WHO said hunter-gatherers can’t be cool. You can have a nice back bag, even if you live deep in the tropical rainforest. Just be inventive and use natural resources that surround you. Like this boy from the Yekuana tribe, who live in the Caura River and Orinoco River regions of Venezuela. He hunted a wild boar so he has something to hang over his shoulders. The picture is taken in 1962 by Dutch / Hungarian photographer Ata Kandó.

MAKING a collage is a Zen thing to do. First you chose a background. In my case it’s wooden waste I find in the street. After that it’s time to decide what to make. I prefer skylines and work my way around them. Then comes the most important step, with what kind of material you gonna make the collage? I use old LIFE magazines I once bought on a flea market. The next stage is sitting at your desk flipping mags, cutting images and get sticky with the glue. Before you know the sun is set and you realize you forgot to have dinner…

IT'S nice to do something so new, other people invent a word for it. American graphic designer Herb Lubalin gave letters another role in graphic design. Admirers called the procedure ‘typographic’. Lubalin (1918-1981) was a typography-driven graphic designer. Together with Bradbury Thompson he flattened the road for the role of typography in advertising and visual communications. He didn’t saw himself as a typographer. ‘What I do is not really typography (…) It’s designing with letters. Aaron Burns called it ‘typographics’ and since you’ve got to put a name on things to make them memorable, ‘typographics’ is as good a name for what I do as any.’ Lubalin worked twenty years as advertising art director for Sudler & Hennessey before starting his own firm in 1964. From 1969 he led various partnerships with designers such as Tom Carnase, Tony DiSpigna and Seymour Chwast. Not only letters, but also the words they formed, captured his interest. In the sixties he created as an editorial designer with publisher Ralph Ginzburg three magazines: Eros, Fact and Avant Garde. From the logo of the last magazine later evolved in the complete typesetting ITC Avant Garde. In the seventies Lubalin founded the magazine U&cl (shorthand for Upper and Lower ...

IT’S a rainy day in 1974 in New York. Saul Bass is walking on Fifth Avenue, somewhere around the 62nd street. With his hands in his trench coat, collar turned up, he’s thinking about the movie he’s directing. It’s almost finished; all it needs is a good poster. Since it’s raining, he decides to visit the Metropolitan Museum. The movie is called Phase IV. He needs a powerful image for the poster. ‘What can I use’, he’s wondering while walking through the galleries of the museum, almost bumping into another visitor. Then he sees the statue ‘Ugolino and His Sons’ by the sculptor Jean-Baptist Carpeaux. That hand, wretched with agony… That, with ants crawling out off it! Los Angeles, 1985. Jim Phillips is flipping through a row of movies at Blockbuster. His girlfriend is visiting her family, so he has the weekend for himself. He loves science fiction, contrary to his girlfriend. With her away, there is nothing that can stop him. Well, perhaps that thing he has to do for Santa Cruz, a skateboard company. They want him to design a sticker. ‘Something radical’. Yeah right. Hmmm, what’s this? Phase IV. Never heard of it. Nice illustration. Wait a minute, what if ...

THE Dutch artist Roy Villevoye has a thing with T-shirts. The garment regularly pops up in his work. During his travels in Papua-New-Guinea he discovered that the people of the Asmat deliberately tore up their T-shirts. Villevoye collected two dozen of the ragged shirts. The Asmats start wearing clothes in course of twentieth century. Some think that the rips are a substitute for the scarification the Asmat traditionally performed on their skin. Villevoye only collected the tees on the first day of his visit of a village, reducing the chance that locals started to rip their clothes for a quick buck. One of the nicest of the torn tees is a dirty, white one. The rips are in a vertical series in the belly of the shirt. Another one has the words ‘Terrorsquade, The United States Athletics Division’ printed on it. There a two big cuts on the shoulders. A blue T-shirt, with big sweat stains, has rips in the form of a half circle on the front. The cloth falls out, exposing the Asmat flesh. Another example is the work ‘Jimi & Ndo’. Twenty separate photo’s show a day in the life of the Papua Ndo. He’s sitting in a boat, walks ...

'IN this country, you got to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you got the power, then you get the women', Tony Montana explained on a poolside in Miami. If you are a dictator, its the other way around: first you got to have the power, then you get the money. Your own money. Muammar al-Gaddafi (1949 - ) In power in Libya since a 1969 coup, Gaddafi held no office or title. He is known as 'Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya' or 'Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution'. Gaddafi invented a system called Islamic Socialism, and wrote a three volume with his political philosophy, called the ' Green Book'. Didn't like opposition and send Libyan hit squads abroad to kill dissidents. ............................................. Idi Amin Dada (mid-1920s - 2003) Succeeded to give even dictators a bad name. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is unknown, estimates range from 80.000 to 500.000. His mental state was reflected in the title he gave himself: 'His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord ...

FROM copying sketches and photos for friends, till shiny coffee table books pilling up in the stores, the documentation of graffiti has come a long way. How it all started… The first attempts to document graffiti were made in 1972. Mervyn Kurlansky, a partner in the London-based international design company Pentagram, proposed a collaboration with photographer Jon Naar, famous for his pictures of Andy Warhol. The idea was that they would make a book on a new phenomenon in New York; graffiti art. In the 1960s there was also writing on the walls, but the writers, local kids and gangs, only did it in their own neighborhoods. In the early seventies the territorial function began to fade. In The New York Times of 21 July 1971 stood an interview with Taki 183 (the numerals referred to the Harlem street he lived in) who left his name all over town. The favorite canvas of this seventeen-year-old was the subway. That was also the place where Jon Naar and Mervyn Kurlansky 1972 started their project. On the first day out they met a couple of kids at Harlem’s 155th station. These youngsters were writers and happy to show them around. For the next two years ...

IN some countries in Europe flags have a bad rep. You can use them if the national football team is playing or to remember the World Wars, but in any other way it is considered too nationalistic. Now are most European flags boring. In Europe they mostly use stripes of primary colors in combination with black and white in a vertical or horizontal way. But there are some cool ones that are always welcome on my flagpole. Bretange Pops up on your television screen when the Tour the France is hitting that part of the country. Far more stylish than his grumpy brother, the Bask flag. Also used by patriotic American goths. California Animals on flags are mostly ferocious. Eagles with spread wing and a fierce look in their eyes or lions on the hind legs, clawing an imaginarily, huge sofa. But not this bear on the flag of the State of California. 'If you want to use me as a symbol of your state, that's fine. But I'm not gonna pose. If you'll excuse me, I was looking for some honey', this grizzly most have thought. Greenland When the sun is gone for the half of the year, it's nice to have it ...

ALEXANDRE Lobanov (1924-2002) liked guns. A lot. But being locked up in a mental hospital, it was hard for Alexandre to get the real stuff in his hands. So he drew his own arsenal. Born in Mologa, Russia, he lost at the age of seven his hearing and ability to speak due of meningitis. Alexandre was institutionalized by his family at the age of twenty-three. He began drawing his guns when he was thirty years old. His main subject were guns, along with military and Soviet symbols. In the 1970s he became interested in photography. He designed props, backgrounds and frames. And with the help of a near by studio photographer he made self-portraits. His subject matter strayed little from his taste for detailed self-portraits, often with himself being portrayed similarly to Russian revolutionary icons. His tools were consistent, staying with Chinese ink, pencil, coloring pencils, and felt-tip pens throughout the years. .................................................................... The work of Lobanov is hip hop design avant lettre. Give Alexandre a bottle of Crystal in his hands and ad some booty and diamonds, and you got a classic Pen & Pixel Company cover.

TALK about vintage. This waterproof hoodie is more than hundred years old. Worn by Inuit in Greenland, it's made of the guts from the seal. It is called an anorak. Thanks to a special waterproof stitch, it protected the Inuit (also known as Eskimos) against rain and snow. They used nerves or guts for stitching. It only gave protection against the rain and snow and it was worn over jackets made of fur. In the 1920ties western clothes replaced the anoraks. The life of Inuit depended on making good clothes. As a result they invented the parka, a heavy jacket with a hood, often lined with fur. The word parka was first used by the Aleut Inuit of Alaska.