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LVMH vs. Hermès

For Hermès, LVMH represents everything it is not.

“There is a part of our world that is playing on abundance, on glitz and glamour. And there is another part that is concentrated on refinement, and basically making beautiful objects,” Mr Thomas told the New York Times. “We don’t want to be a part of this financial world which is ruining companies and dealing with people like they are goods or raw materials. It’s not a financial fight, because we would lose that. It’s a cultural fight.”

The “culture of Hermès” sees it shun Chinese assembly lines to employ artisans in France to hand-sew its famous Kellys and Birkins, weave its flagship scarves in Lyon from silk raised on its farm in the mountains of Brazil and have an in-house “nez” who creates perfume from his home near Grasse, the world’s perfume capital in the South of France.

The approach has been spectacularly successful. This month, the group posted a record net profit for 2012 of €740 million, up 24.5pc and well above forecasts, confirming a stellar performance for France’s luxury industry as a whole last year. Up 32pc, the company’s operating margin was the highest since Hermes went public in 1993. Sales in Asia, excluding Japan, rose 36.2pc.

Photoshop tips, etc

File types : ​depends primarily on end usage for print the range is 240-300 dpi, or for digital 72-92 dpi. Usually for digital web/mobile usage standard formats are PNG or JPG

File format of RAW vs JPG : maybe for a later lesson but camera Raw is always the best format to shoot in it gives you greater control of size and image manipulation

Layers :tutorial that gives an overview of Photoshop layers

​Keyboard shortcuts : a good idea to learn some keyboard shortcuts, it cuts down radically on mouse fatigue

​Adjustment Layers : tutorial here

​Text and Retouch tutorial : this is a good one to go through just to have a sense of things

​Tutorials galore : here and here

Out of Nowhere משום מקום

Every morning, an old lifeguard arrives for another day of work, when in fact the swimming pool he guards has been empty for years. One day an unexpected guest appears out of nowhere, filling him with doubts about his everyday reality.

How do we face an existence in which one is no longer relevant? How can we continue to live in an illusion?

Two seemingly opposite characters meet in a peculiar situation. When their similarities are revealed, the protagonist is forced to reexamine his life and choose between living a life of sterile existence or stepping outside of his world to discover new horizons

Marina Abramović e Ulay

Nella retrospettiva al MoMA a lei dedicata, documentata nel film "The Artist is Present" di Matthew Akers e Jeff Dupree, l'Abramović è restata per tre mesi, impassibile, seduta su una sedia mentre a turno i visitatori potevano accomodarsi su una sedia di fronte.Tra le persone che si sono sedute di fronte all'artista c'è stato anche il suo compagno storico, Ulay, che ha lavorato insieme a Marina dal 1976 all'89, separandosi da lei con una performance impegnativa: novanta giorni di camminata per dirsi addio sotto la grande muraglia cinese.

Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again. At her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing it and this is what happened.

pascal marthine

artist who works with found objects, his site here

Sa dernière création, exposée au musée d’art contemporain de Rome, s’appelle « Plastic Bags » et propose un structure de 10 mètres de haut composée de milliers de sacs pour symboliser le consumérisme de notre société.

Sa dernière création, exposée au musée d’art contemporain de Rome, s’appelle « Plastic Bags » et propose un structure de 10 mètres de haut composée de milliers de sacs pour symboliser le consumérisme de notre société.