The Hebe Week In Pics

Some of us hit London for work, some of us for play!Trailer Park Boys @ Hmv Forum London TPB's selling Hotdogs for a fiver each... as part of the show!A thumbs up to the rest of the Hebe Team, who could not make itSimon had his own fun in London helping his information as material buddies move some work into the Whitechapel Gallery... well, we say helping, but his actually taking pictures of them doing all the work!The Foyle Reading Room at the Whitechapel, which will be home to some of information as material's workThe Whitechapel staircase... nice wood work!Simon with the genius that is Simon MorrisShang Ting looking lovely at Girl Geeks Dinner back in LeedsWell done on your presentation STP!Snapped the Pap @ Girl Geeks Dinner in VQWe love going for a walk down The Shambles in YorkRoad Trip!

Introducing: Albin Holmqvist

In the latest of our 'introducing' series, we look internationally, to a creative who we have known for quite some time now. We got to know Albin Holmqvist in Barcelona, in fact he helped create our Barcelona Creative Space: The Palace. Since then Albin has gone on to do some amazing things, including being featured recently on Fast Company.

Albin is a true all-round designer and artist that has been plying his trade at one of Spain’s most famous design studios, Vasava. Just to give you a snapshot of a few of the clients he has worked with there - street wear label 55DSL, NIKE, MÖET, Jay-Z’s ROCAWEAR, fashion giants MANGO and plenty more that you can find on the Vasava website. We will never forget Albin coming over to The Palace and debuting Adam Tensta's Back Before You Know It video that he had worked on while still studying... we were all blown away!

You just can’t limit an artist to their 9-5 though, and thats why Albin has been keeping himself busy with photography, painting, typography and a couple of really great freelance projects. If you’re a reader of Fastcompany.com it is quite likely that you have seen the much loved EF Language commercials that Albin played an integral part in with his amazing typography. 

Obviously you should watch them for yourself, but if you still need some further convincing about how brilliant they are, then take Fastcompany’s design and film writer John Pavlus’s word for it. This is what he said, and you just have to love it. 

“Commissioned by language-teaching company EF, these magical promos use kinetic typography to capture the pure beauty of speaking mother tongues in Paris, London, Beijing, and Barcelona. Take the video for Paris, for example. Jean-Luc Godard famously said that all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun, but after watching this and literally tearing up at the end, I propose an amendment: all you need is a girl and a font.” 

Read the full article here: 

We asked Albin what he considered the most important conditions for creativity to flourish:

"To be able to be creative in todays environment you HAVE to have a Nespresso machine. To key element to this contraption is the purple capsule! Intensity 9. Arpeggio! I mean how is one able to think clearly on some crappy Intensity 3 capsule with almond flavor? Get outta here.

The second most important part is people. If you surround yourself with people who has something to say, then you're golden. It doesn't matter if they are typegeeks or make pottery. Good energy is key. I think that is the problem today, as many freelancing creatives shut themselves into their bedroom with their fancy laptops. Social media will never replace real human interaction."

Obviously the role of 'Art Director' is changing and elevolving in the current climate and we asked Albin what he thought was important in the role moving forward:

"As an Art Director today, having a network of talented people will definitely make your life easier. To meet with people and being able to level with them is very important. All the most interesting projects I've been working on comes from real life encounters! But don't get me wrong, the technological revolution is the key to moving forward, but it's important not to let that fact take over the creative process."

One of Albin's photographs taken in CopenhagenAlbin's work for Swedish brand: Happy People

We suggest you keep an eye out for what Albin might be up to next. There are already plans being made for more typography work, art direction and “everything” - which is how Albin himself likes to describe what he does for a living. We think Albin in heading for great things and as one of the originals from 'The Palace' we wish him every success in the world!

Turn Up The Style, Turn Down The Heat.

In one of my cool-hunting blog post's we talked about proportion being important when you're going for a vintage style because some of the vintage clothes you find may not come in your size, which, for me, is most of the time. Or there's always another option to make sure the vintage item you get is one of a kind and the right fit. Renewal designs.

I was at ReMade in Leeds last night for Global Cool's first stop of their tour Turn Up The Style, Turn Down The Heat. We were greeted by cupcakes and tea, and after we picked a jumper provided by Blue Rinse, owner of ReMade in Leeds. Lizzie told us some simple ways to add a bit of spice to a plain jumper. We had various vintage materials to use, so while creating new garments we were also recycling. In the end, I (with the help of the designers of the shop) came out with a green jumper customised with a chain necklace made from Ribbon. 

 

The vintage scene is definitely bigger than ever, and you can start to find many renewal sections in high street brands like Urban Outfitters, Miss Selfridge and ASOS. I'm sure many of you have already been doing bits of renewal with your clothes, jewellery, and other things. But for the ones who haven't started yet, why not try to make something old, something new.

UK Observing Diary Update

Last month we gave a brief introduction to the UK Observing Diary project featuring our very own Shang Ting Peng. Since our last post a lot has happened with the page including the number of fans swelling to 56,000+ and various television and newspaper appearances for Shang Ting and her UOD partner Clair Liu.

After appearing in a post on The Guardian Leeds site, the media coverage around the project has been quite unbelievable. The Asian media picked up on the story and it spread like wildfire. The story made the front page of Yahoo, was ranked no.1 in the fashion category and no.3 in the arts category. The story appeared in some of the most influencial newspapers in Taiwan including Liberty Times, NOWnews, Apple Daily, Chinese Television System and China Times.

When the Guardian post appeared the page had around 6,500 members and now as of writing this post the number stands at 56,816! The number of views on their posts has gone into the millions every month. It is a quite remarkable story that 2 friends who started a project as a hobby are now well on their way to becoming major published authors back in Asia, as a number of book deals are now in the offing.

Shang Ting has certainly been taken back at the response in her native Taiwan "It was a shock when we found out how many different news outlets had reported this story. Afterwards our UK Observing Diary email address has been full of invites to different things and proposals for new projects. It all happened so fast. We have now even been offered a book deal, and it is just so exciting."

Her partner on the page, Clair recently appeared on a TV show billed as an 'online buzz creator' something that certainly takes some getting used to " This was the first time for me to participate in a TV programe shot in the studio. I was so excited when the TV producer invited us to talk about our recent popularity on the internet. There are many interesting things on the show that I did not expect. I had so much fun there."

Clair continues, "I felt I was just like a little fan when I heard the other two famous bloggers who are going to join the panel. I used to read quite a lot of their articles. I am so glad to have had this opportunity to sit next to them and join their conversation. This was the day I found I was so proud of UK Observing Diary. Our page could be a real media connecting people who are interested in Leeds and London."

The girls are commited to their original vision for the page "We post everyday, and we try to answer fan's questions as much as we can. The relationship with them is very important to us. We don't want to change our style, which is fun and a style that people can easily relate to. We like to talk to fans as they are our friends, and perhaps one day they will become our friends for real!" says Shang Ting.

One really interesting dynamic of this project is the contrast it provides between the North and South of England, namely Leeds and London. While the capital may be high on tourist's and trend hunter's radars usually, Leeds is something of an unknown quantity in Asia. The UK Observing Diary provides an insight into the northern city and this has gone down well with a lot of the fans "Li Man Man said: This is so great~ Because most of the people know more about London, part of them don't have a clear idea about Leeds. So this observing diary is perfect~"

The content of the page is usually photos with a brief description. This could be an off-the-cuff photo of an interesting visual or it could be a photoshoot carried out at a particular event. The girls have also began to add deeper content in the form of interviews and articles which are presented more like a 'blog posts' in the page's 'notes' section.

The idea is to develop the content further with plans for more video content presented by Shang Ting and Clair currently on the agenda. It seems this is just the tip of the iceberg for this project and we should hear of more exciting developments (and 1000s more fans) over the coming months.

1. Jackie Chan 2. Jet Lee... 3. UK Observing DiaryApple Daily