Take the countries with the lowest and highest elevations in the world, the Netherlands and Tibet. Is there any difference in the typography they produce? While the Dutch types are sometimes considered horizontal and flat-ly curved (thanks to Gerard Unger), the Tibetan script is surely the opposite. It’s a world of vertical, edgy and steep curves, like the mountains where Tibetain script was born.

The Tibetan culture, while slowly but surely vanishing from Tibet itself, continues to settle down in its temporary refugee state, Himachal Pradesh, India, as does the script. It appears most permanently on the stone cuts which carved deep into the rocky range of the Indian Himalaya. You are most likely to see a boulder with a huge mantra reading ‘on mani padme hung’ carved on it. Each syllable has its own colour and meaning. With chanting the mantra a practitioner receives a blessing from Avalokiteshvara, the buddha of compassion. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the incarnation of this divine deity, it’s no wonder that this mantra is so widespread.

Originally the Tibetan script was developed in the 7th century from a Kashmiri version of the Sanskrit script by the scholars who returned from India. This was the time when Buddhism was introduced and the vast need for its own literature began. Currently the spoken language differs greatly from the written form, so much so that as an outsider it’s extremely hard to know whether a letter should be pronounced or is silent (many entire written syllables are silent when spoken). So forget about learning to write Tibetan, just look at these photos instead. These were taken by Sami in Himachal Pradesh, India, while he was traveling there in the Autumn of 2003.

The analogy which compares the Tibetan landscape to typography doesn’t accurately reflect the characteristics of the Tibetan people. In general they are not edgy, sharp nor grand, but humble and compassionate. It’s very easy to recognize a Tibetan among Indians as he’s the one who’s not shouting at you in the market streets.

Still, today many Tibetans cross the border and become exiled to the neighboring countries like India. Many of the people in these photos have walked on high mountain glaciers for weeks to reach the border of Nepal, from where they continue on to India. Walking on these glaciers may sound like, fun but it isn’t. Not only does the extremely cold weather and thin air make it a pain, but so does the fact that they can only walk during the night and they can’t make a fire for cooking (otherwise they’re easily recognized by Chinese). Dharamsala has a special ‘tibetan children’s village’ to accommodate and educate the newcomers. As well as the Tibetan script-photos, these photos are taken all over the state of Himachal Pradesh.

The crowning of year 2003’s brand new Miss Tibet was an extraordinary beauty contest. Tsering Kyi found out that she was the only contestant from the other initial 10 applicants who had shied away before the start of the contest. So the jury had no choice but to choose her! She IS really beautiful, and full of inner strength (she read her own poetry on stage at the contest), which is perhaps due to the fact that she’s from an ordinary Tibetan nomad-family. We need more beauty queens like this!

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Read more about the Tibetans at:
Tibetan Government in Exile

After organising the first edition of the CorelCup, we thought a second edition would be a good opportunity for many teams to regain respect. But probably the Underware-team now lost all their respect while winning the tournament they organised themselves. What a shame! The CorelCup trophy is now hidden at the Underware-office, waiting for the third edition of the CorelCup tournament, hoping that another team will kick our ass, and win the third CorelCup in its full glory.

If you don’t have a sauna, iron or aquarium at home, learn here what you can do with some books and what you cannot do with other books. Yes, it’s all about showing off how brilliant the ‘Read naked’ book is, but we honestly had some fun with this live show. That’s why we want to share it with you, so take a look.

Warning: because the book absorbs water it may take on a new colour (of coffee, for example) and it may grow mushrooms if you don’t dry the book well. So please take care.

This world-premier-live-event was hosted by bookstore van Stockum in the Hague, the Netherlands on 23th of November 2002. Thanks to Ilone’s mother, Guy Tavares and van Stockum!

After a presentation we held in Deventer in 2002, a girl suggested to make a bathrobe out of the ‘sauna-book paper’ (the amazing Neobond paper). Luckily we had a pile of printed papers left. Now we are the lucky owners of a real Sauna-proof-bathrobe, it’s hanging in our studio. Size M, perfect for in the sauna, the breakfast table or for vacation. Thank you Danielle for making this wonderful piece.

Leo Pusa won the World Championships Sauna Bathing for the 3rd time in a row

This time his winning time was 12 minutes and 10 seconds. All at a temperature of… 110 degrees Celsius. Before his final battle he had already been in a sauna three times during the competition. “A Swiss guy, who nearly got into final, told he can practice only once a week, he doesn’t have an own sauna. And he was quite surprised when I told him I practice mostly once a day, sometimes twice. That keeps me in a good physical condition – it’s not a big deal to beat those old men who don’t practice at all.”

Leo Pusa is practicing at his summer cottage place, very close to the city center of Helsinki. At the same area also the current Finnish President Tarja Halonen is spending her spare time at her own small hut. “Let’s see if I will get the invitation to the annual Celebration of the Independence after this!”, Leo wonders. So why he always wins? “I don’t think about anything during the game, and especially not about the game itself”, he explains for us.

Read more about our hero Leo Pusa in the read naked book.

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The World Champion Sauna Bathing-games are annually held at the city of Heinola in Finland.
visit the official website of the games
the world sauna championships at Wikipedia

First edition of the official CorelCup, the indoor football tournament for cultural wannabes. Participating teams: FC Burolamp, FC Coreldrol, FC Dumbar, FC Hansom, FK Lokaal 11, FK Lust, FC NLXL, FC Schwalbe, FC Type&Media, FC Underware and FC Unit1. Five software packages of CorelDraw were won by ‘the worst goalkeeper’, the craziest goal’, etc. First prize was not only a software package of the sponsor, but also a real cup including eternal fame. Well, eternal until the second edition of CorelCup.

Goldberg Institute, Berlin 2002. It was a warm evening, the 10th of May, and the Sauna party was organised to celebrate the release of our second type family, accompanied by the the sauna-proof book ‘Read naked’. To be sure we weren’t fooling around, everybody could test the sauna proof book himself inside a real sauna. The most exciting part was definitely not that parts of the book only appeared inside a very hot sauna, but the challenge to cool down after the sauna. You say: naked, bucket of water, small towel & then… hundreds of visitors you’ve got to pass outside the sauna. Now there you’ve got a personal challenge. The last visitors left at sunrise, making it another legendary party.