Design Capital 2012 > Helsinki !

It is always a good things when you are working hard to have a break.
Enjoy this break to have a look on what's happen around you, what is published nowadays.
Few month before I was in Helsinki which is during the 2012 year, the WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL. 
Lucky us, as Helsinki is reachable with 2 hours of boat trip from Tallinn, just let's go!

And I was back in Helsinki with its huge straight, white and pure buildings. Alvar Aalto's buildings, Carl Ludwig Engel's church…
Did you know that this city was built by the same architects as Saint Petersburg?
Until 1827 Helsinki's name was Turku, it was under Russia but with its own government and became independent in 1917.
During the soviet time, Finland struggle and USSR never succeed to invade.

My visit was about book and publishing, I was so excited to meet galerists, artists, publisher, bookshop owner from everywhere (mostly europe). Welcome for two days of visits and lecture called Bookies.

We start to talk about Rollo press, a group of graphic and book designers established a bit every where,
( http://rollo-press.com/ ) They first talk about a man coming from nowhere, Wesley Willis, who did a series of markers drawing about highways and clouds and who had this mark in the middle of his forehead because of rubbing his forehead against someone else forehead!

I liked how it's started!
We will talk about everyday life topic, with exceptional and common people.
Isn't it why graphic design is for? Make the reality exceptional?

A new publishing company is getting ready in Estonia called LUGEMIK. (www.lugemik.ee)
The book publishing is very recent in Estonia, but as everything else there, it's promising…
This company is ran by two of my (young) teachers who publish my other (very young) teacher work,
Laura Toots for example:

Laura Toots was my photography teacher and she always find a way to disrupt our way of viewing something, maybe I'll say more about it later. But what's important it that I hope the new publishing is about reading and watching even more about discovering and investigating…
Don't be faked by your own thought and go deeper in what you are looking at, you could be surprise!

Two days was very a bit but enough for us to dive in a treasure of a quantity of books!

What a great inspiration for us!
I love books I love books I love books!

Let's continue with Motto distribution. (http://www.mottodistribution.com)

They starts with a blog and now have a different bookshops in Europe, the biggest is in Berlin.They are working in France also, with Payot, the gallery Yvon Lambert, in Basel, Kunsthall, in Utrecht, Copenhagen … 

I have to add that the lectures was happening in the greatest (in my point of view) museum in Helsinki: KIASMA.
(http://www.kiasma.fi/)

Time to discover some finnish non-graphic designers artists like the video artist Jenni Hiltunen (http://jennihiltunen.com/Blink.html):

or the illustrator Amanda Vähämaki (cargocollective.com/amandavahamaki/)

Then a very british monsieur went to talk about printing and especially reproduction of art.
He has to project to break down the barriers with exclusive art and reproduction.
He said "Art work come from outside", so… art has to come back outside?
Isn't it the origin of graphic design?
Thanks to the posters, are become reachable for all the people, art came on the street. 

Graphic design is the bridge between art and people!

During time you are thinking about this words, have a look in those web site:
http://www.galleryas.com
http://www.seditionart.com

Last we had a very interesting lecture about magazines by Tuomas Jääskeläinen, an editorial magazine lover and as many lover of something he literally transmitted his passion to us!

Bloomberg businessweek, magazine about information graphics, business… 

 Carl's cars (maybe my favourite) a fashion and open magazine about cars!

 Manzine, mens magazine

 Karen, a clever (!) women magazine

 Apartemento, a sensitive interior magazine

 Yummy, a designed delicacy magazine

 Fire and knives, a new media magazine

Newspaper shops are full of horrible magazine without any taste but stay happy because thanks to him, you saw that a good magazine is always findable!
And design is magazine IS NOT DEAD at all!

I was also happy because I am loving newspaper and magazine for its touch and paper form. Nowadays, internet is changing all and people are loosing something they don't notice: the sensibility of a book! 

He also introduce this amazing book named: "What you can't do with internet" and think about it because there is a lot of things you can't do with it…!

Thanks for having read me! I will leave you with some picture about a book and published work's exhibition which happened in Tallinn few weeks after this event, in the design museum of Tallinn (http://www.etdm.ee/en/).

Terviseks! (=cheers!)