We are back in the new year and start it off with a name we have been closely following for years: Australian photographer Paul Barbera. At the end of last year, the talented imagemaker presented a new volume in his acclaimed Where They Create series — this time by exploring the theme of his series through geographical locales. Reinvigorated by his first visit to Japan in five years, Barbera made this country the focus point of the all new volume.  Published by Frame Publishers, Barbera, accompanied by Japanese writer Kanae Hasegawa, explores the workspaces of 32 leading creatives in Japan. With this considered curation of subjects and Paul's extraordinary eye for iconic details, the new book unveils the sometimes surreptitious nature of contemporary Japanese design culture.

The country is well known for its incredible food, beautiful landscapes, innovative technology and its attitude around perfectionism, that has been been setting a new worldwide bar of excellence from the moment it became known. Most importantly for Barbera in his personal journey is the sense of discovery, of both the creatives and their process, which he has been portraying for years know and is exemplified in his imagery, being able to portray more with composition than words could ever offer (especially considering the reserved Japanese culture) — resulting in quite possibly his most inspirational installment of his by now often copied, but still very relevant Where They Create project. [ Continue reading ]

We are honored to give a little preview of  a new Where They Create story by our friend Paul Barbera. It features the London office of creative agency Wieden+Kennedy, which shows a lot of character, but also the large size of one of the leading offices worldwide. The inspiring ongoing Where They Create series documents creative working spaces from all around the world through the lens of Paul. With Where They Create, the Australian photographer found a way to turn his inherent voyeurism into a form of anthropological research. Looking for absurd and hidden elements within the seemingly normal, Paul enters the studios of international creative people: artists, art directors, architects, designers, stylists  and captures all the details of their personal stories and artistic processes. His curiosity, naturalness and good eye for interiors, together with his ability to transmit emotions and warmth make his project unique and constantly inspiring. From the need many creatives have to transform their offices into intimate spaces, almost like home, keeping things close to be able to create their workspace will almost alway show a lot of personality. Others could work anywhere, travelling with the bare essentials as Paul does, but everybody, even if for a while, leaves personal traces, aspects that don’t pass unnoticed, laying there to be caught by Paul. [ Continue reading ]

Over the past 20 years our friend Paul Barbera photographed all the studios of people whose work he loves and whose space he likes. Over the past years he published the stories on his blog Where They Create and now, finaly, he’ll release his first book, published by… [ Continue reading ]

We love The Selby, we love to have a sneak peek in the lives and interiors of creatives, and we love good photography. All together it makes ‘Where They Create‘, a project by interior photographer Paul Barbera. Beautiful places, through the eyes of Paul,… [ Continue reading ]

Paul Barbera is a lifestyle and interior photographer with a reportage style spanning cultural anthropology to luxury living, who we've been following since the very beginning of Another Something & Co, when we stumbled upon his tremendous Where They Create project. Paul is one of those extraordinary photographers striving to capture the complex emotional honesty of his subjects by reverting to a minimalist approach. He shoots in natural light and avoids overly complicated technical arrangements which permit authenticity and a voyeuristic thrill to come to the fore. Born in Melbourne, Australia and currently residing in New York City (when not on the road or in the air), Barbera has a Bachelors of Fine Arts and now a days is commissioned throughout Asia, Europe and Australia for a broad scala of publications ranging from fashion to documentary. Next to his ongoing Where They Create series, Paul also started the Love-Lost project in which he captures beautiful woman from around the globe. As we've been inspired by Paul for all these years, we now ask him what has been inspirational in his life. [ Continue reading ]

Our friend Paul Barbara shot this lovely series of pictures at Acne HQ in Stockholm for his Where They Create series. No further introduction needed & more images here >… [ Continue reading ]

One of our favorite discoveries of 2024 was a small brand from the Netherlands called De Dam Foundation. While still in the early stages in terms of the products it has released, it already offers a fascinating perspective on the Netherlands and clearly demonstrates its high ambitions for the future through a sophisticated design language and significant depth in storytelling. In a world full of merch brands, De Dam Foundation strives for something more meaningful. However, being independently run, it can only take a step-by-step approach to reach its full potential. To learn more about this intriguing brand, we sat down with founder John Ro. When we spoke with him, we learned that despite the entirely “Dutch” framework of De Dam Foundation, it was actually created with an outsider's perspective. [ Continue reading ]

Photography and art connoisseur Roderick van der Lee was kind enough to write an introduction for our ANOTHER CANVAS collaboration with Sergei Sviatchenko. Inspired by the fundamental question behind the project, he shared his insights in an essay where he offers his perspective on how images have come to move through culture at the highest possible speed, but not without losing their ability to impact it, one way or another! [ Continue reading ]

What is the residual value of an image shared on the internet in today’s volatile visual culture? This fundamental question served as the starting point for our collaboration with contemporary artist and architect Sergei Sviatchenko, known for his pioneering work in collage—a partnership more than ten years in the making. After producing numerous images while working in-house for Atelier Munro over the past three years, we found ourselves questioning: What truly remains of this work once the images are no longer actively used? And what have people actually seen and will even be remembered? To explore this, we invited Sergei to use our publicly available earlier work as the foundation for a new series of art. For which photography and art expert Roderick van der Lee wrote the introductory essay. [ Continue reading ]

At the end of last year, we sat down with our friend Clayton Chambers to talk about the rise of his inspirational menswear platform, Sprezza, and to hear his perspectives on the state of online content and media. We first connected with Clayton in early 2023, right after he had landed in Amsterdam, where he was planning to stay for a few months. We had discovered his inspiring newsletter sometime the year before. Sprezza had launched as a side project during the pandemic, delivering weekly dispatches of Clayton's (micro-)trend-focused observations, outspoken opinions on style, and his personal tastes in contemporary menswear. In many ways, it reminded us of the blogosphere, translated into today’s digital landscape. A few months after our initial meeting, we collaborated on a dinner activation for Atelier Munro during Pitti 104. Soon after, Clayton’s time in Amsterdam ended, but in the second half of that year, Sprezza really started to take off. [ Continue reading ]

Another year in the books. An interesting and beautiful one, with lots of expected and some unexpected changes. With familiar and unfamiliar challenges and destinations. And most happiness to be found in being with the right people. Old and new friends and collaborators. At the right time and place. In all aspects of our lives. (Thank you all!!!) It marked the end of our time in-house creative directing Atelier Munro and the beginning of our independent consultancy practice. It also turned out to be a year in which a lot has been written about what we’ve felt for some years now: how sameness is killing the distinctive quality of our (creative) culture. And how we have to keep on pushing newness even if people don’t think they need it (they are very wrong!). [ Continue reading ]

We recently met up with Rop (/Rob) van Mierlo and Remco van der Velden to speak about their brand Wild Animals. Having just moved into a new space in the north of Amsterdam, which opened the week before our visit, they explained how a new phase is about to start. Having just introduced two new directions of products that will be available next season named Patterns and Flowers, for the first time moving beyond depictions of animals, they are ready to show the wide range of Rop’s signature wet-on-wet aesthetic.

The current moment also marks the end of a period that was dominated by three major brand collaborations, out of which the H&M kids wear partnership had by far the most impact on the duo. It introduced their work to a global audience, but at the same time (for the first time in their existence) it alienated some of their core followers that didn’t appreciate the fast fashion affiliation. Now, they are ready to move on, with a myriad of new insights, and with the space (financially and time-wise) to finally start growing their Wild universe into new realms. [ Continue reading ]

During the pandemic, in search of more togetherness, we collaborated with Jordi Carles Subirà and started a little online network which we named Together&. In the last few months, we evolved a few elements in this endeavour to explore if there's a real potential to upgrade it to a proactive professional network for collaboration and co-creation. Our end goal would be to actively assemble like-minds, in search of resonance between people, projects, products and (freelance) client work. At this point it still lives mostly online, but it will break out of that digital domain more and more in the future to come. For our first (network-only) edition released under the label, we connected the exceptional bio-dynamic Vineyard Dassemus with artist Andreas Samuelsson’s stripped-down essence. [ Continue reading ]

Everything starts with an idea. In our case sometimes thought over too long (Chris) and sometimes done with impetus (Joachim). But when we meet in the middle, we are just about moving at the right speed for both of our liking, all of the time. We knew that for a while now, so this comes as a no brainer - for us at least. As mentioned early this year, some major changes were upon us, and here we are. We are "officially" launching our creative brand consultancy Another Everything. [ Continue reading ]

A few years back we’ve featured Koen Tossijn’s work on his Wardrobe project, a contemporary menswear brand bringing high quality basics. Koen was always charmed by simple things, things that don’t scream for attention but balance between presence and absence. The things he makes reflect the beauty of natural materials and deep knowledge of the best craftsmen in their field.
Recently he shifted into furniture design together with Studio the Future and Sugi Kojo in Ukiha, Japan, in a projected called ‘Together. A chair is made for sitting’ where he designed a chair and a table. [ Continue reading ]

Over the past years, Ashkan Honarvar has been one of the most shared artist here on Another Something. We’ve marveled at many of his projects, and have been following Ashkan for years. His latest project is another very exciting one; this time collaborating with Thomas Bradley, a garment designer working within the framework of costume for dance. The result is a series of 21 collages showcasing Thomas' 14 garments in the extraordinary Honarvar way. [ Continue reading ]

Milan van Dril's IN DE OOST will be one of our favorite publications of 2021. The project with behind the scenes photography was released as part of the extensive campaign for the polarizing Dutch war movie De Oost (The East). A first of its kind, in the tradition of the great American anti-war films, De Oost portrays the 1945 - 1949 Indonesian War of Independence through the eyes of a disillusioned Dutch soldier. A subject matter that hadn't made it to the Dutch cinemas yet, because it ended 350 years of Dutch colonial rule in South-East Asia in a rather shameful manner. IN DE OOST presents a selection of analogue imagery by one of our favorite young Dutch photographers, who has created a time capsule of the set that erupted in Indonesia during the first half of 2019. [ Continue reading ]

Before our little hiatus, we shared the incredible ITEN, one of the Distance book series, by Thibaut Grevet. It portrays one of the world’s most emblematic locations related to running and its culture. The first volume of this collection was devoted to the mythical village of Iten in Kenya. A new publication takes us all the way back, now through the lens of photographer Anne-Sophie Soudoplatoff, who shot the ‘Home of Champions’ for Asics. A beautiful series of abstract, poetic images. Capturing team spirit in vivid colours. [ Continue reading ]

Greek photographer Yiannis Hadjiaslanis shared his latest project ‘Ascension’ with us. Shot on two visits to Mt. Bromo, in 2017, and 2020. Hadjiaslanis work explores narratives of places, documenting locations in Greece, across the Mediterranean and the African continent, he engages with questions of historical memory, the present conditions and speculated futures of lived environments, and their significance for those who live, create, interact and evolve with them. Whit his latest project Hadjiaslanis explores the Indonesian Mount Bromo, an open and bare landscape covered with ash in million shades of grey. A ‘Sea of Sand’. [ Continue reading ]

Over the course of multiple years, both industrial designers Hank Beyer and Alex Sizemore, explored parts of the American Midwest researching eight material origins and their associated processes and history. Resulting in this highly aesthetic project called For the Rest of Us: A Journey into the Intangible Values of Regional Materials and Personal Computing. They’ve travelled extensively, interviewing dozens of people, collecting artefacts and taking pictures. From each material Beyer and Sizemore created a computer, providing a point of familiarity to an alternative reality. [ Continue reading ]

Last year we met with Tim Hooijmans from De Studio, a Dutch design studio focussing on ‘honest objects with more attention and consideration for the world around us.’  Designing products that have nothing to hide, completely stripped down, relentlessly honest, to the core of what that product should be. In a believe that things can be simple, undecorated, raw and even imperfect they created their first product, the Task Light. [ Continue reading ]

As big fans of Noma, we’re interested in everything connected to them. So when we found out about Empirical Spirits it didn’t took long before the first bottles arrived in Amsterdam.
Empirical Spirits is a flavor company founded in 2017 by Restaurant noma alumni Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen. [ Continue reading ]

As we’re slowly putting renewed energy back into Another Something, trying to reframe what ‘blogging’ and ‘curating’ means in 2019, it feels just right to start off with things that are close to our heart. Huck Magazine is definitely one of them. For their latest issue  they asked Flying Lotus as guest curator.  [ Continue reading ]

Satisfy, our favourite technical running brand, is back with the release of the Spring/Summer 2018 campaign RUN! PUNK RUN! They produced a short film as an ode to punk running. Shot and directed by Magdalena Wosinska, the film follows runner and biker Chase Stopnik through the dystopian outskirts of downtown Los Angeles from the empty concrete basin of industrial Vernon to the Mars-like foothills above the 210 Freeway. [ Continue reading ]