Hello! I’m Focus Student Magazine. Check out what I have inside!
LIFESTYLE 18 20 38 40
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Calming your senses in Ikast Swimming Center / A Go-To place when you’re in the city Mens Sana in Corpore Sano / Healthy Life 101 10 tips on how to…refresh the ladies summer wardrobe / A couple of fashion tips and tricks that will save you money Trend Report / The Trends of Summer ’14 continue! p10
PEOPLE 14 26
60 Random Questions Tag with Thomas Bredahl! / One of our favorite teachers unwinds Hands-on Experiences / Interview with a furniture student, Michael Daae Christensen p26
CAREER 30 32
10 tips on how to…introduce charisma to networking / If you are enjoyable, then your work will be too How to Book a Student? / You have the job, we have the people!
PERSPECTIVE 4 24 34
Birth of a Student Magazine / Rewinding to day one! In the Atlas of the Clouds / Another life on a different floor Pins are Fetching / There might be something p-interesting going on in California…
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CULTURE 6 10
Erasmus exchange experience / A language all students speak CPH Fashion Summit / What’s going on in the fashion sphere?
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Flowy dresses. Sneakers replaced with flip-flops. Melting ice creams. The fluttering of butterflies. Bright-eyed people... Is it really summer in the air or is it just me? The summer solstice, June 21st, herlads the official beginning of summer, when the sun is at the highest point in the sky, therefore making it the longest day of the year. For most of us, however, the official start date for the season is largely irrelevant. Summer arrives on the day when we are done with school projects and can finally take in a deep breath of freedom. Which only means summer vacation is just around the corner. Waiting all warm and carefree! For students, summer means mostly relaxation, but let’s not get overly lazy about it – use that time for yourself and doing things you haven’t had time to even think of. Seize your summer days and take the time to discover and experiment... I mean look at us, we have decided to create the ‘pinemelon’ – or the ‘waterapple’ – right on the front cover! So just take this magazine and be inspired! Experiment either with food by trying out new recipes yourself – maybe something vegan from page 22, or why not popularising the Foodspotting app in Herning to hunt for delicious dinners nearby, or even with clothing – we have some very refreshing tips for your summer wardrobe on page 38. Discovering means being puzzled by simple things around you. Find them and learn something new every day! The Summer Issue of FOCUS Student Magazine you just picked up (we knew you couldn’t resist the fresh and tasty looking cover!) reveals plenty of inspiration with each twist and page turn. We hope our seasonal recipes and uplifting stories will light some sparkles under your plate and in your heart. Enjoy summer and carpe the hell out of this diem!
Annet Muru Executive Editor
Staff Executive editor
Annet Muru
Sub-editor
Valeria Solonari
Graphic Designers
Alina Vlaicu Annika Ganson
Proofreaders
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Agnieszka Łukasiewicz
Ileana Cocoş Raluca Dumitru Loredana Muşat
Financial manager
Photographers
Wojciech Tomasz Żmijski
Chairman
Edvard L. Tramsen
Writers
Alina Vlaicu Raluca Dumitru Frida Hoffmann Loredana Muşat
Contributors
Special thanks
Maria Bilkiewicz Steffen Christensen Solveig Malvik Theodora Cucu Teodora Alexandra Anca
Uddannelsesby Herning AU Herning TEKO Design & Business School Sita Busk / Magpie Lane Ole Juul / OJ Reklame
Katrīna Eglīte Alexei Patrascu
Illustrators Katrīna Eglīte Alexei Patrascu
Cover concept
Steffen Christensen Marlene Vinther /Photo Assistant
Copyright is reserved. ® Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited. FOCUS Student Magazine uses all the materials with permission from the owners. 2014 ®
THE CREW
What do you believe in?
ANNET “Karma. And doing the impossible.“
EDVARD “Morality.“
WOJCIECH loredana
“Hard work.“
“The power of written words, art, philosophy and everything else that makes me feel free.”
VALERIA
RALUCA
“Reaching as high as you can. And then reach a little bit higher. There awaits magic and possibility... and maybe even cookies.“
“Honesty, love and good values.”
ALEXEI “That the world is a big computer, and I am playing that GTA game!”
FRIDA “God, Myself, Destiny. In ever-changing order.”
ALINA “The power of human mind and soul.”
AGNIESZKA “Imagination, endless possibilieties of pleasure and unicorns...“
ANNIKA “Honesty, following your heart, great design and of course... chocolate!”
ILEANA “Family. They will be there no matter what happens.”
KATRINA “Fateful coincidences, beauty of simplicity and unstoppable passion.”
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Birth of a Student Magazine Text by Edvard Lucius Tramsen Photography by Tine Soerensen
Let me be a bit unorthodox, as usual, and welcome you to my article of how FOCUS Student Magazine came to be, celebrating its 1-year anniversary. I hope that my experiences and the insights I have come across along the way will, in some way or other, benefit you on whichever path you are embarking on.
To start out, picture this: you’re walking home, an idea pops up in your head, transparent and insignificant, yet 12 months later, that idea has become something substantial - a magazine, the very one you are now reading. How does a thought spark an idea into becoming a fullfledged endeavour? I believe it is due to one’s vocation, from Latin’s ‘arcesso’, the summons, the call that draws you in, be it other people, animals or arts. If you’re not engaged in something, which truly shotguns your ambition and commitment, then you won’t be taking the full advantage of your own talents. What do you enjoy? What activity fuels you with energy and joy?
Don’t go the distance by yourself. Use your network. Get feedback. Change and continue to improve.
What are you truly good at? What can you do better than those around you? For me it comes down to creativity and passion, there’s always a steady stream of unconscious ideas seeping into my consciousness. My vocation is to follow that idea, which burns
brightest in my head and heart. One such idea was Focus Student Magazine and so I set out to see where this spark would take me. I saw a need in connecting students of AU Herning and TEKO through inspiring stories; therefore I hoped that a magazine would create a base for dialogue and a meeting point for crossing cultural borders to make friends. As it were, the scope of the project changed along the way and my dream went from being mine alone to belonging to all the volunteers, who have helped bring this magazine to life. I drew on my social capital to find help; initially we managed to gather up a strong team of 5 people passionate about the project and who got on board for the journey. Just like a ship travelling across the sea, you need someone to man the sails, to row the oars and to scout for land. With this, I’ve come to learn an important lesson: even though you hold the wheel and steer the course, you cannot maintain the ship by yourself. Don’t go the distance by yourself. Use your network.
I mean… the yellow spring issue, kind of even looks like an idea doesn’t it? Get feedback. Change and continue to improve. Which brings me to the chaotic catalyst that was creating first issue. Our first meeting acted as an invaluable exercise: the more you learn, the less you know. My ideas were changed and improved, just take a quick look at how the magazine started out! Gradually and sometimes painstakingly slow, my ‘shipmates’ and I took a simple idea in theory and made it into a magazine, which was eventually picked up by the community of Herning, and even ended by being printed in 3.000 copies to help promote our city as a student one. My initial idea had reached a pinnacle and my vocation had fulfilled. I mean… the yellow spring issue, kind of even looks like an idea doesn’t it?
However, behind the scenes of meetings and brainstorming to develop our magazine, there is also plenty of maintenance to be done. For me, the fun lay in working with the team in developing our concept, but in order to finance and build it - I also had to learn the ins and outs: business laws, registration as a volunteer association, budgeting, connecting with sponsors and printers, meeting deadlines and structuring as a leader. I won’t bore you with the details of these tasks, but I will tell you the secret of how I succeeded in gathering the necessary funds: “Hello, serious and established businesses and enterprises, I have a brilliant idea… Oh and some volunteer students - please give me some money to make it through”. The answer was and it still is simple: make a habit of doing the things that others won’t - as read in “The Common Denominator of Success” by Albert E.N. Gray. “Work hard and don’t expect others to do the hard work for you.” Today, I have become a background factor in expanding Focus Student Magazine. New people have volunteered their creativity and passion to continue the project and develop our concept. Annet has become the new editor in chief, Wojciech has taken over the financial part as the foundation of the magazine was nearing close to its end. Now comes the time for new and fresh sparks to ignite ideas and dreams for FOCUS and for all the students of AU Herning and TEKO to help in making this a part of the student city of Herning. I wish them fortunate winds in their journey.
Hello, serious and established businesses and enterprises, I have a brilliant idea… Oh and some volunteer students - please give me some money to make it through.
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ERASMUS EXCHANGE EXPERIENCE
a language all students speak Text by Loredana Musat Illustrations & Layout by Maria Bilkiewicz
Countless parties, plenty of alcohol, blurred memories, international friends, little to no studying, traveling, or long story short: the time of your life – more or less the main words you’ll hear from every student who’s been on Erasmus. Sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it? As an international student here in Denmark, I pretty much got all of the above covered; sure, I was very excited about embarking into this adventure, but my deep-rooted skepticism was telling me that Erasmus wasn’t going to bring me too much novelty. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong!
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BIG CITY LIFE If there is one thing for sure, is that Vienna is no Herning. It took me little to no time to fall madly in love with it. It is the city of architectural wonders, varying from classical to modern styles, of art, culture, music and interculturality in a blink of an eye. One of my favorite places here is Museums Quartier, which as the name implies, is an area where the main museums are, filled with vintage cafes and lovely parks where people dance on jazz, paint, sing or simply enjoy a sunny day. This is exactly what I like most about Vienna: its streets filled with life and music, with a soft perfume only spring can bring; it’s happy, loud and shelters various inhabitants. And let’s not forget the small things, like the multitude of kebab stands, which are always crowded every weekend around 5am by cheerful and most likely drunk young people, or that typical grumpy Austrian cashier who unexpectedly smiled at you one day. It is a sum of places, things, people, moments and actions, which gathered together create this incredible experience that is still developing.
TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL? I’m sure you’ll probably feel like skipping this part of the article or hope to read how the schedule here is easy-fitting, the courses are not such a big deal, all the professors are aware that your main duty while in Erasmus is drinking, so they don’t bother you very much and more of that. Well, not exactly. One of the main reasons I chose Austria was the fact that FHWien, the university I’m currently attending offered plenty of journalism courses – the one thing I have always wanted to study. I was told that this is a very formal country, titles are extremely important and highly prized and that the academic environment is mostly theoretical – I am here to dispute all that. I don’t know how it goes in other areas of studies, but as a journalism student I am on a first name basis with most of my professors and almost all of my classes are focused on the practical part; we spend a lot of time discussing global news, watching documentaries and analyzing current issues from a wide range of interesting topics such as propaganda, media control, mass surveillance, government secrets and Middle East. Another aspect that I like very much, besides the fact that all of my professors have vast practical experience in their fields, is the international backgrounds they all come from. Having professors who are originally from the US, Canada, UK and even Iran, certainly brings new perspectives on the table and gives you the opportunity to better grasp certain facets of the course you’re being taught. Academically, Vienna is everything I was hoping for; the only adjustment that took me a while was getting used to the 75% mandatory attendance rule – but when you enjoy your courses, it’s really a pleasure being in class.
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WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN... If you like having fun, Vienna is definitely the place for you. It has something for everybody, from live rock bars, hip hop clubs, posh parties in which you aren’t sure whether your outfit is fancy enough to get you in or not, to smoked underground clubs with the best electronic music - that last one is definitely my cup of tea. There’s no such thing as a ‘typical’ night out, but it’s usually a twostep process: pre drinking at someone’s place and then hitting the city in search of yet another adventure. Most of the times, you don’t even plan on going out, somehow it just happens. You’ll probably never meet people more willing to go out than Erasmus students – any reason is a good reason to party, and no reason is the best reason. It may be that it’s Monday and there are crazy cheap drinks in ‘Loco’ or it is Tuesday night and you just got out of a 4-hour evening class – you deserve a few beers! Putting down in words what Erasmus is all about is “challenge”. It is a completely different ride for everyone. It is not all about damaging your liver and struggling with dim memories of the previous night, though this is a big part of it as well. But looking at the bigger picture, it is about exploring a new culture, realizing what is it that you really want to do, making crazily amazing friends and speaking their language (when drunk, naturally!), traveling, discovering places and occasionally even yourself, learning all sorts of new things from philosophical theories to silly Canadian slangs. It’s something you have to live! So what are you waiting for? Get going already!
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PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS: Museums Quartier, central area where most of the great museums are; St. Stephen’s Cathedral, impressive gothic architecture with a magnificent tower from which you can admire Vienna; Vienna State Opera, you simply cannot go to Vienna without going to at least one ballet performance or classical music concert; Donau, an awesome underground bar with really good techno music and its personal sausage stand, in case you get hungry and don’t feel like moving;
10er Marie - traditional Austrian Heuriger (wine-garden); Brandauer’s Bierbögen, traditional Austrian food at affordable prices and oversized plates (try the Viennese schnitzel and the ribs!); Stadtpark, Volksgarten and Sigmund Freud’s Park - great places to chill, have a picnic or sunbathe; Stolzenthalergasse 3/7 or the most incredible place by far! Situated in an old (to be read: amazing) building, it has it all: delicious food, good music, plenty of drinks and guaranteed fun!
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COPENHAGEN FASHION SUMMIT 2014 Text by Alina Vlaicu Photography by Alexei Patrascu and Danish Fashion Institute/Copenhagen Fashion Summit
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60 percent of the environmental impact of a garment is during the production phase; 40 percent lies when it is in the hands of the consumer.
Can you guess which is the most polluting industry in the world? Yes, oil. How about the second one? Well, that is indeed fashion. Unbelievable, right? Especially, if you think of the end product of the fashion industry and the first impression it gives regarding pollution issues. The fashion industry is worth $1.5 trillion to the global economy, engages millions of people around the world and connects companies in supply chains that surround the planet every day. Unsurprisingly, fashion is known as the design discipline that defines our identity the most. In fact, the fashion industry is heavily challenged by environmental, social and ethical matters. Eva Kruse, the CEO of the Danish Fashion Institute believes that “by changing the mindset of the world’s second most polluting industry, style and sustainability can go hand in hand”. How true and yet, how hard is that to achieve? But it seems that Eva Kruse knows how to make a difference and in 2009 she created the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the world’s largest conference regarding sustainable fashion.
On April 24th, the third edition of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit took place at the Royal Opera House in beautiful Copenhagen. Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Copenhagen Fashion Summit highlighted the global fashion industry’s most innovative solutions to environmental, social and ethical challenges.
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This year’s Summit gathered 22 international speakers from the fashion industry, NGOs, media and politics. Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, wearing a sustainable custom-made Designers Remix white and blue dress, was opening the Summit by welcoming each and every one to Copenhagen and by calling to action “everyone involved in the fashion life cycle, from production to consumption”. Marco Bizzarri from Bottega Veneta, the Italian luxury fashion house, talked about the role that preservation of craftsmanship has in the success of a fashion brand. Preserving the craft and transferring it onto the next generation is one of the company’s main design challenges.
It requires up to 10,000 liters of water to produce one pair of pants.
Giusy Bettoni, the founder of C.L.A.S.S. – the worldwide multi-platform that creates textiles using sustainable technology and resources, addressed sustainability by presenting current developments in the textile industry. C.L.A.S.S. showcased an exhibition, which included unique sustainable fabrics and outfits from the Spring/ Summer 2014 Weekend Max Mara collection, made in the high-tech fabric - Newlife. Newlife is a certified fabric, having threads that are entirely made in Italy, fully traceable and obtained from 100% post-consumer plastic bottles. Moreover, ten Nordic fashion designers were supported with textiles from the C.L.A.S.S. eco-library and showed their creations in a fashion show outside the Royal Opera House, in front of a jury of fashion professionals like Peter Copping from Nina Ricci, Kai Margrander from Harper’s Bazaar or Margaretha von den Bosch from H&M.
Wash and tumble DRY accounts for 36 percent of the fashion industry’s CO2 emissions.
The energy savings of a reduction of only 3° in the average wash temperature of people in Europe is equivalent to the emissions produced by more than 127,000 cars.
Vanessa Friedman – Fashion editor for Financial Times talked about how our consumption behavior influences the global status of sustainability in fashion. Opening her speech by throwing pairs of jeans in several styles (skinny, flared, washed or low-waist) on the stage, Vanessa Friedman argued that transparency is the key in making fashion sustainable and suggests building a sustainable wardrobe and buying clothes in our own financial interest, not in the brand’s financial interest. Livia Firth, a professional agitator, as she is known, started by turning her blazer inside out, a sign of respect for the workers that made it. Livia Firth makes a call to action, to be active citizens and also marks the consequences of the short supply chains, fast response and low prices on the garment workers, in her speech. Only because
they are at the other end of the supply chain, doesn’t mean that the garment workers have to be “completely removed from our thoughts”, she insisted. Jason Kibbey – Executive director at Sustainable Apparel Coalition addressed the Higg Index. Higg Index is the standardized tool for measuring the environmental and social impact of the apparel and footwear products. When asked about the Higg Index developments, Jason Kibbey talked about future possibilities of rewarding the sustainable businesses. Copenhagen Fashion Summit third edition closed with Eva Kruse’s inspiring speech, inviting the audience to share the knowledge and be ever conscious about its choices, which I dare to ask from you too.
By bringing together top executives from fashion companies, media representatives and leading experts together with 1.100+ public, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit is by far the most important fashion event of the year.
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60 Random Questions Tag with
Thomas Bredahl! Text by Valeria Solonari Photography by Steffen Christensen
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1. TEKO is such a lovely and inspiring place to be in; for how long have you been teaching here? 2 years
11. A book in school that positively shaped you? ‘Creative Man’
2. What’s your favourite activity here in Herning? Going to Fermaten for some music
12. On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about life right now? 8
3. Would you ever leave this city? I did, but came back after 10 years
13. iPhone or Blackberry? iPhone
4. What are your 3 words to describe living in Herning? Easy, creative, home
14. Twitter or Instagram? Instagram
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What’s the hardest part about being a father? Lack of time
Least favourite food? Fish
20. What do you love on your pizza? Chilli
28. What’s your favourite band? ‘Rancid’
29.
21. Favourite drink? White Russian or Gin&Tonic – depends on the situation
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Favourite solo artist? Frank Turner (alive), Johnny Cash (deceased)
30. Favourite lyrics? ‘Soundsystem’ by Operation Ivy
Favourite dessert? Ice cream
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5. What’s your favourite season? Summer, unless we’re talking skiing
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What’s the coolest thing about teaching? To inspire and become inspired
31. If your life were a song, what would the title be? A mix between ‘The Road’ & ‘Photosynthesis’ by Frank Turner
What’s your favourite movie? Any good one…
7. Favourite movie in the past 5 years? ‘Lemmy: The Movie’
15. Vine or Snapchat? None
23. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? Dark chocolate
If you could sing a duet with anyone, who would it be? Tim Armstrong
33.
8.
16.
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Favourite Quentin Tarantino movie? I love them all, but my favorite is ‘Inglorious Bastards’
What’s the coolest thing about teaching? To inspire and become inspired
Weirdest thing you have ever eaten? Cow tongue
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Favourite TV-show that’s currently on? ‘Monte Carlo’
What was your favourite subject in school? Music
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What’s the book you plan on reading? ‘Unboss’
What’s your favourite food? Italian or simply a good steak
32.
Are you married? Yes
26. Do you have children? Yes
Can you master a musical instrument? Yes, the guitar
34. What was the last concert you saw? ‘Southern Gothic Tale’s @ Fermaten
35. How many tattoos do you have? 5-10
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”
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Best gift you have ever received? My kids – I guess
36. What number of question is this? 36 d’oh
37. Dogs or cats? Dogs
38. Water or fire? Water
39. Nike or Adidas? Nike
40. Swimming or jogging? Swimming
41. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of bees? Bear – I’m allergic to bees
42. What sign are you? Scorpio
43. Do you usually smile for pictures? It depends
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50.
What’s your dream vacation? A combination of sun and mountains..??
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Best gift you have ever received? What’s your last country you My kids – I guess have visited? Austria
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52.
Last gift you gave a friend? Tickets for a show
What’s the country you wish to visit? Cuba
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Person you want to have coffee with? Anyone with something interesting to talk about
What’s your favourite colour? Black
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A historical figure you want to have coffee with? Joseph Schumpeter
Least favourite colour? Pink – I’m overloaded due to female kids
48. How do you like your coffee? With a little bit of milk
49. What’s your favourite sport? Squash or skiing
56. If you had one super power, what would it be? Being able to fly
57. What’s one of the scariest things you have ever done? I don’t know
58. What accomplishment are you most proud of? I managed to make most of my teenage dreams come true – that’s a pretty nice feeling
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What’s the weirdest word in Danish? All of them ;)
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60.
Best way to decompress? Slow music, closed eyes, home alone
One last question… Is this the strangest interview you have ever had? No, I’ve had worse
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Need a new bicycle? Or to repair your existing one? Whatever you need, it can always be found or created in our functional workshop.
Opening hours Mon - Thu: 10:00-17:30 Fri: 10:00-18:00 Sat: 10:00-14:00 Phone: 97 12 11 14 Cykelcenter Herning www.cykelcenter-herning.dk
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Calming your senses in Ikast Swimming Center
Text by Frida Hoffmann Photography by Katrīna Eglīte
In the middle of the hilly Ikast, Brande Kommune,
there is an outstanding transparent building. In an obscurely lighted, long and windy bike trip, it was heart-warming to see something so welcoming and colorful. In our case that was the Ikast Svømmecenter.
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The event started at half past seven
of course we were late - and to top that off we didn’t even have 10 Danish kroner to close the lockers. Our only luck was the seriously kind, helpful, young and beautiful staff. As the man stepped into the swimming hall, there was a spacious, almost 4 meters deep, real swimming pool, with tempting spring boards asking for a jump into the blue water. Next to the professional pool, a warm-kiddy-bubbly mixed pool was situated with two slides: one for those who are wearing nappies and one for the adults. In that exact time on every Thursday, the under 16-age group is not allowed to come in for the night, so there was no shouting or water splashing in your face. Hence why the event got the name of ‘Stilleaften’ (‘Calm evening’). And calm it really was.
As half an hour passed
while we were enjoying the changing lights in the pool and the silent rumble of the warm water, a strange noise occurred. My curiosity did not let me stay in the pool anymore, so after a little bit of asking around, we found out that the ‘saunagus’ was just about to start. “I am going to place some water mixed with scented oil onto the stones and afterwards I will fan it around with a towel. It is really hot and you must stay in for at least 10 minutes.” With the risk of toasting to death, we tried it nonetheless. We sat in the lowest bench armed with a couple of ice cubes and the fun was about to start.
After two sessions of this saunagus, our bodies were weightless, super bendy and felt as if we took part in a two week long detox-diet. Another plus factor was that the cottage of the sauna was set outside, so if you were coming out with overheated body, your whole silhouette was like a steaming piece of relief. If it hadn’t been enough, you could have also jumped into the light-colored pool, tried the jacuzzi or gone for another round to the conventional sauna. In the totally empty swimming hall, I had a friendly talk with one of the staff members and he told me that people in Ikast are really open for new ideas and events, and that the swimming pool was trying to fill all those needs; they even had special activities, such as water-biking or special gymnastics according to every age and specification. So if you ever feel
that the gloomy weather is taking over every positive energy in you, I strongly recommend having a lovely and relaxing Thursday night in Ikast Svømmecenter!
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Mens Sana in Corpore Sano
- healthy mind in a healthy body “Mens sana in corpore sano” says a very famous Latin quotation and I personally see it as relevant today as it was back in the time when it was first mentioned.
Living in a world full of pollution, toxins and many other body-harming elements, it is of high importance to seek balance and try to take care of ourselves as much as we can. One of the main reasons some people are unhealthy today is due to the rise in technology and the immense time spent in front of the laptop, phone, tablets and others as such. Just think about this - instead of checking your Facebook homepage every 10 minutes, you could easily spend that time doing other beneficial things for yourself. I know that most of us might think that not reading some of the things happening at the moment, will lead to being, dare I say, outdated, but I guess it’s just time to push aside part of the things one wishes to do and just start looking for oneself more, even though it might seem hard at first- planning is essentially the key here. So in this very busy world and life of ours, there’s also one thing that we have to consider in order to keep us through the day – FOOD! Food is adored by some, maybe forgotten about by others and even hated by a few; but for now we kind of need it in our lives no matter what. But here’s the catch though: not all foods are good and moderation is a factor that most people have problems dealing with. There are so many theories that back up the healthy and not-sohealthy regimes: gluten-free diet, vegan diet, raw-vegan diet, sugar-free diet, you name it! We can do all the reading we want about these and decide upon what we should and shouldn’t eat, just because they said it is the right one. But let’s face it - how much do we trust other people telling us about these things? Technology and science have seen an extraordinary development over the last years, so it means that what scientists state should be rather true, right? And then again, let’s not forget about marketing, which is also trying to get into our heads and make us think the way they want us to.
Text by Raluca Dumitru Photos & illustrations & Layout by Maria Bilkiewicz
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Nowadays, it is actually proven that people question everything. So this leaves me here - I guess the only person we can still really trust is ourselves. And guess what? Our body is a pretty intelligent machine, which knows better than anyone else how to react to the things it dislikes and to treasure the ones it does like. Therefore, trying to digest all of the information about food that you get without filtering it, will lead to no good. If you feel like gluten works for you - then go for it. Don’t follow the vegan craze just because it’s trendy nowadays, but instead get informed, test it, see your body’s reaction to it and then make up your mind. Every human body is so different from each other, that there’s no ideal diet recipe out there - each of us should have their own customized diet! For the body to be healthy, motion and movement are really important, for they are the ones who keep you active, healthy and lively. Of course, food and motion have to go hand in hand in order to achieve the desired goal and to feel that you did the best you could for yourself. For movement, there are all sorts of activities to be done, be it yoga, dancing, running, swimming, kick-boxing or any type of team sport. Every activity works and as long as you like it and you feel it reaches out to you, making you feel complete, then you’re on the right track. And then there’s the mind. Our very complicated and extraordinary mind. The mind is harder to please I guess, because it’s always bombarded with information and thoughts. However if we choose to digest this continuous flow of information and to keep our minds clean, then this should be a sign of a correct feeding. But let’s not forget about the love that one should gather around him and accept, because love as I see, it is the most powerful food for the mind and the soul - a healthy mind and body start right here. Personally, I enjoy trying out vegan and raw vegan recipes, and the ones on the next page are two of my all-time favorite try-outs. So, in order to make that tummy of yours happy and eventually your whole body and mind, I say you better start cooking!
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m frosting with Coconut Crea ke Ca ot rr Ca n ga Ve Sweet Tooth gredients:
ed Fold in: nuts, chopp cup raw wal 3 1/ In s et W k (I nic raisin on-dairy mil nts: 1/3 cup orga ded 2 1/2 cups n Dry Ingredie ed ll opped shred ro r ch s (o p ilk) t flour 2 1/2 cu ) al used rice m on 3 1/2 cups oa ti extract (op carrots 1 tsp vanilla oats) Frosting: zed orange ed se ee u ax sq fl ly d onut Cream h n oc es ou C fr gr the p p bs bs T T 3 3-4 ut milk from amon 1 can cocon e ic ju ge an 3/4 tsp cinn & ly grated or king powder fridge 1/2 tsp fresh 1 1/2 Tbsp ba nut sugar 2 Tbsp. coco a d so g st n ze baki Sugar: butter/ ted coconut 1/4 cup mel oil conut sugar 1 1/2 cups co Directions: with ur cake pan and grease yo ide. as es t re se eg d er 0 oven to 22 conut butt e co th y t ea n h fi re 1. P d then el ur carrots an . yo er d d re en sh bl r, e th flou ur oats into chop them in toss en th 2. Process yo d an ients e dry ingred well. wl, add all th bo g in ix m e rg fold. la d a an In 3. the dry edients into this gr in ld et Fo w r. e ga 4. Add th e with su n bi m co d tu e mix re. /oil an conut butter ixture into th m co r e ga th t su el VERY d M te 5. mel ter” will be s. Your “bat in tter. is ba ra d ke ca an ots, nuts a normal rr ke ca li e ot th N in k. at d thic 6. Fold ith a sp ula textured an ooth down w sm , own an p ke e ca l the edges br k batter into th tes - or unti ic u tr in k m ic p 40 7. Pour the h r fo e toot 200 degrees e pan – try th can out of the th om fr and bake at ay t nu pull aw take the coco bowl, and start to in the oven, yer out. In a is la ke k ic ca r th u e th your ke l ta ti n d u 8. While yo an r nut suga it’s cold) co re co su e e th ak h vent from ther wit fridge (m fridge to pre , mix it toge e er th ix in m a ce g la n P usi “melting”. thick! like creamt + add Fr batter looks osting. os spreading fr re vered. fo co , be ge ol id to fully co e in the fr ke or ca St . d ow le ll il A 9. to one week. Serve ch good for up zest on top. ay st ge l il an w or h ke fres This ca
Quinoa Salad Ingredients : ½ cup quinoa 1 ½ cup cold water Cherry tom atoes 1-2 avocados 1 Shredded carrot 1/2 cup kale 1 Tbsp. Chic kpeas 1 Tbsp. Kidn ey Beans 1 green onio n ½ red pepper Lemon Juice Salt & Pepp er
Directions: Add quinoa and water in a saucepan an d boil togeth er until there is no water left Chop tomat . oes, pepper , onion and place in a salad bow l. Add shredded ca rrots. Add ch peas, beans ickand fresh ka le. Add boiled quinoa . Cut your av ocado accordingly and add it to your salad mix. M ix all togeth add a pinch er, of salt, pepp er and squeeze ½ a lemon over. The salad is read y to be enjo This is a per yed. fect summer recipe, because it is fresh and it does not imply a lot of prepar ations. You can alw ays improvi se and add other in gredients, su ch as nuts, raisins, cucumber et c.
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In the Atlas of the Clouds
Another life on a different floor Text by Valeria Solonari Photos & Layout by Maria Bilkiewicz
Seat number 8D, next to the aisle. I put both my carry-on luggage and spring coat in the upper compartment. I can hear two or three languages spoken at once. Most of the people are agitated, all trying to catch a free compartment to put their luggage in, them and all the extra bags of last minute airport shopping. The half an hour delay of our departure flight somehow gave them enough time to remember all the other things they have forgotten to buy. We listen carefully to the pilot when we are told to put our seatbelts on. The air feels stuffy.We get off the ground and we get to compete with the wind that leaves white strokes in the sky. For those few hours on the plane, we become our own little world. We take a squint at one another, within the first hour having said at least one good or bad thing about someone in our head, managing to recognize our voices and laughter up until the second one. I’m flying along with some people I know I will never see again. The most beautiful thing a man does not know how to do, but maybe with the help of others, is to fly. And when we do, we do it with strangers. Everything seems so backwards. 10C, a man nearly in his forties stays fairly stuck in his chair. The fear of flying now seems like an elegant phobia, discretely hidden in a navy suit, from beneath whose sleeve, an expensive watch glows in the sunlight. Two places more in the front, alongside me, sits a couple up until their thirties. He is explaining that he knew nothing about the message received on his phone this morning from some girl, Alexa. His ‘flying’ partner prefers to watch the clouds and keeps her hand soft when he tries to hold it. She is no longer involved; she has landed with her feet on the ground way before the rest of the plane. The flight attendants push their carts up and down the aisle between the rows. One of them has an uncontrolled smile. She seems in love. The other one does not seem impressed; she has seen her like this on other occasions. Whether she got tired of her colleague’s stories or if it’s just pure jealousy, it is still uncertain to me. 6C. A boy’s arm peeks from under his blue shortsleeve shirt; he has mahogany brown hair. He turned towards me earlier, but at first I thought he was looking for the stewardess. This is the first time when he smiled at me. A ‘hello’ and ‘I’m glad you’re also here with me’ smile, and not ‘let’s be the only ones having sex on this plane’. Hmm…maybe we are already doing it in our thoughts. Our ears begin to feel the pressure as the airplane is lowering, seat belts are once again closed and everyone starts the routine before landing. Not him. He turns over his shoulder and hands me a book and a pen. “Write me something nice that I’ll remember you by.” He passes me a ‘Check’ game book as he moved from C6 to D8.
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I write something down and I lean forward to hand him his book back. We have that schoolkids flair, who pass love notes through the rows of desks in class, careful not to get caught by the teacher, and I only pass on the book when none of the flight attendants is paying attention. I filled the blank sheet of paper that comes before the preface, when the plane touched the ground. Next to me, an older woman makes her cross, calm and serene now that she has landed safely. The man in the back seat loosens his handgrip and wipes his forehead discreetly with a yellow handkerchief that guarded him from his chest pocket. I take my bag and coat out. The brown-haired ‘chess player’ struggles to lower his very heavy luggage, and I cannot make my way towards him. His name is Liam; so he wrote in red in our fourth message exchange. I manage to pass, with much difficulty, the first row of chairs, when I stumble upon a tote bag that was just now placed on the floor. I stand a couple of feet behind him so I call his name; he did not hear me. I am ashamed to cry it harder and break the silence and emotion between the two schoolkids from earlier. I try once more and again, no answer. From the seat 6B, an elderly lady stands up. Liam unfolds his jacket and gives her something. It is our book. The lady puts it in her bag and makes a sign; Liam, in return, responds the same. Something very loud cried then inside me – he is mute, he cannot speak! He, without a voice - I, without words…‘Mate’. The aisle starts to shift with both Liam and the old lady making a left turn towards the exit, leaving me standing in the middle of the corridor, without realizing that I am holding up everyone who was waiting behind me. What happens in the sky, remains in the sky. Only the clouds will remember us. And a single page from a book. With no beginning, with no end. Just a preface.
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A growing interest about wanting to know what is going on at TEKO and what other students do in their study departments, has led me to try and get closer to the more visual side of the university, the one that I don’t really get to witness that often. That is why I decided to have an interview with Michael, a 6th semester student studying Furniture Design in the Danish department at TEKO.
Hello Michael, tell me a bit more about the Furniture line here at TEKO. Well, at the moment there are three classes of furniture design (2nd, 4th and 6th semester), each consisting of approximately 20 students. Unfortunately, this line is only for Danish students, so internationals cannot take this program. We have a lot of projects from creating chairs, to interior design and smaller object design, but the interesting part about this education is that there are not a lot of lectures, but a lot of individual work and ‘hands-on’ activity. What about your internships or work experiences so far? I’ve had only an internship so far and I am going to my second work placement at the end of this month. The first time I’ve been to Peru in South America to work in a small family-owned furniture business. There, I had the opportunity to design some tables and I also tried to do stuff myself aside to become a little bit more experienced and to learn how to work in an actual atelier. It was a really applied experience and the chance to design some furniture for a company was a great joy. At the moment, are you working in the furniture design industry? Actually, the Peruvian company that I interned for offered me a job after my internship had finished, but the design in Peru is so much different from the Scandinavian design, so the things that I usually create are not really that compatible to their market. This is the reason why I had to put my design thinking away for a while and do a totally different type of design, if I
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wanted to continue working for and with them. The good part though in all of this was that they were and will always be open to new proposals and aesthetical approaches. How would you describe your design style exactly? I am very minimalistic and I like simple designs that have that wow factor, something that has a small detail or something particular in the design that makes you think “ah, that’s really clever!” That is why I would say it’s interesting to look at what I do, because I hope it manages to surprise you. Is functionality or design more important in your point of view? Definitely, both of them! If there is no functionality in a piece of furniture, then there is no need for that piece, so the divide should be somewhere 50/50 - the classical ‘form follows function’. Of course, design is equally important because people don’t want or better yet, shouldn’t throw money on ugly furniture, but it needs to be functional to contra balance the cost. So it’s all about finding a balance between these two and make them work hand-in-hand. Where do you draw your inspiration from? I am really inspired by Japanese design, because they have a really deeply rooted design tradition, which has really worked through time and implemented into the smallest detail. The simplicity and the culture of their composition and construction are really inspiring. Otherwise, I find inspiration in everyday life, especially by taking the problem-solving approach;
28 mainly, trying to figure out new and personal solutions for ev- Who do you admire from the furniture and product design erything. scene? I really look up to the ‘HAY’ family for their success over such What about furniture fairs? Did you get the chance to go to a small period of time and that they managed to create a sucany of them? cessful business so quickly. But otherwise, Oki Sato from the Yes, through TEKO I’ve been to Stockholm Furniture Fair and Japanese brand ‘Nendo’, a company which designs for big comFormland here in Herning, and soon I’ll go to Milan Furniture panies around the world - I would like to hopefully be like him Fair as well. Each year, TEKO choses a couple of students to go one day. to Stockholm and it’s usually 7th semesters going there, however this year there were some of us from 5th semester who got What is your favorite design item at the moment? chosen, so that was quite excepI think it has to be the flowerpot tional. There were six from each of by ‘Panton’, it is extremely simple, both semesters and the application timeless, has interesting design and took more than a month, having to it is very easy to produce. first fill in an application form and then to go to an interview and then How long does it take for you to again to another one… create a piece (from gathering inspiration to actually achieving the Were these fairs successful for final product)? you? It depends on deadlines. I once manYes, actually they were, because I aged to make a project in just four found someone to produce my furniture, so it was a great op- days and another one took me two whole months. Of course, if portunity participating in a fair like this. It was mostly because you have more time you’re going to allow yourself more of it you get your name out there basically; you get to meet buyers while being in the creative process, to dig deep before you start and people who you might work with in the future. constructing and testing and all that. And what do you have planned for Milan? In Milan it is only my class who is going and we had almost four weeks to prepare something to showcase there, something inspired by classical Danish design. But this is a one-time opportunity, because TEKO has never been with students to Milan before - it is Europe’s biggest furniture fair, so no pressure
What are your future plans after your BA? My main future plan is to continue to work hard, because so far it paid off. I managed to achieve all my goals until now. I will hopefully start working, and if not, I’m going to pursue my Masters degree.
Supported by
All the Small Things
22.03.14 – 22.06.14 HERNING MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART · www.heartmus.dk
Solveig Malvik
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10 tips on...
How to introduce charisma to networking?
Text by Solveig Malvik Illustration by Teodora Alexandra Anca A lot of people find networking scary, intimidating and uncomfortable. But networking can be fun and it can be a great way to meet new friends, business partners and acquaintances. I believe good networking is about making the experience easy and comfortable, not only for yourself, but also for the people you network with. If you can make networking enjoyable and fun for others, people will love you for it and soon enough, networking will become a walk in the park. Most of us need to network either for our job, or in order to get a job. Here are ten very simple tips for making networking easier for both yourself and others.
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Comfort = Confidence. Make sure you are prepared and comfortable at the event. You don’t want anything taking your focus away from what you are supposed to do. Make sure shoes and clothes are comfortable and that they are fit for the occasion.
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Be the host of the party. When you’re a host, your focus is on making sure everyone around you is comfortable and this is the mind-set that makes you a star networker. Talk to people, ask them how they are doing, ask if you can help them out with anything, make sure they are comfortable and having a good time.
Use open body language. Open body language doesn’t only make you look more open and approachable, it also makes you feel more open and approachable. Open body language means an open posture – chin up and shoulders back. Hands out of the pockets, out from behind the back and uncrossed. Use your hands with your palms open and upwards.
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Wear your name tag on your upper right chest. This keeps it within the line of sight when you shake hands and prevents people from having to move their eyes around. And ladies – make sure your name tag isn’t too low on your chest!
Charisma Coach
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First impressions are persistent, accurate, immediate and non-verbal. So make an effort with yours. Smile, reach out your hand and be open, welcoming and friendly.
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To get out of a conversation, point your toes towards the exit and away from the person you’re talking with. The person will pick up the hint subconsciously and you will find them talking faster and wrapping up the conversation.
First impressions are shaped as soon as you enter the room, not at a point conveniently chosen by you, like the point you start talking to someone or finally decide to start engaging. Not engaging and not communicating is as strong a first impression as any other.
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Be the first to reach (out) your hand to people. People love to be seen and acknowledged. This also positions you as someone who’s in control of the situation, which is never a bad thing.
End on a great note. Ask if there’s any way you can be of help, if you can introduce them to someone, if they’re looking to meet someone in particular or if you can send someone their way.
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And when we’re talking about handshakes, a great handshake matters. Not too firm and not too weak. No one likes a knuckle crusher or a wet fish. Also make sure your hand is vertical, not tilted one way or another.
For more tips on charisma in networking, get my ebook on www.charismainnetworking.com or check my blog on www.solveigmalvik.com Yours, Solveig
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book a student
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How to Book a Student? "You have the job, we have the people!" Text by Frida Hoffmann
The innovative idea has popped out from Neculai Deloiu’s mind during the icy November of 2013. He was a participant of the wellknown Startup Weekend, hosted by AU Herning and TEKO Design & Business School. The irony of this story is that the idea was not even chosen back then by his team, so the event passed on without sharing a single word about Neculai’s idea to the public at large. But then, out of the blue, on the 23rd of November of the same year, he made the ‘Book a Student’ Facebook group, of which I have been a member since. The main idea came from personal experience. Neculai moved to Denmark from Romania with his family in the year of 2010, and he has worked in 13 cities and spent more than three years all in all to map the opportunities and the needs of this country’s market as a foreigner. The basis was the fact that students have their own school schedules, which means they cannot commit to full-time jobs or sometimes even to part-time ones, such as cleaning in retail stores from 7am until 1pm, because that would overlap with school or university hours. He realized soon enough that he would be willing to help other students by providing them flexible on and off job opportunities during the scholar year. “You don’t need to invest money; you need to invest your skills!” ‘Book a Student’, as an organization, is targeting three main market groups: private work force seekers, companies in need of physical workers, and those who are looking for intellectual people, capable of working online, without any obliged personal connections. Beside these, the establishment wishes to someday reach to every student from all around Europe, because sometimes they don’t seek for potential employees, but just for someone who can, for example, fix a broken iPhone.
Moreover, I was extremely curious on how he could manage to deal with all the registration and taxation in Denmark, later to find out that the future company is family based. His mother is the one dealing with accounting, while his oldest brother and cousin keep contact with the Danish-speaking customers. That was the point where I could see that this system they have implemented is strongly based on connections. You could say that Neculai has a strong knowledge of both companies and students, as he literally sits in the middle of student to student, friend to friend, or employer to employer connections, which would spread around almost automatically with the help of a good kick-off. And that kick has already taken place. Since the end of that particular November, seven job opportunities have been taken from three different cities, from which one even became a full-time job. The Facebook group has now over 560 members; a mobile application for the private target group with a skill search engine, a professional website and a general student profile database is also waiting to be completed in the near future. Neculai admitted after our encounter that the identity of the company has yet to be developed in order to deliver the right essence of what and who ‘Book a Student’ really is. Personally, I find it a very creative and bright concept and I strongly believe that it will be successful in the shortest of time. We even bet on when will they reach a full 2000 members. He said in July. Let’s hope he was right!
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Text by Frida Hoffmann Illustration/Photography by Katrine Eglite
Right now, I have no clue what to choose. Continuing to play ‘2048’ and trying to break my shamelessly low record, or go to my Pinterest account and busily browse for recipes I will never do, but which look so delightful that I would have to pin them. Every single one of them! The character of this dilemma may visualize me as a social media addict, but I swear I am not. A long and exhausting day including a bike ride in an insane wind situation makes you feel in great need of harmony and beauty – from this moment I am no longer talking about 2048… Pinterest is special in its own way. From this standpoint, I have encountered several types of people around me: one guy has never heard of it; one girl just signed up but she is not using it all, maybe she pinned a dress a month ago or so. And here I come along - the bored student who has the desire for creativity, charm and good ideas and who is using it every single day. Since I joined, lets say perhaps three years ago, I have made 8 boards, I pinned 2239 pictures and I have a total of 69 followers. This is basically zero, nix, NOTHING compared to the massive pinners with 100.000 or more pins in every reachable topic, size, font and color.
You find the home page, make a profile in connection to your Facebook or Gmail account and you let it start. In order to commence, all you have to do is to find a pretty picture, for example of a ‘Do It Yourself’ clothing hanger. Easy and cheap, would look awesome in your tiny and impractical apartment in Birk. So you click on the picture and then you have three options: pin, like or send. ‘Like’ and ‘Send’ are pretty clear, but what the fork is PIN? So you take the chance, click on pin and after all the stress, you have to make a board for your new added pin. You name your board DIY for instance (so smart!) and that’s that. The whole system is supposed to work like a big photo album. You just place your favorite pictures in separate albums. Online. If this has not been enough, you will be amazed by the most advantageous feature of the site: if you accidentally click on the picture you pinned (maybe because your internet froze down due to the enormous amount of information), you will see that a new tab is opening slowly, showing you how to make your own clothing hanger on a separate website from Pinterest. The picture guides you to the source homepage.
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Ben Silbermann, who is the CEO of Pinterest now, started as an undergraduate at Yale and there was no question about that he will become a doctor, just as his parents. Plans started crumbling down, he quit the university, went to Silicon Valley, started to work as a consultant, and ended up making spreadsheets, which is in fact one seriously boring job. After all that aimless spread sheeting, he got a job at Google, but after a while, he gave it up because he wasn’t allowed to build new products. A week after, the entire economy had collapsed. That was the final kick that pushed Ben forward through a rough way to the success of Pinterest. The creative team had dealt with several failures, but finally, in 2013 the website got valued at 3.8 billion American dollars… and now your brain stopped functioning. At least mine did. I am not paying to use the system, so how the heck do they earn money out of this you may ask? The economy geeks out there call it ‘infant monetization strategy’. From this refreshing expression, the ‘infant’ refers to the newly status, the ‘strategy’ is self-explanatory and the ‘monetization’ is the key. Changing something notional into something physical. In this case, Pinterest founders started with no revenue and no charge of the user, and they didn’t even ask for money for promoted pins or ads. They however, showed to potential investors their endless field of opportunities and slowly afterwards, when the system had taken them in, finally started to charge.
Collecting pictures from other people, sharing them and keeping your memories and ideas intact in your own online album is something inspiring, relaxing and deeply functional altogether. In the first year or two, I thought that this was just pure fun, but since I started working with visual techniques and therefore needed inspiration, I now use Pinterest as a tool for my studies as well, and surely I am not the only one. It represents a part of my every day life, whether its is searching for recipes, beauty tricks, new wallpapers for my phone, fancy layouts for my school projects or even tricks on how to get rid of stains caused by my insane coffee making habits. Pinterest is going to be a significant business in a short time no doubt, due to its catchy design and smart policy, and there already are pinners such as Justina Blakeney, Astrid, Pennyweight or Sarah Dobson, who have been noticed and earned fame and popularity because of it. They are of course only a fraction of Pinterest’s slight number of 70 million users. My goal here is not to promote Pinterest, but to give you a sense of why you should try it at least once. Who knows, maybe one day you will become a millionaire thanks to it and in that case you could send me a thank you card…
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Skal vi lige konfigurere den for dig? Har du brug for mere power? Hos Eplehuset kan vi konfigurere din nye Mac - og så får du tilmed studierabat, hvis du er over 18 år.*
*Gælder ved fremvisning af gyldigt studiekort samt billedlegitimation i en af Eplehusets butikker. Gælder ikke i Eplehusets webshop. Der kan ved konfigurering af maskiner forekomme længere leveringstid.
Eplehuset Herning - Lad dig begejstre Torvet 1A - T 33 34 66 00 TM and © 2014 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.
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10 TIPS ON HOW TO... refresh ladies summer wardrobe!
1. The Triangle Bra Total freedom of choice on fabric, from leather to jersey or whatever else makes you comfortable or sexy. Cut two identical triangles that will cover your breasts, measure the length from the bottom of your breast to the tip, then measure again half of it from the middle of the bottom and form a triangle with the tip point. Cut it off and sow the dart round the bottom line,
add on some straps in according lengths and voila! 2. The Oversized Vest Raw edges are so in this summer! You can get that by using that oversized jacket you never wear and simply cutting the sleeves and the lining off. 3. ‘Chanel’ Sweater For the chilly summer nights, cut off those old sweaters up to your waist and 3/4 sleeve
length, open them in the front and embellish the cut edges with the resulted cut-outs. 4. Favorite Jersey Dress Summer is all about easy-towear items. Pick up your favorite loose top item and elastic band skirt bottom and sow them together to obtain a new revived dress. Before starting sowing, remove the elastic band of the skirt and measure the bottom of your top and the top
your skirt, while taking away on the side seams when necessary. The same method could be done on a top and trouser combination to get the effect of an overall. 5. Fancy Shapes Most of us hate large sleeved blouses, but they work perfectly in the summer time. Reinvent the shape by cutting off the front side way shorter than the length of the back sleeve, or the other way around.
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Text by Theodora Cucu Illustration by Katrina Eglite
6. Statement Wraps Braid all your summer scarfs and thin belts into one long colorful ‘rope’. Wrap that on top of your casual dresses to spice up your usual outfit, and not always necessarily around your waist. There are tons of ways to incorporate this fun accent, whether it is crisscrossed or as shoulder straps. Think outside the box!
7. Pleats Please! Take all the outdated chiffon (polyester in most cases) dresses, skirts, tops, pants, blouses and start pleating them by ironing firmly. There is no problem if you make a mistake, iron plain again and keep on doing it until you have come full circle. It creates a very interesting and fun effect and it keeps up even after washing. 8. Clean Cut-outs Tired of all your tops/blouses/
shirts? Just cut them asymmetrically on the bottom hemlines. Do that to more than one item and afterwards layer them together to have a different top everyday. This would also be interesting by picking old see-trough tops and layer them to create flashy color combinations. 9. Patchwork Pick two different top pieces that you will never wear
because of the stained/bad printed/ripped/burned front or back. Take the good parts and sow them on top of each other in an unusual patchwork. 10. Sexy back For some more flow to your tops, cut a line from the bottom hemline towards the middle of your back, then fold and stitch it to create a neat and clean look.
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Trend Report RESORT SPRING/SUMMER 2014
Inspired by La Chemise Breton
Text by Alina Vlaicu Illustrations by Alexei Patrascu Spotting trends shouldn’t only refer to buying those up-to-theminute pieces, season after season, only to find ourselves with a soulless wardrobe. That is why, spotting trends should always be a personal, filtering experience, focused on transcendence, with value that stands not in how trendy are the clothes that we buy, but in how expressive and timeless they are. It can be a good cut, a right texture or a perfect shade. Not only sustainably, but also style wise, why not focus more on pieces that can surpass the seasons? With the big fuss that we’re doing these days around sustainability (a laudable behavior, certainly) how about trying to find the right sustainable summer style for this year? Having that in mind, let’s see what pieces deserve to be acquired and how can we wear them!
SAILOR MOOD
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The nautical elements in summer clothing are more than a trend; they are a 160-year-old legacy that keeps progressing and experimenting with each season. Origin In 1858 France, the navy uniform was ‘designed’ by law. They took a white cotton top, added 21 horizontal navy stripes (for Napoleon victories) and cut a boat neckline. Et voilà…la chemise Breton! Coco Chanel took the next step with the navy stripes, welcoming them directly on the catwalk, 60 years later. On her trip to the French coast, she was so impressed by the simplicity and relaxed feeling of the sailor uniform that she decided in 1917 to introduce the pattern in her designs, a more casual option to the belle-époque corsets. More recently, Jean-Paul Gaultier almost made the pattern his signature. “Le Male”, his first perfume, is covered in navy-white stripes. This summer is surely influenced by the laid back attitude of striped tops and blue skies, and we’ll approach this precise feeling by discussing the work of two brands devoted to sheer fabrics, layering and sartorial spirit: Chloé and Marc Jacobs. Summer 2014
Inspired by Chloé Resort Spring/Summer 2014
Is there a balance between a summer relaxed attitude and a men inspired cut? Clare Waight Keller, the head designer of the French house Chloé, is one of those committed to find it. Combining her tomboy signature style with the Parisian spirit, she manages to launch so elegantly urban and relevant collections for the modern women. She dares to put together guipure lace dresses with surf inspired flat sandals. La chemise Breton is only discreetly suggested through elegantly placed striped details. The ‘barefoot attitude’, as she calls it, is gained trough overlapping the structural, tailored pieces made in poplin or silk with the relaxed, oversized outerwear. This Chloé collection is inspiring and good to
42 remember, especially if we plan to invest in timeless pieces this summer. We’re experiencing a contrast again, between fur coats and shower shoes, or even more: a Breton shirt as a fur sweater interpretation, as seen in Joseph Carter collection for Marc Jacobs. Cropped tops and sailor-suit-inspired-sweaters, paired with flared trousers and rib pencil skirts are all set on a relaxing, luxurious atmosphere, almost camping like. The collection shows a variety of stripes made in fur or leather or in thick blue and black silk panels. A joining channel through the fashion seasons, this collection is all French – through the sailor inspired looks, technological – through the geometrical lace, and vintage – through the ’70s inspired accessories. What’s next? The nautical, seaside life left its footprint on fashion for decades and as simple as it is, it keeps on being explored and interpreted. Probably one of the longest running fashion trends, the navy-white stripes, made the Breton shirt a statement piece that is found almost in each respected wardrobe, deserves the investment and never goes out of fashion. A good start for sustainable fashion buying decisions! How to wear it? Wear a Breton shirt with a nonchalant, à la Catherine Hepburn attitude in “Woman of the year”! Combine it with masculine inspired pieces that have a well-made cut. To back that up, almost 100 years ago, Coco Chanel used to pair the Breton shirt with long wide-leg trousers. Follow that tip!
Inspired by Valentino Resort Spring/Summer 2014
TROUSERS POWER From Coco Chanel’s advice regarding the Breton shirt, we continue to the wide-leg trousers. Boyish figures that expose an easy elegance and oversized tailored pieces, are the true representation of the flared, baggy trousers. Origin Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn and Catharine Hepburn are those we need to thank for wearing, transforming and promoting the female trousers. In the same period, when she discovered the stylish navy stripes, Coco Chanel spotted another item that will later become her signature piece, the wide-leg trousers, only this time it happened in Venice. Wishing to change the womenswear forever, Coco Chanel transformed the loose trousers in a high fashion statement. Have in mind that this happened in 1920’s Europe, while women used to wear corset dresses; Chanel being the one that designed and promoted the loose-waist silhouette. Further on, the 1940’s Catharine Hepburn’s style will lead to the future power woman of the 1980’s. In the 1950’s Audrey Hepburn brought a new attitude by wearing the high-waist cigarette trousers.
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Summer 2014 For this summer, trousers bring ‘well-made’ and ‘easyto-wear’ together. They vary from strongly men inspired to sophisticated and flowing. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino have an austere, yet luxurious approach on trousers. Using elegant, almost minimalist cuts and a limited pallet of colors, they’re creating sort of a perfect office wardrobe. Even though matched with double-breasted jackets and buttoned-up shirts, the trousers still have a relaxed feeling. For those summer days, outside the office, Christian Wijnants prepared trousers in linen and perfect cobalt blue. Using sheer fabrics, the young designer is playing with blues, whites and browns matching together sport inspiration and classicwhite-shirt interpretations. When coming to that perfect pair of summer trousers, with a good fit on the waist and a great color, Christian Wijnants is probably having the perfect option. His approach to summer tailoring is silhouette friendly, with simple, straight lines and discreet menswear influences. What’s next? This season brought back the wide-leg trousers in either transparent or more solid fabrics; floor sweeping or just above the ankle. Look for those made in silk, linen or superfine wool and invest effortlessly into your wardrobe. How to wear them? Build up a sophisticated look by matching the peg trousers with a corset in the same color. Add a pair of stilettos! Match those aviators with a pair of floor sweeping trousers and a spaghetti lace top! Inspired by Christian Wijnants Spring/Summer 2014
Wear your bandeau after beach time together with a wideleg pair of trousers. Add flat sandals!
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PICS & PIECES PHOTOS BY Katrina EglIte and Bente Nybo
of the Spring Issue launch
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