I’m spending my days in the library, reading and writing about the city, design and the senses, experience design etc. So at the moment my best friends are Lefebvre, Nicolescu, Simmel, Weber etc. I quite enjoy the research and the writing and wish I would find time to do it also after I graduate. The Slovenian national library was designed by Jože Plečnik and this year marks 140 years from his birth. Google celebrated this occasion with the following image of the famous triple bridge:
I got home more than a month ago but it still feels like I’m running in between places. After returning back to Ljubljana, I flew to Riga to do another CityBeat exhibition. Hard work and lots of fun:). Then I went straight to Berlin where I had the interview with Art+Com and I’m doing my internship there next year, yey!! Now I’m getting used to my new place and the new studio in Šiška! I’ll be in Ljubljana for about three months, writing my thesis, freelancing and enjoying the company of these guys:
Photo: Tilen
Today I joined Anna and her friends to go mushroom picking in Sipo, close to Helsinki. It was a great and successful day! There were many beautiful poisonous mushrooms in the forest. I forgot my camera but luckily I could take some iphone photos. They’re all on Flickr.
CityBeat, the interactive installation we have been developing for the past year and a half is finally set up on the Lasipalatsi square in the centre of Helsinki. In case you are in Helsinki, we are having an opening tomorrow, 26.8. at 19h. CityBeat is also my final thesis in Aalto University and a sort of goodbye to graphic design. Thank you thank you thank you: Ben Dromey, Jari Suominen and Piritta Puhto! More about the project and a picture diary of the proces. Photo by Tekla Pohjolainen.
So this is how my summer will look like. Working on CityBeat in Lume studio together with Ben and Jari. I am documenting the process here. No summer holidays for me!!
For the past three months I have been kayaking, cycling, hitchhiking, walking and driving across New Zealand. I also managed to structure my final thesis and have spent days in library writing literature reviews and my thesis guidelines.We got a grant from Finnish Bioart society to develop the CityBeat for a traveling public exhibition and I’m looking forward to spend my summer in Helsinki working on this project. My work will also be published in two design publications by Lawrence King publishers and Hesign studio and I’m participating in a funny Balkan show called TurboSutra. I am also currently working on commissions for friends, below is a poster for Jazzva and I hope to soon finish a website for Rompom.
I left cold and dark Helsinki and flew to sunny and windy Wellington to do my ex-change. I am making a small collection of this city’s lettering. Lots of signs are nicely painted by hand.
I just got back to Helsinki after spending almost a month back home. It was probably one of the best visits so far. I missed all my friends and Slovenian vine and weather! After arriving back to the cold, snowy and dark winter I started to question my affection towards Finland! Luckily I’m enjoying every minute of my school life. I’m again stepping away from graphic design and focusing on the CityBeat project. I’ve taken up workshops such as analogue electronics and tangible auditory interfaces, hoping they would bring me closer to my thesis work. Yes, I’m a nerd. In Ljubljana, we saw Lee Miller‘s exhibition. Loved it.
In the end of November we visited Tirza in Berlin, where she is working for Image Shift (it was nice to see Sandy and Pierre again). There was a great exhibition for graphic design addicts in the Art library in Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz, World as Words (ending on the 16th of January). Hamburger Bahnhoff has a big exhibition by Carsten Höller in the main hall with live reindeer and giant mushrooms. Berlin is great:) The picture below is from the only club we went to (thanks to Martti). Do not go to Berlin with overworked design geeks who drop dead every day at 11 pm (yes I know, I’m complaining about that again)! Anyhow, this beer label is all what graphic design should be. Clear, simple, basic. Who needs visual clutter.
For the past weeks we were working on the exhibition identity for the ’40 hours’ project. Furniture and textile designers from Taik will exhibit their work (done in 40 hours) in Tokyo designers week. You can check the invitation here. We were art directing a really great photographer Chikako Harada, this is one of the ‘mood’ photos on the banner inside the exhibition space.
Back in Helsinki. The past weeks were really busy and a lot has happened. I started a sculpture course in Kuva (with Veronica Brovall) and I’m seriously considering shifting away from graphic design for a while. I have no idea where this will lead me, but entering new fields is always exciting. I’m looking forward to the type conference in November and attending good lectures this fall. I’m taking courses from really different departments as well as continuing working with the CityBeat for which we had the pleasure to meet and get some guidance from Heidi Tikka. Currently I’m also working on an exhibition identity for Tokyo designers week for which the deadline is quite hectic! I am also waiting news about weather I can go to Japan next spring as an ex-change student. What else … I really enjoyed Isaac Julien’s exhibition Ten thousand waves in Taidehalli. After visiting Ateneum last weekend, it was really refreshing to participate and interact with the exhibited pieces. I think that it’s no longer enough to just walk around the space and stop and contemplate in front of the works. Let’s employ more senses.
Summer I miss you. We have the worst autumn weather here in Ljubljana and everything smells like winter already. I want to hang on to my summer memories (without a doubt partying at Motovun film festival is the winner). Nataša took some nice polaroids on one of our trips. This was taken in Strunjan.
