Tuesday 31 May 2011

that isn't art

Banksy


I wandered around books today at Oporto's book Fayre. But only one took all my full attention and it wasn't even there at the fayre. I was at FNAC at the graphic design section when I saw the book of my favourite urban artist. I don't usually have one single favourite artist, but in what touches the graffiti made into art (I know it's a urban art, but try to get that into a museum... Banksy does that! Illegally, but still...)

I smiled in every turn page, that guy is a genius! What I love about him is his constant criticism of the way we live and (don't) think. Experience is the new thinking (hey, I have to do a typographic work with this sentence!).

There was one situation, very ironic, that told much about the state of art. Banksy uses a lots of rats in his creations. One day someone said to him that it was very clever of him, because rat is an anagram for art. Guess what, he never thought about it before. Art is never the intention of the artist, because it vanishes once the public puts their minds on it. -the same is for what is art.

Banksy


Monday 30 May 2011

Back to the future

Hello sweeties!

Today I made another step toward my dream of working as a graphic designer. I applied for the Master in Graphic Design and Editorial Projects and I can't wait to get the response.

June, 15th will be a hell of a day or a paradise of a day (hopefully the second one): I'll receive the keys of my new home (yay!) and also the confirmation, or not (but that won't happen, right?), that I've entered the Master. It will be so awesome! Meeting new people, learning new things, starting new projects and developing skills... I would have so much to share with you!

But, for now I'll show you the work of a Bulgarian artist that I found recently. His name is Petya Savova, he's from Sofiya and he's a believer.




Don't forget to visit his portfolio. Enjoy!

Wednesday 25 May 2011

ABC

Do you remember Webcedario, a portuguese cartoon blog? Well, they're on facebook now and also launching a book. Isn't that amazing?

I decided to celebrate this with a cartoon of my own inspired by the ones that put a big smile on my face. Hope you like it!

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Green CV

When you're a designer, or want to become one, you have to have not only a creative portfolio, but also a CV that will stand out from the crowd. And I'm not meaning information only, but also the layout.

The most part of us, when writing a resume, think of impressive data. What we want to say is that we're better than the other applicants. But why saying when you can show it? We all know how to write and sometimes we doesn't say all the truth, and let's face it, they know that too. But actually do what we say we know how to do... it's a bit more difficult, right?

It will take time and sometimes can be frustrating, there's so much information you want to put down... Just make it simple: less is more so put only the really important data. And don't forget to make your contact visible, or else, no matter how much they liked you, they'll could never reach you.

There is some outstanding examples that I want to show you and in the end I'll present to you my own creative CV, it isn't as good as the others, but hey! Everything I learned is self-taught!

You can see them on two great websites: hongkiat and in save delete, they already did the hard-work for me so let's enjoy it!

Mine is right here, I'll only show you a print-screen, but I'll upload it at my behance and deviantart portfolios.

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Tuesday 17 May 2011

Acid work

Do you remember sweet? 3 months passed since then, but I didn't forgot my project of creating a series of flavours. Today I present you Acid, among other two works I did this week.


One of them is Synaesthesia. I think I never told you about this neuropathology before, but I've been obsessed by this for the last 3 years because it's such a different way to see the world. It seems a good disease to me (if that exists) because we can relate it to design and creativity. My master's thesis will focus on this for sure.

Synaesthesia can be explain as a mix of senses ( a linkage really), in a sort of way. We use just the eyes to see, only the ears to hear, and the hands to touch, and so on. But people with this pathology can use eyes to hear or ears to see. They associate colours to letters and numbers, or even music notes! That doesn't sound amazing?

We use synaesthesia very often in our lives too, specially when we write. When you say 'what a sweet sound' or 'I'm feeling blue' you're being synaesthetic.



The last one is about my love about design.


I hope you've enjoyed them!

P.S Some of these works are available for print on DeviantArt.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

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What a stunning photography, don't you agree? You can feel the calm breeze of the wind and hear the whispering sound of the waves. I bet you would like to be at this place right now.

This is what good photography is all about: making us feel good and enter in the world created by the artist. Pedro Barreiro is one of those artists and I interviewed him so you can be inspired by his talent. It's on portuguese, though. However I'll manage to do a translation.

Pedro is a Portuguese nature photographer and he's from Lisbon, to know more about him continue reading...

1. Fala-me um pouco sobre ti, as tuas conquistas e sonhos. / Tell me a little about you, your conquests and dreams.

Bem falar sobre nós próprios é sempre complicado. lol Sempre fui um rapaz indeciso e com pouca auto-confiança, o que levou em novo não saber do que gostava nem o que queria vir a fazer. Nunca liguei muito aos estudos, sendo que tudo o que era teórico corria sempre mal. Mas por outro lado tudo o que era prático adorava. Sempre gostei de Desenhar, Pintar, fazer construções e tudo o que estava ligado ao trabalho manual. E sendo assim segui artes, tirei um curso profissional de artes gráficas, e comecei a ficar fascinado com o mundo das cores das formas e das letras (graficamente falando). O rumo da minha vida começou por aí embora não seja totalmente criativo nessa matéria, comecei a gostar muito disso, depois de andar a saltitar de estágio em estágio em várias agências de publicidade resolvi Licenciar-me , acabei por entrar em Design de Equipamento, não era bem o que queria mas resolvi arriscar.

E foi aí que nasceu o sonho da fotografia. Tive uma cadeira de fotografia no 1º semestre, aprendi os básicos da fotografia, mas fiquei completamente fascinado. Depois da cadeira acabar nunca mais parei, e o que começou por ser um hobie neste momento já se tornou profissão.

O grande Sonho é poder viver só da fotografia, e preferencialmente a viajar pelo mundo fora. :)

Talk about ourselves is always tricky. lol I've always been an indecisive boy and with little self-confidence, which led to, as a kid, not knowing what I liked or what I wanted to do. I never cared much about studying, everything that was theoretical would gone wrong. But I loved all that was practical. I always liked to draw, paint, do constructions and all that was connected to manual labor. And so I followed Arts, took a course in professional graphic arts, and began to be fascinated with the world of colours and shapes of letters (graphically speaking). The course of my life started there although I'm not entirely creative in this area, I started to like it, after jumping from internship to internship in several advertising agencies I decided to take a graduation, I entered in Equipment Design, not quite what I wanted but I decided to risk it.

And it was born the dream of photography. I had a chair about photography in the first semester, I learned the basics of photography, but I was completely captivated. After the chair came to it's end I never stopped, and what began as a hobie has now become a profession.
The big dream is to live only by photography, and preferentially to travel around the world. :)

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4 Ilhas / 4 Islands

2. A tua relação com a natureza é estritamente fotográfica? O que te levou a seguir este ramo da fotografia? / Your relationship with nature is strictly photographic? What made you follow this brench of photography?

A Natureza faz parte de mim, e não, não é estritamente fotográfica. Fui Escuteiro durante 18 anos e desde pequeno que estou habituado a fazer atividades no meio da natureza, seja acampar, andar, brincar, etc. E de facto a Natureza torna-nos bastante pequeninos, e é fascinante podermos viver com ela. É pena ver como tanta gente não a sabe respeitar. Estamos sempre a queixar-nos, dizemos que o estrangeiro é tão bonito, quem me dera ir para ali ou para aqui, quando nem nos apercebe-mos da beleza que Portugal tem. Segui este tipo de fotografia pela beleza que sinto quando estou nela, embora haja tantas outras coisas na fotografia que me fascinam, é muito bom também pegar na beleza que a própria paisagem tem e mostrar como nós a interpretamos.

Nature is a part of me, and no it is not strictly photographic. I went to Scout for 18 years and since I am young I'm used to do small to do activities in the midst of nature, whether is camping, walking, playing, etc.. And in fact, nature makes us feel very little, and it's fascinating that we can live with it. It is a pity to see how many people do not know how to respect it. We [Portuguese] are always complaining, we say that the foreign countries are so beautiful, I wish to travel here or there, and we not even notice the beauty that we have at Portugal. I followed this type of photography by the beauty I feel when I'm in it, although there are many other things in photography that fascinates me, is also very good to take the beauty of the landscape itself and show to people how we interpret it.


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Tejo

3. Há quanto tempo fotografas e qual foi a aprendizagem mais difícil até agora? / For how long do you photograph and which was the most dificcult leraning so far?

Eu comecei a ligar à fotografia depois do semestre que tive na faculdade, pois já tinha anteriormente tido uma disciplina de fotografia analógica no curso de artes gráficas. Mas não sei porquê na altura não liguei nenhuma.

A minha verdadeira aprendizagem foi a experimentar porque até agora não tinha nenhum curso. Comecei em 2005 e experimentei muito, errei muito e aprendi com isso, a ânsia de querer mais e fazer melhor levou-me a queres mostrar o meu trabalho e ver outros que fossem melhores do que eu. Foi nesse mesmo ano, que me juntei ao www.deviantart.com e sinto que aí aprendi muito. Não só porque aprendia com as criticas que me davam mas porque perguntei muito aos fotógrafos que me eram referência, dicas de como poderia conseguir aquele efeito, e que material me iria ajudar, e a partir daí mas experiências. O mais complicado é quando se tenta e não se consegue resultados, mas aí é não perder a esperança. Ainda hoje tento aprender mais, já não é só nos sites onde publico, mas em livros, em vídeos, em cursos, workshops, e também indo fotografar com outros.

I started caring about photography after the semester I had in college, because I had previously taken a course on analog photography course in graphic arts. But I do not know why I did not care about it at that time. 

My real learning was by experience because so far I didn't had any graduation. I started in 2005 and I tried a lot, I've made many mistakes and learned from it, the urge to want more and do better has led me to want to show my work and see the work of others that were better than me. In that same year I joined www.deviantart.com and I feel that_I learned a lot. Not only by criticism they gave me, but also because I asked the photographers who were my reference about tips on how I could achieve that effect
, and which material would help me, and from there, I made new experiences. The most complicated is when you try and do not get results, but we can't lose hope. I still try to learn more, is not just the sites where I publish my work, but also in books, on videos, courses, workshops, and also going to shoot with other people. 
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4. Qual foi a paisagem que mais prazer te deu fotografar? / What was the landscape that gave you more pleasure to photograph?

Todas as Paisagens me dão prazer a fotografar, pois quando estou a fotografar estou nas nuvens, parece aquela sensação de quando somos miúdos e vamos a uma festa de anos, e chegamos e temos uma mesa cheia de gomas e rebuçados, e depois podemos jogar futebol, e podemos jogar na consola topo de gama dos amigos e aquilo nunca mais acaba e nós não damos pelo tempo passar.

Mas dá-me mais prazer quando vou à aventura normalmente para uma praia em que tem que se parar o carro numa estrada de Terra, fazer uma valente caminhada pela falésia abaixo, ás vezes até tem que se descer por cordas, e depois damos de caras com praias escondidas e maravilhosas. Como exemplo deixo a Praia da Ursa, a Malhada do Ouriço e Ribeira do Cavalo.

All Landscapes give me pleasure to shoot because when I'm shooting I'm in the clouds, it seems that feeling when we're kids and we go to a birthday party, and when we get there we have a table full of gums and candies, and then we can play football , and we can play on the high-end console of our friends and that it never ends and we don't see not time passing by. 

But it gives me more pleasure when I go in search of adventure, usually to a beach where you have to stop the car on a dirt road, make a long walk down the cliff, sometimes even having to go down with ropes, and then see the hidden and wonderful beaches. As an example we have Praia da Ursa, the Malhada do Ouriço and Ribeira do Cavalo.


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Praia da Ursa

5. Existe algum lugar no mundo que gostasses de fotografar? Qual e porquê? / There's any place on the world that you would like to photograph? Wich one and why?

Bem só fazes perguntas dificeis eheheh, tenho tantos, uns para paisagens outros para pessoas. Mas deixo 2, adorava ir à Islândia, pelas paisagens imensas de gelo de cascatas enormes. E adorava ir à Índia, pela cultura pelas pessoas.

Well, you just ask difficult questions eheheh, I have so many, some to landscapes and other to people. But I'll give you 2, I would love to go to Iceland, because of it's vast landscapes of huge ice falls. And I would love to go to India, because of its culture and people.

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6. Qual é o teu fotógrafo preferido? / Which is your favourite photographer?

Em relação a fotógrafos favoritos vou referir uns quantos porque me ímpossivel dizer só um. Ansel Adams foi um fotografo de paisagens que me inspirou, gosto muito também do trabalho do Steve McCurry. Depois tenho mais alguns fotógrafos que quero mencionar que não são assim tão conhecidos. Marc Adamus, Michael Anderson, e um fotografo português que eu gosto muito, Luís Afonso.

Regarding my favourite photographers I will mention a few because I find it impossible to say just one. Ansel Adams was a photographer of landscapes that inspired me, I like very much like the work of Steve McCurry. Then I have some more photographers I would like to mention that aren't very known of the public. Marc Adamus, Michael Anderson, and a Portuguese photographer I like very much, Luis Afonso.

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Cabo da Roca

7. Qual é o processo criativo que segues para que o teu trabalho se distinga de tantos outros fotógrafos? Qual é a intenção que desejas transmitir? / What is the creative process you follow so that your work is distinguished from many other photographers? What is the intention you wish to transmit?

Eu acho que o meu cunho pessoal tem muito a ver com o facto de também gostar de design, sinto que a cor e o grafismo das minhas fotos é que se destinge. Gosto muito de cores mais vivas e tento sempre que faço uma foto tentar mostrar esse lado mais colorido. Às vezes já tenho fotos pensadas e quando vou para um sitio tento fazer o que tinha em mente, mas outras vezes no momento é que me vem a inspiração. Gosto imenso de fotografar praias, a água e as formações rochosas são coisas que adoro fotografar e acho que combinam muito bem.

I think my personal touch has a lot to do with the fact that I also like design, I feel that colour and the graphics of my photos is what differs from others. I enjoy more vivid colours and I always try to do a photo trying to show that more colourful side. I have sometimes pictures already thought and when I go to a place I try to do what I had in mind, but sometimes the inspiration only comes in the moment. I really enjoy photographing beaches, water and rock formations are the things I love to photograph and I think they quite match.

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8. Existe uma grande polémica no uso do Photoshop para o melhoramento das fotografias, qual é a tua opinião relativamente a este assunto? / There is a great controversy on the use of Photoshop to enhance pictures, what is your opinion on this matter?

Este mês saiu uma entrevista minha numa revista de fotografia (a zOOm fotografia prática) eles fizeram-me também essa questão. O photoshop é uma ferramenta essencial para um fotografo, há sempre correções que se tem que fazer, para mim o que destinge o que é bom do que é mau é o resultado final, as pessoas às vezes falam sem saber. Por exemplo existem dois tipos de ficheiros numa camera profissional, jpeg e raw. O ficheiro jpeg é um ficheiro que tem o perfil de cor que a máquina traz; o ficheiro de raw é um ficheiro de luz, as cores do ficheiro raw são completamente diferente do jpeg porque não tem tratamento nenhum e é mesmo por isso que tem que ser tratado. A fotografia não pretende ser um espelho igual à realidade, com as várias técnicas nós fazemos fotografia interpretada por nós e eu não vejo mal nenhum de corrigir certos pormenores que não se conseguiram fazer com a máquina. Mas também acho que se tem que assumir o que se faz. O que eu faço nas minhas fotografias são correções que não alteram a composição e elementos que estão na fotografia e eu chamo a isto pós produção ou edição. Não vejo mal nenhum de quem faz fotomontagens em que aplica texturas, céus que não existam ou outros elementos, desde que chame a isso foto manipulação e não fotografia.

This month came out an interview about me in a magazine photo (the photo zOOm practice) and they also made me that question. The photoshop is an essential tool for a photographer, there are always corrections that we have to do, for me what distinguishes good from bad is the end result, people sometimes speak without knowing. For example there are two types of files in a professional camera, jpeg and raw. The jpeg file is a file that has the colour profile that the machine brings; the raw file is a file of light, the colors of the raw file are completely different than jpeg because there is no treatment and is even so that it has to be treated. The photography is not intended to be as a mirror of reality, with the various techniques we do photography like we interpret reality and I see no harm to correct certain details which are not able to do with the machine. But I think one has to assume what he does. What I do in my photographs are fixes that do not alter the composition and elements in the picture and I call this post-production or editing. I do not see any harm in photo-montages in which it implements textures, skies or other elements that doesn't exist on the picture, but calling it a photo-manipulation and not a photography.. 

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9. O que fazes quando ficas sem ideias? / What do you do when you run out of ideas?

O não ter ideias é "o pão nosso de cada dia", mas ajuda ver muitas outras fotos de outros, e aí recomendo vivamente www.deviantart.com e www.flickr.com, tem é que se saber filtrar pois existe muita coisa nestes 2 sites que não valem a pena ver.
Not having ideas is not "our daily bread", but it helps to see many photos of other artists, In there I highly recommend www.deviantart.com and www.flickr.com, the key is selecting because they have a lot of things not worth seeing.

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10. E, por último, o que nunca deixará de te inspirar? / And, for last, what will never stop to inspire you?

A minha paixão por fotografia, o queres ser melhor, o poder mostrar aos outros o meu ponto de vista, o mundo que temos, e aquilo que somos, acho que isso é suficiente para não querer parar.

My passion for photography, wanting to be better and be able to show to others my point of view, the world we have, and what we are, I think that's enough to not want to stop.
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Obrigada Pedro! / Thank you Pedro!



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And you guys, don't forget to check his gallery and portfolio for more amazing photographs.


it's sunny inside

Sunrise From Florida's Front Porch
Sunrise From Florida's Front Porch by nobleup (via flickr)

My sweet readers,

I'm happy to say that Heel in Mint gave me the Sunshine Award and what I have to do is:

1) Thank the person who gave you this award and link back to them in your post. (done)

2) Tell us something about yourself: My favourite band is Nightwish (and I prefer Tarja among Anette).
I prefer sunrises to sunsets, I found it more beautiful and also because it's a new beginning.

3) Nominate 10 bloggers. And they are...



- Tereza Anton from Drastic plastic


Stay tuned because in a couple of minutes I'll introduce you to an awesome feature!

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