Issue N° 4 sisterMAG by sisterMAG

the right to y tl c e ir d p m ju to le lick on the artic

page!

wintergarden 20 Startup Spotlight: beliya

wintergarden

24 Fair Fashion Sustainable Fashion Labels introduced by Doris Neubauer

30 I Love Eco 32 The Kale Project

wardrobe

38 Amsterdam Walk by Maja Molière

workshop

60 Interactive Lighting 64 Zoersel House A glasshouse in Belgium

kitchen

wardrobe 74 Raise one‘s hat A fashion column by Susanne Ackstaller

76 Wide Fields The coat shooting

98 Startup Spotlight: dressipi

gallery

104 Mémé LaFLEUR

server room

Introducing the fashion label from NYC

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workshop

server room

112 Startup Spotlight: Whimseybox

128 Digital Native Column

116 A lock of hair from a child so fair

132 Programming for women:

Victoria Kau introduces jewellery of a special kind

121 DIY Feature Tutorials for autumn coats

Rails Girls

138 Embellish your mobile with Paper’d Interview by Lindsey Tramuta

143 Study Time

kitchen 242 Startup Spotlight: Yummly 245 Seasonal Dishes Fresh recipes by Tina Jeffers

262 Stylish entertaining – Tablescaping in collaboration with Kersten Whitnall from DORRIENN

267 Blogwatch Parties & Entertaining

sisterMAG workshop special

175 Blogging Time TJ Dhavale explains what to consider when blogging

190 Trend Maker Movement: We Make Our World by Julia Kümmel

196 Blog’nhagen Blogger conquer Copenhagen

268 Beata Nicholson

gallery

Interview with the Lithuanian cookbook author

278 Dough to rise - all you need for baking

280 Stacked and filled Austrian specialities by Claudia Wurzinger

292 Ginger boost sisterMAG Smoothie recipes

214 Startup Spotlight: GrandArtClub 220 I can do both – portrait of Shermin Voshmgir

226 Film Classics worth watching curated by Shermin Voshmgir

229 Room perspectives from above Interview with Menno Aden by Victoria Kau 04 /1 2

contributors text & photo

photo

cover

Tina Jeffers L

Ashley Ludäscher L

Claudia Wurzinger L

Rahel Zoller L

Anna Gudat L

Maja Molière L

Cris Santos L

Denise Fickert L

texts

Christian Burmester L

E. & T. Neubauer L

models

translation

Anna Gudat

Antonia Neubauer L

Steffi Flachsa

Thea Neubauer L

Kersten Whitnall L Lindsey Tramuta L Susanne Ackstaller L TJ Dhavale L Doris Neubauer L

Evi Neubauer L

proof

Julia Kümmel L

illustration

Rachna Sahni L

Kristen Beddard L

Claudia Herrmann L

Chinyere Feasey L

Victoria Kau L

Thea Neubauer L

Antonia Neubauer

symbols

On the first page of each article, jump to the next article = quick-jump through our issue. On the first page of each room (section pages) you can directly jump to the next section.

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This symbol shows a video.

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External link.

u Internal link. Sound Snippet – listen to a snippet of the interview. Link to relevant Pinterest Board.

Kann ich mir beim Hรถrsturz die Beine brechen? Seriรถse Antworten auf alle Fragen rund um Ihre Gesundheit bekommen Sie auf

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toni‘s editorial

DEAR READERS In our work at sisterMAG there is one aspect we are especially proud of: Among all eMails, letters and comments there is also an increased number of questions by people who are „non-core digital natives“. As we strongly believe in the many opportunities the Internet creates, this is a development we very much like. By bringing classic women topics such as cooking and lifestyle into the digital world, mixing them with digital topics such as start-ups or iPhoneography we want to encourage engagement with ideas outside the normal female interest portfolio. Therefore, this issue continues with the idea. You’ll find a server room in our issue, for which we interviewed inspiring women and prepared a big feature about workshops and resources for further studying. We are absolutely fascinated by the wealth of gorgeous workshops all

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We guess all these developments are happening because the Internet becomes more female. Platforms like Pinterest have – for the first time on the web – a higher percentage of female users. Blogs around lifestyle, food and fashion are often written by females.

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Thea & Toni

Photo: Ashley Lu d

around the world that teach basics as well as advanced skills for blogging, photo editing, HTML and the business of blogging. These courses do not only offer useful knowledge but seem to be a lot of fun for the participants (goodie bags!! ;-)). Even more technical are the workshops by Rails Girls, a movement that aims to bring coding skills to women. During the past 6 years in my job at a Mobile Technology company only a very low percentage of employees in the IT department were women. Same picture at conferences and events: the more technical, the fewer women. Initiatives like Rails Girls might have a positive impact on this. We interviewed the founder of Rails Girls and some of the organizers of the Berlin events to understand more about this exciting movement. And yes, please read the article even if you have never been in contact with coding – the Rails Girls weren’t as well before! It’s for everybody.

We created boards on Pinterest and invited our friends and followers to add their favourite pics. Wherever you see theis symbol (left), click through to Pinterest - see and join!

Photo: Ashley Ludäscher

'Origami and Paper Ideas‘

Women suddenly see the purpose of knowing more about the technical side. And another development we have found to be happening all over the web: meetups! It seems as if all these virtual friends desperately want to meet in real life. What all of this leads to we show you with a feature about Blog’nhagen and many more meetup ideas. Let us also quickly tell you about the overall theme of this issue. It is called „On top!“, which you’ll find sneaking into many of our sections and articles.

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For example the origami cranes which landed on top of our cover dress and which are part of our layout in this issue. Or the interview with artist Menno Aden, who creates images of rooms from a bird’s eye perspective or our little comprehensive feature about hat fashion. With our two models for the coat shooting we went „on top of the world“ in the Ore Mountains – we felt „on top“! Last but not least our sisterMAG table of contents appears to be a skyscraper with a beautiful wintergarden on top. This room is all about sustainability and green living. We hope you’ll find our mixture of topics and ideas inspiring and wish you a wonderful time this October and November before we see each other again for the Christmas issue! n

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thea‘s editorial

CRANES AND PAPER

As soon as the theme for an issue is set and decided (most of the time these themes come to me while driving on the autobahn or jogging) the sisterMAG team starts thinking about ways to incorporate the theme into the new issue. While we are not stubbornly holding onto the topic, we want to use it as a leitmotif for content and layout. This time I came up with the idea of „On top“ and it was back in April when Evi thought of using paper cranes. First they were supposed to be flying around the model‘s head, pinned onto wires and sticks. First ideas, however, are questioned numerous times during the conception of our magazine and therefore, after researching DIOR L shows we settled for an Origami top above a cloud of copper organza. The

long-necked cranes – creatures of the air – just landed on top of the dress. However, the title image could not have been as beautiful as it turned out without the whole team: First, Evi L who made the skirt and top. Then our wonderful photographer Ashley Ludäscher (Chasing Heartbeats L) who contributed so much to this issue. We not only did a road trip to Freiberg together, but were in constant contact on the phone, twitter or email. Thanks, Ashley, for making all our ideas and features possible! It is great to work with so many friends on the creation of every issue. Another friend who came in was Anna – our cover model – who I‘ve known since 11th grade in High School. We met up with our talented stylist Denise Fickert (Book Your Look 04 /1 2

Evi fitting the dress

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L) in an (my) empty Leipzig flat and dressed Anna up! We had so many wonderful pictures that it was hard to decide which to choose for the final covers. This is why we want to show you some more Behind-The-Scene impressions on this double spread! But the idea of origami and paper turns up many more times throughout the issue: the section name in the top right corner, the section pages with Origami folding ideas or the Amsterdam tour with real cut-out streets â&#x20AC;Ś

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Makeup by Denise Fickert And while our cranes are high above in the air, our readers can enjoy the view from our wintergarden terrace of the new sisterMAG house which Claudia Herrmann L created for our fourth issue. The Leipzig architect has done all of our apartment and house plans and continues to surprise us with her customized ideas for our magazine. This time she came up with an S-shaped skyscraper. We hope we can inspire you to cut some wrapping paper in squares and

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Ashley, Denise, Anna & Thea start folding. The possibilities are endless and whether it is to embellish a giftbox or build a mobile for your children‘s room – try Origami! Now we hope you‘ll enjoy our „paper issue“ (little insider digital magazine joke ;) for fall 2012 and I am also looking forward to getting started with the layout for our next magazine in December. Until then keep updated with our Pinterest Boards L & Facebook page L for sneak-peaks of our ideas! n 04 /1 2

s a e r c d n a s Fold 1

'Origami and Paper Ideas‘

1. 2.

How to make Paper Airplanes – Free App for iPhone How to make Origami – Free App for iPhone

3. Envelope Clutch. Via Shop-

bob, €394.94

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4. Origami Earrings. Via denicheuse.fr, €25.00

5. Strapless dress from satin. From Karen Millen via asos.com, €247.01

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6. Origami lampshade in Canary

9. Origami-Set: Fashion. From

Yellow. From nellianna via etsy.com, €89.00

Worldwide Co. via fredaldous.co.uk, £5.75

Origami lampshade in White. From nellianna via etsy.com, €59.00

8. Japanese Origami Paper. From

10. Vintage Style Brass Origami Necklace. From cheapandchicland via etsy.com, $9.99

craftyjapan via etsy.com, $8.00 04 /1 2

evenito offers a web-based software for planning and organising events.Clients can manage complex events with low costs and in little time.

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ito.

de L

| @eve nito L

face

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L o t ni

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Explain in your own words the idea of your company. What are you doing? evenito allows anyone to plan all kinds of events comfortably online and in a short period of time. For this we provide a variety of planning tools. The spectrum of organized events ranges from simple birthday parties to corporate as well as public events. What was the inspiration for your idea? We both (Katrin and Katja) have a background in the hotel industry and have organised events for many years. Thereby we again and again stumbled upon the fact that there aren’t any really suitable tools for organizers in the Web 2.0 Internet world. That’s where we want to help.

revenues for helping brands to sell relevant products and services. Who is your target group? What is your market potential? Our target group is big - after all, everyone will be planning a private event at some point. Then there are the numerous professional and semi-professional planers, small and medium companies or institutions. Our white label solution enables us to tap into yet another target group. Those are interesting for all firms, that want to offer an easy and powerful online planning software in their own "look and feel" - for example, direct sales companies, where selling parties play an important role. These include Tupperware, Avon, Amway or Vorwerk.

How do you finance your company? How do you earn money?

Also the gender of our users is nearly

We are completely self-financed and earn money through premium memberships of our users, the pro vision of white label models (versions of our online software customized by the organizers according to their needs) and through affiliate partner ships whereby we receive a share in

predominant.

50/50 with female users being slightly

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? In 5 years we not only want to be active in the German speaking countries (Germany / Austria / Switzerland), but also open up other European markets. There are also some new planning 04 /1 2

Who was your first team member (in which department) outside the founding team? As we are a very technically oriented company, the first employees were developers.

How did you find your company UN

RS:

K a t r i n H e u s e le r

a &K

name?

Many hours of brainstorming, market, competitor

and

colour

analysis

preceded the selection of our company name. Ultimately, we chose a colour

tools, which we currently develop and that will be in place by then. Who do you see as your main competitors? So far no other provider offers a similar compact product range. In some areas there are certainly to mention: amiando (online event management)

combination that expresses vigour as well as seriousness and calmness. They equally define the high standard of our solution. Who designed your company logo â&#x20AC;&#x201C; someone external or internal? How long did it take? Hereby we used, as it is common

or TICKETINO AG from Switzerland.

nowadays, the creativity of the Internet

What have you done before?

We only formulated our intentions and

As briefly mentioned - we are both

then asked for suggestions. The best

"hotel childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x153; ...

and most suitable was quickly

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community through crowdsourcing.

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IMPRINT found and after small adjustments implemented.

sisterMAG Address

Korsörer Straße 7

10437 Berlin

In which city are you located? In beautiful Potsdam.

mail@sister-mag.com L

Editor & Art Direction

Most often used software?

Primarily our own :o). Paired with

Strategy & Advertising Antonia Neubauer

what Adobe and Microsoft have to offer for writing invoices, running analyses or designing graphical elements. If possible, we prefer cloud-based solutions, which can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and which are adapted to our actual requirements. Main food during starting up phase? Coffee! n

Theresa Neubauer

Conception & Illustration House Claudia Herrmann Cover-Model

Anna Gudat

Logo Design

Jim Leszcynski

Final editing

Antonia & Theresa Neubauer, Anna Schmalfuß

Contributed to this issue: Tina Jeffers, Claudia Wurzinger, Maja Molière, Kersten Whitnall, Lindsey Tramuta, Susanne Ackstaller, TJ Dhavale, Doris Neubauer, Kristen Beddard, Victoria Kau, Ashley Ludäscher, Rahel Zoller, Cris Santos, Christian Burmester, Anna Gudat, Denise Fickert, Evi Neubauer, Steffi Flachsa, Claudia Herrmann, Rachna Sahni, Chinyere Feasey, Narie Foster, Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur Advertising queries: Antonia Neubauer ads@sister-mag.com L 04 /1 2

the Wintergarden

beliya creates designer handbags with a good cause: Every sale allows one child in Africa to attend school for a whole year. All bags and accessories are made out of upcycling materials.

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aTa y i l e b / facebook.com

n che

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Explain in your own words the idea of your company. What are you doing?

of design at Jil Sander and Mulberry.

We have founded the first Charity Eco-

heart” in this industry. So we developed

designer label for bags and accessories in Germany. Each purchase provides one year of school for one child in need in Africa (school fees, food, books, uniforms, school bus). We make all the individual bags out of upcycling materials: sales returns of soft leather sofas and surpluses from designers and ready-to-wear collections. Each of the six bags and accessories from this first collection is unique.

the idea of beliya.

What was the inspiration for your idea? It all started 10 years ago, when we wrote our Master thesis on poverty in Mozambique and Tanzania. Our PhD about micro-credits and professional projects as well as several trips to developing countries showed us that education ensures a better future for children in Africa. At the same time we are like all women: we love bags and accessories. AndreaVictoria got to know and love the world

However, we both missed “the good

Mobile Phone Case, Clutch and spacious handbag - what do you use the most? Annika wears on the playground the WISH handbag in Brown Winter Violet. In this way she has both her hands free and when her daughter Ava spills latte you see nothing. Otherwise she often carries the HOPE Weekender in Black Brown, which goes with everything. Andrea–Victoria‘s favourite is the DREAM bag in Sea Blue. The fabric is from one of her favourite French haute couture houses and the leather is a beautiful soft blue. If she feels a bit more colourful, she adores the DREAM Bag in Black Gold Yellow. How do you finance your company? From our own resources and contributions from family, friends and acquaintances. How do you earn money? From online accessories.

sale

bags

and

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What have you done before?

e l le

We have both studied business and have co-written our thesis on development policy.

DER

S : A n n i k a B u ss e

n &A

a re

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? We have enabled 10,000+ children to attend school and are an established charity brand perhaps even outside Germany. Who do you see as your main competitors?

There is no similar approach in Germany whereby each product is a charity bag as well as made from sustainable, high quality materials. This is our unique selling point. Of course there are many non-charity bag designers like Marc Jacobs, Mulberry, Vanessa Bruno. Shannon South from the U.S. and Takeo Kikuchi from Japan inspire us as well. Also the charity bags from Liebeskind Berlin are certainly a competition.

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Andrea worked at Mulberry and Jil Sander and several years as a project manager at the Chamber of Commerce in China. After that she was at Beiersdorf in the strategy department. After stays in Brussels and Washington DC, Annika worked as PR and Online Manager at NIVEA and led the International Communications Department at Schwarzkopf Professional. Who was your first team member (in which department?) outside the founding team? So far we haven’t got any employees but we have lots of helpers among family and friends. Viola, a very good friend helps us with Facebook and Marketing. Annika‘s father is our warehouse manager. Andrea-Victoria‘s mother supports us in tax and accounting issues. More friends like Marcus, Harriet and Andrea help us when it comes to PR. Sandra and Anna

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on legal issues. Mehra and Fridi with design and retail. We could continue the list for ages. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you! What is the meaning of your company name? beliya derives from the Latin word „belli“ beautiful / handsome. The „a“ at the end stands for our love for beautiful accessories. Our mission „be good be beautiful“ summarizes it perfectly: we want to make beautiful bags and accessories and want to make the world a better place together with our customers. How did you come up with your company colours? The original logo was created by 12designer.com. We have chosen the colour blue because it is timeless and fits well with many other colours. Our great web design agency yoocon introduced this great distinctive leather look into the logo.

Except for beliya how do you try to create a more sustainable life for yourself? We both own no car. Usually we walk or go by bicycle. If possible we travel by train. Even in everyday life we are trying to save energy. Annika dreams of an electric car with a solar panel on top of the carport. However, this is only possible if electric cars become affordable in Germany. In which city are you located? Hamburg Most often used software? eMail and Dropbox Main food during starting up phase? Fruits and Lattes. n

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style with a good cause

FAIR FASHION Stella McCartney has been a staunch advocate for years and Vivienne Westwood has recently joined the ranks. Meet the designers for whom fair and sustainable fashion means that it has cost neither the environment nor the producers. They prove the common belief wrong that eco-fashion only refers to a grey, baggy look or colourless clothes. Style and a clear conscience are no longer a contradiction, as is evident below:

MILCH What does fair and sustainable fashion mean to you?

Who is your average consumer?

3 words Favourite piece of the current collection Trend 12/13?

100% Upcycling | http://MILCH.mur.at L If neither the environment nor the producer (but the fashion customer) pays the full price for it.

My customers like the idea of reusing / upcycling and, of course, they like our pants and shirt fabrics and, especially, the design. Funny, special, wearable The Shirt.Top.Skirt, Hugo, because it is made out of a manâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s shirt and can now be worn as a top or skirt. The wise woman is wearing Winter 2011.

L r e u a b u e N s ri o D n o ti c text & sele

What does fair and sustainable fashion mean to you?

STUDIO JUX Who is your average consumer?

3 words Favourite piece of the current collection

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s fashion that makes you proud wearing it. Not only because it looks good, but also because you do good by wearing it. It is a combination of design, eco and fair. Design by using modern materials, colours and silhouettes. Eco by using environmentally friendly materials and fair by creating fair working conditions through sheltered workshops where it is needed most: in developing countries.

http://www.studiojux.com L She is in her 20s / 30s, lives in the city and has a rich cultural and social life. She loves good food and likes to meet with her friends at a concert or in a bar. She is modern in her own way, she has a strong personality. You realize that she is ambitious and at the same time enjoying her life. Danish, minimalist, design The hand-knit items are my favourites. They are comfortable and fashionable at the same time. If you put them on, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ll not want to take them off. And the funny thing is: Nepalese women have knitted the pieces in their homes in and around the capital, Kathmandu. These women cannot leave their homes to earn money because they have to stay home with their children. Instead, they can work from home and simultaneously fulfill their parental duty.

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Trend 12/13?

A Chino made of organic cord with a woollen blouse that looks like silk. Add the hand-knitted vest, which I have just told you about. A fashionable outfit full of contrasts: shiny, rough, stylish and comfortable.

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TRECHES What does fair and sustainable fashion mean to you?

Who is your average consumer?

3 words Trend 12/13?

Showroom and Concept Store HQ in Berlin | http://www.treches.com L Really simple: fashion which nobody - neither humans nor the environment - had to suffer for. We also go one step further by manufacturing our fashion ethically and trying to take other people into consideration. We prefer to work with companies that think the same way and that support the green community. We try to find more supporters for this route. Treches customers think along the same lines as we do. They take responsibility for themselves and for the world in which they live. Our muse is urban, creative and full of life. She works against injustice and is regarded as a pioneer for new ideas. She also always looks super stylish. Not everyone can be like her but Treches clients are a little bit closer. Unconventional, wearable, casual In Fall 2012/2013 our customer likes comfortable, well-cut clothes with a touch of playfulness.

Favourite piece of the current collection

The WORK dress, sports chic combined with relaxed elegance. Very stylish, but equally suitable for a normal day.

TRECHES Denim Dress

MILDE What does fair and sustainable fashion mean to you? Who is your average consumer? 3 words

100% Upcycling | http://milde-berlin.com L A matter of course.

We make collectors‘ items for women who show their femininity. Femininity, love, sustainability

Favourite piece of the current collection

The black jersey and apricot-coloured silk body „Pliés“. It combines sporty chic and playful femininity and can be worn in all sorts of variations. Whether with jeans or a romantic skirt, „Pliés“ looks good in all combinations!

Trend 12/13?

The mild winter is black and enchants with different materials including silk and leather and contrasting clutch bags in orange and petrol. The female form is the focus, as the title „Silhouettes“ announces.

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KSIA What does fair and sustainable fashion mean to you? Who is your average consumer?

3 words Trend 12/13? Favourite piece of the current collection

http://www.ksia-berlin.de L Fashion designed and produced In Germany from local (possibly organic) materials. Fashion for women who are interested in design, but do not follow every single trend. Cuddly daily companions Colour! Of course vegetable-tanned. Clearly the Eddie Bag. It was inspired by my great-grandfatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s bags. He was a producer of leather suitcases and bags in Leipzig about 100 years ago.

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Hi there, my name is Steffi, 37 years old and creator of the blog I ❤ Eco. I live with my family in a little quiet village in Belgium. I love to read, illustrate, browse the Internet, meet interesting people and find inner peace while practicing yoga. sisterMAG asked me to tell you my story … I started my own company about two years ago. While working with (people in) suits for several years, I earned a living, developed skills, but didn‘t feel quite satisfied. I realized I wanted more out of life! We are all working for a living, but do we all love what we do? One day I realized … I wanted to do my bit... But how does one contribute to a better world? As a child I was very concerned about the well being of animals. The panda was my best friend (WWF)! But while growing up, I lost the connection. Years later, the documentary about CRADLE 2 CRADLE L reopened my

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eyes. Their passion made it clear to me: we only have ONE planet! I researched for over a year and discovered a new world. I found a whole range of designers and companies with more important values than growth and profit. Instead they focused on working in harmony with nature. As it should be. I guess a lot of us lost our connection with nature. Most of the time, we don’t reflect on the origin of our products anymore. How were they produced? In what circumstances, what ingredients were used and what is their impact on nature or us? To be honest, I’m not a “dark” green consumer. I recycle (very well I might add), use 100% green energy, try to cycle more, cut down on plastic, use natural cosmetics, buy local & seasonal... But I’m not ready to turn my life 360° around (and I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way) I’m not willing to give

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by Steffi from I ❤ Eco L

up my car and walk about in hippie clothes. And you know what? That’s ok! Because every little step towards green living is a good step! It’s better than doing nothing or waiting for our governments to take action... Every contribution counts! To help people with their search for nature friendly products, I created a cozy place where ecolovers can meet: www.iloveeco.be. We are your window to ecoproducts. We feature them and guide you to their online selling point. Besides showcasing products, there is so much more to tell. Our second digital baby was born: the I love eco blog... inspiration with a heart for nature. For the moment we only operate in Dutch, but stay tuned! I wanted to show the real beauty of (modern) nature friendly products. No dust here! n

Portable and wireless keyboard made of a single piece of maple or walnut wood! | Orée Boards L, €125.00 1

2 Be eco fabulous wearing this no-sleeve dress. | studio JUX L, €144.95 3 Katherine Shell Clutch, intricately laid shell on a hand-carved wood base. | KAYU L, $569 4 Vegan, Cruelty-free, Gluten Free, Fragrance Free, Toxin Free, Paraben Free, Hypoallergenic, Biodegradable: SCOTCH Nail Polishes L, $14.99 5 Soy Polish Remover | SCOTCH L, $11.99 6 Old News Magazine carrier | via babongoshop.nl L, €51.95 7 Maxi dress made from soft modal jersey, a sustainable fabric. Evelyn Dress in Peach | Nancy Dee L, £29,70 04 /1 2

fight for a vegetable

THE KALE PROJECT text Kristen from thekaleproject.com L

Last August, as New York City was preparing for the wrath of Hurricane Irene, my husband and I were packing up our New York, newlywed life for a three to five year expatriate journey in Paris. For the last meal in our West Village apartment, I lovingly made my favorite dish: kale. Little did we know upon our last bite of leafy-greens, talking about all that was to come with our new life in France, that it would be near impossible to eat kale once we arrived.

markets overflowing with fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, cheese, wines and pastries is not an iconic part of American culture. Once here, I easily lost myself in and out of every stall, salivating at the pyramid of fresh figs and trying not to stare too much at a cow’s tongue. As I spent our first week buying daily ingredients for dinners, I couldn’t help but notice that one vegetable was missing: my beloved kale.

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Upon touchdown at Charles De Gaulle airport a year ago, the first thing I wanted to do was explore the outdoor

How could it be that in a country where food is at the center of well, almost everything, that a standard leafy-green was nowhere to be found?

markets. While weekly farmer’s markets are increasingly more popular in the states, the concept of outdoor

I could understand if kale was not as popular as in the cities of America, but to not be able to find it anywhere?

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I was heartbroken. I assumed I was looking in the wrong markets and decided to branch out more. So I did. I searched and searched from market to market for what Google translate claims is, chou frisé. This translation only led me to savoy cabbage, which is most definitely not kale. I found my eyes darting from one produce stand to the next, hoping that the long, dark-green curly leaves would magically appear. I showed photos to farmers and distributors but the only response I would get was a shrug of the shoulders, shake of the head and the classic French, phffft.

Turns out, I was not the only Anglo expat missing the Queen of Greens. Questions, comments and discussions flooded blogs, cooking forums and message boards. And when I read on three different prominent Paris food blogs that kale was 99.99% of the time impossible to find and that most French people do not even know what it is, I knew it was true: the kale I prepared our last night in New York was definitely our last.

So as any 21st century girl would do, I turned to the Internet to research everything I could about “kale in Paris“.

relationship with the vegetable that

What is it about this one vegetable that means so much more to me than lettuce or broccoli? There are a few interesting facts about kale and my make my “healthy” obsession with it more sensible. 04 /1 2

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To set the record straight, while I am American and kale is the “it” vegetable in the States right now, it is not an American vegetable. In fact, it was first cultivated over 2000 years ago in the Mediterranean/Asia Minor region. As part of the cabbage family, Brassica oleracea acephala, which is the Latin name, is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. It’s resistance to colder weather and frost makes it a crop for cultivation and eating almost year-round. In fact, frost only sweetens the taste. This resilience is also why it was one of the vegetables that made its way to the New World in the 1600’s, as it was a pretty much guaranteed crop for new settlers. During the World War I and World

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War II, the English were encouraged to grow kale as part of their Victory Gardens. Scottish kitchen gardens are referred to as “kale yards,” since kale is always present. The Portuguese use it as the main ingredient in a traditional soup and black kale or cavolo nero is a prominent green in Italian cuisine. Within American culture, kale is not considered part of a special dish. In fact, up until five or so years ago, most Americans that even knew about kale were those devoted to eating a diet largely consisting of vegetables. It was more possible to find kale at a co-op than at an average grocery store. And then slowly a transformation happened as restaurants began to experiment and use kale as a salad ingredient.

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Before I knew it, in New York, it was hard to find a restaurant that didn’t have kale on the menu. The reason kale was and still is such a key component of a vegetable-based diet is because of the endless health benefits. It is one of the densest greens, which means it is high in fiber and filling. There is more calcium in a cup of kale than a glass of milk. It is chock-full of Vitamins K, E, B and C, and is loaded with cancer-fighting antioxidants and amino acids. It’s no surprise the American health community labeled it a “superfood.” It only made sense that my macrobiotic/ vegetarian mother made sure kale was a staple the minute I started eating solid food. There was no dessert if I did not eat my kale. And just as some people have nostalgic memories with certain comfort foods, perhaps with mom’s homemade macaroni and cheese or grandma’s secret chocolate brownie recipe, I associate comfort and safety

with kale. And when you move to a new country where you can barely speak the language, being without your comfort food is not always ideal. By November when I finally accepted that kale was not all of a sudden going to appear, and after smuggling back a few bunches from England and Italy, I had an epiphany: instead of just complaining about the lack of kale in Paris, what if I brought kale to Paris? And with that, The Kale Project was born. The plan was to find a farmer, preferably organic, who would be open-minded to growing the vegetable to create supply. Then I would try to find a restaurant that would want to incorporate kale into their menu to create demand. Of course it would not be any old Paris café, but instead one of the newer restaurants owned by fellow Angloexpats, since they would already be familiar with the vegetable. Plus their patrons are a mixture of expats and 04 /1 2

younger, French people who are more

Oh yeah and did I mention that I don’t

apt to try non-traditional French food.

speak French? Needless to say I was

At moments I thought, who was I, an expat from a country that is just over 200 years old to criticize the cuisine of France? But that wasn’t the only difficulty. I don’t speak French very well. In fact, when I moved here a year ago, I didn’t know any French. I was starting the project without a farmer. How would I even go about finding one? I know nothing about farming. I’d never even tended to a garden. Any plant I bought for my New si st er

York apartment would die.

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a bit perplexed at how all of this was going to unfold, but I figured what did I have to lose? The worst that could happen would be Paris still wouldn’t have kale. There was nothing to do but get started. Since April, I‘ve documented the journey from farm to market to fork. I‘ve written about the high-points, like when I found my first farmer and confirmed the first restaurant. Then of course there was the low point of discovering that a hungry bunch of escargot were enjoying the first crop. It‘s been wonderful meeting so many people who can‘t wait to have access

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1 bunch of kale 1 lemon olive oil, sea salt & pepper to the leafy-green. And to my surprise, there is a small group of Parisians also involved, who know what kale is from travel to the States or popular American food blogs. This community has kept me going at times when I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t think I can face one more meeting in broken French with a farmer, or waking up in the middle of the night wondering if the first kale crop is growing. Without those that believe in The Kale Project, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;m not sure I would have made it this far. As the Paris kale-lover community has found each other and come together through social media, a niche movement is taking place, and every day Paris is one step closer to kale. n

1. Wash and remove kale leaves from the stems. Chop into smaller bite-size pieces. 2. Add juice from 1/2-1 lemon. 3. Add drizzle of olive oil. Then salt and pepper to taste. 4. KALE MASSAGE TIME! For about 2-4 minutes, massage the kale with your fingertips. Massaging makes the kale more tender. An array of toppings can be added: radishes, cherry tomatoes, almonds, carrots, dried cranberries, raisins, avocado, pecorino cheese - the choices are endless! 04 /1 2

Sustainability and Gree accompany us on our to

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en Living â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Notions which our through Amsterdam.

Text & Pictures by Maja MoliĂ¨re mulipuli.com L

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DE DROOMKAST Bellamystraat #91-93

Station AMSTELKADE

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RESTORED FURNITURE: Chairs, cupboards, tables. Industrial Design. Convenient prices. Nice owners! On the South Eastern outskirts of the city centre, on an inconspicuous side street next to a canal, De Droomkast nestles. Roaming the streets of the country, the friendly and unpretentious staff find and restore abandoned furniture to breath new life into them. With unconventional opening times, one has to be a bit lucky to find them open. Once inside though, a most relaxed shopping experience awaits. Seemingly never crowded, albeit small, the store hosts a collection ranging from rustic tables, eclectic chairs and tin bread boxes to industrial style lamps.

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Quirky clocks from a bygone era lurk in corners. Considering the pieces are contemporary with a handmade flair, prices are more than fair. One can only hope it will take a while before the crowds catch wind of the existence of the wondrous Droomkast.

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CHARLIE + MARY Gerard Doustraat 84 1072 VW Oud-Zuid

Station ALBERT CUYPSTRAAT

Another species of the type ‘fair concept store’ CHARLIE+MARY focuses on stylish but eco-friendly and sustainable clothing, shoes and accessories. Their approach is to present top brands that create products with respect for people and planet without compromising fashion and style. Located in the vibrant neighborhood De Pijp, fresh colours, a friendly staff and great fashion make for a fun shopping experience.

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After the spree one can sit down in the back of the store to enjoy organic beverages with baked goods from Beter&Leuk.

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FAIR + FAIR Herengracht 211

Station DAM or WESTERMARKT

Taks

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GARTINE

steeg 7 BG

tation SPUI

o DE LAATSTE KRUIMEL Langebrugsteeg 4

Station SPUI

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In the space of an actual Amsterdam apartment on the canals, the attentively curated goods from Fair+ Fair are spread about the

respective rooms. The kitchen is stocked with delicate glasses, silverware, clay plates and much more. A beautiful old stove makes you want to put all that kitchenware to good use and actually cook there. That said, one can partake of fair trade coffee and tea along with little snacks.

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Further along on the first floor in the living room and bedroom unusual textiles, blankets, pillows, candles and many more decorative items are displayed on handcrafted furniture. As the name suggests, all items are either traded fair, ecologically produced, up- or recycled. Part of the profit is reinvested in housing projects for the manufacturers, who mostly live in developing countries. For a change we can actually do some good while shopping. Have I mentioned that I want to live in this place?

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GARTINE, this charming little lunchroom lies hidden in a dark alley between Kalverstraat and the Spui near the central station. A small table with two chairs next to a few plants in wicker baskets creates the outside area. Inside, it is a small cozy place and the light doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach far. The aged wood furniture goes hand in hand with the ornate vintage chandelier and oil paintings on the wall. Getting a table on short notice can be difficult, so making reservations is highly recommended.

Once seated though, you can enjoy an exquisite breakfast, brunch or high tea. The owners harvest their produce as freshly as possible from their own garden.

This dedication and love for their work is apparent in the whole place, as well as throughout the pages of their beautifully styled cookbook, inspired by their dishes from Gartine.

De LAATSTE KRUIMEL sits amidst a crowded tourist centre near the Spui, in a place you would never hope to find such a treat. The window display looks promising - lots of cakes, brownies and cookies on one side; piles of bread, quiches and sandwiches on the other. Inside is a fridge full of freshly squeezed juices, home-mixed smoothies and shelves filled with homemade jams and curds. And the smell!

Baking everything in their cafĂŠ, the owners constantly pull the most deliciously smelling goods out of their oven. Hiding in the back of the cafĂŠ is a tiny terrace with just enough space for two people to sit comfortably looking out over the canal.

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The only downside really is the nonexistent toilet. One should not, however, be afraid to powder their nose at the coffee shop next door.

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RESTORED on the lively Haarlemmerstraat North of the city centre is a shop and atelier in one. They collect and sell unique products from talented young designers ranging from fashion, interiors to accessories. On their counter they also sell some of the funniest postcards Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever seen. New talents get a platform to present their work to a wider public, and this sincere interest in people and their products is visible throughout the original and beautiful store. The products are manufactured with attention to detail and a focus on the handmade. Restored is an honest and straightforward place, where the rule of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;quality over quantityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; still applies. n

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RESTORED Haarlemmerdijk 39

SUKAH Haarlemmerstraat 110

A huge tepee greets you at the entrance: pillows, blankets or tea!

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alternative to green pimped architecture

INTERACTIVELIGHTING First published on fairobserver.com L Biologically inspired materials and systems are the new big trend in architecture and design. They not only promise to be energy-friendly but also to have a positive effect on their surrounding including humans. In the following article the founders of architecture and design studio Kinetura, Xaveer Claerhout and Barbara Van Bier introduce us to this new way of thinking design and architecture and their own approach to lighting. Designing lamps is like conceiving architecture on a micro scale. A light source with its fixture, and the natural light surrounding a building are obviously related. The design and architecture of both buildings and lamp fixtures need to maximize the utility and aesthetics of light.

INTERACTIVE TRANSFORMABLE LIGHTING

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Since 2005 we have been trying to connect artificial light more intimately with its surrounding architecture without losing the lightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s functionality. We made the first prototypes of flexible transformable lamps. Such lamps regulate the intensity of their light by gradually changing in shape to either enlarge or diminish the light aperture. No bi-metals could be

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involved in the shape changing process since the evolution towards LED light is contradictory to the bi-metalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; consumption of energy (heat) from the bulb to obtain transformation of the lamp fixture. The basic principles we developed for the controlled lightand transformation-system were condensed in a first patent and were the starting point for our Kinetura design studio. We discovered the power of merging light-modulation and shapetransformation by using the flexibility of certain parts of the lamp housing. In a sensual way the modulated light reinforces the physical transformation of the lamp and vice versa. This synergetic process not only enlivens lighting and its surrounding archi-

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tecture, but the progressive multifunctionality also seems to have a higher mental impact on its users, probably because it is compatible with nature and human behaviour. A room and its transformable lighting are able to interact in an almost organic way with the changing surrounding conditions and the various needs of its users. These factors, together with the properties of the shape changing system, determine the transformation process. We call this extra-dimensional functionalism: metamorphism. Within this process, flexible versus rigid materials and actuating devices play a key role. For example, the Santiago lamp slowly transforms from a closed and rectilinear light into an open, curved spotlight.

We have been showing our transformable lamps at exhibitions around the world since 2008. We seem to touch a new and universal aesthetic. From New York to Italy, Shanghai and Paris, spectators felt intuitively connected. They had spontaneous feelings of awakening, living, breathing. Deeply rooted in our mental perception, light, warmth, and colour seem naturally related to curved and open forms. Darkness, the colour black, and cold seem related to straight and closed forms. However these seemingly opposite categories can become complementary and innate properties of one. We created a new kinetic aesthetic by combining these properties. It is not the form, nor the movement itself, but the ability to 04 /1 2

respond to the changing needs that induces a fascinating new world of kinetic forms. The beauty lies within the process itself. Light is omnipresent, though often in an almost vulgar and aggressive way. Dynamic lighting is often degraded to billboard quality that tries to compete with the virtual world. It often creates a sterile lab-like environment and lacks mental impact on the spectator. Some of the leading lighting companies seem blinded by their focus on the development of LED and OLED. They often degrade the casing around a light source to a purely technical or fashionable shape. For a more holistic approach to dynamic lighting, cross-disciplinary cooperation is needed. The important evolution of new energy-friendly light sources needs to be embedded in a kinetic aesthetic to reach its full potential.

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O VIDE

OWE T E IN

INSPIRING & ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS Sunlight and artificial light sources have to enhance the beauty of our surroundings. Natural light provides the energy to transform and to maintain our physical world. The Kinetower is the metamorphic pendant to our New York lamp. It is a building as one big energy regulator. The flexible outer skin of the kinetic architecture interacts in a circadian way with the environmental circumstances and with the people inside the building. The release of this visual manifest on the ‘Abitare il Tempo’ exhibition in Italy in 2008 now seems less like a coincidence. In the last years, ‘green’ and ‘sustainability’ have been central themes in debates on the future of architecture. Green pimped static architecture cannot be the goal, but it is too often still the result. We believe it will finally be the biologically inspired materials and systems that

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will determine the architecture and design of the future. This focus has only recently been shared by many scientists, engineers, and designers around the world. The way the Wyss Institute is developing and implementing new knowledge is tremendously fascinating. The similarity that Donald E. Ingber recognized between tensegrity architecture and the way living organisms are structured at microscale is fundamental. The extremely light and flexible but perfectly balanced structure of tension and compression could be the ultimate organic building structure of the future. Last year, Gennaro Senatore and his colleagues wrote a remarkable paper that proved

that adaptive structures could not only achieve superior structural efficiency, but also substantially reduce the energy needed to build and maintain a building in comparison with its passive counterparts. Within this large field of research, Kinetura is developing the first pragmatic and adaptive lamps and building applications based on our concept of metamorphism. The research towards a new kinetic design and architecture of sustainability needs to be pushed by the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conviction and demand for adaptive products and architecture. n

ErstverĂśffentlichung auf fairobserver.com L

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life in a belgian glass house

ZOERSELHOUSE architect Arjan de Feyter L photos Christian Burmester L

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The Zoersel House was designed 1969 from architect Herman Andriessen as a prototype in notion to Bauhaus. The original plans show a villa with a skeel skeleton and a half-open ground floor that reminds us of the Villa Savoye in Poissy. Only one year after completion Andriessen died and it was 2005 that interior architect Arjan De Feyter L and his wife rescued the house from demolition. They retained the original plan of the first floor, which is where they planned to live. They extended the ground floor to install a workspace, whose visual impact is mitigated by large glass walls with profiles that are barely visible.

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Andriessen‘ intention of reproduction on a large scale was not realized. However, the surrounding landscape, at that time still almost unspoiled, has in the meantime been covered in homes built in the ‘fake-farmhousestyle’ The steel house, built as a case study house, stays on its own. The house was first stripped down to its steel skeleton and vaulting. The steel was seriously corroded in many places and had to be restored. The aluminum sandwich panels and the original wooden windows, now doubleglazed, were then fitted back into the renovated skeleton. A lot of attention was paid to designing new and better joinery details, especially the ‚cold bridges‘ which are exposed to the outside. The solution was provided by a quick-drying two-component resin, which was sprayed onto all the beams and pillars. It adheres exceptionally well to steel and is totally damp-proof. On the inside of the house, the steel skeleton is now completely enveloped in an amorphous layer of polymer and encased in painted MDF. The villa does now comply with current standards for domestic comfort, while the memory of the original house remains alive. 04 /1 2

Arjaan De Feyter also designed every single interior detail.

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The Wardrobe

text Susanne Ackstaller L

RAISE ONE‘S HAT

Picture of the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs L. Found via FLICKR L

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A little bit of Ascot lies in every day. At least in my life. Because I love hats. And also caps. Especially if they are striking! For my environment that truly is not al ways easy. One could even speak of a test: a garden party where my friends have to stand next to a wagon wheel of an hat. A city stroll with a daring bobble hat. Straw hats with big brim while going on a hike. With such headgear your friends and acquaintances need a large quantum of confidence. And even more so the wearer. Well, in the past showy hats were a question of courage. In the next season, however, they are a must. It was a long time coming: teenagers with their deepdrawn knitted tuques they wouldn’t even leave at home during summer. Hollywood stars and starlets who rushed over the Broadway with their fur caps. Lady Gaga, whose headdress is not any less mad than her style of clothing. If we look back even further we‘ll find more evidence of the importance of headgear: our grandmothers cared for their hats

'On top‘

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and caps much more than we do today. Growing out of the children’s caps they dressed up their flappers with dainty straw hats. As young ladies a small cloche graced their sassy bob. For the first rendezvous the Misses looked seductively below a large brim and on a Sunday stroll as newly weds, a large feather embellished the new hat. Nostalgical extravagance we can also see this fall and winter: a little Garbo, a bit Marlene and a touch of Valentino – with a Fedore deluxe we are guaranteed to be an eyecatcher. The little felt hat brings back the 1920s, with leopard skin (thank God, that this is fake), diva airs and all the brouhaha. Or how would you refer to a casually luxurious flat cap styled with bad boy jeans and a chunky knit? But that’s not all: Haute couture has also discovered turbans. Get out of the sauna and have some fun with those! The colours are gorgeous, the look is exotic and the effect is … inevitable. However that’s nothing for the fashion squeamish!! Not to mention the cozy cashmere

versions. Hach! As grandma knitted them herself. Soft. Warm. Suitable for wintertime. Just put them on and forget all about cold ears! The colour? From brightly screams to soft tones – everything is permitted. The forms? From bobble hat to knitted hood! Or how about a fur Ushanka. That’s the one with earflaps as once worn by Breschnew. For decades these were regarded as absolute nonos. At the very most you were allowed to wear them on Moscow’s Red Square. However in fashion we never listen to yesterday’s talk! However there is still my personal favourite. I call it affectionately “The Bommel”. A hat a Schwarzwaldmädel (girl from the Black Forest) would wear. I do not wear it very often. But if I do, I do so with passion. A plain black coat. High black boots. And most importantly: no more flashy accessories! Because this hat is a diva who does not tolerate competition besides her and wants all attention. A bit capricious, a few small airs … in short: she’s just like me! n 04 /1 2

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In our big sisterMAG photo shoot we show you six handmade coats. The instructions can be found in the workshop section u. As our issue is themed „On Top“ we thought it would be appropriate to climb up a few heights in the Ore Mountains and let two women present these coats who really are ‚above the things‘. Steffi (50) and Evi (57) show us how chic the fall season will be! Photos Ashley Ludäscher (Chasing Heartbeats) L Styling E & T Neubauer (Neu4bauer) L With many thanks to Stefanel L and stoffe.de L

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Boule Coat (Pattern N° 04/3 L) €2,50, made of dark blue silk, white silk lining. Embellished with Swarovski crystals, satin piping | jeans – Ralph Lauren | blouse – private

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Coats

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Purple Oversized Coat (Pattern N° 04/2 L) €2,50, made of loden cloth, colour Lilac (from stoffe.de L) €24,99/m | White blouse – private | Skinny Jeans in Dark Blue – Hugo Boss Orange L €229,00

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Shell Coat in blazer form (Pattern N° 04/2 L) €2,50; made from loden cloth, Colour white from stoffe.de L, strap in the back from black patent leather | Jacket with Leather Details– Stefanel L €239,00 | Patterned trousers – H&M €14,99 | Statement Necklace – Marni L

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Shell Coat (Pattern N°04/1) free pattern L; made from vintage woolen cloth from dawanda.de L | Black Turtleneck – private | Black 7/8 trousers – H&M €29,95 L, embellished with acrylic beads and Swarovski crystals

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Beige Clutch – Stefanel L €129,00

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elegant Shell Coat (Pattern N°04/1), free pattern L; made from high quality woolen cloth in colour red, red silk lining | Black Pencil Dress with Pockets – ASOS L €54,02 | red shoes with little bows – Salvador Sapena | Necklace – Marni L

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Shell Coat in Boule form (Pattern N°04/3) €2,50; made from washed cotton, embroidered with maxi beads | Beige Pencil dress – private | Shoes – Paco Gil

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ww .d r ess

Dressipi is a free fashion advice and recommendation service. The service provides knowledge about how to dress your shape and update your style and it gives you a quick and easy way to find the best clothes and brands for you.

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com L

@dressipi L

o o b e c a f

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Explain in your own words the idea of your company! Dressipi is revolutionising the way women shop and dress, offering an effortless and unique experience where everyone has access to the personal stylist they have always dreamed of. By combining technology with the knowhow of a team of expert stylists, Dressipi allows women to discover clothes, accessories and brands that fit their shape, style and personal preferences perfectly. Dressipi also helps women how to create perfect outfits that work with their existing wardrobe that will look great on them and be perfect for that occasion. We are passionate about building a

only shows recommendations based on the individual’s style and body shape. For those wanting to find the right size for their style and shape, the Dressipi Size Finder will determine the best size of all available clothing styles in over 500 brands. Dressipi’s Size Finder is used to find a size that fits perfectly, flatters the customer’s shape and guarantees they make the right purchase, so they will never buy the wrong size again. From Banana Republic to Balenciaga, the feature is now also available to download as a Smartphone app, so users can always find the right size, wherever they may be shopping.

and conceal. This identifies the perfect

Whether customers want to build their perfect capsule wardrobe, change their style, discover new brands or learn their dressing must haves and must avoids Dressipi allows all women to achieve their shopping goals with helpful tools and personal advice from stylists. Through the Outfit Builder, customers tell Dressipi what is in their wardrobe and a team of stylists will put together twenty outfits for them, providing a solution to any wardrobe

clothes, outfits and accessories and

dilemmas or style questions.

service that ensures the fashion advice women receive is completely unique to them and most importantly, unique to their style and shape. The service is easy to use. Customers simply enter their information into the Fashion Fingerprint, which identifies their body shape, style, size, colour and brand preferences and which areas of the body they would prefer to reveal

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through 100s of websites to find the right clothes at the right price. What was your inspiration? Back in 2009, we (Donna Kelly and Sarah McVittie) were both busy working women (in the technology and media industry) who didn’t have the time to shop but, like all women, definitely wanted to look lovely. And if we bought clothes, it was often from the same brands and not always clothes that looked great on us! We found that all retailers were pushing products but no one was genuinely servicing the customer to help them understand what would be perfect for them.

Donna Kelly, Cofounder founder of Dressipi says: “We were inspired to build Dressipi because of our own shopping frustrations – not knowing exactly the best shapes and styles that suited us; struggling to find that WOW outfit for a special occasion; and simply not having the time to trawl

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And then – there was the final frustration of having to order two sizes and having the hassle of returning one. We knew that technology was now good enough to solve all these issues –so long as we developed a solution that included domain expertise from the fashion world, in our case a team of stylists.” Sarah McVittie, Cofounder of Dressipi Co remembers: “I was out in New York with an event to go to and walked into a little boutique, the sales assistant took one look at me, ushered me into a changing room and then proceeded to bring 5 outfits, all of which I would never have picked off the shelf but all of which looked amazing – I bought all 5! I thought that if you could find a way to turn that into technology, it would be the most amazing service and that’s what we are building at Dressipi!”

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Who are your customers? A younger or older age group? We have a pretty broad range of customers with an average age of 34. We have fewer customer under 20 and over 60 but otherwise the distribution is even across all the other age ranges.

We find that a bigger

driver of people who use our site is their lifestyle and their confidence when it comes to shopping or getting dressed either busy working women or mums who don’t have the time to trawl the shops but still want to look the best they can. Dressipi provides a perfect edit of all clothes, brands and trends that we know they will love and look fabulous in. And for women who have less confidence about what suits them, Dressipi is able to provide good, honest, unbiased advice that helps them unlock the secrets of confident dressing.

a business. Currently our revenue is derived from offering a subset of our technology to a small number of retai lers and brands to enable a personalised styling and shopping service to their customers on their own websites. This not only increases brand loyalty for those retailers but also improves their efficiency in returns and spend. We also see good revenues from data and trend insights, which are offered to retailers to assist in merchandising and production efficiency. This data is not at a customer level as we take our privacy and data protection very seriously – but at an aggregated level and we hope it benefits both the customers and the retailers. For example, we were able to assist one retailer by identifying the different necklines in their dress collection that their customer base absolutely never bought – an insight they themselves were unable to see. Our business has been funded by us

How do you earn money? How do you finance your company?

and our angel investors.

Our mission is to help every woman build the perfect wardrobe so dressing and shopping is simple and fun. This means that our business model puts the consumer first, always. But we are

Who is your target group? What is your market potential? All women (& eventually men) looking for a more helpful and personalised shopping experience. We expect that, 04 /1 1

in time, the Dressipi Fashion Fingerprint becomes portable across all retailers and all channels. This will help achieve our 3 main goals: 1. Create a much better customer experience 2. Create a far more efficient retail industry 3. Build a system that can make recommendations based as much on

understanding the context and emotion behind a decision as well as the concrete attributes of that decision. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Improving experience

the

global

Dressipi

Who do you see as your main competitors? No direct competitors (personal style advice) but plenty of competition for the limited time that people have for visiting fashon websites: ShopStyle, StyleCompare, Polyvore for example all do a great job of helping women search for clothes across multiple brands – they just don’t do the personal edit and advice that we do. What have you done before? Donna

Kelly

L: Co founder of Dressipi. Donna Kelly is a seasoned digital media expert. Prior to co si st er M AG

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founding Dressipi she was Head of EMEA at IMG where she oversaw all the multi platform technology and content strategy for the breadth of IMG clients and companies in the areas of Fashion, Entertainment, Sport and Social Networks. Multi award winning, she has a proven track record in the development and launch of new initiatives and has launched a number of ‘firsts’ across mobile, web and broadband.

Who was your first team member?

Sarah McVittie L: Prior to cofounding Dressipi, Sarah was the cofounder and

Initially through a branding process – and then iterated through customer feedback.

CEO of Texperts the world’s first text message question answering service. The company won numerous awards for its concept and technology. In 2008 the company was sold to KGB, owners of the 118118 directory enquiries service, in a multimillion pound deal. The Times recently called Sarah one of the UK’s “top rising female entrepreneurs”, and she was named by Management Today

Our first team members came together – one in the technical team and one in the styling team. We strongly believe that we have managed to build a successful technology because we have had these two disciplines working alongside each other from the outset. How did you come up with your company colours?

Who designed your company logo? How long did it take? Initially externally (process took a couple of months) – but finally internally. In which city are you located? London

magazine as one of the top 35 female

Most often used software?

entrepreneurs under the age of 35.

Ruby on Rails

Sarah also has a passion for motorbikes and in 2001 rode her motorbike and

Main food during starting up phase?

sidecar from London to Beijing along

Mackerel and beetroot salad! A fair amount of coffee. n

the oldest Silk Route.

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Wardrobe

In everyday work life a men chooses between gray, blue or brown suit whereas a powerful woman has the broadest of choices: skirt, dress, blazer, blouse or TShirt … Why is it then, that women in the corporate world seem to have given in to an ill fitting & boring choice of pantsuits. That‘s what founder Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur asked herself and why she started a new fashion label in New York City called „Mémé Lafleur“.

sisterMAG talks to her about fabrics, production and the multiple facettes of life a woman can embrace in today‘s world.

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How did you come up with the idea?

made the garments in New York City. We

The real story dates back to when I was

only sell directly to customers through

seven, when I used to watch my mother

trunk shows (and, starting December,

dress for work. I thought she was the most powerful woman on the planet, wearing her brickred lipstick and her tailored suits from Paris. Fast forward

our website), and that is why we‘re able to keep our prices affordable. A dress

that is made with the quality and care that we put into it could easily be priced

twenty years, I had my dream job at a

at $1000 at another brand.

management consulting firm in New

What did you do before?

York, and well, I just didn‘t feel like that powerful woman in my poorly tailored, illfitting clothes. So I decided it was

I worked in Paris and New York for a private equity firm where I managed its luxury goods portfolio. Before that, I

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time to change: eradicate illfitting

was working in South Africa, studying

suits once and for all, and create a line

business opportunities in agriculture

of beautiful yet professional dresses.

and its impact on food security. When

I partnered with designer Miyako

I write them sidebyside, I realize how

Nakamura, who had previously worked

disparate these jobs must sound, but to

with Zac Posen and Jason Wu, sourced

me they’ve been part of one big journey:

all fabrics from Italy and Japan, and

understanding how to make beautiful

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Wardrobe

things while sourcing and producing

calendar. What is most important is that

responsibly.

we only release products that we stand

What makes your designer your

by one hundred percent. Our product

perfect partner for your brand?

Oh wow, where do I start? She is perfect

in every single way, and then some.

We understand each other on such an instinctive level that I’ve learned is

extremely rare in the creative industry. We are acutely aligned on our vision of the modern woman – purposeful and feminine, cerebral and sexy – and she is able to perfectly execute that vision with her innate talent for design. How often will you have a new collection?

I named the brand after my mother – my muse and inspiration – whose nick name is “Mémé.” Meme is a child’s way of saying “eyes” in Japanese, and my mother is called “Meme” because of her big, beautiful, dark eyes.

development process is more aligned with that of a technology company than a traditional fashion house: we have a vision for a dress, and then we will develop it and iterate on it multiple times (on average, seven or eight times)

For now, twice a year, although I have

until we get it just right, and only then

no intention of following the fashion

will we release it. We’re not following 04 /1 7

Every woman should have the “effortless” dress: a dress that you can throw on at the last minute that makes you look and feel impeccable. That, and some big, bold, crazy jewelry to infuse some personality. the fashion calendar, and we don’t need to. I think that is a real strength of our

say this because we designed and experimented with over a hundred designs, and released only our favorite ten. We’ve been very picky! Where are the dresses made? In New York City.

brand.

Does NYC play a role for your brand,

Where can you buy the clothes?

Someone told me yesterday that New

in terms of the style of your clothing?

Starting December, online at www. memelafleur.com

Yorkers are a real drab because they don’t wear color, and I’m guilty as charged!

What is important to you regarding

I’m not a huge fan of bright colors, and

In one sentence, I care about what

so many beautiful muted colors though,

quality, fabrics, and cuts?

skew towards muted tones. There are

matters to the modern woman. She

and my brand works with an Italian mill

cares a lot about quality, at a justifiable

to develop custom colors. Our launch

price.

She doesn’t particularly care

collection has many luxurious tones: a

about fabric content, so long as the

lilac gray, aubergine, and a deep, brick

fabric feels good on the skin, is easy to

red, just to name a few.

care for, and withstands the test of time.

Why do you think women shouldn’t

She wants cuts that are flattering, but not suffocating. Above all, she must feel special in what she wears.

wear pantsuits?

Ha! I’m not a downright pantsuit hater, and there are some women out there

What is your favorite piece from the

who pull them off well. I’m just not into

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line?

the idea of women dressing like men, or

I know this is a copout answer, but I

being “one of the boys.” Women should

truly love every single dress.

dress for themselves, and I happen to

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I can

Wardrobe

think that dresses are a woman’s best friend. What is the Ampersand Girl? She is someone who isn’t defined by one “thing”, one noun, or one adjective. It originally started with the idea that women should embrace being both

Do you have a special kind of woman

in mind when designing your line of clothes?

Women who are passionate and want to make something of themselves! Really, I think of my girl friends. Where do you see Meme LAFLEUR in

powerful and (&) sexy, ambitious and (&)

5/10 years?

feminine, but I think she’s actually much

We like to dream big here at Meme

more than that: she’s someone who

LAFLEUR, so naturally I have larger

may appear somewhat contradictory

thanlife ambitions for our brand, but my

on the surface, but is wholly integrated

most important dream is that we don’t

and happy on the inside. I have a lot of

stray from our core: to be the leading

respect for women who embrace their

brand for the modern day, purposeful

multiple sides, and think that that’s an

woman, and to make her look and feel

ideal and authentic way to live.

beautiful. n 04 /1 9

The Workshop

Whimseybox delivers monthly boxes with curated selections of craft and DIY materials. Along with each material box subscribers get crafting tips and tutorials.

se yb

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„Scissor“ by Nathan Thomson from The Noun Project Collection

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ox. com

L | @ whimse ybox L

om c . k o facebo

im h /w

y e s

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Explain in your own words the idea of your company. What are you doing?

What was your favourite craft product so far in any of your Whimseyboxes?

At Whimseybox we want to make it

We‘ve had tons of great products in

easy, fun and stylish for people to craft. We send our subscribers a monthly box of craft products along with a project idea and instructions.

the box, but lately I‘ve been really obsessed with DecoArt‘s new product Ink Effects. It‘s a way to transfer designs onto fabric without just painting a coating on top of the fabric. It actually binds with the fabric and doesn‘t change the texture of the painted area. It comes in tons of great colors and has amazing potential for so many great DIY projects! Right now I‘m making a lot of different scarves with it.

What was the inspiration for your idea? The idea for Whimseybox originally came from my blogging experience. I blogged about DIY, craft and design on Dismount Creative. I have always loved making things and think it‘s both fun and beneficial but many people are put off or overwhelmed by crafting. It is also hard to find many of the supplies – especially online. It‘s so frustrating when you see a great DIY project but can‘t easily buy what you need to actually DO it! How do you gather ideas for the Whimseybox DIY projects?

The DIY trend of the moment? I think any geometric is the biggest trend right now. Whether it‘s for fashion or home. Graphic geometric designs using shapes like triangle and hexagons are everywhere and I can‘t get enough of them either! How do you finance your company? In the beginning my husband and I financed Whimseybox with a small personal investment. We‘ve also taken a small investment from a business acccelerator program we participated in over the last 3 months called Excelerate Labs.

In the beginning many of the ideas for Whimseybox DIY projects came from me or my team. Now we have lots of ways to get great ideas including a Whimseybox Design Team, blogger partnerships and a soon-to-launch community section on our site.

What is your DIY trend of the moment?

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How do you earn money?

What have you done before?

Whimseybox earns money by selling subscriptions! We sell both monthto-month and 3-, 6- and 12-month subscriptions that cost $25/month including shipping.

Before starting Whimseybox I was

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? In 5 years I‘d like to see Whimseybox as a place, people know that they can go to and find all of the supplies, information and inspiration to do their next DIY craft project! And for me, I‘d like to be crafting, sharing and learning right alongside them :) Who do you see as your main competitors?

Our main competitors are probably established craft retailers like Michael‘s and Jo-Ann Fabrics. People in the US and Canada instantly turn to them when they think of crafts. Those are great stores, but unfortunately they don‘t always carry everything that modern DIY crafters are looking for and it‘s hard for them to keep up with cutting-edge trends. I shop at those stores regularly but still think there‘s a great opportunity for Whimseybox to bring a different approach to the market.

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a craft instructor and blogger, and before that I was a chemical engineer for 8 years! Who was your first team member (in which department?) outside the founding team? Whimseybox is still so young that I actually think of our whole team as the founding team! But after I launched Whimseybox by myself I quickly realized I needed help and Bri Land, our Director of Operations, was the first person to join. How did you find your company name? Naming a company is very hard but Whimseybox was one of the first ideas I had. I wanted a name that was fun and inspirational but not too literal. I also needed one that had a .com address available, which isn‘t easy these days! How did you come up with your company colors? The Whimseybox Blue came from a

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rag

lot of browser-based tools like Base, Backpack and Trello so I‘ve always got a zillion tabs open! Plus, I practically live in GMail and Google Calendar.

l A :

FOU

R DE

colored pencil I had lying around. I had the idea for Whimseybox not long after speaking at the BlogHer Handmade conference last year where they had used colored pencils as table decor. Somehow I wound up with a blue one in my bag and happened to use it when I was listing names for the business. So the first time I wrote Whimseybox I wrote it in Whimseybox Blue!

Main food during starting up phase? You‘ll almost always find a Diet Coke on my desk or in my hand. As for food, usually some variety of thai cuisine.

In which city are you located? Whimseybox is currently located in Houston, TX, but for the past three months I‘ve been living in Chicago, where I attended the Excelerate Labs business accelerator. I’ll soon head back to Houston. After that who knows what the future holds! Most often used software? My most often used software is Google Chrome. We use a 04 /1 5

a lock of hair from a child so fair

A SPECIAL KIND OF JEWELLERY text Victoria Kau L

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Do you still remember those times when photos were something you could actually touch? Those were the times when school kids glued little pictures of themselves in poetry albums, when teenagers kept photos of their boy- or girlfriends in their wallets, and when pen friends sent each other vacation pictures in envelopes. You couldn’t wait for the photos to be developed and once you held them in your hand, you could relive the memories of that party, that trip or those summer holidays.

less and less popular – unless you give your grandparents a photo calendar for Christmas. Don’t get me wrong: I love showing my photos to friends on my little iPhone display (especially on long subway rides!) as much as I love posting photos from beautiful places so that my online friends become pea green with envy. But paper photos are like rubber twist or sticker albums – you don’t really miss them, but you just love the feeling of nostalgia they evoke.

Ever since the advent of the mobile phone camera (and the increasing ease of sharing photos online) developing analogue photos has become

Back in the 1840s, when photography was discovered, people probably had pretty similar feelings. They loved having their picture taken, especial-

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ny 1900, a rm e G , ir a h h it w Postcard , Alfred e .d g n lu m m a s k c u haarschm

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Peters

ly because they didn’t have to sit for portraits anymore. Little pictures of family, friends or lovers – often combined with a piece of jewellery – soon became a popular gift and souvenir. But photography also replaced a traditional object of remembrance culture: the precious souvenirs of hair jewellery. Jewellery made of hair? Most people today find that odd and even disgusting. One can’t help but think about strands of hair in the shower drain or in the brush. But once the hair is cleaned, sorted and prepared, it is perfectly suitable for delicate pieces of jewellery. These rings, bracelets, or

watch chains – the latter, in particular, for men – became fashionable in the Biedermeier era. The 19th century was characterized by sentimentality and if a dear one had gone off to war (or a journey far away), he / she was given a piece of hair jewellery to make sure he / she wouldn’t forget the person who had given – and often made – the souvenir. If you gave someone such an object, you literally gave away a piece of yourself. Some of these pieces were even more special, usually enclosing a photographic portrait in an amulet or a buckle. Ideally, the hair on the jewellery belonged to the person that was shown in 04 /1 7

haars

tria 1900, s u A , ir a h h it w rd a Postc d Peters re lf A , e .d g n lu m m chmucksa

the photo but (if there wasn’t enough hair available) other people’s hair, or even horsehair, was used. As photography replaced hair jewellery as an object of remembrance, these special combinations only existed for a short period around 1850. Now, these items hold a notable semiotic significance. In the beginning of the 20th century, the American philosopher and logician Charles Peirce classified the three characteristics of a sign and the methods of denoting its object:

» The SYMBOL denotes its object by a habit or rule for its interpreter. Therefore, it doesn’t have to be similar to the object. Just think of the

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little male and female figures on public toilets. They don’t actually have anything to do with a toilet, but everyone associates them with it. » The INDEX denotes its object by factual connection. Smoke is an index for fire, footprints in the sand are an index for the person that walked there. » The ICON denotes its object by a quality of its own; it actually looks like the object. Take, for example, the Virgin Mary as an icon or the crossed out cigarette on a prohibition sign. A piece of hair jewellery combined with a photograph now unites all those three characteristics in one piece:

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photographs are the ideal version of an index, as the object on it is an imprint of itself, caused by the light and the processes of photography. The hair offers the potential for a symbol. Hair has always stood for love, eroticism, victory or sickness. Just think of the meaning of hair in Muslim or cloistral contexts - a lock of hair in a love letter, the scalp as a war trophy among Native Americans, or the hair loss of sick or old people. In this case, the hair of the jewellery stands for the love of the donor, the overcoming of distances, the power of the relationship. Last but not least, the hair becomes an icon, simply because it is, stays and looks like the hair that once grew on

someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head. In fact, if that person is truly loved, the hair might even be worshiped as an icon. The subject becomes particularly interesting when we look at the interrelations between the hair and the photograph. The material hair adds authenticity to the medium of photography; the former imbues the latter with the very essence of the subject. Taken together, they melt into an inseparable element â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and offer an even greater potential for remembrance. What a token of love! By the end of the 19th century, photography had become more and more affordable and it replaced the culture of making and giving hair jewellery. Only 04 /1 9

a few coiffeurs carried on making these special pieces until the 1920s. But as photos were simply easier and cheaper to have (and also as the attitude towards hygiene changed) hair jewellery eventually acquired something of a niche status. Today, only a few designers produce modern or traditional hair jewellery. The Swiss designer, Franziska Santschi, offers items made out of personal hair (Website L) and a designer in Brooklyn also creates contemporary designs of this nature. You can have a look at her work at ecouterre.com L. Why donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you start collecting your hair strands, too? Just wait for the next vintage trend - with a piece of hair jewellery youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re definitely going to be way ahead! n

FRANZISKA SANTSCHI hairwork.ch l

Jewellery and beginner's courses HAARSCHMUCKSAMMLUNG Website to the book haarschmuck sammlung.de l

Specialists in the field of the antique art of making hair jewellery were asked to come together and share their knowledge in a German monography about the topic. The colourful demonstrations are complemented by many descriptions of techniques and comments on the historical background. LARISSA DE SOUZA VARGES ecouterre.com l

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Modern hair jewellery from Brooklyn.

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Our DIY feature

AUTUMN COATS 04 /1 1

During colder months I have often been irritated, when I wanted to put on the thick wool sweater and throw over a coat. It turned out to be a big hassle when all this fabric just wouldn't fit into any coat's sleeve! The belt had to be made two holes larger and I felt trapped. The designers of Fall Season 2012/2013 might have had the same poblem, because they bestowed us with the most beautiful oversized coats: Just look at Jil Sander, Celine or Acne. It almost feels like in a movie from the 50s or 60s when Liz Taylor would throw over a big coat over her lovely little shift dress. No one would have ever asked her whether that coat was "one size too large?". I've prepared three oversized coat patterns to fit any women between size 34-42 (if you have questions for larger sizes, just drop us an email). The loden cloth we used was kindly provided by stoffe.de L and you should check out their different colours, thickness and weights. The best part: the coats are simply made without any lining, because they are warm enough! Secondly, we incorporated the other big trend of the season â&#x20AC;&#x201C; embroidery and embellishment. And we will continue to show you techniques and DIYs on our blog L and Pinterest Boards L. 6 coats, 6 materials, 3 patterns, 2 models and 1000 possibilities to make your own!

Evi

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Shell Coat Model Red & Retro Coral

Download pattern You'll find the tutorial and pattern for this shell coat (NÂ°04/1) on the next double spread u.

Material 2,20 m wool cloth with a length of the coat: 96cm 2,20 m lining

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Blazer-like Coat

Boule coat

Model White & Lilac

Model Brown & Dark Blue

Buy pattern

You can buy the tutorial and pattern for

You can buy the tutorial and pattern

our blazer-like coat (N°04/2) for €2,50

for our boule coat (N°04/2) for €2,50

at DaWanda. You'll be sent a PDF via

eMail ready for printing and sewing.

Material

2,30 m loden cloth (e.g. online at

1,70 m cotton or silk for coat at a

stoffe.de - they have a lot of nice and

length of 1,01m

different colours and qualities)

1,70 m lining

rest of lining for coat pockets

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Sewing: Sew the front and back darts. Pin the side parts of the coat onto the front parts, pay attention to the

Cut:

respective digits on the pattern. Leave the pocket openings open.

Copy the pattern of the facing and coat pockets from our download pattern

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L ("front piece"). Also copy the front

Seam pockets:

piece lining (without facing). Cut out all

For the pockets, iron along the seam

parts with seam allowance. Add 4 cm

allowance folds of the pocket opening.

(~1inch) of allowance at the bottom of

Sew on the coat pocket onto the front

the coat as well as the bottom sleeves.

pocket opening. Line the woolen pocket

Cut out lining pieces from the same

piece over the pocket slot so the pocket

pattern, add 1 cm at the center back

borders exactly align at the bottom.

for convenience. Do not add seam

Topstitch the woolen pocket piece very

allowance at the lining's hem. Cut out

near to the fold of the back pocket

coat pockets once from outer fabric,

opening. Sew together the two pocket

once from lining fabric material.

pieces along the edges.

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Sew the back of the coat onto the side

facing and iron seam allowance. Now

parts of the coat. Pay attention to the

turn over the facing and collar and iron

respective digits on the pattern. Now

all edges.

stitch down the front facing up to the

Work lining after the same procedure

marker point. Secure the threads with a few reverse stitches.

collar: Sew collar pieces together (right sides facing). Cut seam allowance along marking point just near to the lock stitch. Cut off the tips at the corners, so the collar can lie as flat as possible once it is turned over. Sew together

as you did with the outer fabric. Sew front lining edges onto the facing (right sides facing). Fold and iron sleeve's hems and turn over with lining. Close the neckline by hand. While doing this, fold the extra width of the back section to hide the extra fabric. Turn over front collar facing at the bottom hem edge. Cut back facing to 1

bottom and top part of the collar. Again

cm. Cut off tip. Finish the hem.

cut off the tips. Sew on the bottom collar

If you work on a collar-less coat (as our

part onto the neckline edge. Iron seam

model "Vintage Retro Coat") you can

allowance. Sew top collar part onto the

ignore all collar marking points. n 04 /1 5

The server room

A COLUMN

Native!

I recently moved. One’s arrival in a new town must have been an exciting affair through all times and centuries. For instance: when a lady moved to the British capital in the 19th century, the Lords and Ladies of the High Society would pay her a visit. A little card would be placed on a silver tray and everyone was introduced while sipping a cup of tea in the salon of the – probably – palatial house. The first public ball you visited was crucial and everyone paid attention to which gentlemen danced with you. An afternoon ride through Hyde Park in an open landau at last completed your introduction into ‘Upper Class’ society. In the 21st century small rituals and customs have also crept into the life of a digital lady. However, the message of your arrival no longer reaches society through gossip but through, surprise surprise, Social Media. Instead of worrying about pleasing the matrons of society, a simple click in one’s Facebook

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ratio n: Th N

timeline does the job. Immediately all friends and acquaintances know that “XX changed her/his location to Berlin”. According to German Registration law §11 you have to report to authorities within two weeks after moving into a new flat. This period may not be exceeded as otherwise you’ll be fined. However, before waiting four hours in the public office for a nice clerk (not ironically si

meant, she was really nice), I already had changed the

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hometown on my Facebook profile, which was immediately acknowledged

Narushige Shiode from the University College London described the

with a small pin on the map of Germany

occurrence

and 5 Facebook Likes. Now I am just

consequence, which the development

waiting for Facebook changing their

of new Internet and communications

terms, also threatening their users

technologies (mobile devices, positioning

with fines if they do not display the

technologies), geographic information

correct place of residence!

systems and spatial databases as well

The cost of moving is also much higher than in the past: only when I clicked on my various Social Media Profiles did I notice that the address change affects not only my ID, the phone bill and health insurance: whether it is my Blogger profile, Pinterest or the imprint of the website, again and again I find references to my old hometown - the digital re-registration takes time (and the knowledge of many passwords).

LBS

logical

as the penetration of daily life with the Internet has brought about. The use of LBS works in two ways: If a user requests the information, it is called reactive services (or pull services). If I searched a list of cafĂŠs located near to me in my new hometown, this would be such a request. On the other hand, there are also cases in which the user does not initiate the request. I receive information as a result of my whereabouts, without

Whether Google Maps on my desktop

actively asking for it. This might happen

computer or Twitter on my iPad: these

either due to my prior consent to an

apps are constantly asking if you want

offer (e.g. local deals with coupons)

to share your "current location" or

or without my prior authorization

whether the app might publish it. The

(advertising message when entering

identification and dissemination of

a store). The latter will never happen

oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own spatial data is worshiped by

to me in Berlin, because in Germany

the term "Location Based Services"

a definitive consent, i.e. "Opt-in" is

(LBS). In 2003 the research group

required. 03 /1 9

The most popular "Location Based

Berlin-based friends and also the St.

Service" at present is the so-called

Oberholz, a trendy café popular with

"check-in", i.e. quickly registering

start-ups and founders, receives a

yourself at a place. Foursquare has

disproportionate number of check-

positioned themselves as one of the

ins. You want to show your friends and

most successful platforms in this field.

social network your whereabouts and

A study by Accenture found that today

what exciting life you lead. Or have you

of all young people one in ten uses

often seen that your friends checked

LBS services such as Foursquare or

in 'At home – sofa’?

(the now deceased) Gowalla at least

In the same way not only the "where",

once a day. What for? Most of them communicate

their

own

location,

connect with friends or try to find out where they are. Strong users post information and tips about places like what food tastes best in a restaurant. And sometimes you cannot avoid the impression that the desire for appreciation plays an important role. Many of the current service offerings reward their most active users in one way or another (gamification), e.g. by distributing medals or badges. Even the selection of places in which you "check-in" frequently shows the desire for prestige and a certain elite thinking. The exclusive membership

but also the "with whom” becomes subject to careful considerations. A friend recently confided in me to strategic check-ins as well as tagging of people. How much you can put your foot in it, you find out latest when a friend indignantly withdraws because you have been "in town" and met up with XY, but not with her. Socially acceptable check-in must be learned! The whole thing is a little bit creepy to me after all. Most of the time I prefer to check-in when I leave a bar/shop as opposed to when I arrive. If I reduce the purpose of the check-in to absurdity, is certainly worth a discussion.

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club "Soho House" in Berlin appears

But back to the move. Never before

constantly in the Activity Feed of my

it has been easier to acquire an

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extensive knowledge about a – so far

possibility to tell readers on your blog

- unknown city. City guides and road

about new corners, cute shops and

maps now frequently lead a bleak

other experiences. The afternoon walk

existence, while I’m searching with

through the nearest park suddenly

my smartphone in hand for the best

becomes important and absolutely

"Breakfast Places" or find the hidden

necessary.

corners of my neighbourhood through

And what was the exact moment when

tips from Travel and City Blogs. And if I still haven’t found the best craft store with the widest range of mohair wool, then I just post the question on Twitter. Someone there will know!

I recognized that moving in the digital age is completely different? It was when a dear friend, with whom I have long been looking forward to the move, created a Twitter hashtag! Where

And yet another special feature brings

is the need for dance cards today if

the life as digital native and blogger

you have a Twitter Wall? Suddenly

along: one is much more motivated to

the meaningless change of location

get to know their new hometown. With

gains a new importance - the hash

the excited eyes of a newcomer, I'm

transforms the new centre of life not

on my tour around with the camera in

only into a Twitter link, it helped me

hand. This not only increases the own

recognize that it’s all true and real:

understanding of the place, but the

#thealivesinberlin. n

03 /1 1

Programming for wo What is “Rails Girls” and how was the idea conceived? Linda:

Rails Girls is a one-day work-

shop to give young women their first experience in software craftsmanship. Ruby on Rails is a framework built on top of Ruby, the programming language. This means someone else has written thousands of lines of code to make it easier and faster for you to for(int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { cout << "ha";}

Coding workshops for women – does anybody care? The founders of Rails Girls L certainly think so and Abb. the 1expansion in Rails Girls Logo more than 34 cities so far seems to proof them right. sisterMAG wanted to know more about them and therefore interviewed founder Linda Liukas from Finland as well as two Rails Girls from Berlin, Anika Lindtner and Maren Heltsche.

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develop. Anika:

Rails Girls wants to give wo-

men a better understanding of coding. Women can approach the issue in a "safe" environment and take a first look. Therefore, no prior knowledge is required and no one will give you a strange side-glance for beginners’ questions. Linda: I took part in 2010 Railsbridge event called Ruby on Rails outreach for women. I wanted to do something similar in Finland, with a product-twist and a little more whimsical approach.

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omen: the Rails Girls

text Antonia Neubauer L

Since then the Rails Girls community has expanded immensely. So far, workshops have been held in 34 ci-

Linda Liukas

Anika Lindtner

Maren Heltsche

ties, in some even

Co-Founder of Rails Girls

Rails Girls Berlin Co-Founder

Participant Rails Girls Berlin

several times. Here L you find

Linda: Rails Girls was an event we did in 2010 in Fin-

more information

land and it was never intended to be global. However,

whether a city near

since news travel fast in the technology world, we got

you is among them.

a lot of requests from other cities outside of Finland and just started organising things. We always work with local developers and just recently included all of the materials and information on how to throw your own event in Rails Girls Guides - we are kind of open sourcing the whole concept! These guides provide the tools and a community for women to understand technology, organize their own events, submit new guides or just learn about Rails. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entirely voluntary. Today we have an amazing community of over 150 volunteers around the world. Local sponsors finance the workshops and no one in the organisation makes money from their courses.

03 /1 3

www.railsgirls.com What do you learn in one of the Rails Girls workshops? How is the workshop itself organised? Linda: Rails Girls doesn’t make anyone a programmer, but it does give people their first experience in writing code and building a simple web application. In addition the participants get to learn about open source, developer communities & culture and technology jargon through exercises.

Anika: The Beginners’ workshops follow a strict program. Friday night we meet up for the installing party to get to know each other and to prepare the computers with the corresponding programs (Rails Girls program plus Rails). On Saturday morning the workshop continues after an extensive breakfast with an introduction into coding. Afterwards the participants will be divided into groups of 2-3 students plus one coach to make the first coding steps either on the basis of the Rails Girls Idea app or an own project. The day is rounded off by 3-4 short Lightening Talks and of course the after party.

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Do women learn coding differently from men? Do girls respond differently to your offer in different parts of the world? Linda: I think getting started might be harder for us at times. But after we get started there is nothing fundamentally different in our understanding. We usually tell that learning to code is like learning a new language - and everyone knows girls are good at languages! We’ve never had problems in getting participants - usually we have 4-5 times too many applicants. People have surprisingly similar ideas and ideals around the world and especially programming communities have welcomed us with open arms. Anika: In Berlin always around 30-40 participants take part in the beginners’ workshops. The follow-up courses are smaller. There are even groups that meet in their spare time (see interview with Maren Heltsche).

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Should everyone be able to code? Linda: I think code is more and more important and the ability to share a language with developers is important. Technology is the fastest way to change the world. For me, coding is about building great products that affect millions of people’s live and disrupt whole industries. Spotify is changing music and Facebook friendships, as well as Amazon books, Google information and so much more. It's all about making change. Technology is the future - a part of the big revolution of the years to come and my concern is that this change or transformation is driven only by young boys from California in their early twenties with a very narrow world-view. I want to see more diversity. I want to see diverse people being able to use these tools to solve

their own problems and change the world. The programming world has a culture, a community as well as compassion. It is not dull or boring. It's a similar craft as is architecture or industrial design. You create things that people love. Technology for me is a magical, radiant, perspective - alterning lens to the world. I think the biggest untapped potential lies in the creativity of teenage girls. What online resources exist for somebody who wants to start coding? Linda: I work as community manager for a company called Codecademy.com and we’re just coming out with our Ruby track. I encourage everyone to try it out. It’s free and makes coding fun & social! Also, we’ve included a lot of links in railsgirls.com/materials L

Both Linda and Anika had not much to do with coding before Rails Girls. Linda studied Business Administration, Anika Linguistics and Gender Studies proving once more, everyone can learn to code! 03 /1 5

"I had no idea I was stumbling into a movement setting out to do something big,” one participant wrote on the Rails Girls blog after attending a workshop in Berlin. "If any of us had doubts we couldn’t do it, Rails Girls has set us straight.”

it ever since. In my "normal life" I’m taking a creative break since a month ago because I want to change my career. Previously I worked as Head of Social Media Evaluation at the media monitoring company “Ausschnitt”. There I build up the department, which develops products and infrastructure. WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION TO REGISTER FOR THIS WORKSHOP?

Mini Interview

In the past 2 years I supervised a large

Maren Heltsche, Participant from Berlin

IT project from the business side. I had

HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT RAILS

itself and I often came across transla-

GIRLS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN YOUR "NORMAL LIFE"?

no direct access to the programming tion problems between developers and users. I've always been fascinated by

I found out about Rails Girls in spring

the possibilities of programming. I im-

on Twitter and I was immediately thril-

mediately liked the approach of Rails

led. I was lucky and got a place in one

Girls to teach people with no prior pro-

of the workshops and have been part of

gramming skills Ruby on Rails.

RailsGirls Facebook

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RailsGirls Twitter

RailsGirls Blog

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WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR

king title "Text-to-Squares". The idea

NEWLY ACQUIRED KNOW-HOW?

behind is to transform any kind of text

I can certainly apply the knowledge about programming in my professional environment to understand IT and programming processes better and to translate them. Besides, I will certain-

in an image of coloured squares. The whole thing is inspired by Wordle L and Gerhard Richter L. First results can be seen here L. In the meetings we first learned the basics of Ruby and programming structures in

ly try myself in programming one or

general. All these

another application. Just for fun. Much

processes and the

more than before I am familiar with the

new knowledge is

idea of open source, which again encourages me in my belief that knowledge grows when it is shared and working as a team or network is simply great. WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN YOUR GROUP PROJECT MEETINGS?

then applied again Word-String sisterMAG

and again in different contexts and

practiced. At some point we started to translate our idea into code, conducted tests and eventually got first visual

We started a small project group in July

results. That was a great feeling. Now,

in which we now meet regularly. We

some improvements on the design will

are working on a project with the wor-

follow. n

RailsGirls Materialien

03 /1 7

embellishing your mobile

interview Lindsey Tramuta (lostincheeseland.com) L

Three years ago, two women met and bonded on Twitter. Six months later, they were business partners, joining forces to run the web design company Shatterboxx L and launch Bloggers in Sin City L, an unconventional networking event for personal bloggers and social media enthusiasts. Now, trailblazing entrepreneurs Jamie Varon L and Nicole Antoinette L can add mobile innovators to their arsenal of talents with the launch of Paper’d, an iPhone app for one-of-a-kind wallpapers. Call it kismet or assiduous ambition, this duo is showing the tech world that women are a force to be reckoned with. What sparked the idea for Paper’d and what makes it unique in the market?

We began work on Paper’d after realizing that there wasn’t a single wallpaper app out there that met our

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need for fun, creativity, & exceptionally high-end design. What began in 2010 as a passionate late-night conversation of “wouldn’t it be amazing if...?” has turned into the real-life creation of the app of our dreams. There are plenty of other wallpaper apps out there, of course, but Paper’d is a truly unique addition to this specific genre of apps. With individually crafted wallpapers that focus on pairing creativity with high-end design, Paper’d is more than just a series of images and colored backgrounds to add to your device. And while many of the other wallpaper apps simply curate photos from the web, each and every Paper’d wallpaper is 100% original, created specifically for this app and its discerning users. What sets us apart even more is our clever, one-of-a-kind wallpaper collections - such as The Valley Girl Collection, featuring a “talk like a Valley Girl” guide,

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The Ego-Boosts Collection, featuring daily reminders of your awesomeness, and The Jetsetter Collection, featuring gorgeous photos of dream destinations around the world - just to name a few! Did you have a specific target in mind

when developing the business side of the project?

Paper‘d was created as an offshoot of our boutique web design firm, Shatterboxx L, and our main goal was to use Paper‘d L to expand Shatterboxx and make high-end design more accessible to everyone.

different from a website, and even though a gorgeous and smooth user experience is the end goal for both products, there are usability differences that really make designing an app a unique challenge. Perhaps the nicest thing, though, is that there‘s much more consistency with an app than a website, because you don‘t have to account for different browsers. Paper‘d looks the same on each and every iPhone. Of course, there‘s much more limited surface area to design, so the decision to add something to any screen becomes a much more important decision, and that‘s challenging.

Tell us what it was like

working an app versus a website – what new

challenges did this project present?

Designing & developing an

app

entirely Nicole Antoinette

Jamie Varon

Did you collaborate with other entrepreneurs in producing Paper’d?

old maps and black & white photos to letterpress wedding invitations and

We designed the app and all of the

perfectly poured cocktails. We’re also

wallpapers ourselves, but we hired a

a pair of travel junkies, so you’ll see a lot

development team, Xhatch, to bring

of travel-inspired influence through-

the app to life.

out the wallpapers as well. More

Motivational quotes, travel destina-

lifestyle-inspired app, which means

tions, even adorable dinosaurs make

up some of the collections in Paper’d. What inspires the design choices?

Our main inspiration comes from Apple itself, and our goal with Paper’d was to create a robust wallpaper gallery whose detail-focused design quality matched up with that of the iPhone and iPod Touch. We see our

than anything, though, Paper’d is a that life is our ultimate source of inspiration. How do you earn money from the app?

Paper‘d is free to download, giving you 230+ free wallpapers, as well as a gallery of 300+ additional wallpapers available through in-app purchase for

wallpapers as the finishing touch to

just $1.99.

an already gorgeous device, and we’re

The name ‘Paper’d’ is clever and cer-

inspired to create designs that integrate seamlessly with the unparalleled Apple aesthetic.

tainly versatile enough to encompass

a variety of different outgrowths. How do you see the brand evolving?

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Outside of Apple itself, our inspiration

To be honest, we don‘t currently have

has come from all across the web

plans for brand evolution, as Paper‘d

– the humor of Someecards, the

is a side project in the Shatterboxx

addictiveness of Pinterest, the artsy-

family. We do love the name and

ness of Etsy - there are so many other

brand, though, and we expect all brand

platforms to be inspired by. Offline,

evolution to come about organically as

we find inspiration in everything from

our business evolves.

M AG

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Paper’d made iTunes’ ‘What’s Hot’ section when it surpassed 100k downloads in just under two weeks. That’s

quite a prodigious feat! To what in

particular do you attribute the rapid success of the app?

Paper‘d is truly unique in the wallpaper app market, which helped us catch the attention of people at Apple who saw our edgy take on wallpaper design. More than anything, though, we think the rapid success of the app came from our social capital - namely our personal followings on Twitter and on our blogs. We were so open about what we were working on with Paper‘d all throughout the creation process (blogging about it, holding focus groups, etc) that our audience was excited and

ready when we finally launched. This helped leverage coverage on sites like Mashable L, which, coupled with the „What‘s Hot“ and „New & Noteworthy“ nods from Apple, helped us reach 100k downloads in less than two weeks. You were fast friends and even

quicker business partners. How do you maintain balance between those

two relationships? Do you always see eye to eye?

We always joke that we‘re the 0.001% of people for whom a best friendship and business partnership could work so smoothly. We went from Twitter friends to offline friends to roommates to business partners in a very short time, and we both feel unbelievably 03 /1 1

lucky to have found each other. We‘re so similar in lots of ways, but we‘re different in the key areas that seem to count the most, which enables us to continue to challenge each other and inject fresh perspective into our business. We‘re often on the same page, but when we‘re not it always works out for the best, since communicating our differing opinions leads to a stronger end result. Hot topic: why do you think more women are just now starting to rise in the mobile and tech industries?

si st er

There are probably a lot of reasons, but the one that seems to make most sense is that the mobile and tech industry has hit such a huge tipping point that it would be impossible for the demographic of people rising

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within the industry not to expand. Tech is everything, it‘s at the pulse of almost every other industry in some way, and the stereotype of a geeky guy working on his computer in his parents‘ basement has altered dramatically as tech gets sexier and sexier. No doubt about it, tech is still a male-dominated industry, but that seems to be shifting as more attention is being paid to the culture of the industry and a calculated shifting of stereotypes. *** And it’s about time. For more about the app's long journey from concept to creation, check out Jamie and Nicole’s infographic “Birth of an App” L. Follow

Paper’d

Facebook L for updates and

giveaways

for

bespoke wallpapers. n

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Study Time With the blogging community growing bigger and more powerful every day, the urge of many bloggers to learn more and to perfect their skills regarding blogging, photography, styling and coding grows at the same rate. This is why we set out to know more about relevant workshops and courses – online and offline – and interviewed the teachers and creators of those study opportunities. Get insights into their courses and take a look at our comprehensive „Workshop Table“ with all important information at the beginning of this feature.

03 /1 3

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

URL

DESCRIPTION

CREATOR

ON / OFFLINE

Workshop table Blogging Your Way u

decor8blog.com/ ecourses L

Holly Becker

Ricarda Nieswandt, Blogging, PhotoSusanne Schanz graphy, Image Re& Carolin Gräventouching, Law dieck

ONline mostly

OFFline

BLOGST u

blogst.de L

Blogshop

blogshopla.wordpress.com L

Photoshop for bloggers

Bri Emery & Angela Kohler

OFFline

altitudesummit. com/ altchannel L

Blogging, Social Media, Twitter, Marketing, Life Balance

Alt Summit Founders

ONline

nicoles classes.com L

Various: Photography (Photoshop, Tabletop, Adv.Retouching…), Indesign, Typography …

Nicole Hill Gerulat (+ many more teachers)

ONline

CSS & HTML

Katrina Tan

ONline

Alt Summit Channel u

Nicole‘s Classes

Pugly Pixel CSS puglypixel.com/ Pretty eCourse category/ecourse L

Blog Designer Network

theblogdesignernetwork.com L

Web & Blog Design

April from Creative Girl Media

ONline

Shoot The Food u

shootfood.wordpress.com L

Food Styling & Photography

Susanne Schanz & Virginia Horstmann

OFFline

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Creative Blogging

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CITIES

LANG

LENGTH

SIZE

PRICE

NEXT COURSE

English

4 weeks + 4 weeks to review

200-700 max.

$129

Announced soon

€109-€159

Planned Feb / March 2013 in Munich

Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt

German

1 day

20-25 max.

Different cities in USA, has been in Paris, London, Berlin ...

English

2 days

~20

$772.71

December 1 in Miami

English

Each class 1 hour

100

$15 registration fee

October 10 (How to start selling ads on your blog)

English

2-4 weeks depending on class

$60-$125

Check out their website L

1 month

$25 for self-instructed course; $325 for instructor-led course

Whenever

$25-$249

October 18 (Responsive Web Design)

€249-269

2013

English

2012 : Cologne, 2x Hamburg, Munich

English

1-4 days

German

1 day

12-14

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ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

URL

DESCRIPTION

CREATOR

ON / OFFLINE

Workshop table Plate to Page (What‘s For Lunch, Honey) u

whatsforlunchhoney.net L

Food Styling & Photography

Meeta K. Wolff

OFFline

Food Styling & Photography lizandjewels.com/ workshops L Workshop (by Liz & Jewels) u

Food Styling & Photography

Lisa Nieschlag & Julia Cawley

OFFline

blogLiebe u

blogliebe.wordpress.com L

Photography & Image Retouching

Melanie Osterried

OFFline

Hélène Dujardin Photography Workshop

tarteletteblog.com L

Food Styling & Photography

Hélène Dujardin

OFFline

Dewit Design Camp u

abchao.com/camp L

Interior Design Boot Camp

Anna Beth Chao

OFFline

Unravelling u

susannahconway. com/e-courses L

Personal development eCourse

Susannah Conway

ONline

Squam

squamartworkshops.com L

Art Workshops & personal development

lifeismessybootcamp.com L

Organizing your life, print planners, private support community

Life is a messy Bootcamp

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ONline & OFFline (retreats)

Maria Alejandra Carles

ONline

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CITIES

LANG

LENGTH

SIZE

PRICE

NEXT COURSE

so far: London, Somerset, Weimar, Pistoia, Dubai

English

2-3 days

10-12

€500-€800

October 23 in Dubai

Weimar, New York City ...

English

1 or 2 days

12-14

from $350

October in New York City

Düsseldorf (more cities to come)

German

1 day

€139

November 2012

English

Usually 2-4 days

$1500 (includes accommodation ...)

November in Charleston (sold out)

English

2 days (Mini Camp 1 day)

15-20

English

8 weeks

150

Numerous cities & places 2012 : New Orleans, Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, NYC, DC, and Chicago

1st in New Hampshire, also in Italy and other locations...

Online: 3-4 weeks English

English

Offline: ~5 days

($350 for Mini)

£97

Online: $130

October (NYC)

January 2013 Online: October (Abundant Wild Life)

Offline: $1095 Limited (On-Campus), Offline: October $575 (Off-Cam17 (Squam by the pus) Sea)

$197

Whenever 03 /1

6 training modules + guidance + print planners

$500

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

BLOGGING YOUR WAY DESCRIPTION

We teach students how to use their blog as a catalyst to live their very best life – to get creative and have fun! TEACHERS

Primarily Holly Becker (Decor8) L – also founder of the classes. Holly also includes guest teachers in many of her classes, such as Leslie Shewring, Katrina Tan, Nicole Balch and Jeanette Lunde. ONLINE / OFFLINE

Online for the most part, though Blogging Your Way has also been taught in my studio space in Hannover, to corporations on-site, in person through lectures and also in weekend workshops such as the first BYW Road Trip class that we taught in March 2012 in NYC. SINCE WHEN

LANGUAGE

April 2009

English

COURSE LENGTH

4 weeks with a bonus 4 weeks of additional time to review everything

WORKSHOP SIZE

In person, usually 20. Online, 200-700 max. PRICE

REQUIREMENTS

Basic blogger knowledge and a camera

$129 for online course. Weekend workshops on site ~ $400 per day per person. Private consultations ~ $150 per hour. Corporate workshops $1600 for the day plus travel expenses for small groups.

STARTING NEXT

The next class will be starting October 5, 2012 – Registration runs until October 2nd.

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w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop? I was receiving loads of inquiries via email from decor8 readers asking how to blog, how to gain readers, how to use a camera, how to add borders to photos, etc. I realized that I couldn‘t keep answering hundreds of emails one by one, it was very tiring and I also realized that I could benefit a lot more people if many had access to my tips and tricks. I thought it would be fun to lead an online workshop so I launched it in April 2009 and I‘ve been teaching ever since. To date, I‘ve taught over 5,000 students worldwide and love it. I get immense satisfaction from connecting students – they love the class and I love teaching it. w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? It is different because it‘s the first online workshop for bloggers and that it is focused on blogging with a creative touch. Also, it is different because I teach it! I‘m not brand new at blogging or truly to be something I‘m not – I am truly an expert in my field, as a pro blogger I have supported myself from my blog income alone now for many years and am proud of the blogging community that so many of us have built up over time. I started blogging in 2005 when no one cared about blogs and most didn‘t even know they existed, so I‘ve been involved in watching the evolution of blogging from the beginning. I have learned a lot! I am confident teaching 03 /1 9

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

this class because I know I have a lot to offer and share with others and I want to share it. I know Blogging Your Way is helping bloggers around the world and making these wonderful people feel really good about themselves, their community, their voice and their work overall and there is no greater joy to me than to see so many bloggers leave my class and write in months later with huge success stories after applying my tips.

dropped in to say hello to us and spoke for a few minutes – a real highlight as he is also a blogger who built himself a career on the web. Being with students in person was wonderful – some of us stayed at the same hotel and even went to dinner for a few evenings and so I was able to deepen my relationships with some lovely, genuine people – that weekend really made me SEE firsthand how the topics reach people‘s hearts and what they respond to instantly.

w Do you have guest lecturers?

w An advice you like to give your students?

Yes, in most of my classes – I love collaborating – it‘s good for the teachers and great for the students to have some diversity, but I think I‘m the one who benefits the most because it fuels me to team up with other creative bloggers who are pros at what they do. w What was the best experience so far?

Teaching Blogging Your Way live in SoHo this past March with Leslie Shewring. We taught 25 students each day for two days and Paul Lowe from Sweet Paul

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Yes – to stay connected after the class ends through the BYW Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/groups/ BloggingYourWay) and to arrange meet ups in your local area for BYW students so you can meet in person to have encouragement, friendship and to continue learning and growing – support is integral to your success as a blogger – you need to feel supported but also to give it. Make connections with others!

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w Are there any alumni events? Yes, in London on November 6th at Anthropologie on Regents Street in London I am inviting BYW alumni and other blogger friends to a special event to celebrate the launch of my book, my BYW friends will get to spend a few hours with me before everyone else arrives so we can connect. I also do lectures and host workshops and other students have meet ups in their part of the world for BYW alumni – their have been meet ups from LA to Australia – it‘s wonderful! w Do you have goodie bags? When I do in person events, I simply buy my students small, beautiful gifts and leave them on their desks before they arrive on the first morning of class. Things that I hand pick, that are special, that mean something and have value. I like to include a pretty journal and some stationery items including washi tape, for instance. Something we‘ll use in class that they can also take home to enjoy. w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? I never want class to end and also feel sad when it‘s time to say goodbye to my students. I really bond with them and find so many wonderful people in my classes who inspire me. BYW students are the most talented, creative and inspirational bloggers out there and I love 03 /1 1

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop?

Shoot the Food DESCRIPTION

A practice orientated workshop about Food Styling and Photography TEACHER

Susanne Schanz (la-petite-cuisine.blogspot.de) & Virginia Horstmann (zuckerzimtundliebe.wordpress.com) ONLINE / OFFLINE

2012: Cologne, 2x Hamburg, Munich SINCE WHEN

LANGUAGE

Summer 2012

German

COURSE LENGTH

WORKSHOP SIZE

1 whole day, in 2013 planned to be 2-day course

12-14

REQUIREMENTS

DLSR. Course designed for amateur photographers with basic knowledge of the camera

PRICE

249€269€ (depending on location)

STARTING NEXT

Courses in 2013 fully booked, new dates will be shortly revealed on the blog + Facebook si st er M AG

Many comments on our blogs led us to it. "How can you shoot such great photos"," How do you manage to have such bright and friendly images", "My cakes never look as beautiful as yours on my photos” and many more. Moreover, the idea appealed to us to get to know more people interested in Food Photography and to exchange with them. w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? The focus lies on food styling and food photography. Unlike other photography workshops we specialize explicitly on shooting food, which indeed presents different challenges and joys compared to taking photos of humans, landscapes or furniture.

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w What was the best experience so far? All the feedback directly after our first workshop in Cologne. Satisfied participants who - as we now can see almost daily on their blogs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; have more fun with their food photography and could take away for themselves a lot of experience with technology and feelings. w An advice you like to give your students? Grab your camera and practice, practice, practice. Also sometimes tackle, style and shoot challenging subjects. And in fully manual mode. w Are there any alumni events? Not yet. w Do you have goodie bags? If yes, what can one expect? Of course and as it is right for a foodrelated photography workshop there are nice and pretty tasty things. Delights for eye and tongue.

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ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

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All images courtesy of Shoot The Food

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

UNRAVELLING: Ways of Seeing My Self e-course DESCRIPTION

An eight-week personal development course that reconnects you to who you are, where you’ve been and where you want to go next. TEACHER

Susannah Conway (susannahconway.com) L ONLINE / OFFLINE SINCE WHEN

LANGUAGE

January 2009

English

COURSE LENGTH

WORKSHOP SIZE

8 weeks

150 participants

PRICE

w What is the focus of your workshop?

£97

STARTING NEXT

The next class will be running in January 2013 – registration opens in early December. si st er M AG

Unravelling is the word I used to describe my healing process after the death of my partner in 2005 — I was peeling away the layers of myself to find out what was underneath and got back to the real me. In this context unravelling is not a negative thing but rather a letting go and a simplifying. In 2008 I moved to a new city and was given the opportunity to teach a photography class at a local adult education centre. As they already had a technical photography class I decided to create something more meaningful… and that was when my Unravelling class first occurred to me. After the success of that first run I decided to offer the class online and the rest, as they say, is history.

REQUIREMENTS

A computer, a camera and access to the internet.

w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop?

Why is it different to others? Unravelling uses weekly photography assignments and journaling prompts to help us dig back into our lives and reconnect with our true selves. The work on its own is very powerful, but it’s doubly so when done in community.

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Each class has its own private Flickr group where participants can share their photographs, writing and support each other. Unravellers form strong bonds and the groups stay active long after the course has ended. w What was the best experience so far? In July 2012 I went on a 7-city book tour across North America to celebrate the release of my first book, This I Know. So many of the people who came to the book events had previously taken my classes and it was such an incredible experience to get to meet my students in person and hear about their experiences in class. Really amazing. w An advice you like to give your students? Just to keep their camera with them at all times! w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? There’s nothing I find especially difficult but I am occasionally frustrated that I can’t sit with my students in person! So I definitely see many more in-person workshops and retreats in my future… 03 /1 7

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

WHAT‘S FOR LUNCH, HONEY with different offerings (From Plate to Page, Dubai Food Photography …) DESCRIPTION

Food Photography and Styling Workshops TEACHERS (FROM PLATE TO PAGE):

Jamie Schler (Life‘s a Feast) L Ilva Beretta (Lucullian Delights) L

Jeanne Horak Druiff (Cook Sister) L Meeta K. Wolff (What‘s for Lunch, Honey?) L

ONLINE / OFFLINE

I travel to different cities. So far I’ve taught in London - UK, Somerset - UK, Weimar - Germany, Pistoia – Tuscany, Dubai - UAE SINCE WHEN

LANGUAGE

2011

English

COURSE LENGTH

2-3 days

WORKSHOP SIZE

10 - 12 participants

REQUIREMENTS

Camera, notebook + post-processing software. Basic photography skills, but we cover a wide range

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PRICE

€500-€800 depending on length and content of the course

w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop? After having spoken at a few conferences in the past I found that a small intimate workshop, working hands-on with the participants was the way to go. The large conferences are great up to a certain point but after that if a participant is looking to advance his/her skills they need to look for something that will give them a real benefit and help them hone their skills more intensively and creatively. At the time Ilva asked if I would like to teach a workshop with her in Italy, focussing on food photography and styling. I loved the idea and asked her what she thought if extended the topic to writing as well. In my opinion they go hand-inhand for bloggers. We asked Jamie and Jeanne and soon we had worked out a plan and had a location booked. After the first couple of workshops I organized further workshops focussing mainly on the topic of food photography and styling.

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w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? For From Plate to Page we focus on the topics of food photography, styling where Ilva and I lead the assignments and presentations, and also food writing and the many styles of writing, Jeanne and Jamie are the instructors for this. For both the Dubai and the Design & Composition Workshop the focus mainly lies on food photography and styling. The workshops are different because they provide intensive, hands-on sessions where the participant is forced to come out of their comfort zone. It’s important for me to help the participants develop or fine tune their own individual style and that is where they are pushed. w Do you have guest lecturers? We did for the Design and Composition Workshop. We had the lovely Holly Becker of Decor8 give an inspiring speech about “blogging your way.” w What was the best experience so far? I love being able to give fully to the participants what I have learned over the years. It’s absolutely a fantastic feeling seeing the look on participants faces when they have grasped an issue they were struggling for a while. I love that look on their faces.

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ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

w An advice you like to give your students? Follow your goals and enjoy the journey you embark on just as much as reaching the goal. w Are there any alumni events? For the From Plate to Page workshop we are thinking of organizing one. w Do you have goodie bags? If yes, what can one expect? Oh yes! The workshops have had some brilliant sponsors and the bags have been packed with all kinds of treats and items, from state-of-the-art knives, to salts, chocolates, cookbooks, nougat, vouchers for camera bags ... I always tell the participants they need to leave plenty of room in their suitcases. w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a particular aspect of teaching, but more making sure the synergy between

the

participants

flows

positively throughout the weekend. si st er

They work quite intensively individually

M AG

and in teams to produce a lot of work, at times there is frustration, irritations and a lot of emotions high and low so as an instructor I always need to be sure to keep them motivated so that they overcome the fears. Some participants are very open and it is easy. Others are more reserved and it takes a bit longer for them to open up completely. But they do and seeing them develop within a matter of a few days is very rewarding. w When does it start the next time? When can people join in? From Plate to Page is being planned for May 2013 and we have just booked a location in Ireland near Dublin. Dubai Food Photography and Styling is going to be taking place in October 2012 and the Design & Composition Workshop is being discussed, planned for April 2013. I am also in the process of planning and organizing other workshops which will be either in November 2012 or early next year.

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All images courtesy of Meeta K. Wolff

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ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop?

blogLiebe DESCRIPTION

blogLiebe is a 1-day intensive workshop for bloggers about everything related to photography and photo editing with Photoshop Elements. TEACHER

Melanie Osterried ( Menschenskind Blog) & Alina Gross (alina-gross.de) ONLINE / OFFLINE

So far Düsseldorf, possibly further German cities in 2013 SINCE WHEN

LANG

June 2012

German

COURSE LENGTH

COURSE SIZE

1 day, 10am 5.30pm

REQUIREMENTS

DSLR, notebook with Photoshop Elements. The course targets beginners as well as bloggers who already have some experience with their camera and photo editing.

PRICE

€139

STARTING NEXT

Probably end of November 2012 si st er M AG

I've been blogging myself for about two years at www.menschenskind -blog.de about beautiful things that both children AND parents like. Last year I wanted to refresh my knowledge about photography and was therefore searching for an appropriate workshop. But I couldn’t find anything suitable ... All great courses took place online or abroad and everything offered nearby was to tech (and men ;-) ) heavy. That’s why I came up with the idea for blogLiebe! I actually just organize the kind of workshop I would have liked to participate. I have the wonderful Alina Gross as teacher, an experienced photographer and lecturer, who loves her job and likes to share her knowledge and experience with others.

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w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? blogLiebe is a 1-day intensive workshop for bloggers about everything related to photography and photo editing with Photoshop Elements. Shared learning and laughter, new experiences, impressions and acquaintances, a great location and delicious food, lots of tips and tricks - and above all - a lot of heart! This is what blogLiebe is about. The participants learn and especially practice (!) together. After the workshop even total beginners can show those images on their blog that hovered in their head. w What was the best experience so far? It's absolutely wonderful to witness, how the participants get to know each other, exchange and support each other. Real bloggers!! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really proud to see all the great results after one day of working together. w An advice you like to give your students? Photography and photo editing is a little bit like learning to ski. In the beginning everything takes a long time, it is exhausting and sometimes frustrating, but then suddenly it clicks and you get the hang of it and then it's just fun! w Are there any alumni events? We have a blogLiebe Facebook group where former participants can exchange. 03 /1 3

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

w Do you have goodie bags? If yes, what can one expect? Yessss! There is a great goodie bag full of beautiful things by our sponsors from the German hand-made scene. w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? I support Alina in the image processing part of our workshops. Thereby it's hard for me not to show too much at once. Photoshop is quite overwhelming at the beginning, thus itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better to concentrate on a few commands and to explain them in detail. But you can do soooo many nice things which I would like to show our participants at once (this is the reason why I introduced the freebies): at www.blogliebe.de L there are occasionally nice things for free download such as bansi st

ners, photo layouts, etc.

er M AG

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All pictures courtesy of Melanie Osterried

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ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

The Alt Channel DESCRIPTION

Interactive online classes taught by experts about all aspects of the business of blogging. TEACHER

Sara Urquhart + many more L

SINCE WHEN

Feb 2012

ONLINE / OFFLINE

Online, inspired by Alt Summit in Salt Lake City every January + also in NYC in August 2012 LANGUAGE

English COURSE LENGTH

Each class 1 hour

WORKSHOP SIZE

varies, 100 max

REQUIREMENTS

Reliable Internet connection, easy browser interface (even for iPad, iPhone + Kindle via Adobe Connect)

PRICE

$15 registration, some sponsored = free

STARTING NEXT

Class times and days vary. Check the schedule at worldfunction. com/channels/alt-summit Lt

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w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop? I began receiving emails from people who wanted to attend our in-person conference, but weren’t able to because of time, money, or family circumstances. I wanted to offer the same great content in a more flexible environment - year round, and in people’s homes - and was thrilled to realize there were affordable ways we could do this using the same format as distance learning. w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? Our core purpose is to give bloggers tools and inspiration to improve their businesses. On the Alt Channel we do that by offering a variety of classes ranging from blogging basics to working with sponsors, basic web design to digital photography, and everything in between. It’s different because it’s very affordable and completely flexible and convenient.

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w Do you have guest lecturers? Our teachers vary by class and subject, and that’s another thing that makes us unique. We’re offering a wide variety of topics taught by experts in their field who also happen to be excellent teachers. w What was the best experience so far? My favorite experiences have been seeing bloggers connect with other bloggers. I believe having a great professional network is key to success in this industry and I’m thrilled to offer an environment where people can connect and collaborate. w An advice you like to give your students? I always tell people to be willing to take some risks whether they’re in an online class or at an offline event.

willing to ask for advice. Students at the Alt Channel have this opportunity, too, and I encourage everyone to be friendly and deliberate about building relationships in their classes. Your return on the investment you make on any conference is directly related to how you approach the conference. w Are there any alumni events? There are not official alumni events, but Alt attendees are active on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and we see connections that are created at Alt continue in the online world. w Do you have goodie bags? If yes, what can one expect? No goodie bags for our online classes. We do have gifts from our sponsors at the offline conference, that we edit, leaving only the most beautiful, interesting valuable, clever items.

The people who will get the most out of the experience are people who will open their mouths and talk to others. They are the people who are looking to make connections and 03 /1 7

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

Food Styling and Photography Workshop DESCRIPTION

We teach the fundamentals of food styling and photography to food bloggers and food lovers. TEACHER

Julia Cawley (Photographer, www.julia cawley.com) & Lisa Nieschlag Designer (nieschlag-und-wentrup.de) and cookbook author (www.annikocht.de) + one food stylist, e.g. Meeta K. Wolff or Sylvia Lachter ONLINE / OFFLINE

Up to now Weimar. New York is next in October. Münster will follow in April 2013. LANGUAGE

SINCE WHEN

English

Beginning 2012

COURSE LENGTH

WORKSHOP SIZE

1 or 2 days

12-14

REQUIREMENTS

No knowledge required. An SLR-Kamera is recommended.

PRICE

From $350

STARTING NEXT

October 21st, 2012 in New York in a beautiful Kitchenloft in Chelsea.

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w How did you come up with the idea of the workshop? Lisa (Liz) had the idea, after she successfully published two cookbooks and was working on the third together with Julia (Jewels). Lisa as author and Julia as photographer. Both share the love for food and great pictures. They are a great team and wanted to share their knowledge of food styling, photography & how to make a cookbook. w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? Our workshops are a mixture of theory and a lot of hands-on training. Enjoying good food together will not be missed out!

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w Do you have guest lecturers? At our workshop in Weimar we were happy to have Holly Becker from decor8 as a guest speaker, which was very inpiring and a great experience! w What was the best experience so far? Seeing the participants taking great shots under our guidance is a very rewarding experience. w An advice you like to give your students? Crumbs are ok! w Are there any alumni events? Not yet. w Do you have goodie bags? If yes, what can one expect? Yeees! Our Goodie-bags are packed with lots of love and wonderful products! w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? To know on which level each of the participants is and to pick them up at the level they are, without asking too much or boring them.

03 /1 9

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

BLOGST – Blog & Stift DESCRIPTION

BLOGST is supposed to be a network with infos and content around Blogging, Photography and Retouching. TEACHER

Ricarda Nieswandt ( 23 qm Stil) & Susanne Schanz (La Petite Cuisine) & Carolin Grävendieck (Sodapop Design) ONLINE / OFFLINE

Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt SINCE WHEN

LANG

2012

German

COURSE LENGTH

COURSE SIZE

1 day

20, max. 25

REQUIREMENTS

Laptop, trial version Photoshop CS or Elements, SLR. BLOGST is rather aimed at beginners but also "old hands" can take something away.

PRICE

€109€159 (depending on the city)

STARTING NEXT

Planned February or March 2013 in Munich si st er M AG

w How did you come up with the idea for the workshop? I am not entirely sure anymore. After several meetings with fellow bloggers I had the idea. I really got started on BLOGST after a Blogger Meetup in Berlin, which was really nice but didn't give us a chance to network and chat. At the workshops, knowledge, ideas and inspiration are passed on. In the evening there is a get-together, where you can look back at the day in a relaxed atmosphere. w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? It's about the principles of blogging. How do I start, what name should I choose for the blog? How do I use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest? What legal aspects do I need to consider? There is also a

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Still Life and Food Photography lecture for bloggers and a Photoshop Beginners Workshop rounds off the day. w Do you have guest speakers? Not yet. But since our idea is to create a network of BLOGST friends, we would be happy to have guest speakers! w What was the best experience so far? The positive and enthusiastic blog posts of the participants after the workshop. w An advice you like to give your students? Go your own way, remain true to yourself! w Do you have goodie bags? There is a little goodie bag and as much as I can tell you here: There are some great things in it that have to do with blogs and pens (because BLOGST is a made-up word from 'Blog' and 'Stift' [which is the German word for pen]). w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? None. It is absolutely wonderful to create these workshops.

03 /1 1

ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time –

NAME

AB Chao‘s Dewit Design Camp

w How did you come up with the idea of the work-

DESCRIPTION

A budget-focused interior design boot camp designed for beginners, aspiring decorators, and DIY queens. TEACHER

Anna Beth Chao

SINCE WHEN

May 2012

ONLINE / OFFLINE

New Orleans, Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, NYC, DC, and Chicago in 2012 LANGUAGE

English COURSE LENGTH

Full-size Camp is 2 days; Mini Camp is 1 day. REQUIREMENTS

No requirements. Beginners welcome!

WORKSHOP SIZE

15-20 PRICE

$500 for 2-day; $350 for mini

STARTING NEXT

October camp is NYC; November is DC; December is Chicago. si st er M AG

shop? I was receiving lots of emails from people who didn‘t have the disposable income to hire a decorator, or who wanted to do the work themselves. They would say things like, “I wish I could hire you to just come over for two hours and show me the basics.” So I thought, how can I make this happen for people in different cities all over? And camp was born. w What is the focus of your workshop? Why is it different to others? The focus is on design basics, decorating secrets and tricks of the trade, and advice pertaining to specific problems (how to hang art properly, how to make your bed, etc.). I cover topics from elements and principles of design to styling a coffee table and everything in between. w What was the best experience so far?

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Every time I have a camp, I say the most recent one was my favorite. But I have to say the New Orleans camp, my first â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I learned more from those girls than they did from me and I will always be grateful to them! w Do you have guest lecturers? I have not had one yet, but I am trying to nail one down for my NYC class! w Any advice you like to give your students? I give them advice the whole weekend! But the thing I want them to remember most is to HAVE FUN. w Do you have goodie bags? If yes, what can one expect? Yes, each student receives a design camp toolkit containing a variety of helpful decorating tools (ruler, tape measure) plus all kinds of fun treats like stationery, stickers, Japanese masking tape, and the like. w Which aspect of teaching is the most difficult for you? Probably coming up with good decorating ideas on the spot. With clients, I have time to sit at home and look through all of my materials before I present my ideas to the client. At camp, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s much more spontaneous and immediate. But still fun. n

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ia c e p S p o h s rk o W G A rM te is s Study Time â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

si st er M AG

All images courtesy of AB Chao

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g n i g g o Bl Time

Whether you are a first-time blogger or you already posted your 400th post â&#x20AC;&#x201C; TJ Dhavale (theperfectnose. wordpress.com L) put together tipps and notions around blogging which are worth reading through! Lets look at her worktable and see what's not to forget when publishing on the web! 03 /1 5

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to wide double screen on lapt s? Stud ops? P ents r o f e s s tablets ionals with or mob i l e devices your bl ? Choo ogging se platfor accord m and ingly. theme c. Kee p the th eme ba simple ckgrou so it do nd e s nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dist post co ract fro ntent. m d. Opt imise y our im ages to load qu ickly-th ere are online a lot of resour ces key stream ed tow lining p ards a g e loads on them -read u and try p to impl everyth ement ing you can wit of your hin the bloggin limits g p latform resolut (a 75 d ion see pi m s to wo most d rk best evices) for . si st er M AG

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ne o y r e v p e c u t o n Be arly. N le tur ee s op ul d e g Conv n p e a r f I ersel t w . s g s o o n y, don r e i P r b o a i n e e r â&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ove n d has t i c l s u s r-pos b o he tim l ek l su â&#x20AC;&#x2122; m e t, no 3 y t e p w e s o t o s h o e t keep sad p e ,t e e a up w g y thr Make o a d n am p ith n t s h t a e a e n s s d ame umm e th r fro topic o a r y r o b y u u , t r u . o se a best e y g n coup imag o lly a le of e . g s u p , e t t t h u a n en st Tumb e op (o eve giv lr an r d go nuts) .

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for a like ( e c s r p u p o a s arch te a i e c s n e a g c a l you a e im t n s i a r g h i e t r v o e e r R the le. p d Ensu o n e fi p o r t e y y oth t wa b a the e d r d e g t n a a u r o e e r r n a ge ed L) a c e u y d E o r n i p T or er g re h n L i t e e g b h m w i e r o src as t hat a e t r u s s e n g u a im are r u o o f heck y c r f I , o y . l h n e o e i r aut t ibu nt f r e t t t n a o t c u o s ’ lse with ted e t a r e e e n n r n o e e e t g n m i so self g n n i o s n u g e n a ld b osti u p d o d n h a s e h u u o W o y or. e y h r t u u s a t e n k e a cont , m ht g w e i e h r i t y v p h e t r o i / c w sion nal i s g u i c r s o i d e for ng th l i a d i r u l e t c a n i m is, h t g n i t a t. r st s e o p m i e a l h c t s f di dy o o b e h t re in e h w e m so

If your are reviewing a sponsored/ Yes, a lot of bloggers see monetization as free object or service, start with a disclaimer including specific the ultimate aim for their details on the deal. blog, however, the slightest 03 /1 18

inkling of ‘positivity for sale’ or other dodgy behaviour and you’ll lose your credibility permanently.

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daries

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her t o on s t en ow l l m o !F om t i c f t t le u n b o a a v e t p ut e C rele c ( r c i g gs na n o u i l v b y to iall Lea ople’s n c e l o o b s s a e r p ar ) is ge ! p n e m a m ir o It’s n tr c e s h d t g ot a in an ng h i t c c p a onve the g u o r r n i r p d e p rsat talk a nt an i , m i t i n o e g. A Be n if y d ee r d t s awa n c ou’r a e tivat s h . t r n d e e o a e co i opin the e that t a st s n only r i ion a mm e on t ents one you onv nd it he i c to h o t doin nter may on ear. en t s i g n l y not Disa our et e way ey n h t v e b b e c li l o r

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essa og. ng a y o n e epin rily b non frien has g y e on mou the dly. an e s c H y o o o com mm u wi wev proc m e e sh nts ess, r, if y e n t area s is ou c a Tu you one e an’t mbl q u (mo i han tabl rm s t i d e an g le th Tum ht b syst d e lis ea ems blr teni bett them alth ng e to a r op es l oug ctiva tion ack h m t for e com any intro disq men have duc u s ting e co s h t h o mm uld e o enti ptio you ng i n deci n th de e fu to ture ). If you feel the urge to comment f ke

on a post take the time to actually read that post first. Leave a polite, relevant comment. Do not include your blog URL in your comment, not only does this demonstrate si

your lack of basic knowledge on

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current commenting systems, it

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highlights the fact that you are

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ce bee your c only commenting n com mark omm ent ed me to actively direct sh as aut nti ave spa readers to offsite fu omat ng sy ste m mo ica tur l ms st content. This is fold e com ly rel w ill ega er. me te a the hallmark nts ll y to t our he of a spammer spa m and will be marked 03

as such by most

bloggers.

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ies t i n u mm o c e lin re n e o h T . n i log d b e r v l u o o nv s of y g n s i u h c t Get i o me ef o h t s e o t w nt t ga u n i o o f l d e releva e urs opl o e y p t f u o p ot of you e e r r a are a l o es em c h n t a d h n a r c u â&#x20AC;&#x2122;re o u y o y online r f e i , or high y l l e a h u t t vir r e there h t i (e m e h t finding ). e f i l l a nd e a r s n i m , y oru f luck e ot n i o l h n s o e r l ub r fo o e r t t s i o t g t for f e. e v a. Re e a v e i l t c s ser an a u e r k e a h m t ot a h t s rie he e t u l l q a e f th so g o l b ith the w t i t s i c v a r te y to n i r T y l . e v b and acti t s l a i h a t , em s t n people e is. m s m a o b c r a a vi ul g e r a yours on s n o i t rip subsc

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u’ve o y t a s th t sts s o o p p n o t ks r ow n u i l o y d o d int g c. A n i lr t s b e m r e u t T in ke i l s found m ess or r f t p a / l g p blo ng i g e r g o e l (b hav s s e r rdp is). o h t W e d t an lita i c a f o ns t o i t c n log fu b r e t in ys, a n i w e a t e a giv icip t d r n a a P , d. aps w ne s o , z s r e u g n yo e d i s t challe y to u ou a o y w t y u l p on e h t it may s ’ t it u b t r fo of com e. n o z t tha d n a p ex

And most of all

remember to have fun!

Blogging isn’t meant to be a chore1. n

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Unless you’re getting paid piles of money to do it-in which case harden up princess.

trend maker movement

WE MAKE OUR WORLD text Julia KĂźmmel L

On a Saturday last May one hundred

computers, make it easy even for

and twenty thousand people headed

beginners to build a lot of crazy things:

enthusiastically to a rather simple fair

plants that send Twitter messages

ground in the US-American city of San

when they need water, shoes that

Mateo. At the entrance a colourful,

navigate blind people via vibration on

metal-welded mythical creature spat

a particular route through the city or

fire rhythmically and at the fair young

glass containers that credit via high

geeks, designers, hackers gathered

score when you turn in recycling glass.

together with families and school

The components are also available in

groups around banana xylophone and

a seamable variant called Lilypad, with

3D printer. The largest maker fair in

which you can give clothes functions.

the world lured them there. Maker? Sounds unusual â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what is it actually?

FROM HARDWARE TO KNITWARE

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To understand the new DIY trend, one

The first Maker Fair was held in 2006.

must start with hardware: at the core

Since then, the technology festival

of many Maker projects lies a credit

has grown rapidly and spread around

card-sized card with the strange Italian

the world to Cairo, Dublin and Tokyo.

name "Arduino" ("strong friend").

Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Fair

These Arduino microcontrollers, small

in San Mateo and publisher of Make

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Magazine, speaks of an overarching "philosophy of doing". For him, there is less focus on technology with which things can be made and more on the individual, the human being as a creative individual. For Dougherty the Maker Movement is an umbrella under which he subsumes people who do things, who make jam, build furniture, sew, and knit, as well as inventors who tinker with electronic components. Making as an overarching general principle of the various DIY trends, so to speak. As a counter-current to

DIY TYPES

Is the Maker movement now the hip, digital continuation of the stuffy handymanship of the 60s? Or even worse - as speculated in some German newspapers - harbinger of a new culture of amateurism; everything half, but nothing professionally? The term DIY includes more and it makes sense to consider the Maker movement in its context: The DIY culture incorporates both the classic home maker who saved money in the 50s by restoring 03

Th O E D I

rth Rebi

ker a M the

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the increasing alienation of a world that has been digitized rapidly, the maker subculture delivers answers to questions such as: "How does this work exactly? And what does this have to do with me?"

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See: DIY - Die Mitmachrevolution / Ausstellungskatalog 2012

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the house himself, and the anarchy punks in their occupied homes in the 70s sewing their own robes, pressing buttons and designing posters and T-Shirts via screen printing, not to save money but to distance themselves from the unconditional consumer society.1 The new DIY movement, concentrated around online platforms such as Etsy or DaWanda, is more a mixture of selfrealization, the joy of living out one’s own creativity and sharing, along with a pinch of countermovement to the rapid consumption of cheap industrial products. This is joined since the middle of the last decade by the Maker movement, culturally related also with the hacker culture.

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Makers and Company | Studio für Prototyping, Workshops & Talks makersand.co L

PHYSICAL COMPUTING & INTERNET OF THINGS The Maker movement shows a growing interest not to think only in software but also in hardware solutions. At the booth of Makers & Company2 during the Google event "Creative Sandbox 2012" in Berlin, visitors could see a hanger that used the Google Weather API to signal via more or less vibrant hues the appropriateness of one’s clothes choices, i.e. if it was too warm or too cold for the day. It did not require an app on a display anymore to take advantage of the Internet and its services. Many hands, many minds, a lot of creativity! The new inexpensive elec-

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tronic components make it affordable

some things, but not too many. Here

to everyone to even manufacture

an exciting movement starts that

prototypes. And since the product

is discussed under topics such as

development is no longer purely in

"Internet of Things" and "Physical

the hands of a small group of paid

Computing".

professionals, the crowd finds creative solutions to fundamental problems:

INTERACTION WITHOUT DISPLAY

For example, for the poor usability of

The trend - as the example of the

our devices, despite all advances of

intelligent hanger shows â&#x20AC;&#x201C; moves

the past 15 years. We must constantly

away from displays. The Internet slips

tap, scroll, read things on displays

into things themselves, so to speak,

that do not bare sunlight well - every

and allows the user to intuitively

computer user knows the problem.

interact with objects. How specific

This reflects the very technical,

this interaction can be, shows the

originally military based history of the

example of the Good Night Lamp of a

Internet, and also shows that there

"family" of small lamps by Alexandra

is a lack of hardware that is tailored

Deschamps-Sonsino. They make it

to us users. The display is useful for

easier for people to stay in contact over 03 /1 3

Makers and Company | Studio fĂźr Prototyping, Workshops & Talks makersand.co L

distances intuitively via the Internet. If you for example switch on your own small lamp at a hotel in the evening, the lamp at home with friends or children will begin to glow as well. Sven Herb, co-founder of Makers and Company3 in Hamburg, presented at the Hamburg Social Media Week an unorthodox Tweetwall with his Maker Bulli: an Internet-enabled small Volkswagen bus, which runs on a record and plays via built-in speaker and needle music. The more positive the tweeting is about the session, the stronger the artefact takes speed during the talks - until Bohemian

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Rhapsody by Queen resounds with neat speed through the place. The creativity of the scene, which deals with these gorgeous projects, reminds of the computer hobby movement of the 70s, when many enthusiastic makers began to play with new technologies. Instead of software hardware is the centre of activity today and compared with then it rests technologically on giantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; shoulders. We can be curious what this second wave of digitalization will create and change; culturally, in the way we shape our environment, and our understanding of brands and the way we produce goods. n

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von Julia K端mmel

TINKER SOUP Berlin based electronic kitchen http://tinkersoup.com l

Onlineshop for (Wearable) Electronics FASHIONING TECHNOLOGY A blog & book of an experience designer fashioningtech.com l

Syuzi Pakhchyan is an "Experience"designer whose work explores the tension between portable technology, physical and soft computing and interactive textiles. Her book "Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting" explores these new creative techniques.

Makers SPARKFUN ELECTRONICS Online shop for electronic projects http://sparkfun.com l

For any planned electronic project you find at Sparkfun Electronics the right parts: a robot that prepares breakfast, a GPS cat, etc. Additionally, there are many courses and online tutorials.. OPEN SOFTWEAR Fashionable prototypes and portable computing with Arduino http://softwear.cc l

Open Softwear is a book about fashion and technology. It uses Arduino boards, conductive materials, resistive threads, soft buttons, LEDs, and more.

ARDUINO

TALK2MYSHIRT

http://arduino.cc l

Wearable Electronics talk2myshirt.com l

Open source platform for prototyping, which is based on flexible and simple hardware and software.

Blog about culture, products, technology and the future of wearable technology. 03 /1 5

In recent days there has been a growing number of real life meetups and events held by and for bloggers.

In Summer 2012 such an event was hosted in Copenhagen by Brittany Watson Jepson (House That Lars Built) L and Maria Helgstrand (Wallnut) L. They asked seven lifestyle bloggers from all around Europe to join them to experience „the best“ of the city. In our BLOG‘NHAGEN-Feature for sisterMAG we do not only want to introduce you to these spots (which are definitely worth checking out if you ever find yourself in the Danish capital) but also show you a unique, environmentally friendly and fun way to experience a city: by golfcart!

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SEE AND SAVE ALL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Meyer‘s Bageri L

LOCATIONS ON

Baum und Pferdgarten L Royal Copenhagen L & The Royal Café L VIPP L Agnes Cupcakes L Coffee Collective L A Xoco L Anton Dam Design Store L Sticks‘n‘Sushi L Ibsens Hotel L & Kong Arthur L Copenhagen by Cart L 03 /1 7

House That Lars Built

Wallnut CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO

Emma’ s Design Blogg

Annaleena’ s Hem

How did you, Brittany & Maria, come up with the idea?

The idea for Blog'nhagen came to us after two specific things happened. First, Maria thought FABULOUS it’d be a cool idea to showcase the Copenhagen BLOGS! by Cart company on my blog. I tried to think of a way that it would best fit my blog without blatantly promoting it. Then we got to thinking that it’d be really cool to bring some friends on an adventure and go around town. I knew I’d be attending "The Hive", a blogging conference, in Berlin so I thought, why not see if other bloggers would be interested in doing it too? So while I was there I tried to get a feel who would be interested in participating and the response was terrific. It took some finessing to figure out how to best create Blog’nhagen but ultimately, we decided it was best to bring bloggers to Copenhagen for a day and treat them to what we thought would be the best things to experience. In that way, we are showing companies some attention and providing some great content for our readers all while having a terrific time and getting to know each other better.

READ THEIR

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AL Dos Family

Dos Family

Pret a voyager

Chasing Heartbeats

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How did you choose the bloggers who participated? We wanted to bring together bloggers who would get along well, but who could all contribute something different to the group. We had two interior design bloggers, Emma Fexeus from Emmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Design Blogg, and Annaleena Karlsson from Annaleenaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hem both from Sweden. These two have a similar aesthetic in that they gravitate towards black and white colors. Contrast that to the girls of Dos Family, Isabella McAllister and Jenny Brandt, who share a DIY/lifestyle blog full of color and craziness. We got Anne Ditmeyer in Paris, a travel blogger of Pret a Voyager with a focus on design, which was perfect because we wanted to focus on a design approach to seeing a city. We also got Ashley Ludaescher, a photographer and blogger of Chasing Heartbeats in Berlin, who offered great photography of the day (you can see many of her pictures in this feature, marked by a AL in the corner). Lastly, we had Thea from sisterMAG from Berlin. We tried to get a well-rounded group of bloggers from across Europe. Ultimately, we had a very good time and I consider it a valuable experience for creating friendships and support from a profession where work is generally done in solitary confinement. 03 /1 9

Monaco Golf Cart

made by GARIA L

B lo g'nhagen Length/Width/Height

2.65m/1.5m/1.2m

The best part Motor High efficient 3-phase AC m otor of this unusual Output rating 3 kW (4 Hp) day of sights and foodie Peak Power 11 kW (15 Hp) places was the way of Max forward speed 40 km/h | 25mph travelling. Copenhagen Max reverse speed 11 km/h | 6 mph by Cart L provided three Range between 40-64 km (depen Golf Carts (made by Garia ding on speed, use, weather etc. ) L) for the nine bloggers Turning readers 2,6 mm / 102â&#x20AC;&#x153; and with those we were Charge time approx. 7 hours (full charge driving around the streets ) Dry weight of Copenhagen. With the 550 kg Payload capacity 2+2-person carts everyone 350 kg / 770 lbs was safely seated and we could explore the city at eye level and in our own pace (which was usually quite fast!). The carts are even equipped with a tablet computer as well as a GPS system. Luckily we had Brittany and Maria as locals with us who were better than any GPS system! Much more comfortable than riding a bike through town, you can still gloat about your environmentally friendly behaviour, because the carts have zero emission and produce almost no noise. si st er M AG

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Amalienborg

Brittany, how do you usually travel in Copenhagen? How was driving the golf cart different from driving a car? Bike! If not bike then public transportation. I moved to Copenhagen from the States where I had a car and used it frequently. Being in Copenhagen you immediately get used to a different pace. It’s assumed that you ride a bike. I hadn’t driven in about a year when Blog’hagen happened and I LOVED driving the cart. It was really great! Plus – because they are so cute – you get a lot of people staring and smiling (which doesn’t happen too much in Denmark). In my dream world I’m only riding one of these carts. But once winter comes I’m sure I’d park it away until the spring. 03 /1 1

AL Maria's home

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Brown Prince Baum und Pferdgarten

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We started out at The Little Mermaid because it’s just quintessential Copenhagen. Then we ate breakfast at Meyer’s Bakery L. Meyer’s is the bakery of Claus Meyer, one of the founders of Noma restaurant (considered the best in the world) and it’s absolutely delicious. We took the breakfast to Maria’s apartment because we wanted to give everybody a sense of a Danish apartment. We then drove through Amelienborg, the palace compound of the Royal Family, to Brown Prince L, a jeweller who makes their jewellery out

of a special African nut. Copenhagen has a lovely and large jewellery scene. We ended up choosing Brown Prince because they work with developing skills for people in African villages. It was too good of a cause to pass up. Then we headed to Baum und Pferdgarten, L which represented our fashion stop. The company is a Danish fashion house which focuses on the mix of opposites: masculine vs. feminie, soft vs. hard. We thought they would be the best fit because they were fresh and young and a good example of Danish design. 03 /1 3

Royal Copenhagen Then we headed to Royal Copenhagen L where we took a painting class from one of their painters. Royal Copenhagen is a very iconic and well-known brand. They are just starting to do these classes so it was great to provide them a little exposure.

We ate lunch right next door at The Royal CafĂŠ L, which is one of my favorite places in the city. The design is funky and fresh and the food is a combination of traditional Danish smorrebrod and sushi, aka smushi.

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AL The Royal Café

Brittany, what was your favourite stop of the day?

I just LOVED the painting class from Royal Copenhagen. That, to me, was the best ever. I’ve been trying to get a tour of the factory for ages and they just don’t do them anymore so I was flabbergasted when they offered this to us. I have a personal interest in plates and painting on plates so I was over the moon.

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AL Vipp After being treated with the most delicious sweets from The Royal Café (you should definitely try their little trifle glasses!), we had to face the crowds of hundreds of tourists on Amagertorv, the place outside The Royal Café – a really difficult endeavour with golfcarts. Our next stop was VIPP L, the iconic pedal bin company. They are Denmark! So clean and minimal. Afterwards we cruised up to Torvehallerne to learn about the best coffee in town (and from what I hear the best in the world! I’m not a coffee drinker so I can’t vouch) at Coffee Collective L and then stopped at Agnes Cupcakes L, which infuses a little bit of Scandinavia into their cupcakes. si st er M AG

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AL Torvehallerne

Agnes Cupcakes Coffee Collective Would you say that bloggers are more social? In a social media way, yes. At this point, I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also super important to maintain a balanced life with in person and online relationships and that is why Blogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;nhagen was created. I find my online relationships satisfying and fulfilling, but they are taken to the next level when we actually meet in person. 03 /1 7

Ibsens Hotel Where do you see blogs in the future? Why is blogging important from your point of view? Blogging to me is like creating my own little magazine or curating my own museum. I LOVE blogging. I love finding some fresh to do whether it be a new project or a new company or a new way of doing things. I really hope that companies realize the value in blogging and pairing up with bloggers who share their same vision. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to connect the right companies with my readers and I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going in that direction.

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On a personal note, blogging keeps me disciplined. I have a routine of blogging in the morning and that is very consistent. It keeps me connected with people who share similar interests and I can grow as a person and as an artist.

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A xoco

We stopped by the hotel where the bloggers stayed at and toured the Hotel Ibsens L. Ibsens hotel is a local hotel which used local designers and artists to decorate. They also have a great green living and sustainability programme at the hotel. Furthermore they told us about such fun and smart things such as jogging equipment to rent at the reception â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in order to keep your luggage light-weighted!

In the late afternoon we headed to A XOCO L chocolates where we got an amazing flodeboller class. A XOCO is a great chocolatier here and they offer a fresh take on the chocolate experience. 03 /1 9

anton Dam

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AL Sticks'n'Sushi

Havnebadet

For a glass of sparkling water and the opportunity to see some of the current Danish design classics, we stopped at interior design store Anton Dam L.

makizushi and temaki, our three golf

After all of us had the time to sit down at one of the really comfortable sofas and couches, we rushed off to Sticks'n'Sushi L, who had prepared a ridiculous amount of their best sushi. Clinging to our bags full of nigirizushi,

created by Bjarke Ingels. We staked

carts raced to meet fellow bloggers at Havnebadet. The Havnebadet of Islands Brygge is a great picnic spot out our blogger's meet-up on the grass area where bloggers from all over came to meet in person. We ate our dinner and enjoyed the last rays of sunshine. n 03 /1 1

the Gallery

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tcl u

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gra

GrandArtClub is both presentation space and online shop for high quality works of art by renowned artists. The platform includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and illustrations of selected galleries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

b .c om

| @G randArtClub L

faceb

m o c . ook

n a r /G

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Explain in your own words the idea of your company. What are you doing? The GrandArtClub is a curated art platform for the online sale and rental of original artwork. People interested in art, collectors as well as companies can browse a wide range of artworks, find their new favourite, pre-test its effect in a virtual room, rent or buy it securely - even by instalment. What was the inspiration for your idea? We have monitored and analysed the art market already for several years. Thereby we found that the Internet as sales channel for high-quality art has been neglected, even though it has enormous potential and covers an existing need for art buyers. Based on our research we designed the GrandArtClub - as a platform for both art lovers and art vendors. We want to establish the concept of buying art on the Internet and make art attractive for a wide audience. What is according to you the benefit of buying art online vs. in a gallery? First of all the general benefits of an online portal apply: the GrandArtClub is accessible 24/7 worldwide. Art

enthusiasts will find a wide range of artworks from galleries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, previously rated by art experts. Many art lovers have a certain „fear of the unknown“ when it comes to visiting an art gallery or they are simply too busy to „scour“ different galleries. These problems are solved by our online presence. Moreover, the GrandArtClub provides the ability to upload a picture of your own room, for which a work of art is being sought. In this way the desired work can be tested in its target environment on size and effect without much effort. Furthermore, our Internet platform offers the ability to run a personal wish list, to activate an „Artist Alert“ or to filter by many criteria. This is not possible in this form offline. Which art style is especially asked for at the moment? Contemporary art is very much in demand at the moment. For example the Chinese-Western fusion motifs by Musk Ming or the disc art by Nick Gentry are highly appreciated in the same way as the works of the „classics“ Picasso, Warhol and Richter. How do you finance your company? 04 /1 5

We have different sources: The first steps were made with our GmbH capital contribution and the renowned German founder scholarship â&#x20AC;&#x17E;EXISTâ&#x20AC;&#x153; awarded by the European Union, the German Ministry and the Social Fund. We have also participated in business plan competitions. At the InnotechPrice we were among the finalists. We won both the Tibb GrĂźnderpreis as well as the Senkrechtstarter competition against 220 other applicants - those prices are financially well endowed. Currently we generate revenues from sales and monthly service packages. How do you earn money? When a customer uses the GrandArtClub to buy or rent a piece of

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art, we receive a commission from the selling art gallery. In addition to our Basic Service, by which art galleries can present their works on the platform free of charge and an enhanced Advanced Service, we also offer a paid Grand Service, whereby galleries are especially promoted on our website, in print and in our newsletters. In addition, the package offers statistics on user behaviour as well as a discounted commission. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? For the next years we have detailed plans. We want to make the website fit for Europe to internationalize in the future. This always involves additional programming, translation, localization,

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legal aspects, new employees, and advertising. Also the page itself needs some improvement and extension. Therefore, it is an realistic objective to achieve this goal step by step during the next five years. In conjunction we also want to enlarge our market share and the number of galleries that we work with. Who do you see as your main competitors? The GrandArtClubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art portfolio is Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s largest online art supply - no other platform combines so many directly acquirable artworks by renowned art dealer in one place. We only work together with selected major art galleries; so amateur artists

will not inundate you with their works. Art rental across multiple vendors is also a novelty. Additional options including the secure payment in instalments, the art installation option or the virtual living room distinguish us from existing portals. Basically, the whole GrandArtClub package with all the services, features and its comprehensive portfolio is a novelty in the art market. What have you done before? Stanislaw Schmidt (28) has a BA in Media & Information and a Masters degree in Information Management from the HAW Hamburg. Through seven years of working for the TargetUp GmbH he gained comprehensive

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experience in the performance-based realization of new Internet portals. As a freelance web developer he helped to develop, program, implement and market a number of external web projects. Karol Domagalski (28) has a degree in communication design with DFI Diploma and BA (Hons) in Graphic Arts and New Media from Buckinghamshire New University near London. After his studies in Germany, China and England he worked for several prestigious design agencies (e.g. Mutabor design, superReal, feldmann + schultchen) as Art Director and Senior Designer. Sebastian Brown (31) worked for more than ten years at FKA Huelsmann, one of the leading and most respected

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art dealers in Hamburg. After the completion of his apprenticeship and besides his everyday tasks in art trade, he became responsible for the IT management and led the traditionally oriented business „in the era of online marketing“. Who was your first team member (in which department) outside the founding team? We got a good web developer to join the team. How did you find your company name? The name symbolizes the business concept of the company - high quality art, so to speak „Grand Art“, using our website to present it in an appealing

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So far your focus is on Germany – do you have internationalization plans already? Sure, of course we want to grow as a company - in part because we want to promote the social debate on art and culture across

national

boundaries,

and partly because the art market „ticks“ internationally. Currently, for example, Chinese artists are very popular. We plan to expand in phases way. Thereby a unique experience is created with many features one likes to return to and where one finds exclusive content - hence the „Club“. How did you come up with your company colours? We have deliberately selected corporate colours where the artworks remain in the foreground and sophistication is communicated. The combination of „gold“ as a primary colour and shades of grey as secondary colours convey these thoughts to our visitors in a sensitive way.

first to Austria, Switzerland and other European countries like Russia and then to the United States, China and India. Most often used software? Microsoft Paint ;) Main food during starting up phase? Depending on our daily form we eat regular meals, but brain food in the form of chocolate and of course the ever-welcome coffee must not be missing. Unfortunately, we cannot show any pizza or cola escapades. All

In which city are you located?

of us pay attention to a balanced diet,

We sit in the North-German art capital of Hamburg.

even if it is getting late ;-) n

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i can do both

SHERMIN VOSHMGIR L interview Thea Neubauer | photos Ashley Ludäscher L

What started as a simple request for a sisterMAG Startup Spotlight, led to a series of meetings during the summer with the result that we would not portray the company but the woman behind it herself. Shermin Voshmgir L embodies Berlin although

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originally from Vienna. She lives the start-up life, even though she sees herself as an artist. She makes films, produces Internet comedy and wants to revolutionize film distribution. Something we trust a woman with so much energy and creative drive to achieve without further ado. When sisterMAG meets Shermin the first time in June 2012, the summer is yet to come. Shermin previously indicated via email that the project

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Cinovu, why we wanted to meet her initially, is currently suspended. She herself also takes a break over the summer having focused 1 ½ years on the development of the platform: "Cinovu was supposed to be a platform where independent films receive their own voice. 99% of all films have simply no distribution or only limited distribution.” Cinovu started of with the ambitious idea to revolutionize film distribution. We want to know from Shermin what actually is wrong in the film industry today. "A large number of films are produced everyday. The quantity is even increasing due to the fact that technology is getting smaller and cheaper. Today virtually everyone can make movies, produce Full HD

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videos by using your smartphone as long as you have a good story and you understand a bit about light and shadow â&#x20AC;&#x201C; without any professional lighting or expensive equipment. In the 50s, 60s and even 70s before digitization you had to attend film school. Not because they taught you how to tell a good story, but because you had to learn the craft of filming. Only there you had access to technology like film cameras and the film development was paid etc. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the only chance to make a career in the industry." Her own life, which she describes as "full of wrong turns", would not have been possible 60 years ago: "Firstly, I studied business administration /

computer science. I completed this degree and finished a PhD, worked in this sector and by my late 20s I suddenly questioned everything, because I realized that it was not entirely mine. As a result I ventured into "filmmaking" and worked 7-8 years in it. Through my latest film, which I have also produced, I came to Berlin for postproduction. In the first week I met my former business partners, who were already working on a project called Cinovu, but just starting. I met them privately and suddenly they offered me a job, which led to collaboration and finally culminated in a partnership. So we tried for the last 16 months to launch this "thing" - sometimes with great success on the marketing side. For various reasons, however, we have stopped now. For me the experience was really exciting, because I have come full circle. I was able to combine both my business management / computer science know-how and my film training in one job. All things I had done before suddenly made sense, because I was able to apply all the knowledge." Everything she experienced as filmmaker herself benefited her work at 04 /1 1

Cinovu: the missing sales structures for many Independent films: "With the growing number of films produced also the number of films without traditional distribution channels increases. The 99% of films without traditional distribution is not a fictional number. Statistics show that even 50% of films running on large festivals such as Berlin, Cannes and St. Tropez have only restricted distribution channels. Sundance and Berlin both show the same figures: each year 6000 films apply, 40 are accepted, and 20 are distributed which is exactly 1%. Then filmmakers are forced, if they even have all the film rights needed including music, to put their work on the Internet.

But how do you find these movies? I hosted my own films on Vimeo and linked there from my website. I then shared it on Facebook and my friends saw it. If they liked it, they might have shared it with their friends, but most videos donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go viral. We wanted to be the platform that brings these films to visibility - not only host them but be a discovery channel. The users would have been offered a specialized platform where they could have discovered films by using various filters: by country, mood, language, length, genre etc. Our aim was not to curate films, because we believe that exactly this curating along the distribution chain

was the reason why 99% of films

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were eliminated. Therefore, we only wanted to the curate the filmmakers to prevent people from uploading their cat videos. Cinovu wanted and I still want to bring movies out from invisibility by offering a platform to viewers where one can easily find the films that are relevant to them as a viewer. I'm not dictating what movies are good, but you decide for yourself. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t - even if I wanted - decide which horror movies are good or bad. What exactly is a good or bad movie anyway? In my opinion the industry has two problems why so many movies are filtered out: There is only a limited number of seats in the analogue world.

There are limited cinemas and seasons, especially as a film print costs a lot of money. TV space is limited. At film festivals you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t got an unlimited number of days, as a result only a limited number of films can run. In the Internet basically nothing is limited except the time of the users, which must be respected, of course. Second, the film industry traditionally curates films - either by economic criteria or by artistic criteria - but always following a dictatorial principle. At the Berlinale there are always many films where I'm asking myself, why they have been chosen. This happens when a small group of people decides 04 /1 22

SNIPPET

the curator." What already started in

films. She worked for 2 years on a monthly series on the subject of democracy, for example. Her last documentation focused on prejudices

blogging, reading and photographing

and was called "Turkish March". Ultra-

(Pinterest), Cinovu wanted to continue:

Independent films by a filmmaker

The democratization of curating.

who produces her own films out of

what is good and what is bad. On the Web, the people themselves decide what they want and they become

A wonderful idea, which will probably never be implemented in exactly this form under the name of Cinovu. The website already shows for several months the short message "Cinovu is

necessity. She knows the difficulties of the industry and will therefore continue to work on the idea of Cinovu - under a different name and with an altered concept.

in intermission". This is also part of

As she wants to shift her orientation

the German start-up capital, the idea

more towards the arts, we ask her

that never made it.

about aesthetic and style of her work:

However, Shermin does not seem desperate and when we meet her again after several months in September, she is full of ideas and visions, projects and experiences, which she tells us about enthusiastically. She wants to be more involved in the art scene. One of her film projects called "Black Veiled Woman" made it as centerpiece of the Critical Art Ensemble for a day to the dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel. She herself is her target audience. Her previous focus lay especially on documentaries, but she also has si

experience in animation and short

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"The high produced is not important to me, narration is my focus. That's not just the story and the plot, but also what you can see in the picture and what disappears from the view. I attach a lot of value to this. Each picture is a story in which you decide: where is the focus of the camera, is it the subject to the left or to the right. I am working more and more in a quickand-dirty style. In the beginning I tried to reach the quality of a Hollywood production with limited resources, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not possible: while doing this you get lost. It was an important lesson for

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me: If you only have a small budget, you need an insanely powerful story.” Is there a story that should be told? "I’m fascinated by the topic “prejudices", but I have already done a movie about

is not reflected: neither in movies, nor in television series. I’d wish for that. So there is not the one story that should be told, but in general more diversity."

it and it just needs cutting again. I’d

At the end Shermin tells us her

wish and that was also one reason

most important discovery in recent

why I made Cinovu that all stories got

months, she has found for herself and

a platform, no matter with how much

which has been clear to us already

effort and how much money they

subconsciously: You cannot pin down

were produced. I’d wish more diverse

Shermin to one profession, one

stories were told: More stories and

passion and one way of life: "I can do

not just carbon copies of always the

both. I can be a filmmaker / artist as

same narrative with the same actors.

well as an entrepreneur. Previously I

Issue N° 4 sisterMAG

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