Sweet indolence

My latest commission for Przekrój, #25 2009. I was asked to illustrate a text about procrastination. It took me all night and the next day I went straight to work, tired as hell.


Additional illo for the second spread.


And another one. Inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Get ready for some urban action

This is a completely new urban magazine about Warsaw. It was made on behalf of Centrum Development & Investments Polska (CDI), a real estate developer specializing in shopping malls all over the country. The reason for making this magazine is their latest investment – the legendary Centralny Dom Towarowy on Krucza street. This modernist shopping mall, commonly known as Cedet, was designed by Zbigniew Ihnatowicz and Jerzy Romański and built 1949-1952. CDI are about to give the building back its original facade, destroyed in a fire back in the '70s. They will also ad a new extension, thus closing the historical Bracka street and making this place the hottest shopping spot in the city. So much about the building. When I designed the magazine I wanted it to reflect the minimalist and modernist look of the building. I chose to use only one colour in the entire magazine. There are only four typefaces used: Hooge designed by Craig Kroeger (headlines), Museo by Jos Buivenga/exljbris (leads), JB Cursive by Jean Boyault (sections) and DIN by Albert-Jan Pool (copy). The retro looking logo is actually the new logo of the shopping mall. It was recently designed by artist Wojciech Fangor. I didn't want to use mainstream photos in the mag so I did a lot of research on blogs and on Flick'r. The black and white picture of Jerozolimskie Avenue on the cover was shot by Phil Moore. You can see the Cedet on the far right. The magazine will be distributed for free in shops and cafés in the city centre. It will also be on sale in larger newspaper stores.


Table of contents (in this case map of contents) based on an old city map from the '70s. Most of the sections here tell about reel places in Warsaw and are thus to be found on the map.


Feature article by star writer and crème de la crème gossip columnist Agata Passent.



Warsaws hottest bar district is located in Plac Trzech Krzyży. The first text is about the bar Szpilka. I made the panoramic shot of the square in the 2nd spread. The black page is a brilliant feature by Tomasz Piątek – writer and bon vivant – summing up the night life at Plac Trzech Krzyży.


Starbuck's has arrived in Warsaw. Good in some people's opinion, not so good in the opinion of others.


This text covers Sorry, Ghettoblaster – a monthly club night. It's run by dj's Sekta and Kosakot. Photos by Karol Grygoruk.



Interview with Tomasz P. Chenczke (CEO of CDI) about the Cedet building and its surroundings. Illustrated with visualizations of the building.



The fashion section covering the new Ermenegildo Zegna shop at Plac Trzech Krzyży. The fashion shoot is a mix of catwalk shots and futuristic backgrounds.


More fashion. This time about Olga Bittner – winner of last years edition of Warsaw Fashion Street.


'80s street fashion. A comparison of yesterday and today. Photo on the left by late fashion photographer Janusz Sobolewski. On the right by Karolina Kosowicz.




Interesting dispute between Tadeusz Rolke and Grzegorz Lewandowski about Warsaw's intelligentsia yesterday and today. Rolke (born 1929) is one of Poland's best known documentary photographers, famous for capturing the atmosphere of Warsaw in the '50s and '60s. Lewandowski represents todays varsovians. He runs Chłodna 25, a café and artistic melting pot. I shot the backgrounds.


A history lesson about the famous Bracka street.



Interview with architect studio Grupa 5 and their vision of a futuristic, and possibly better Warsaw. On the first spread is their proposal of the new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.


Interview with Bogna Świątkowska – promoter of urban culture and founder of Bęc zmiana. The text is illustrated with pictures of some of Bęc zmiana's artistic events in Warsaw's urban landscape. I made the portrait of Bogna.


Text about the upcoming Sztuka Ulicy street art festival...


...and Warsaw Summer Jazz Days.


A sum up of singer Morrisey's career who will play in Warsaw on 7 July. Illustration by cartoonist and singer Krzysztof Ostrowski.


Alina Szapocznikow (1926-1973) is a Polish-Jewish sculptor who lived in France. The Warsaw Museum of Modern Art is currently presenting an exhibition of her amazing work. I found the black and white contact print among the archival materials I received from the museum.


A comic called Love terrorist set in Warsaw. I wrote the script and my friend Krzysztof Gawronkiewicz illustrated.


The last page of the magazine will present interesting photo blogs about Warsaw. First up is Ludwik Lis and his black and white snapshots of a less known capital.

The next issue of Cedet will be out this autumn.

Bike boy

Last month my son learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And on the same day he learned to whistle.

Evil toy

I haven't had the chance to paint with... uhm... reel paints for a while now. But recently I got invited by Wrocław based artist Abe-S to hand-paint a Kidrobot Munny for his online gallery Vinylcanvas.com. First I didn't know what to come up with and then I had this vision, just before falling asleep one evening, of a red creature covered with eyes. I named it after a an old Fritz Lang movie called The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. My son thought it a bit scary and told me "it can't eat with its eyes". Good point.

You can have a peek at the gallery here.

Triple award

This Thursday three of my magazines were awarded at the Szpalty Roku contest for customer magazines organized by SPF (Stowarzyszenie Prasy Firmowej). Leenia received a Honour award (last year it got Gold) "...for consequently making a good fashion magazine". KOKO was awarded Bronze "for skillfully combining a fashion catalogue and a parenting magazine with a kids magazine". Last but not least Active received Silver "for interesting and innovative design; original pictures and excellent photo editing".

Cyber punk is dead

Finally, the spring/summer issue of Leenia (#7 2009) made for the Lee jeans brand. The theme this time is virtual reality and cyberspace. And as usual I had to reinvent the layout completely. (Did I mention that I love to design this mag?) On the cover are three fifths of performance collective Babaryba. The shoot was made by photographer Justyna Cieślikowska and special fx designer Łukasz Huptyś in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Warsaw. I used a free font called Athens Classic for all the headlines (made by Soixantedeux). The magazine is distributed in Lee stores and cafés in Poland.

The table of contents. 100% magenta – my favourite colour – is a dominant in this issue. The large numbers were used in an earlier issue of Leenia and are made from stencil graffiti I have found in a carpark.

Cool stuff you can buy. Everything here is a bit retro. On this spread I introduce a frame that continues on most of the pages in the mag. I wanted it to look a bit techie, like an old instruction manual. And I love the green...

In this section we present famous people who are all called Lee-something. Alan Lee is a well known illustrator who has made book covers for Tolkien and loads of other fantasy authors. I made the small portrait.

Lee Bul is a female artist from Seoul, Korea. She fits into the cyber theme of this issue as she makes incredible cyborg sculptures using high-tech materials.

An exhausting interview with talented Polish animation artist and film director Tomasz Bagiński. One of his short movies – The Cathedral – won a British Academy Film Award and was nominated for an Oscar. To illustrate the text I used frames from some of his productions.

In each issue a designer is invited to reinvent Lee's clothes. This time up it's designer/artist Paweł Kozłowski, aka Swanski.

A text about contemporary artists who make illusionistic art: Bill Viola, Yayoi Kusama and Tony Oursler.

This text entitled "The End Of The Future" is an attempt to define the influence of cyberpunk on music and fashion. The conclusion is that cyberpunk – as a fashion statement – is dead. Still it's good to read about bands that I used to admire as a kid like Skinny Puppy, Kraftwerk, Einstürzende Neubauten, Laibach and Front 242. I love the dirty greenish background here.

Starting in this issue is an event spread with upcoming concerts and festivals in Poland. I kept it as simple as possible: black and white pics + pink text.

The fashion shoot for this issue is titled City Of Women (like the film by Fellini) and is inspired by films such as Blade Runner, Sin City and Kill Bill. Everything is shot on location in an abandoned factory. Everyone was freezing their butts off and you can actually see snow on the floor on some of the pictures. The worst part (for me) was removing all the goose bumps...

A cool text about collectors of ephemera and vintage junk, a hobby I enjoy myself. I'm particularly proud of the opening illo. I used thumbnails found on internet auctions.

A low budget shoot of Lee clothes. I used a friend as model and had to draw the background myself. The design is obviously inspired by the movie TRON.

Sylwia Restecka made the opening illustration for this text about VR in films and pop culture. The second spread is illustrated with frames from TRON. I actually watched the film for the first time since 1982 (which makes me very old) and I have to say it's still damn good. The special effects are amazing. Most of them were made without the use of computers!

The closing spread and the credits. End of line.