Biggi and Mino

Peter’s little sister Biggi and her boyfriend Mino came to visit us last weekend. Yes, it was a full house, and we had fun having Andre, Biggi and Mino all at the same time. On Saturday, after Andre went back to Karlsruhe, we took Biggi and Mino to our favorite flea market in Helvetia Platz and then to Brockiland in Schmiede Wiedikon. In the evening Biggi and I cooked Penang Curry together. Peter and I both have a vegetarian sister, so we used fried Tofu in place of meat. Although Biggi is younger than me (and still enjoying her 20s-life) she acts very mature and always encourages me. I feel very comfortable talking to her in my broken German, but I sometimes fear that I might be saying something rude due my limited knowledge of the language.

In the evening we went out to a bar, and I was surprised to see crowds of young people on the street. Zürich is indeed the largest city in Switzerland, but that’s hard to realize if you come from Tokyo.

On Sunday, we took a walk in the forest behind our apartment. Biggi and Mino could not believe that we live so close to the nature. There is a horse stable 5 minutes away from us, and after 10 min. walk you are already in the forest. Despite the negative weather forecast on Friday, the weather turned out to be great this weekend. It was a cold and rainy summer, but it’s been an unusually sunny and warm fall. After climbing up the hill, we were already sweating and taking off our jackets.

Biggi and Mino left Zürich in the early afternoon, with 2 new pairs of vintage shoes and a cool bag full of Swiss cheese.

Here are some more photos from the weekend:

Illustrative08

Andre, Peter’s former classmate from art school, came to present his work at Illustrative 08 and stayed with us in Zürich last week. He is a renown illustrator for children’s books, but this time he showed his other works on the biggest wall at the entrance to Illustrative.

Illustrative showcases works by selected artists, mainly from America and Europe. On the opening night, I got to see amazing works like this paper spray and spray cans on the floor:

We also saw an installation by my favorite fashion designer, Henrik Vibskov. I wanted to take a snap shot with him, but there was this fan hanging around Mr. Vibskov all the time (like a dog in season!) and the request for my snap shot was soon forgotten. I hope to see his installation soon again, perhaps in a city like Berlin.

Mr. Henrik Vibskov (left) in front of his installation “The Fringe Project“

When I interviewed Deanne back in 2001, she said illustration will change the way graphic design is (at the time) and the focus on illustration really brought dramatic changes to the graphic design scene in the last few years. When Peter and I were watching the movie “Helvetica” and reflecting back on the 90’s, I was constantly thinking “I wonder what it would be like in the coming years.”