Meet the FvF Contributors: Thijs van Velzen

02.05.2013 — 07:00 — 0 Comments

Amsterdam is one of the most diverse cultural capitals in Europe. We are very happy to have Thijs van Velzen as part of the local FvF editorial team opening our eyes to many fascinating personalities that shape the city.

Together with photographer, Jordi Huisman, the curly-haired gentlemen has introduced us to guests that include: 100-year-old artist and publisher, Gisèle d’Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht; inventor and poet, Lorenzo de Rita; and FOAM curator Colette Olof. Thijs has a curious streak – he loves to travel and discover unusual places such as Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in East Siberia, Ramallah in the central West Bank and Firebaugh, the “Cantaloupe Capital” of California.

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This curiosity is the catalyst for the trained engineer and sociologist’s choice to pursue a career in journalism. Discovering the world with open eyes Thijs loves investigating people’s personal motivations and passions while reflecting upon current global issues. When he is not portraying people for FvF, he can be found researching and writing about contemporary technology, science, and societal trends for a number of magazines such as: The Engineer, Disputed Waters and De Groene Amsterdammer.
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Living in San Francisco: Innovation True to Heritage

30.04.2013 — 03:00 — 1 Comments

San Francisco is a Californian hub with a European soul, a cultural mash-up characterized by heavy fog and free love, hippies, hipsters, and steep hills lined with brightly painted Victorian homes. The city is surrounded by open water on three sides; the Golden Gate Bridge- an Art Deco beacon in bold International Orange–stretches across the bay to the north, the Bay Bridge, currently illuminated in 25,000 LEDs as the world’s largest light sculpture, spans over to the east, and the Pacific Ocean extends out to the horizon on the west.

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Design in the city is clearly delineated from neighborhood to neighborhood–perhaps nowhere in the world does your choice of where to live define your style and perceived world view. The industrial chic lofts and condos in SoMa’s concrete jungle represent tech booms past and present with an ultra-modern edge in what can be a scruffy part of town; shotgun shared apartments that dot the upper and lower Haight tend to embrace their well-loved, well-lived-in heritage with a comfortably cluttered chic that befits their spot at the center of the 60s counter-culture revolution; the Castro wears its rainbow pride proudly; the stately mansions of Pacific Heights stand tall and look out over the pulled together preppies that inhabit the Marina.

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FvF x departure: A Focus on Vienna’s Creatives

25.04.2013 — 08:00 — 0 Comments

Whether one has visited, or has a mere preconceived notion about the Austrian capital, most of us relate a manifested classic with the city of Vienna. A place where time seems to have stopped still. The ostentatious edifices of the Habsburger Empire within the historic city, the contorted alleys decorated with copplestones that carry heavy horses’ hooves – all this contributes to a resolute desire: ‘Whatever happens everywhere else, the city must stay like it is. Forever.’

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The beauty, quality, and deeply rooted tradition make the Austrian capital an indispensable hotspot within the European landscape. However, whoever takes a closer look and shows interest in the creative world is immediately confronted with the problems that come with this territory. As a consequence of the highly cultured heritage, young businesses face great difficulties in getting their names out there.

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The Freunde von Freunden iPad Magazine

24.04.2013 — 18:05 — 0 Comments

If you have followed the development of Freunde von Freunden over the past three years, you witnessed the growth of our magazine, the launch of our first book, and the establishment of our international teams and their respective networks. Now, the time has come to take the idea of FvF to a new medium: The iPad magazine.
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We began thinking about the concept of an iPad magazine back when we relaunched the FvF website to go international, but decided to not go for the “quick fix” which would have been to simply transfer the website to an iPad app. Instead, the goal we’ve set ourselves was to create an independent medium that carries on the FvF idea and translates it into a new context.

Having finished the first internal version of the iPad magazine, we felt like we hadn’t quite reached our own goal. So we worked on the concept, design, and development again to give you the best experience possible. This improved user experience takes the essential features of FvF and combines unique visual and journalistic storytelling with high quality videos and interviews to portray creative minds in their living and working environments.

So, as you can imagine, we are pretty excited to finally present our app to you.

The FvF iPad Magazine comes as a freemium app. The standard version, which is free for everyone via the Apple App-Store, offers access to a selection of ten interviews. The premium version will include exclusive content from the FvF Berlin and FvF Friends book, that has never before  been published, along with pre-published interviews, behind the scenes insights, and content which will only be available on the iPad.

The premium version will be available as an In-App-Purchase for € 2.69 (6 months) or € 4.49 (12 months). Both versions automatically update themselves with new interviews. Besides that, the app provides a built-in video player, as well as iPad optimized gestures. You can use and read the app in portrait- and landscape mode and download individual stories for offline use (Pack&Go).

Thanks to the partnership with Vitra – we are able to give you the premium version for free throughout the launch phase of the FvF iPad Magazine. In Vitra we have found a natural partner that shares our high standards of quality, design, and sustainability.

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To us, the Freunde von Freunden iPad Magazine represents a consistent continuation of the FvF idea designed to stand alone within the iPad context. We hope you enjoy the result as much as we do.

We would like to give a special thanks to the hard-working team of our mother-agency MoreSleep , along with Ulf Germann, Marc-André Weibezahn , and Kay Siegert, who helped make our goal a reality.

For regular updates on our latest content subscribe to our FvF newsletter.

Launch of THE PLANT journal #4 – Interview with Carol Montpart

The Launch of the fourth Issue of THE PLANT journal

02.04.2013 — 07:27 — 1 Comments

THE PLANT is the newest and a most austere incarnation of the classic gardening digest. In its unassuming way this journal about “ordinary plants and other greenery”, takes a simple subject and molds it into rich content from a surprising range of contributors to produce a visually stunning and deeply engaging magazine.

We got the chance to meet up with THE PLANT’s co-founder and co-art director, Carol Montpart, while in Berlin for the launch of the journal’s fourth issue at the Reading Room of Do you read me?! Together we discussed her views on plants, travel, and the ups- and downs of self-publishing a magazine.


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