipo de música faço: Nova Emoção (e corei), ninguém dá por nada. Aliás já toda a gente pensou nisso, só que não tiveram coragem ou possiblidade de o dizer. É tramado ; )
A alegria que vem da sensação de partilha (por maior que seja a distância contextual) é maior do que toda a tristeza que advêm das críticas às manias, aos egos e às pretensões.
Pissas para ti que não te espelhas no que os outros dizem e comentas o jornal com se fosse mais verdade do que o que vês.

Poster:
Step 6:
Start your own reccord label!

Dutch Design Details

2005-12-19T19:41:00.000Z

Double Double Hanger

Like this you can place at least two jackets on your side. Nothing special but still quite helpful.

Blind-side-walk

On the streets and public buildings. Know that they use a blind-stick with a rolling-ball placed in the ground edge that it is constantly touching the sidewalk. That is another design detail but I have no picture of it.

Bag-bench

It's still comfortable to sit for few minutes and you can place your bags under your ass.

And this is just a glimpse.

E-Card Design Contest! I'm gonna win!

2005-12-16T13:53:00.000Z

Veloz até ao choro!

2005-12-14T19:40:00.000Z

Acho agora que não existe nenhuma palavra ou conceito que misture a memória especulativa, que tenho sobre o que os outros me disseram que aconteceu antes, com a nostalgia em contradição, potenciada pela percepção de características e contextos completamente opostos à saudade. Vou inventá-la sem recorrer a estrangeirismos nem a línguas mortas.
Padealtra: s.f. sentimento ou emoção que decorre da razão, blá...
Exemplo:
A falar de comboios de alta-velocidade holandeses com a Silvina, veio-me à cabeça a informação que a minha mãe me tinha dado uma semana depois de terem cancelado as carreiras semanais que paravam a 12 km da aldeia em que ela nasceu. Imagino que no dia em que o meu avô descobriu isso se tenha deitado pouco depois de o sol se pôr, como é hábito, a pensar em muito mais do que neologismos.
A padealtra dói.

VEC GRÁFICO | New Slang & Mimesis

2005-12-14T18:38:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | De Roterdão

2005-12-14T18:33:00.000Z

Texto ao desinformado:

2005-12-06T15:38:00.000Z

Um gajo defende comunhas e dentes o desinformado e o saloio faz ouvidos moucos e auto-mutila-se. O estádio só não se chama Pinto da Costa porque o senhor falseou a modéstia... Depois é claro que a fome, a guerra, a analfabetização, os problemas urbanísticos e a desordem social não deixem correr espectáculos como o meu...
E se quiseres eu ponho-te as coisas em bilingue:
Achas muito mau a câmera nem sequer ter uns trocos pa fazer obra ao pé de tua casa e depois queixas-te c'as decorações de Natal estão muit'a fraquinhas. "-Iça culpa é du sestiema. Combada de chupistas! "Vá la mas é recolher o lixo questa merda tresanda." Já dizia o da elite. Informado e unha arranjadinha.
Este ano mais de 50% da população mundial vai viver em cidades. Só 70 milhões já estão ali num corredor num canto de África à espera de uma cidade com luzes de Natal desenhadas pelo mestre da representação em que me tornarei se não orientas a tua e a nossa vida.

Free pictures can make you new...

2005-12-06T15:27:00.000Z

...and you start to think as if it was on purpose...

A SOLARENGA

2005-12-06T15:05:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | Profecia 2 e mais um Laptop

2005-12-05T14:25:00.000Z

AND I ALMOST FORGOT THE OLPC LAPTOP.

The last big sign is right in front of your nose and even so I'm not sure you have spotted it already. Two tips: it is not me and it's Weblogging.

VEC GRÁFICO | WOULD I?

2005-12-01T15:15:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | In a way

2005-12-01T15:05:00.000Z

So this is what free speech looks like...

2005-11-30T16:26:00.000Z

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Compression (*jaggies) "jaggies" are large square patterns in the image.
Cross processed colors
Simple one process filters, such as cutout.
Overly high contrast that compromises image quality
Jagged edges
Extreme feathering
Distracting Shadows
Scan that appear fuzzy/out-of-focus
Scans that have visible dust, hair &/or scratches
Scans with noise distortion
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In the end, they seem to all look the same.
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Try another route of dodging the model release.
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Let people pick out their own fonts.

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In the beginning there is always something more than Jack!

2005-11-30T13:57:00.000Z

Designers are next because Doris can easily control kerning and choose a sign with a litle help from the machine.

I spotted a small corner in the bar, next to the whisky and vodka machine, where there was a screen with someone dressed like a bartender touching it every ten seconds. For me, he was checking every order into the processor and calculating bills.
In the beginning it was strange when the dance area was crowded and everywhere I looked I didn't see a DJ. There were lights blinking and even smoke machines.
Different night, different bar and different people dancing to no DJ. The bartender was again there. Curious I got, and walked to somewhere I could get a clear view to that omnipresent touch-screen. Turns out, that guy was a bartender and a DJ at the same time.

In Holland there are around ten big companies that make DJ software. I know an application that works on Windows XP platform and any personal computer with a touch-screen can run it. The interface is very similar to the one from the more known Traktor DJ Studio and not only bartenders are using it. I witnessed already DJs (that is... guys that don't serve drinks that night) using it. The companies that sell this services do more than programming, or they would stop getting money after every dance-entertainment-business bought one copy. They also establish protocols with the institution that controls copyrights in Holland and every month, in return for specified fees, they mail a new CD-ROM with 400 MP3 tracks to the paying bars.
By using this software, club owners no longer need to waste time looking for the right music to play in their discotheque and, better yet, there is no cocky DJ to pay every night they want dance music. The bartender can easily replace the synchronized beats that keep a "vinyl DJ" so distracted while you are trying to flirt with him. Midi-controler-or-not, playlists-or-not, auto-mix-or-not, random-or-not, everything is possible!-or-not!
It's not possible to play non-authorized songs. And I don't obviously mean autor-authorized, but software-company-and-intellectual-property-institution-authorized. Those systems are connected to the internet and content management is enforced.
For a kid that usually goes out on weekends it's easy to understand what kind of environment does a place normally have just by knowing the brand they use for DJing. "Oh! Fuck... It's Xenox... Lets get out of here."
A regular MP3 CD won't work unless the system is illegally cracked. Even if you want to hear your own music (you produced) and/or the track has no copyright limitation. And if that kind of impediments to free culture are not illegal, they should be. But thats just my opinion and nobody really cared in the first place. So if you just started to think about it, ask for advices.
This is just the beginning.

Neve e outras historias / Snow and stuff

2005-11-28T16:24:00.000Z

o ké k temos?
temos a situação da neve
o ké k temos mais? mmm a cena do cinzeiro, ele só tirou o copo (interessante)
"eu não estou para gastar dinheiro em bebedeiras em vão..." dito por João Alves Marrucho
e sim! cheirar Portugal por uma garrafa.

Tudo isto são temas e ideias soltas que poderiam resultar em diferentes posts/escritos para fazer render o peixe ou talvez tentar combiná-los e ver o que de comum podem ter.
Como já devem ter lido (ou não) num dos posts aqui recentemente publicados, eu nunca tinha visto nevar. UAU! Sim é realmente uma coisa muito bonita e encantadora, olhamos á nossa volta e de repente está tudo branco, fofinho e macio (isto numa primeira análise, sem qualquer pensamento ou reflexão sobre o assunto, e deixando-me encantar pelo que vejo). No entanto o tempo vai passando e começamo-nos a habituar à ideia das coisas estarem todas cobertas de branco e de serem todas tão bonitas. Apercebemo-nos (eu pelo menos) que o que a neve fez não foi mais do que tapar tudo, que não foi mais do que um outro layer que suavizou tudo aquilo que vemos. Que amanhã provavelmente não vai nevar, e vai haver um momento em que nos vamos deparar com qualquer coisa entre neve gelada e água fria, qualquer coisa essa que se vai misturar com o que até então escondia. Provocando uma paisagem que se assemelha a um branco sujo, a um branco que nas estradas ganha tons de cinzento preto devido ao tráfego automóvel, nos parques e jardins a um branco castanho que se mistura com a terra/lama e com a merda deixada pelos cães, porque ela está lá! (a merda). No entanto, não quero com isto dizer, que devemos acabar com a neve e que nevar faz mal, pois deixa-nos mentalmente mais preguiçosos e encantadoramente enganados, mas eu gostei da sensação. Senti-me mesericordioso.

Este assunto atraiu-me principalmente por analogia a um momento que experienciei ontem (sábado, 26 de novembro de 2005). Um daqueles momentos em que depois de passar pensamos, que cena fixe! Momento este em que me encontrava numa conversa amigável com o meu companheiro a tempo inteiro destes últimos 3 meses (e não por inteira opção). Estávamos nós nas nossas trocas de palavras e ideias, poderia mesmo dizer uma "amena cavaqueira", enquanto eu fumava um cigarro e reparo que preciso de deitar fora a cinza. Num acto de desespero pergunto-lhe onde está o cinzeiro? Onde está o cinzeiro?! Pergunta á qual ele reage muito calmamente dizendo está aqui. Agora o culminar desta aventura não está no facto de ele ter dito está aqui, mas no que fez enquanto o disse. Muito naturalmente e sem qualquer tempo de reflexão sobre o que fazia ele limita-se a tirar-me o copo da frente, e o que é que eu vejo? O cinzeiro. Não é bonito? Note-se que isto é uma descrição algo exaltada do que aconteceu, com o acréscimo de algum dramatismo e emoção para tornar a leitura mais empolgante e menos descritiva.

Talvez seja importante referir que esta saudável troca de ideias (conversa) decorreu depois de termos cheirado portugal por uma garrafa. Sim, é possível. Já vai algum tempo que não meto os pés em solo português e as suadades por esse país de que muito dizem mal, vão crescendo. Tínhamos pois comprado uma garrafa de vinho do Porto á qual nos dedicamos patrioticamente a dar o devido uso. E isto é algo que aconselho vivamente a qualquer um de vós. Desloquem-se para uma cidade mais pequena, com menos agitação, movimento e menos pessoas amigas, esperem 3 meses e comprem uma garrafa de vinho do Porto. Retirem calmamente a rolha, e, ao invés de se percepitarem em encher o mais depressa possivel o copo, parem para cheirar.

"Eu não estou para gastar dinheiro em bebedeiras em vão"

And now an attempt to do it in english!

"The world is full of goods trains
The passengers are cows
And milk and butter.
And cheese and lovely marmelade
And bulls and horses,
And cocks and hens.
The cow is mother to the milk,
And grandma both to cheese and butter.
The cheese is cousin to the marmelade.
The horse is cousin to the cock
The hen lays eggs.
The egg is cousin to the cheese and butter,
The son and daughter of the milk.
Isn´t it strange?
It is"

from:

Klaus Stadtmuller
"I build my time"
A collage built on texts by Kurt Schwitters (unless otherwise indicated)
page 4

You can find this poem in the magazine dot dot dot, issue number 9.

VEC GRÁFICO | SILENCE

2005-11-28T16:15:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | NEED MORE SIGNS

2005-11-28T16:12:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | FLOAT LIKE A LEAF

2005-11-28T16:09:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | MIND THE 5TYLE

2005-11-28T16:07:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | TIME STANDS STILL

2005-11-28T16:04:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | VICTORY IS OURS

2005-11-28T16:03:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | TRUST THE DESIGNER

2005-11-28T15:56:00.000Z

VEC GRÁFICO | JUST THINK ABOUT IT

2005-11-28T15:46:00.000Z

SOB A NEVE

2005-11-26T13:41:00.000Z

ANTES DA NEVE:

Gostas?

2005-11-26T13:28:00.000Z

UAU!

2005-11-26T13:26:00.000Z

2005-11-26T12:31:00.000Z

Ficou tudo branco enquanto estava no autocarro!

2005-11-25T16:52:00.000Z

20 minutos bastaram para que os flocos de neve do tamanho de uma tecla Enter cobrissem tudo o que não tivesse movimento. O Albino nunca tinha visto nevar e gostei muito de o ver sorrir comigo. A intervenção cirúrgica do meu pai correu bem e já não tem dores. Era uma fibrose bastante grande na coluna vertebral. A Silvina vem quinta feira. Tenho saudades dela e da televisão. Acho que escangalhei o layout do Fbaup Links sem querer e agora não tenho tempo para o arranjar. Vou fazer T-Shirts de Ana e vamos (VEC) tocar ao vivo dia 15 de Dezembro na escola. Vou passar o Natal e de Ano aqui.

Vão-se foder (negócios e whiskey á parte)

2005-11-25T15:47:00.000Z

Ultimamente tem sido recorrente auxiliar-me do telemóvel para me lembrar da merda ou do bem que fiz na noite anterior. (Que aqui não se entenda por bem prender bandidos ou "impedir que o vilão ponha em prática o seu plano maquievélico para destruir ou dominar o mundo"). Abenssoada (dois ss por causa do teclado) seja a nokia e o software que concebeu na escrita de mensagens que não a apaga depois desta ter sido enviada, permitindo á minha pessoa tentar contextualizar o k leio pelo acordar.
É só pena não dizer para quem mandámos mas espero não vir a precisar.

............................................................................................................!

2005-11-24T15:28:00.000Z

Três Novos Temas de Dança Portuguesa | Three New Portuguese Dance Tracks

2005-11-14T17:15:00.000Z

1

2

3

One night with Kaus Wunderlich (not Wurderlich) in Rotterdam

2005-11-14T17:05:00.000Z

Route Aventura!

2005-11-09T13:06:00.000Z

Amsterdão: Eu nunca lá estive senão no aeroporto. Defini um percurso (Aventura!) para conhecer de modo mais profundo. Demorarei cerca de 1 hora a percorre-lo uma vez. Mais notícias em breve.

Amsterdam: I have never been there oustide the airport. I defined a path (Aventura!) to get to know in a deeper sense. I will take about an hour to walk the route one time. More news available soon.

School Trip

2005-11-08T15:35:00.000Z

WEDNESDAY:
Meeting in school with MarK and Mark to go somewhere was the beginning of something quite different. Normally, when a school arranges a more than one-day-stand in a different place, buses are rent so that nobody gets lost.This time we were supposed to be guided by our fellow schoolmates from Den Bosch/Holland to Brussels/Belgium. They had actually never been to the hostel were we stood for four nights but luckely we found Joka, a teacher in Central Sation. We got a strange 40%-traveling-next-to-a-student-train-ticket-discount, and that was good, knowing that we are not considered students here.
We met Bill Easter, Gabrielle and all the other guys from 's Hertogenbosch and Breda after a rough walk through Brussels' red light district.
The first good thing I realized was that there were many young people in that place. People my age were already becoming a strange specie to me. Living outside home it is something that it is not very common around Den Bosch.
We had dinner together, but not before Joka, told a very long dutch story about Belgium political system. We arm-wrestled for a bit in the restaurant and went drinking few beers together in the youth hostel. Bill payed every drink in the pizzeria!

THURSDAY
I woke up drunk after 3 hours of heavy sleep. I knew I had to handle with 9 more hours of poison in my body.
In St. Lukas School of Fine Arts, Joke screamed to me about "basic composition" rules. I got disappointed when she called me lazy for not cutting the poster paper has Toine (another teacher) suggested. I cut it all wrong on purpose afterwards. Bla, Bla, Bla. Funny... and nice work on The Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord)... Bla, Bla, Bla... Sleeping while others were getting tired.

I woke up with Vika and Mariele leaving to Den Bosch. They left three days earlier by apparently no reason at all (although Vika said she was feeling sick), it seemed to me she was pretty alright.
We (I, Albino, MarK and Mark) had a couple of beers in the bar and planned to build 4 posters until next thursday (beersday). Each one of us have to make a beautiful poster using only typographic elements from Comic Sans. Then we went to bed.

FRIDAY

We were split in groups to visit 4 distinct design studios, and after daylight we got together to discuss about what we've seen. The most interesting atelier was one called Base. Their way of working led into a verbal war over things like professional specification and global awareness. When things got a little bit too hot, they developed the rest of the talk in dutch and I went for a shower upstairs.
Later we went relaxing and had a few warm moments of experience exchanging with some Breda students. The music was horrible all night long and everyone went to bed at three. Albino and Mark kept partying by themselves and went to Fuse. I saved myself to Ricardo Villalobos.

SATURDAY
As Mark and all the other Den Bosch students had left, the last three of us (the two portuguese and MarK) met in La Bourse stairs. We followed our trip to what I imagine it is the arty part of Brussels. We have been into some record/design-toys/T-shirts-etc shops and I got a nice t-shirt to replace the odor charged ones back in the hostel.

I got some time to visit Hospital Cesar de Paepe, not because of its unique type choice for their "House-Style", but because, unfortunetly, a "long time no see" friend from Brussels who lived with me for five months in Porto 4 years ago, was sick. Luckely everything is good now and at the moment I,m writing she has already left the hospital. Check madame la belge Sarah s'il vous plait!

Ricardo Villalobos at Fuse: Fiasco!
The over-crowded dance area and the vanilla sent smoke from the smoke machine were enough too convince anyone to leave. But I stood, believing I could have a little fun dancing to good music after almost two months in the too calm city of Den Bosch.
I realized again of the german minimal techno decadence. I start to believe that dance music has a different audience here in the northern european countries. Allow me to define it has a less lucid public. After five years of Cologne techno dance floors domination, Villalobos shouldn´t be happy when the crowd goes wild every time he drops the bass. There is more to sound than making euphoria out of excited-idiot-techno-pill-heads with slight too subtile tweak moves. We decided to leave after 50 minutes of Ricardo Villalobos. Shame on him... 10 hours later we reached Den Bosch.

Propaganda with Koen: How to make your own record label in one day!

2005-11-02T14:55:00.000Z

STEP 6: Merchandising and Publicity

STICKER

STICKERS

My last Post(er).

2005-11-02T14:00:00.000Z

Stay Where You Are.

2005-11-01T13:33:00.000Z

Maybe you can read it better here:
"I was asked for a graphic design exercise about a specific kind of tourism. I could choose the genre of tourism I was more interested in (as well as the city I wished to work on). It should not be about me. Tourism without holidays, I chose.
Our options should always be related to us (in a big way) even when our teachers and clients say us to think like the general public. I know now, autonomy is our finest prison.
We can say that modernist rules gave us more freedom than this recent un–idealistic world. Achieving neutrality is an eternal failed goal. We feel that failure as well as journalists and judges do.

Most people that buy touristic postcards or any other product made to entertain, do not wonder about the time A designer took to learn how to pick the right type to that piece of paper. They do not care because most people can design for their own business card, phd final work and chinese restaurant.
The consumer doubts because the consumer has a personal computer and printer that enables him to design a tourism postcard as easily as a designer's beautiful apple computer can.
Designers can now be part of an huge evolution as opinion makers while organizing discourse by committing to the transparency of the big process in which design is involved.
Finally, the hippies got something they wanted.

Occidental post-modern society is living its last senseless times. Information society allows the consumer/producer to get a glimpse of honesty.

Rotterdam is good for street shopping,
but you can also visit those yellow cubic houses for €1.80.

Thank you for your attention.
The designer, João Marrucho."

Now, with more space between the letters (characters were, one by one, scaled to 95% of the original poster type size (and I know there is an easy way)):

Typographic exercises for Rudo

2005-10-27T16:36:00.000+01:00

esta meto em inglês (Strong Violence´s my name, preserving Den Bosch is my game)

Muralhada Den Bosch, Fortalecendo Den Bosch

Tourism Stuff

2005-10-27T16:30:00.000+01:00

Tourism scheme

Postcard from DHDMF

Sketches for DHDMF poster

Four typographic lies for Rudo Hartman

2005-10-27T15:19:00.000+01:00

Muralhada Den Bosch, Fortalecendo Den Bosch.

A cidade do Duque: Ambiente Histórico.

Viva (olá) Den Bosch!

Den Bosch, fucking great Den Bosch!

Tourism without Holidays

2005-10-27T15:17:00.000+01:00

Dutch Design Week.

2005-10-24T15:31:00.000+01:00

We (Albino and I) decided to go to Eindhoven to see what they're doing around here. It was hard to find graphic (printed) design exibitions. Actually we couldn't find one. Our mind wonders...

History repeats itself in diferent ways. Always in diferent ways.

Outside view from a Gadget Store building. Outdoors are not allowed.

Something to sell in Media Markt or streetwear shops in a few of months. Check also the jacket with the sleeve Mp3 player controller.

Lovely picture... With the optical fibers and all. Pretty uselless, though.

Graphic Design Stuff...

Vinyl 01

2005-10-24T15:28:00.000+01:00

Check Out our NEW Tilhas !

2005-10-24T14:46:00.000+01:00

2005-10-24T14:08:00.000+01:00

2005-10-17T15:39:00.000+01:00

Euro Maus on 's Duque - Out now!

2005-10-17T15:37:00.000+01:00

2005-10-17T15:31:00.000+01:00

Puto J. is Back to Den Bosch and there's no party going on...

2005-10-12T11:51:00.000+01:00

Souvenir from Rotterdam NHAMI!

2005-10-12T11:46:00.000+01:00

Funkydredj boy

2005-10-04T12:07:00.000+01:00

Art boy

2005-10-04T12:04:00.000+01:00

Greetings from

2005-10-03T11:10:00.000+01:00

1.3

2005-10-03T10:53:00.000+01:00

Eindhoven landscapes

2005-09-29T15:58:00.000+01:00

Design on Consciousness and Vice-Versa:

2005-09-29T14:58:00.000+01:00

And it's not about digital tools...

Inconsequent attitudes always produce consequeces.

2005-09-26T16:44:00.000+01:00

One week ago we went for walk in a Park nearby.
What´t a fuck is the Prima Escola Ibérica? -I thought to myself... Is it a nonsense exhibition? I'm guessing that it must be something quite good in fact. I'm from Porto Fine Arts School. And Porto is in Portugal, as in Part of the Iberica Peninsula (together with other Portuguese and Spanish cities). It's getting usual that one can't talk much about what concerns to his Own. But that's not right.
I read somewhere that there was an arguement about Professional Design and Amateur Design Ethics. In the same environment they also made some kind of selection of young communication designers and thought about the relations between Art and Design. I hope they did, and if so I bet they did it or the wrong way or the honest raw mode. And I'm Jealous I wasn't there to shut them all up with their own secrets.
Design Curatorship is getting usual in our days. At least in my Portugueese School. Teachers are not as envyous as I am and they share exhibition and work opportunities with students. That's good! But it is also part of a economic and emotional dodgy investment diguised in someones ignorance. "What? You didn't heard about BRG Multimedia Design? You didn't know that the Portugueese MIT wanted to buy design works? Don't Tell me you never heard of S'cool Iberica!" From raw to euphemism... Designer isn't even an official Profession in Portugal and curatorship will only make it look like art or look like a social parasite job... If you know what I mean... If you don't, you can think of the term Social-Dependent Business Man whenever this issue comes handy. In Clubs you can use the expression: Cultural Addict.
Eco-Ethic-Moral-Conscious-Professional-Free-Design... hmm hmm estou a ver... The world is going to change and we are talking about it to delay it.

Rotterdam: Spoiled kids and Tourism without Hollidays.

2005-09-26T16:29:00.000+01:00

Lover boy

2005-09-25T12:52:00.000+01:00

Dutch boy

2005-09-25T12:48:00.000+01:00

Sketch for something like 's-Hertogenbosch the meeting point of Brabant

2005-09-25T12:44:00.000+01:00

OH! Another postcard!

2005-09-25T12:38:00.000+01:00

Touring again

2005-09-24T12:12:00.000+01:00

Nobody told us to be Latin.

2005-09-20T16:23:00.000+01:00

A couple of minutes just before going out in the busy Brabant's capital center. We couldn't imagine that the DJ would think Hard-Rock, Punk-Rock and New Metal are the way to go...
A guy started fighting and screaming really loud when another teenage tried to get in front of him in the jackets line. I lost my number but the girl was nice and believed in me when I explained the looks of my gloves and albino's Ray Ban's that were in an inside pocket. We always think that something up lifting it's about to happen but Prodigy, Jamiroquai and Chemical Brothers are never enough for 3 hours in a Club.

Today we skipped Rudo Hartmans typography class, for the second time in a row. The first time we planned it just before we went to bed. We had just came from a school students balcony barbeque. I was shure it would be more important to be there and get to know a litle bit more from the real Den Bosch. After a couple of beers I realised that we have already seen it all.
Today we fell assleep. I was very scared when Rudo started speaking in a very disturbed way: Nei Nei Nei! What you did was wrong! It's not good... The afternoon is for the other class! Next time I'll go to the "direction" and we quit it! -What were you doing? In bed? (...) -Typical Portuguese! I know... -like he had discovered my biggest secret.
I started laughing holding head up high... and I couldn´t stop smiling untill the end of that short corridor meeting. I'm sure I wasn't unpolite though... We arranged things and he said bye with a thumbs up. Next week 09:30AM.

TASTE REHEARSALS AND BADLY COMPRESSED IMAGES ARE A WAY OF LIFE 2

2005-09-20T16:17:00.000+01:00

1.2

2005-09-20T16:14:00.000+01:00

Puto Jota Style

2005-09-20T16:11:00.000+01:00

Avans Hogeschool | Graphic Design | 3rd Year

2005-09-20T16:02:00.000+01:00

School Mates

Panorama

Brevemente aqui e acolá / Soon here and there

2005-09-15T16:36:00.000+01:00

Greetings from Den Bosch, A J Tavares

2005-09-15T16:25:00.000+01:00

Love, J Marrucho

2005-09-15T16:23:00.000+01:00

Alguns céus perto de casa / Some skies nearby

2005-09-15T16:18:00.000+01:00

1.1

2005-09-15T16:02:00.000+01:00

Waking up...

2005-09-13T17:57:00.000+01:00

Dutch Bala

2005-09-13T17:49:00.000+01:00

Bué da Arte!

2005-09-09T17:25:00.000+01:00

Life Stylin'!

2005-09-09T16:52:00.000+01:00

Outside/Inside

2005-09-09T16:50:00.000+01:00

Program design-theory (2005 – 2006)

2005-09-09T16:16:00.000+01:00

Methodical Approach Visual Communication, focused on the (actual) history of Dutch Design.

Literature:

Robin Kinross - More Light (In alphabetical order; Werkplaats Typografie Arnhem)
id. - Modern Typography – introduction (Hyphen Press)
id. - The rhetoric of neutrality (in: Victor Margolin (ed.) - Design
discourse)
H. Boekraad - Norm and Form
id. - Copy Proof, graphic design as visual rhetoric (Post St.Joost,
Breda 2002)
E. Lentjes - Communicative design (in: BNO yearbook 2000)
id. - Forum, reading between the lines; 50 yrs graphic design related
to the Dutch arch. magazine Forum (in: dot-dot-dot#7)
P. Andersson - Beyond Magazines (in: Inside Magazines; BIS Publishers)
A. Mevis - On Magazines (in: OHNO another magazine; JvEijck-publication)
M. Bruinsma - An ideal design is not yet (in: The world had to change;
Sandberg Institute, 1998)
J. Williamson - The grid (in: V. Margolin - Design discourse)
W. Bierma - in the surf (in: dot-dot-dot#3)
M. Rock - Mad Dutch desease (Premsela lecture 2004; www.premsela.org)

Ewan Lentjes
Design Theory
St.Joost, Breda

Cultural Accident!

2005-09-08T14:23:00.000+01:00

I arrived with Albino to Den Bosch Central Station after one night in Cologne. We though it we be better to know our ways in the city some time before the opening day. So here we were, 5 days before, going down the rolling stairs. A fantastic town emerged in front of my eyes. Neon coulors everywhere. Bicycles, clothes, cars... I couldn't imagine Den Bosch would be something like this.
I thougth maybe Front242 were playing that night. Maybe 2 Unlimited! We travelled 10 years back into the nineties but we kept our current age.
After a couple of days sleeping in hotels and walking around searching for rooms and studios, I realised they had never left the 90's, they just perfected the aesthetic.

The workers from the internatinal relations department gave us a wrong telephone number from Warren, a guy that could get us a roof by squatting, but in the end we had to run to a rental agency called DirectWonen because we could no longer afford to sleep in hotel rooms. Normally the waiting list is more than 6 months, just to see an appartment, but we explained our situation and the girls from DirectWonen got us a 45m2 room were an australian guy used to live. The first landlord didn't like us. So we got the second room we saw. Now we know where the cantine is but nobody told us. Nobody told us about the school bus, about the chipcard wich we can charge and use for buying everything in the school and... let's say... I still dond't know if behind one door I'm going to find printers free to use, or, who knows, maybe I can get transport discounts.

We were told that we shouldn't go out after 24h to the church area. We then went to Caroussel. Caroussel is something like a disco but with a fair going on. Inside is a caroussel that is used as a dance floor, and the euro-top-40-music tracks last for 1 minute (tops!) and are interrupted by an "MC Marmelo" who speaks a pretty fast Dutch. We still didn't found a regular bar. Today is Thursday, beerday, when everyone comes for a beer after half past four in the bar.

Euronews

2005-09-05T10:08:00.000+01:00

Where do you spend your free time?

2005-09-05T09:51:00.000+01:00

"I'm a Den Boscher. I'm twenty four years old and I rarely go out at after 9PM. There is nothing going on so Pubs are always crowded with elderly couples holding their beers like if it was something special. When I go out of Avans Hogeschool, I unlock my bike and I pedal towards my couch on my studio. I dine at half past six, and then I pick a can of Heineken from my sprayed fridge. Everything is so calm until I turn the TV on."

FLASHBACK

2005-09-03T13:59:00.000+01:00

DAY1

First stop: Cologne Cathedral

Second Spot: Beer by the Reno with the portuguese electronic musician TAM.

C/O pop: Vernissage with Egoexpress.

Blue are the colors that live inside me...

Panoramahaus.

DAY2

"Tira-me uma fotografia a mim cansado..."

Hotel Vught.

DAY3

Looking for a roof in Den Bosch.

View from the place where we could find the first Expresso in Den Bosch.

Hotel Terminus.

DAY4

Portfolio.

Current Room. No more Hotels nor Hostels.

DAY5

ART DAY