On the 5th of February 2009 we got an email from Alex with this picture. If you have more information about this (or discover yourself on the picture), please let us know. Thanks.

For our friends in India, Bulgaria and the rest of the world: saying ‘yes’ can actually mean ‘no’, ‘no’ could mean ‘yes’, depending on the tone of voice and gestures. Can something similar be achieved by a written word? Well, probably good authors will manage in a long text. But if you’re not a professional and still want to express a contradiction inside one written word? Yes, this is possible. Or maybe not?
Gollum decides. No, let Smeagol decide.

Very cosy exhibition at a beautiful spot in Helsinki. The location used to be a large army bakery 200 years ago. The corridor was used for drying biscuits. Now you can see Is Not magazine, some posters like Metropolis, Dolly’s party and much more.

In October 2008 Underware offered free copies of the publication Dolly’s party for everyone on our mailing list. You could receive a free copy if you replied with “woof, woof…”.
But some could not stop. Here is the reply of “tarekshaerstudio | tarek”
(more…)

hi everyone,
as some of you might know, doug was nominated by aiga detroit to receive a 2008 aiga fellow award. in addition to several of us giving brief presentations i am asking that you or your studio consider recording a 15-60 second tribute speaking to doug’s contributions in education as well as being an international ambassador of graphic design. this tribute can be light-hearted or serious.
thanks and hope to hear from you.
regards, chad

Hey Chad, take this.

Hello. My name is Bello.
Illustration made for Underware by Rejane dal Bello.

Homework for a studio visit

My graduate class from Syracuse University in the States visited Underware in May 2008. Bas Jacobs suggested we complete a task before we arrived which was to ‘typeset your favorite word in the proper way on paper.’ My favorite word is ‘coagulate’ which means becoming clotted or congealed and is a term most commonly applied to drying blood.

It seemed obvious to typeset the word in blood. I decided to use Auto 2 Italic as a tribute to Underware, and because it had the smooth, unassuming character best represented by slow bleeding and drying. Maintaining the letterforms with an X-acto knife was unsuccessful so a blank tattoo was the answer. The word was set backwards, tattooed on my own leg without ink, then transfered to paper to read ‘coagulate’ in my blood.

The tattoo artist was not a typographer and had never heard of kerning, and the end result was nearly impossible to read despite all the attempts to produce more blood (I insisted he go over the letters again and again and pull my skin to get a good print – ouch!!). But, it was an interesting experience and I’ll always have a faint scar on my left thigh to remind me of my trip to Underware and how far I’ll go to typeset a word in the proper way on paper.

Julie Zack – ISDP Advertising Design Class of 2008, Syracuse University

Shoes for our friends of the Jubilator.