Sucre Paper #3 – Delicacy by sucre mag

DELICACY #3 Vicki King Marvin Leuvrey Anna Stephenson AimĂŠe Han

Nina Lilliebjerg Emi Ueoka Johannes Breyer Emily and Charlotte Hadden

Index & editors' note

Dear Sucre readers, The artists presented in this issue were carefully selected to discuss delicacies of their craftsmanship and those of their fields, while showcasing their works and creations. Sucre is nisched in the aesthetics of the feminine, the soft edges and the creamy colours, both representing and re-defining it.

4-7 Hadden sisters

We are grateful for all the supporters who bought our first and second issues, and hope you enjoy reading this magazine as much as we enjoyed making it. Love, Sophie Tajan and Angela Blumen

22-23 Marvin Leuvrey

Thus after “Soft tones” and “Matter”, “Delicacy” seemed like the perfect follower which concludes our “Eye-candy Trilogy” - as we would like to call it. In this issue we’ve broadened the spectrum of the art fields with a type designer, a family collaboration and a graphic designer. You will read about work-processes, and about current issues that occupy our contributors.

12-13

8-9

Johannes Breyer

14-15

24-25 Anna Stephenson

Moodboard Aimée Han

10-11

26-27 16-21 Emi Ueoka

Moodboard contributors (reading clockwise): Angelina Bergenwall, Marion Berrin., Arianna Lago, Monica Moraru, Benjamin Evans, Tasya Kudryk, Greg Ponchak, Mimmi Johanna Torell, Charlotte Robin, Richard Gaston, Paulo Wirz.

Nina Lilliebjerg-Heder

Vicki King

Charlotte and Emily Hadden

collaboration

- You are all sisters, tell us about your background and your family business. How did it all start?

From “Playboys” series by Charlotte

Hand painted textiles / towels for Unit D - London Design Festiva by Emily.

Emily&Charlotte: We have always worked together as a family - whether it be working at our parents’ arts and craft store and creative business’ when growing up, or working on shoots together, in front and behind the lens. We grew up in a very creative environment, at the time I didn’t really realise how lucky I was to get to work and collaborate with my family. Naturally we were always going to end up with our own business. Alfie Douglas was created by my parents - both self taught creatives, it was only a matter of time that myself and my three sisters, Charlotte, Jessica and Georgina would get on board and input our own skills. We design and make simple, minimal and functional products - currently working in leather, although we hope to work on many more products as well as offer our own design service. I don’t know any other business like us, we design and produce handmade products here in England, as well as all the branding, marketing, styling, photography and running of the website - at this moment in time everything is done in house by my family, it feels great that we can do this.

From “mnemosyne” series by Charlotte

Emily: I couldn’t say where this came from, maybe it’s because we always like to work organically in natural environments, we never force a creative situation. We shoot in natural light amongst the environment’s textures and tones. I can’t help but feel inspired by bright light, shadows and natural forms - it’s been an obsession of mine for years now. My work is consciously becoming more minimalistic and fuss free, this is something I have learnt from working with my family.

- Tell us about your collaborative process. Emily&Charlotte: At first we may have struggled as we had no structure, we had all these creative ideas but didn’t know where to start. My parents had been developing the products for nearly two years before myself and my sisters jumped on board to create the brand’s identity. Now we all have our roles worked out, my parents still design and produce the products which we all have a creative input on, as well as testing the product out to see how it feels and works. I then decide on the visuals and work with Charlotte and Jessica in creating these images which are then used across all our brand’s online and offline presence. Georgina then works with retailers and press to get our brand exposed. We have our website, social media, blogs, editorials, newspaper and lookbooks to create imagery for and I am always trying to develop the identity to suit the products in a natural way. Our identity is very much as important as our product and I work continuously on ways to develop this.

Alfie Douglas lookbook

Nasty Gal by Emily

- All of you work with soft tones, feminine shapes and a lot of light; where does the fascination for all of this come from? Does everyone have their own story to it or did you collectively get inspired?

Charlotte: I don’t think there was a point where we collectively got inspired, we all seem to have similar interests aesthetically anyway and when working together on Alfie Douglas it just seemed to come naturally. I shoot on film and use natural light for most of my work which does create a softness that I am drawn to. I’m inspired by things that are natural, raw and minimal.

From “Playboys” series by Charlotte

collaboration

Alfie Douglas lookbook

- How did each of you come to their profession? Emily: I went to The Arts Institute in Bournemouth (along with Charlotte) where I studied ‘Visual Communication’ and focused on ‘Illustration’ in my final year - I chose this route as it gave me the freedom to write my own briefs and create work on a much broader prospect. Thinking back, all of my projects were based on fashion, nature, light, shadow and forms... After uni I went straight to London, after a few short internships in fashion I ended up at a lovely little design studio called Colville-Walker. It was just me and two other guys working on big fashion projects, it’s where I learnt everything I know today and was the best two years of creative work to get me going. I was then asked to work in-house at Stella McCartney before going freelance to work on a number of other fashion brands. Now I split my time between personal freelance work and directing all of the creative work that happens for Alfie Douglas. It feels great to work in my own space and in my own time.

Wretch 32 portrait by Charlotte - What are the delicate parts of your work?

Hand painted textiles / towels for Unit D - London Design Festiva by Emily.

Charlotte: I had an interest in photography fairly early on, especially portraiture. Luckily I had a really great tutor at college who encouraged me to go on and study it at university. I chose to go to the Arts Institute and do the commercial photography course where I focused on taking portraits. After graduating I went into the scary world of freelancing and started shooting a lot for record labels and small magazines. Gradually my client list built up as well as my portfolio and I now work for high end fashion magazines on various shoots.

Personal project by Emily

Alfie Douglas lookbook

For Wonderland by Charlotte

Emily: As with each project, the most important and time consuming part is the idea. Sometimes I can spend weeks on this part and role out the idea visually in just a day or two. It’s something I have learnt over time - you can’t force a creative situation if the idea isn’t there, it just isn’t going to work. So for me this is the most delicate part of my work. Charlotte: When photographing people, I find the most delicate part is the interaction that I have with the person in front of the lens. Being photographed can be quite an intimidating thing and it is my job to get something from that person in the most natural way, this is definitely a very delicate and important part of my work.

photography

Aimée Han

Aimée talks about stories, politics, her move from moving to still picture, and the distance she takes to fashion photography.

- What is delicacy to you? Food from different cultures... [Laughs] - How did you go from creating movies into being a fashion photographer? I’ve always loved stories, hearing them, sharing them. Images move me, films move me. I combined everything and pursued film, which is what I did after graduation. The experiences in my first year in the industry weren’t the best, there was rampant sexism and constant harassment. No matter how much I loved the work and being a part of a crew, I was too young and idealistic to pull through. I’m as idealistic as you can get for a person—it’s my worst trait, because you can be impractical at times. I thought: I don’t deserve to be treated like this. Closed an entire set of doors and left. I sometimes regret it... I closed a lot of doors, but at the time I really couldn’t handle the pressure and prejudice. I started working for myself. To be honest, I’m not driven by “fashion photography”. I’m conscious of fashion, I see it as an extension of me, but story telling is what I enjoy the most, and I see fashion as an aid to storytelling—it helps hint our interests, successes, and struggles. - How do places influence you? They are sets you can walk right into.

- Where do you draw your inspiration from? People, places, ideals. - What are delicate issues to you? Issues are only ”delicate” for those who are afraid to discuss the topic at hand. Certain subjects make people uncomfortable because it requires them to stop living in their view of the world and examine other people’s realities. It means they need to care, accept responsibility, maybe even take action. That’s a hassle for most people so they’d rather not go there to begin with. Matters I care about and want to make more differences in: refugees, women’s rights, access to education for children, conservation, and ecological sustainability. They are not all the things I care about, but they are what I can put my hand up for at this stage of my life. As an individual, as part of a local community, and as (please excuse the cliché) a global citizen. - Your photos on your blog often come along with short stories - how come, and do you think text and pictures are complementary? My blog is... mind vomit. In relation to my work—I think it’s less about complementing and more when I don’t feel one form of expression is strong enough. I feel the need to add to it. It’s not the answer to making stronger work, but it’s something I fall back on. I probably assume they complement each other because most of the information we absorb comes in that form. That’s why it always asks you for the picture’s description, right? I mean there’s the image. What do you need to describe. The image? The image is already there. I’m on a horse.

- What is your shooting process? I wish I could have settled in a routine, but it’s different depending on the team I’m working with. - What do you prefer in film compared to digital? Actually, I don’t. I think they are both great tools for a wonderful medium. I personally use film because it is something I’m familiar with. When I use film I place a lot of trust in myself. Film is also important for improvement, because the lessons come at a greater cost. When I shoot digital, there’s constant inspection of the image, and you might take a few photos of the same shot, only to pick the first one for the final anyway. Film doesn’t let you do that. When you click the shutter it better be the best damn shot you’ll ever take. - How does NY influence your photography? Production value. - What are your current projects? Ironically, more writing, I want to finish two feature film scripts (I have the first draft to one). I want to improve my expression in the written word.

Nina Lilliebjerg-Heder

graphic design

Nina is a British graphic designer living and working in New York. Her work focuses on modern Internet culture and combines it with the classical print crafts. - What has been the most formative moment of your creative path? My current position as a designer at High Tide NYC is my dream job. It’s for sure the best design experience I’ve ever had, inside and outside of school. The atmosphere is super relaxed but I’m lucky to have a lot of creative responsibility and freedom, and I’ve learnt a lot about running a design studio and how to deal directly with clients. I’ve realised it’s still possible to maintain an aspect of fun in the minimalist work we produce, and learnt a lot of cool techniques to stay inspired.

Carry On Blast Magazine - You have several zines for sale in places like MOMA and TATE. What fascinates you about zines and about self publishing? Do you think there is a big scene for it today? I think that self-publication is a luxury that most designers like to indulge in, with the knowledge that it probably won’t generate a lot of income or attention. My agency is currently putting together a small zine of summer imagery by artists and illustrators we admire. We want to utilize some interesting print processes and papers and create something super cute and tactile. We recently visited the New York Art Book fair to check out what other creatives are doing in New York at the moment, and made some good connections with other studios.

- What is your working process? I am definitely guilty of a bit of online inspo, but working under my boss, who initially trained as a painter, has reminded me that a lot of inspiration can (and should) come from outside the computer. At the start of a project, we often visit new exhibitions, bookshops, clothing stores and restaurants to get a break from the studio and see what’s going on in real life.

- How does working digital contrasts to working analog (having products only online/on a screen vs holding the designed object in your hands)? I love to be able to hold something I’ve designed in my hands. I get really excited by any kind of print project we’re working on, particularly stuff related to fashion brands. Right now we’re doing a lookbook for a luxury line of leather and ponyhair sneakers. - Which (underground) cultures inspire you? I’m really into automobile accessories at the moment. America is big on custom licence plates.

Holy Moly Zine

Blast Magazine Walker Slater Booklet

Carry On

Holy Moly Zine

Johannes Breyer

type design

Johannes Breyer is a Berlin based graphic designer and co-founder of typefoundry Dinamo. He talks about his craftsmanship, his tools and about things that can happen to typefaces. Favorit is a low contrast, straightforward grotesque typeface with a humorous touch. Together with Fabian Harb.

- What is your creative process when starting on a new typeface? Most typefaces start as custom tailored designs: their kind and appearance is used to reflect on or highlight a particular aspect of a larger project. The commission’s context provides us with a situation to respond to visually, which is a good excuse to spend a lot of time staring at curves. After a while on the test ground, some productions proove themselves worth being developed thoroughly and extended into an autonomous „library release“.

Visual Identity for the "Open Day" exhibition 2013, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. On display: 3 colour Silkscreen poster, Din A0. In collaboration with David Kulen and Panagiotis Panagiotakopoulos.

Grow is a multi-layered typeface system. Its six basic outlines can be piled up to a total of 63 individual cuts: from light line nestings to solid surfaces and spatial creations. Designed together with Fabian Harb and Gustavo Ferreira.

– What is the delicate part about your craftsmanship? To me, type design has a lot in common with, for instance, directing a symphony orchestra or coordinating the journey of a DHL-package from its pickup in Düsseldorf until arrival in Paris, Texas. Wim Wenders reference noted? Designing a typeface family involves a lot of zooming in and out: many aspects of different quality are equally important and have to be considered well, so a typeface makes sense as a whole: You start. You spend days refining the small letter g. You try to understand what Russian Cyrillic characters need to be covered nowadays. You spend another day redrawing mostly everything besides your new letter g. You learn to read and draw Greek characters. The g doesn’t feel right anymore. All that in loops until the moment when you’re busy making sure everything displays well on different computer systems in terms of software. – How come you’ve chosen type design as a path? What I appreciate is a situation in which I can develop, refine and apply my own tools. For us graphic designers, creating typefaces is one way to extend the role of a computer operator into one of an observer and creator. Imagine a DJ not only sampling and playing other people’s music to make the crowd move, but pulling out material he has developed and experimented with himself. So does a type designing Graphic Designer – only whether he is blessed with glamour to the same degree remains to be discussed. Both activities investigate and contribute to their own subject, and doing so shapes an own visual/audiovisual language that defines and is intrinsic to all their following work.

To stick to my metaphor: at one point the DJ/producer will think about where to release his material – hand it over to an existing distribution structure or take care of it himself? What is the context you want to see your work in? That is when Fabian Harb and me decided to start Dinamo.us, home to our own typefaces. They, once made available to others, start their own journey and come back to their author through other designers’ work. Letting go and watching your work mature can be quite enjoyable.

Pareto’s serifs change between Rectangular, Circular & Triangular. Together with Fabian Harb and Erkin Karamemet.

– Tell us a story about one of your typefaces! I will tell you a nice typeface story that did NOT happen instead: Our typeface GROW was in the discussion for the branding of a large Russian producer of electronic water pipes. We didn’t hear back from them at some point – so we can only guess that they went for something less hot instead. Fair enough! – Where is type design heading nowadays? The completely digital development nowadays cuts out steps which once had to be carried out by hand and required particular skills, hours of labour, and therefore also meant financial risk for type foundries. The physical weight and size of hot-type got scaled down to a couple of kilobytes stored on a hard drive. Designers nowadays have software at hand that enables them to produce shapes more precise and specific than ever before. In short, the conditions around the creation of typefaces became a little less painful. Since I regard the possibility to create and self-publish one’s own material as one of the luxuries coming along with graphic design, it seems logical that type design is being rediscovered in order to create a graphical language of one’s own.

editorial

Photography: Vicki King Styling: Francesca Pinna Hair & Make Up: Fiona Barry using Mac Model: Kasimira Miller @ Next

Marvin Leuvrey

photography

Vast landscapes and a habitat-inspired fascination drives Marvin’s photography. He talks about his travels through the USA and his upcoming projects.

- Tell us more about your recent series! At the moment, I’m working on two series. The first one is about astrology and science fiction, and the small series is a work between fiction and reality. I’m trying in these series to mix different kinds of photography, I’m working with still life, portrait, and architecture, but also 3D modelling. The second one is more documentary, I decided to focus on beach and ski resorts off season. - A lot of your landscape/architecture shows vast spaces. What interests you in the subject? The first thing that caught my attention in photography was landscape. Furthermore, I am studying in Switzerland, which has a great landscape photography background. The first topic I covered in school was immensity. My first teacher, Matthieu Gafsou had just published his book called “Alps”. I was born and raised near the french Alps, and this has a big influence on the way I see landscape and architecture photography.

- You’ve travelled through the USA; Tell us about it! This summer I went road tripping all over the “Wild West”. We drove through California; Nevada and Arizona. But photography was not the main reason for my trip. I really wanted to go there to listen to Four Tet driving across a desert, and to listen to War On Drugs while being among bears and squirrels. I surely discovered every place while thinking about every photograph I could take. I wanted to have a new point of view on these American places everyone has seen an enormous quantity of pictures of. The real problem about photographing touristic places is creating something new out of a very popular space. - How does studying photography influence you and make you grow? I am lucky enough to be in a school where I’m taught the two faces of photography. We take as many pictures for an editorial purpose as we do for an exhibition in a gallery. Every semester I find it interesting to experience different lecutrers. Furthermore, the school is also known for its industrial design, graphic design and media interaction design sections. I find it very enriching. Another thing I learned is to work mostly with analog photography which changed the way I work and think. - What is the delicate part of your practice? One of the hardest thing remains not being influenced by all the images we see, in magazines, on tumblr, at exhibitions. I think it has a positive side but it’s also a trap you don’t want to fall into. It is very important to be aware of what’s going on and what is getting published, but I find it important to keep a certain distance. I have the feeling that all the photographers converge into a certain style at the moment, which is quite worrying.

Anna Stephenson

fashion

Anna presents her Master collection, and talks about restrictions and possibilities that come with being a fashion designer.

- Where are you based? As of two months ago I am based in London. I needed a change and London was an obvious choice for me. There are so many great things happening here and I wanted to be a part of that.

- How does being a fashion designer in London differ to New York? I’m only 2 months in so I’ll keep you posted! I’m lucky enough to have lived in two of the fashion capitals; I’m never short of inspiration. I think it is difficult to do it anywhere but it’s hard work, determination and passion that makes the good ones stand out.

- Tell us more about yourself. I’m from a family of four sisters and one brother, born and raised in London. I went to an all girls school where I was heavily involved in Singing, Dancing, Theatre, Art and Design. I am Scottish so I decided to go to Edinburgh (where I spent a lot of my childhood) for my BA in Fashion Design at Edinburgh College of Art. I graduated in 2011. After showing in Graduate Fashion Week in London, I came straight to Parsons, having been awarded the Deans Full Scholarship on the basis of my undergraduate work.

- In an interview you’ve said that you consider yourself an artist and not a brand - how come? Because my identity is completely wrapped up in my work. As I change as a person so do my collections. To know exactly what my ‘brand identity’ is, is too restricting for me. Creativity is about exploring ideas not replicating them. I never want to fully know who I am. How boring is that!

- You took a step away from your previous colourful and blooming collection. How come? I absolutely loved making my BA collection but I was already familiar with that process, and wanted my MA to be a completely new experience. I remember for the first couple of weeks in my new apartment in NY I had posted post-its everywhere that read “Do not recreate your BA collection!”.

- What is delicacy for you? Allowing fabric to do what it wants.

All photography by Anna herself.

- How do you choose your materials & colours? What role do they play in your collection? When I begin a new collection my first step is to take a huge cut of fabric and wrap it around myself. From that I can better understand its character, its drape, its shadows and how it feels against the body. Colour comes secondary for me at the moment.

- What are your future plans? I have an identical twin called Mary. She is an artist, too. We are both very influenced by each other’s work so we’ve decided to try and do a collaboration for the next collection. She specializes in painting and print making so I’m definitely going to take advantage of that for my next prints!

Emi Ueoka

illustration

Gentleness, softness and femininity are the themes that translate both in Emi’s illustrations and our interview with her.

- Tell us about your background! I’m from Japan but I spent some time abroad growing up, because of my father’s job. This included a year living on a small island in the Caribbean and attending university in London to study graphic design before returning to Tokyo. In 2011 I moved to Australia with my partner to focus on illustration. - Your drawings are very delicate and feminine; also some of them have a touch of Japanese culture. How does both your gender and your heritage influence your art? I think I focus on girls mostly because I feel a shared emotion. Seeing a schoolgirl often brings back a memory of me at that time. I’m also attracted to girl-style sensibilities, often drawing a look I admire or can relate to. Being Japanese, I think I’m also drawn towards gentleness, warmth and modesty. I try to draw simply with meaning in every line. - Where do you draw your inspiration from? My everyday surroundings – mostly the people I see in my neighbourhood or local plants and flowers. - Can you describe your style in 3 words? Honest, simple and gentle.

- Tell us about your background as an artist. You’ve studied and worked with design but you’ve decided to focus on illustration, how come? I studied Graphic Design but looking back my university was more art focused. I didn’t really learn too many computer skills, instead I spent a lot of time drawing. Living in Tokyo I worked as an editorial designer and didn’t think being an illustrator was possible. It was only when moving to Australia that I found the time to focus on drawing. It just naturally happened. - How does working with graphic design differ from working with illustration? I used to deal with many illustrators when working as an editorial designer, so that experience came in really handy when I started my illustration career. The major difference I felt between design and illustration was that illustration is more about expressing yourself and personal style whereas graphic design was more about helping others express their vision.

- How is it being a freelancer? There have been ups and downs but I often get encouraged and cheered up by surprise emails. People enquiring about things or just saying hello. That’s nice. - How come you stick to a very limited colour palette? What fascinates you about soft colours? There are always some key elements I like to emphasise on my subjects, like the colour of a bow or a dress. Using less colours allows me to focus on these things. I’m not so fussed about colouring things realistically. About my use of soft colours, I’m not sure why. I’ve always been more drawn towards them, more pinks than reds. When I was little I remember loving the dreamy pastel colours of Sanrio’s Little Twin Stars much more than the reds of Hello Kitty. I guess not much has changed. - Any advice for future illustrators? Just focus on yourself and what comes naturally.

Design info For headers we use: Futura. For body text we use a web font called Mate. We print with the lovely Newspaperclub in Glasgow.

Self published, limited edition of . ..... /.....

Any kind of reproduction of this paper is prohibited All rights belong to the photosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;/artworksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; owners. Design by Angela Blumen. Photo editor Sophie Tajan. Art direction, interviews, etc by Sophie and Angela. Feel free to contact us at sucre.le.mag@gmail.com Or like us on facebook.com/sucrepaper Twitter: @Sucre_Paper sucre-paper.tumblr.com