There was a time when we didn’t really see the point of keeping up a blog, twittering or Facebook. We are great at making a magazine, but as to the rest, we didn’t see the added value. By now we have completely changed our minds. Because it’s just that happy mix of making a magazine and combining it with all those other things that makes it so much fun. Direct responses from readers about articles in the magazine are only possible via Internet. Like Astrid, who was so happy to get all those sweet tweets and Facebook and blog responses when she broke her wrist (update: she is going in for surgery this Friday) and as of last week we are also on the social notice board site pinterest. Which was another wonderful discovery, pages filled with all kinds of pretty stuff, it’s really a virtual party over there. Our freelancer Dorine wrote a beautiful piece about social media (to be read in the next Flow, in shops March 14^th). She writes: “Sometimes I feel like I am doing ‘badly’. Whenever twitter and facebook are mentioned in the media the gist of it is usually that whatever I am doing is just pathetic.” She ends her piece on a completely different note: “Internet has given me so much, a vast amount of inspiration that I get from pinterest.com, useful tips and offers that I get whenever I post a notice asking for a good restaurant/chocolate pie recipe/bicycle seat or someone to go to a car boot sale with me. The warmth of all the responses when I posted pics of my baby after giving birth.” We couldn’t agree more, there is no impoverishment of human contact due to all the social media, life is wonderfully cozy with all this interaction! In the picture you see a fun campaign by Portuguese agency 6B Estúdio/Moma Propaganda about new media. Posted by: Irene

 

The great thing about this day and age is that you can watch whatever kind of video you want, whenever you want. If you have some time to spare (15 minutes and 7 seconds), sit yourself down in front of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. This short animation film won an Oscar last Sunday, and well deserved we feel! It’s a bit of a mix between The Wizard of Oz and that video with the books that fly around a book store at night that we posted on our blog a while back. This movie was made by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg. Made with pots and pots of love (and a lot of hard graft) and it shows.

Actually, filmmaker Brandon Oldenburg said in an interview that even though he makes computer animations he doesn’t actually have a computer at home. Funny. Posted by: Jocelyn

Every Saturday we feature a fun web shop. Today: Breekwater.

We are featuring Guusje Wannet for the second time, but this time around not with her screen prints, but with her wallpaper designs.

How did you get started with wallpaper?

“Designing wallpaper is a long held dream. I studied textile design, and at the academy I used to work with a lot of craft techniques, such as screen printing by hand onto large pieces of fabric. A while back I ran into designer Jan Willem Koot and we soon came to the conclusion that we should be designing together. So, for starters, we are designing wallpaper. We make everything our self, from the beginning ‘til the end. We design and we have a special wallpaper printer. Wallpaper is exciting and versatile. You can work with patterns and repetition, but you can also make a unique piece, which you can stick on your wall with a lot of love. A wall is simply great to work with.”

Why do you think so?

“Because the light is always changing. No single hour has the same look. A wall is a utensil and a showroom rolled into one. It is a mirror of the soul, sometimes it shows art, sometimes a quick drawing, stuck on with tape. And if you’re really lucky, prints of little chocolate smudged fingers!”

Have you got more plans together?

“Of course we do! Our wallpaper has just been printed onto a freshly designed Breekwater-longboard (a skateboard). And we are busy with all kinds of other stuff, including unique murals and we’re working on handmade wallpaper.”

www.breekwater.nl

Since a week I’ve been walking around with a cast on my arm. Which has made life look very different indeed. It’s quite doable and, oh well, there are worse things. I could sum up all the stuff that you can’t do with only one arm, (put your hair into a ponytail, pressing control-alt-del on your keyboard when it’s gone back to sleep again), but let’s not go there. What’s much more fun: all the stuff you can still do with only one little paw. Such as internet-comfort-shopping. My first purchase arrived today. The wonderfully pretty book Food Rules by Michael Pollan. He got one of my favorite designers, Maira Kalman, to make the illustrations. She also made the beautifully drawn year-day-book: The principles of uncertainty.

And the other way around is fun as well. I got a present via the mail. Dear friends sent me a chocolate bar via www.deliciousxocolate.nl. In a beautiful wrapper, with a lovely handwritten note. The moral in this story: the web shop is a good friend, also in – slightly – worse times. 

Posted by: Astrid

I found myself doing it again: hurrying. Even though I had promised myself I wouldn’t. Because what do I really gain from rushing along in the car (and only saving minutes, as the beautiful calligraphy illustration by Margriet Ramp (http://members.multimania.nl/margrietramp/hobbies.html) shown above says as well ‘Rushing around intends to save minutes after hours have been wasted’)

In the Flow issue that has just gone to the printers’, and which will be hitting the shelves on March 14^th, we feature a great story about hurry. It takes a close look at why we are in such a hurry all the time. Insight: in 1910 the average Dutch person worked 6 days a week, 10 hours a day. Our grannies spent two full days doing laundry every week, to say nothing of all other household chores.

Koen Haegens, who wrote the book Neem de tijd (=”take your time”) says in the article: “The cause of our hurry certainly isn’t the amount of hours we work, because we used to work much more. If you look back a hundred years things have calmed down a lot on that front. So it’s more about the way we spend our time, the intensity of the hours. There’s a new kind of time and we have gotten something I like to call ‘time-compaction’.” I start thinking about how I spend my time, how much I cram into it, how much I want to do at the same time and make a new resolution to stop multitasking and stop trying to win back a few minutes by hurrying! Posted by: Irene

In the issue of Flow we just sent to the printers is a wonderful love-notepad.

With cutout art by Rob Ryan. But artist Mark Hearld, who is featured with his gloriously messy house in this Flow, knows his way around a pair of scissors as well. These birds are his. A very apt illustration to go with the mild, almost Spring-like weather outside! Because the natural ice was great (unless of course you broke your wrist, like Astrid did), being able to leave the house without a woolly hat, is something else to celebrate. Posted by: Jocelyn

Every Saturday we feature a fun web shop. Today: Lettershop

She often sees the world through ‘can-I-turn-this-into-jewelry-goggles’. And that is exactly what Karla Vandebeek does very prettily with old typewriter keys.

How do you make your jewelry?

“It takes quite a bit of preparation. Often they are keys from machines from early last century, so there’s a lot of dirt on each key. Cleaning them takes quite a bit of time. Afterwards I polish the back of each key until it is even, a time consuming process that and not every key makes it through this process unscathed. The ones that do make it through get a final clean and then they’re ready to be made into jewelry.”

What do you love about typewriters?

“Old machines are often magnificent (and weigh a ton) and it’s such a shame that they’re not in use anymore and often end up in someone’s attic. The fact that I am making a piece of jewelry that carries a whole history really appeals to me! Who were the people who used this machine? Did anyone use it to type love letters? Has it been used in the war to write important information? Did real Mad Men-secretaries work on these typewriters for days and days? And the great thing is, that by wearing the jewelry you immediately start adding your own history. People often wear a pendant or a ring with the initials of their partner or their kids. Or they are given as presents for a birthday or a birth.”

What gets your creative juices flowing?

“I travel a fair bit and that provides masses of inspiration. Other than that there’s nothing as inspiring as locking myself into my workshop for the day and surrounding myself with all my materials – through the years I have amassed rather a stock.”

www.lettershop.etsy.com

Our very own Flow Favourites postcard display was presented to dealers in Den Bosch yesterday. A display filled with cards by different designers. Of course we just had to have a look ourselves, and we were thrilled at how great our display looked in a Flow décor. The response was positive and we really hope that our cards will be for sale in lots and lots of shops.  We’ll keep you posted via our website, we’ll feature a list with where to buy when the time comes, but for now we all have to be patient, as they won’t be for sale until about the end of April. Posted by: Irene