Berlin seems to be the ‘Lange Nacht der Something’ city… Museums, Opera, Books, and what else could be missing? That’s right, Design Studios, something that Berlin is very representative of. Therefore, on June 7th, between 19 and 23 pm, Berlin design studios will open also for the night shift! More than 58 design studios in town joined this event, allowing you a rare excursion into their creative spaces.

You will be able to visit exhibitions of special pieces, experiment new prototypes, attend film screenings and talks. All design disciplines will be involved, from Product to Fashion, Furniture, Multimedia and Graphic.

On the official page of the event you can access the map and check the studios involved and the addresses. Studios like Edenspiekermann to MONOQI or Nulleins can be checked on the page… (we wonder why can’t we find some of our and Berlin’s favorites like Hort, Studio Mario Lombardo, Node, Cyan, etc.?!?!)

Soon the detailed list of events and timetable will be updated in the event page so don’t forget to keep an eye on it.

I want these new Mike Mills pillowcases which have just arrived in store with our friends at Third Drawer Down.

It’s only when you go to other countries that you realize that this is not necessarily the case everywhere, so let’s raise our glasses for a moment to the old art book dealer of your neighbourhood, the ones you start missing only when they have disappeared. Sautter + Lackmann is a point in case, which has been holding up the torch for 42 years now in Hamburg, and gloriously so. It’s the place to go for digging into your monographs on Baselitz and Warhol, but for a long time, it was also the only store in Hamburg that was selling mono.kultur, pretty much from the very beginning – so much for stuffiness. And it’s always nice to know that there are some things you can still count on.

Sautter + Lackmann
Admiralitätstrasse 71/72
20459 Hamburg

With Jumpy Potato, one can find various genres of mix tapes with designed covers, including videos and gifs. These mixtapes are made by not only musicians but also designers. Without any commercial concerns, two designers with a strong influence by music are generating the site. What concerns them mostly is to have a playground with a good taste of music from all around the world. Find a mix tape dedicated to a cult name in Turkish music scene from 80s, also known for his surreal videos, here.

Henrik Vibskov, the omnipresent ‘Mehrfachkünstler’ is already at a stage to present his first retrospective in the form of a book. The ingenius designer expanded the notion of fashion, while working towards an artistic ideal of freedom.

The unmissable compilation Henrik Vibskov is published by Gestalten Verlag.

Just after Ryoji Ikeda’s exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof ended, he is back in Berlin with an even larger installation at the former power station Muma (erm, didn’t it use to be Trafo?) called data.anatomy (civic) – the name sort of speaks for itself, since the video and sound installation basically comprises thousands of design and CAD data files that went into the production of Honda’s latest model of the Civic car, which Ikeda was given access to after meeting Honda designer Mitsuru Kariya, which seems quite an extraordinary step for a car manufacturer to take. The result is, of course, vintage Ikeda, meaning you should go, and go now.

Ryoji Ikead: data.anatomy (civic)
April 19 – May 1 2012

Muma
Köpenicker Strasse 59 -73
10179 Berlin

The White Review

Their current and fourth issue has darker undertones of the economic crisis running throughout the content, aligning infectious poetry and fiction, essays on ruins, landscape art and concepts of the future in philosophy with fantastic interviews with political author and journalist Ahdaf Soueif and fashion photographer Juergen Teller – it’s a curious mixture and no mean feat indeed, but all executed with aplomb and pressing passion.

It is strikingly beautifully designed by Ray O’Meara, who adheres to the rules of traditional book design to a point where it almost turns radical – meanwhile subverting the tight grid by slipping in various inserts, a poster as cover and plenty of little details that infect the minimalist traditionalism with a tactility and sense of playfulness that is enviable.

At times, The White Review reminds me a little of McSweeneys’ The Believer, albeit without the pop factor, but generally on a more serious and European note. It’s a surprising and more than worthwhile publication, and one of the best magazines I’ve seen emerge in a while. Highly Recommended.

If you are in Berlin, then you can see for yourself at a presentation at Motto, once again, on April 20.

Facing Pages
April 20–22, 2012
Trans 6
6811 HR Arnhem
The Netherlands

Obviously, we really like playing with the format of the magazine, and we like posters and pages unfolding and so on, but what we really like are strong ideas that relate to the content of the interview. And with the understated subtlety of Borremans’ work, we knew we needed something that was simple yet slightly mysterious at the same time. So when Anna proposed to reproduce Borremans’ paintings in real size, on a scale of 1:1, which is rather ludicrous within our small format, we knew we had hit jackpot – a great idea that refers to the text on so many different levels, without being flashy or self-important. Which is just like Borremans’ work, and in fact, he agreed to it before we could finish our sentence to pitch him the idea (‘Oh, what a cool idea, let’s do it!’). It’s simplicity at its best, and one of those moments that made us really happy.

See more of Anna’s work here.