As with many small creative industries, Trakke started out in my living room. I use this term loosely, as there wasn’t much space to live. Nicknamed ‘Studio 82’, piles of fabric, tools, hardware and thread dominated, and with work-in-progress occupying any other available space, any hope of achieving the ‘minimal design studio’ aesthetic we had in mind was lost. Shelves, desks and seating were all improvised from discarded items found on the streets of Glasgow. In fact, most of our original products were made like this too. With little money, we scavenged fabrics and tarpaulins from skips, buckles and hardware liberated from abandoned suitcases and leather from defunct sofas. We developed our skills and our designs with virtually no investment, and began to build a brand.

Two years on, we finally moved out of ‘Studio 82’ and moved in with our friends at the Glasgow Bike Station. We occupy the mezzanine level in a 10,000sq ft warehouse, surrounded by mountains of bicycles and people who love cycling. It’s the perfect place to work. With two industrial sewing machines in pride of place, fabric storage and a pattern cutting table in the main gangway, customers can come up and buy a bag or chat about a custom order in full view of the production line. Every step of manufacture is right there in front of them. This transparency is such a crucial part of the ethos of Trakke. Our ‘Handmade in Glasgow’ philosophy centres around the idea that people can come in and speak to us directly. They can suggest changes to the bags, or request custom details, and we can respond to that feedback immediately. We don’t need to call up some distant factory, wait for prototypes and then produce a huge run of products. We can make a change spontaneously, so our product development happens continuously.

So if you are in the neighborhood, come in and grab a coffee with us! If not, check out our latest video below for a bit more insight into the Trakke philosophy.

Find out more:
Website | Vimeo | Facebook | Twitter

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

Grotta Zine is a brand new art-zine, a 36-page bi-weekly magazine featuring exciting artists from Iceland. Grotta is edited, published and produced by Frosti Gnarr Studio, a newly formed creative design-studio at Grótta, Iceland. Grotta Zine is as said published twice a month, each time featuring only one artist and his offerings to the issue. Emphasis is put on interdisciplinary artists that we at the studio feel need to be seen. This handmade art zine is photocopied at our studio, with the cover sheet hand sprayed for a unique artist signature. Only 500 copies will be made of each issue.

Frosti Gnarr Studio Staff

The first artist featured was Sigurður Angantýsson Hólm, an introverted artist obsessed with the combination of symbolism and nature. Before the release Sigurður spent three weeks in the studio library, drawing his brains out, choosing and developing the artwork for his issue. This is something we implemented from the start, having the artist over at the studio for at least a week to work and develop some kind of ideology, style or concept. The profit of each issue is shared fairly to everyone involved.

Artist Sigurður Angantýsson Hólm

Inside Grotta Zine Issue 1

The second artist we chose to feature is Hellcat, a photographer that documents the dark sides of the Reykjavík nightlife. Extremely graphic at times, these moments tell a story, not only of the subject but also of the photographer. Famed for the sincerity of his images, Hellcat shoots with analog film cameras from the corners of nightclubs, afterparties and other generally shady circumstances. Issue #2 of Grotta Zine glimpses into Hellcats darkroom and his life right now.

Grotta Zine Issue 2

Frosti Gnarr Studio is the brainchild of Frosti Gnarr, a graphic/editorial designer that recently made his return to Iceland after a few years study in the Netherlands, where he got his MA in Editorial Design at the HKU in Utrecht. Previously he got his BA from the Iceland Academy of the Arts.

Inside Grotta Zine Issue 2

In the beginning, the studio bought a copier. That’s it. They found an excellent 15 year old Konica-Minolta, about 70 km away in the next town to Reykjavík. A few days later, Grotta Zine was born, and they were already making tests to see how they could play around with this printing technique. It really sparked a great interest in this medium.

In the next months Grotta have lined up collaborations with a lot of great artists from different fields such as photographers, painters, musicians and filmmakers to create versatile and unique issues of Grotta.

Find out more about Grotta Zine:
Website | Facebook |Twitter

Find out more about Frosti Gnarr Studio:
Website | Facebook

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Find more zines we’ve featured here.

And Sew for Today is a daily project by Emma Ruth.

Each morning, Emma uses an internet based random word generator to choose a word then she hand stitches it onto a piece of fabric. Without using patterns or pre-planning, Emma grabs some fabric and thread and stitches the first thing that comes into her head. It’s an experiment in typography, embroidery and fun.

This is just a small selection of her work here, see her Tumblr for more.

Visit the And Sew for Today website.
Follow And Sew for Today on Twitter.
Find out more about Emma here.
Follow Emma on Twitter here.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

Amid growing landscapes of strip malls and vinyl signage, hand-crafted lettering retains an aesthetic to be treasured. Like other disciplines suffering in the digital age, artful sign making is in danger of becoming an occupation of the past. The aim of TypArchive is to document, inspire, revitalize and preserve the art of vernacular typography.

Here are some examples of the gems you’ll discover on Typearchive:

Dusty Signs from Hunter Johnson on Vimeo.

Legacy of Letters from Luca Barcellona on Vimeo.

Take a look at Typearchive here.

Julie Elphick is a designer & maker based in Oxford. Her head-dresses are created using a variety of hand-finishing techniques to produce a detailed and original piece of work. Click on the image above to see more from this collection.

See more of Julie’s work here.

There are 22 days left – get yourself featured in our 50×50 promotion and in the running for cash prizes. Find out how here.