design rock stars

I don't really know how I always end up in these situations, without drinking.

yes, I like to take pictures with designers.

so, like a teenager I like to be in some pictures that make me look very social with very good people in a very casual way! I am so cool.

here I am, talking with Anthony Burrill, and (I don't know why and how) I am back to back with Richard Van De Laken, one of the Designpolitie, a great studio in Holland.

we were on a poster contest awards, "poster heroes", more than a couple of years ago, and a photographer, friend of mine, took this picture.

very moving, the light, the apple.. the red scarf..

both of them works with poster design.

Anthony make a bold use of typography and letterpress, to express sharp aphorism and quotes.

the kind of quotes everibody need to have in their studio.

Designpolitie has a simple and direct approach to graphic design, which often implements bright color and sans-serif typeface in a lively and fun style. topics are usually related to political issues.

“design is everything and designers are those that work on technology or art, on science or cuisine, everyone is a designer shaping their own spaces.” – richard van de laken

another picture with a designer I admire and with whom I talked for a while.

this was Noma Bar, last year in Milan, where he presented his works in a small bookshop (it's like if Madonna was singing in a small pub!)

and yes, he is drinking!

he is an illustrator, famous for his use of the negative space, not just for entertain: most of them have a meaning or a political purpose.

here a product designer, Paolo Ulian. as you can see, he was working and it seemed stupid to ask him a picture, but I was happy to take his work in progress.

his products are stunningly materic and romantic, you really fell in love with their concept, because he designed an action, not a simple product, like the finger biscuit to be dip into the nutella (esclusively!).

his approach to design is very relevant to me, we are immersed in a world of useless objects, designed just for speculation, yet obsolete and replaced by a newer and multifunctional object.

the sensibility of his approach to the matter is adding a value to an object, the one thing that make you feel that you have something more than a knife, a bath mat, a bowl or a biscuit.