Elod Beregszaszi has just released a Japanese Tea House (Tsunami Relief). This origamic architecture card (hand folded and signed), dimensions: 144mm x 103mm when closed 
(envelope supplied) cost only £10.00, free postage, all profits go to those made homeless by the tsunami in Japan. I’ve just received mine and it’s really a cool little help for Japan!

Elod Beregszaszi is a great artist and paper-engineer. He recently has joined our project « Paper Art trends » and is now featuring in the free iPhone and iPad app. Here is a short interview to learn a bit more about Popupology…

Who are you?
My name is Elod Beregszaszi, I am a paper creative living and working in London and Budapest.

How did you come to work with paper?
Always loved paper as a tactile material, and so when I discovered the potential of paper folding I became immediately hooked. Books by Masahiro Chatani got me started in OA (origamic architecture) about 12 years ago and I have been experimenting ever since.

Can you describe your work, your personal style ?
Technically speaking my work is not classified as origami as my designs utilise cuts along with folds.
I am most interested in collapsible “concertina” models which retain an element of kinetic play through the structure. Essentially the aim is to work from a single sheet of paper with no waste and no gluing, using the economy of means to achieve balanced forms that shift between 2 and 3 dimensions.

What adjectives do you use when speaking of paper?
In a word tactile. The most enjoyable part of the process is the folding and the “teasing” of the paper into the desired shape. It’s all about touch and working in collaboration with the material.

What do you prefer in what you do?
Pretty much every stage from the design (drawing) to the final “collapse” is a joy, the experience is dynamic, meditative and absolutely fulfilling.

In your imagination, is paper hot or cold?
Cold paper warmed by the fingertips.

Alex Telfer is an English photographer with a stunning style, detailed and realist. He has just struck gold for the second successive year with the “Most Powerful Image” at the Campaign photo awards. This very active man is reknown for his great photographic work, mostly about faces, scenery or landscapes.
He talks about his early influences, his attachment to the North of England, moving images, numerous awards, his studio located in a church… Read the interview.

Maï Lucas is a wonderful photographer with a very little presence on the internet and we are very proud she gave us this interview…
Maï is an early observer of the styles and creativity people are using to shine on the streets of big cities. She dived into a trendy mix of cultures and photography at a very young age and now creates great pictures inspired by the hip-hop scene she as been connected with, since the very first generation.
Read Maï Lucas‘s interview or watch her portfolio at Askmyagent.

I had that fantastic opportunity talking with New-York art director and illustrator Zso. She is a special creative person, smart, talented, very nice and I have to confess this is one of my favorite interviews on Partfaliaz. Zso talks about her course, her work (digital and traditional) and her experimentations and play with imperfections.
She has a very simple and extremely efficient presentation of her work that is pure inspiration for designers! Her online portfolio is about illustration, she has a terrific blog showing beautiful photos (as well as work in progress and collaborations) and a Vimeo where she publish time-lapse work processes. She also featured as one of 120 of the “most exciting female graphic designers and illustrators” from 39 countries around the world in 2009. Just take two minutes and read the whole interview.

The World According to Geof Kern

Geof Kern stands among the most awarded American photographers. With an unfettered imagination he worked for the most creative magazines and ad agencies. His very distinctive work is a combination of rationalism and conceptualism, inspired by “post-modernist” painters. Geof Kern works on a storyboard before shooting, creating images with a particular cinematographic mood and capturing a very original world. His photographs are exhibited all around the world.

Geof Kern, you are an internationally renown photographer based in Dallas. But where does it all start?
I began my career in the early 1980′s when art and commercial photography were two different worlds entirely. Maybe because I didn’t know any better, I just started photographing what I wanted and people got excited about it. Word spread.
I photographed many assignments for Texas Monthly Magazine in particular and they were seen all over the world, which truly amazed me.
For 8 pages of fashion, for example, I travelled around Texas, to all the remote corners and big cities, and photographed a couture collection on people like fishermen, beauty shop operators, the homeless. That sort of thing wasn’t done then. Other times I experimented with the photographic medium incorporating paper collage with models and sets, but it was more than that, it was the general approach. It was based on changing the way to do things. It was new. I became known as a “surrealist” because there was no other word to describe what I was doing.
Soon I was working for New York magazines. Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone.
Bloomingdales New York hired me to photograph a fashion campaign based on surrealism in conjunction with the Fashion Institute of Technology. Europe started calling, and Japan. It just started.

You attended film school and finally chose photography, why this?
As a teenager in the 60′s I decided I wanted to be a director after seeing films such as Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, Closely Watched Trains, Sympathy for The Devil, 42nd Street (which transported me so powerfully it brought tears to my eyes). As I began film studies in Pasadena California I got drafted into the military. After the war I enrolled in what turned out to be a horrible film school, Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara California. But they were a very good technical school for still photography and I needed to start making a living after school. So I switched. It was a practical decision at the time.

Does cinema influence your style or compositions?
A dramatic moment, a series that tells a story, a story told in one picture, a staged scene: is this cinema influencing me or just how I think visually?
I’m not sure. Early on I loved Buster Keaton, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Tati. The visual directors. Or Jean Luc Godard: Godard always seems modern, his methods of character and free association. Not that this translates into my work literally, but you notice these things and appreciate them.

How would you describe your personal style?
I don’t know. Stylized narrative. Metaphor. Sometimes a little humor. Natural palette. Judicial use of, or notice of, computer imaging.

Do you know how many awards did you get? What are you proud of?
I don’t enter competitions very much, or at all. I should. But I have many awards submitted by the people I have worked for. Two or three Gold Lions from Cannes.
The Nikei Prize, Tokyo. An example of my advertising photography is at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. I am most proud of the Infinity Award in Applied Photography from the International Center of Photography in New York. One of my favorite awards is from the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh who sent me an old fashioned wood and brass plaque commemorating me for photographing (for Esquire) their native son, Pulitzer prize playwright August Wilson. It was very touching to get such an award from outside my profession.

Is the internet a source of influence or a “boring dark cloud”?
I use the internet to check the news, weather, and other practical information. The internet, to me, is a mixed blessing.

Geof Kern’s personnal site.
Geof Kern is represented by Friend and Johnson San Francisco, Chicago, New-York.
Many thanks to Christina for her work.

Permanent collection of the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris as an example of advertising art.
Recipient of the Infinity Award in Applied Photography from the International Center of Photography in New York (ICP)
Lürzer’s Intl 200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide 2008-09
Featured in Communication Arts Photo Annual

Client list include: Matsuda, Tokyo, Neiman Marcus, Samsung, 55DSL, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Sony, LG, Interfaceflor, Mandalay Resorts, Macy’s, Marie Claire, New York Times, Glamour, Mercedes France, Amtrak (Acela), STIHL France, BNP-Paribas Worldwide, Ogilvy Mather Worldwide…

Viewfinders is an original video series profiling the best photographers working today. Launched by Zoom In Online photography on March 2 and sponsored by Adobe, it features photographers who are sometimes shocking and subversive, and always gutsy and innovative. Everyday a new photographer, every month a new focus. A very efficient and interesting series of interview footage.
The last video interview is of Shen Wei (previously interviewed by Partfaliaz about his fantastic series “almost naked”). Shen Wei’s intuitive and sensual approach to portraiture enables his subjects to show their vulnerabilities in both physical and emotional ways. In addition to having his photographs widely exhibited internationally, Shen was hailed as one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2008 and had his work displayed in Times Square. Hear Shen discuss the deeply personal drives that fuel his work, including his most recent project, Almost Naked.

The theme of March was photo-journalism, featuring Erika Larsen, Gerald Holubowicz, Jennifer Altman, Katie Orlinsky, Yana Paskova, Keith Bedford…
In conjunction with the release of their latest episodes, they are currently accepting your portrait photography submissions for publication on Zoom In Online! Do you have a unique take on portraiture? Want to get your work out there? Submissions due April 20th. The Viewfinders Portrait Photography Contest is open to pros and hobbyists alike.

David Gensler, hyperactive and renown creative man talks about his projects (he is partner and creative director of The Keystone Design Union, actually the world’s largest private creative network), his involvement in fashion, his passion for connecting people around design and his vision of fashion, consumption and the Future Craft, a design philosophy he created. David Gensler is the man behind Serum Versus Venum (svsv), Savant, Rochambeau, The Solstice, The Keystone Design Union…
Lire cette interview en Français.

Partfaliaz interview Laurence Chandler, leading partner of Proof7, multi-faceted production and creative company in New-York. Proof7 is known for their T-shirts and fashion collections, their collaboration to product artists books, fashion books or street-style magazines. Laurence Chandler explain how they intend to have responsabilities in tomorrow’s business, in a non-stop city where finance is collapsing. Trend-setters, ambitious and passionnated, membres of Proof7 are facing the futur, they are talented and have fear of nothing. An interview high on style, on Partfaliaz.

Lire cette interview en Français.

Aside from providing our exceptional client list with print strategy we have various internal projects that distinguish us from the competition- for 5 seasons we have released the P7 brand collection at various tradeshows including Magic and Bread n Butter – we have always tried to do something that doesn’t conform to the market – we never showed on the floor but would use our resources to throw events and private suites to meet with buyers and press; we have had the pleasure to work along side such staple brands like Mishka, Mighty Healthy, Reason, King Stampede in putting on amazing parties that pushes the various projects of all brands forward.

Our constant creative endeavors resulted in an amazing relationship with Davey Gensler and the KDUs. Gensler is the madman behind the worlds largest creative collective and we have come together to produce the bi-annual Solstice artbook. The purpose of the book is to showcase the most talented and innovative in design and put together a unique piece that is ad-free and unlike anything out there. We will strategically release these in conjunction with the major market weeks and have created an amazing global following as designers are constantly looking to have their work featured.

We are also launching a highend menswear collection, Rochambeau, designed by the extremely talented Michael Venker, previously with Marc Jaccobs and Helmet Lang. Rochambeau is the culmination of all the experience we have gained through our various projects and is our attempt to be ahead of the curve in where the market is going in terms of male consumers looking more for high design, amazing fabrics, and greater sophistication in their garments. We have been featured in Surface as one of the top 10 new menswear designers to watch and our debut collection sold out of OAK nyc in its first week. There are many major things on the horizon as the brand continues to expand.

All of our projects coexist seamlessly as the worlds of production and design merge to create a constant stream of creativity and expansion – there is never a routine, and never a boring day.

What about Proof7 clothing ? It seems to be wellknown all around the world, particularly in the T-shirt market, do you have in-house designers or is it art collaboration depending on the seasons ? Which artists did you work with ?
P7 clothing is a collobrative effort twice a year where we work with some of the most amazing talents in the world to define that season’s aesthetic. In the past we have worked with Electric Heat, No Pattern, Lex the Flex, Breed, Monaux, Brad Digital, Spaceknuckle, Edgarista, and others to produce extremely dope and often limited releases.

For our new project Rochambeau, we have taken the design in house to hone in on the aesthetic and create a brand identifiable by its extreme quality and attention to detail- Michael Venker is head designer and Daniel Roedler is the assistant- together they form the creative talent behind the brand.

I’ve read that the special environment of NYC is something particularly inspiring for Proof7. Can you tell us more about that ?
Our growth as a company and its various brands has been contingent on the non stop environment of NY- we are immersed in a culture or creativity that promotes entrepreneurialism. When we started Proof7 it was in college with a goal of making a mark in the city- what once may have been a gang became a brand that represented who we are and the lives that we are living- we documented our growth through our website proof7.com and its blog and it has brought us some amazing opportunities.

In NY business might get done in the back of a kitchen in a new dope restaurant over a joint and some Stellas or it might be in the conference room of a major agency. You have to be adaptable to all terrains and willing to take some risk.

Proof7 is dedicated to the production of publications with a vision of quality, how and where do you wish to expand that vision ?
As printers we have a special bias for the value of a printed piece- and so we show pride when producing our own publications. We treat everything with the greatest care b/c ultimately we look at things from a consumer prespective- what would I like to read, wear, buy, and this translates into the creation of our projects.

When working on a publication we will use the highest level of quality in everything from graphic layouts to paper stocks to binding techniques. We provided unrivaled printing quality with the mentality to do things that no one else is doing and it works.

Proof7 is producing The Solstice but don’t proof7 also contribute to it? Some of the artworks are illustrations of proof7 logo, how does this collaboration happens?
In everything we are involved in we like to have our own creative input and we look at these as opportutities to expand our brands audience while putting out the talent of some the most creative artists, photographers, stylists, and designers.

We exist on creating and expanding relationships- for example if a designer is looking to do a book we will work closely with them to create innovative print solutions to make that happen, in return they might create a graphic for the P7 collection or a new sticker campaign, we will then feature that work in the publication of the Solstice and it creates a very organic relationship of give and take.

What are Proof7 projects for 2009 ?
We are looking to thrive while the world crumbles- the old models are dead and we take great pride in being amongst those who are going to be responsible for defining what comes next- in all industries you can feel it- there is a fear amongst the older generations that there is a collapse- which is true to a degree but this void allows for fresh innovation and a new set of priorities. We are pioneers of a new model of business and a new way of living – we don’t work 9 to 5 we exist in a global community of tastemakers and trendsetters who are going to be responsible for the next big thing.

Projects in the works??? keep your eye on Rochambeau, Costa Rica, Silver, many more unique publications, working closely with major global brands, Sour Diesel, charities, time travel, the rebirth of hip hop, Undergrind, the death of the old guard, the girls at lookers, Jameson shots, Sergio “the Salmon” Bello, cellphones controlling your lives and shopping habits, secret membership clubs, more US banks to fail, the explosion of India and China, Newt Gingrich, no more nikes and fitted hats, buying islands, watching the spanish channel and food network, the rise of Kenny Powers, interns, hover boards, juggling, the creation of a new internet that will be much more regulated in the future and the current WWW becoming an enter at your own risk no mans land, creativity, the death of the US dollar, the IMF proceeding with centralizing a global currency, Nuclear power, Paris, Kanye West falling off, jazz, back to basics, people living in bubbles, another debt crisis, vietnam in afganistan, meals in a stick of gum like willy wonka, hot air balloons, lapdances and romances, clean air, and other fine things.

Lire cette interview en Français.

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proof7
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Images courtesy of Proof7. All rights protected.