Café Hommage: THE COFFEE DRINKING CACTUS
How a Surftrip and some Donavon Frankenreiter inspired a Coffee Brand Logo.
The creative process is influenced by countless conscious or subconscious observations and experiences. This wasn’t any different in terms of the Coffee Drinking Cactus Logo: A travel to Asia and Indonesia, countless Coffee Shop Visits, hours of good Surf music and a bunch of inspirational people was mostly responsible for the origin.
There's usually a lot going on in Daniela Schmied's head. The creative thoughts seem to never stop or take a pause. Drawing with brushes and pencils, she recently expands her mind with a digital toy she can easily carry anywhere she goes.
The Moustache got highly inspired by Donavon Frankenreiter.
The Coffee drinking Cactus became the logo and mascot for Hermano’s Brew and can be found on several Coffee, Stickers and Shirt designs. He lately even made it on a Skateboard for a Collaboration with Approved Line Skateboards.
Blast Anxiety
The Channel of the pipe is glowing in a dull, gloomy light.
The morning Sun.
A couple hours ago she rose so promising over the mighty appearing Panoramic picture of Grindelwald.
Now she’s suddenly disappearing and the contrast is vanishing along with it.
Where does this anxiety coming from? The fear of not being enough, of not being liked by the persons I’m just about to meet. The people that gave me that assignment to shoot some pictures for the Jungfrau Region in exchange for a small sponsorship for my personal Snowboard Project.
But this is not the time for soul searching right now.
A couple of runs to clear my head. To get the knees warmed up. Shoot some frames of black and white film with my Buddy and Filmer Clément Schwab, then we’re heading to the spot and get our settings done.
Mother nature is in our good spirits today as she shows up and rags the haze apart.
There it goes, my anxiety vanished into void. I found my soul.
Foggy Grindelwald
Thoughts arising, warped around by doubts.
Words are missing, mouth is feeling clinched.
A black shadow is crawling up, numbing everything around my aura.
Trapped inside my mind no lights to be guided.
Where should I go? But even more, what should I do?
Roadmaps have been burned by circumstances out of my control.
The Virus isn’t the physical disease. It’s what it is doing with the human being. Isolation.
Let's open up and free ourselves again.
Appreciated Friendships: Clément Schwab
Clément and I first met a few years ago when I was working at a small, local Snowboard Shop. There was an instant connection and quickly we'd spend countless hours in the Mountains or having one - or maybe some more - Beers at our local Bar.
Today, a couple of years older, there are less Beers going down the drain but no less days spent on the Snowboard. An everlasting friendship as one will rarely find.
While most of us got into the struggle of self expression and starting our own thing, Clément worked his way up as our Go To Buddy when it comes to everything Smartphone or Tablet etc. related. Which paid him the expenses to go to unusual places with his Snowboard like Japan, Kosovo, the Himalayas or nevertheless on a Surfboat trip to the Maldives.
Always being fascinated by capturing those moments, it was an obvious step to pick up a camera and invested more time in this passion.
To create one of his first professional Videography projects, we traveled to Grindelwald in the Jungfrau Region to get some cool Shots to create a short commercial for Hermano’s Brew.
Thanks Clément for your never ending source of Motivation.
-This article was published in the Hermano’s Magazine Issue #1. You can read the whole Magazine for free here.
Hermano's Magazine Issue #1
Lean back, have a Coffee and get inspired.
Strange times require creative thinking. While everything is heading towards digitalism, every mail box is getting swamped with better or worse Newsletters and all you get on Social Media is Commercials on stuff you probably won’t need we thought: Why not make something physical that you can actually enjoy holding in your hands.
The Idea of Hermano’s Magazine is to print a, so to say, Newsletter in Magazine format once to twice a year. BUT not only is the Hermano’s Magazine to be read as a Newsletter trying to sell the Brand. It is filled with Stories of People that in some sort of way contribute something to Hermano’s Brew or inspire us to print their Story.
In the first Issue we teamed up with Daniela Schmied, the creator of the Hermano’s Brew Cactus logo to take a look into her creative process. Showed what it takes to handprint Shirts with the Atélier Gross & Klein, talked about the importance and drawbacks of running a Core-Snow- & Skateboard Shop with doodah Bern shop manager Kaspar Kupferschmid and much more.
Printed as a very limited edition of only 50 physical Copies, Issue #1 is already out of order. So we simply converted it as an ebook for everyone to enjoy. You can download it here for free.
We’re melting together as the waves wash over us.
Tumbled and stoned.
Tuned in.
Far away and only here.
Mind wide open.
Our hearts are one.
Dreaming of Snow
“When there is nothing but Silence surrounding me, there is peace.
Laax, Switzerland is one of those places you go for the first time and never wanna leave. Slopes built to shred with the most fun you can have on your snowboard. Dreamy landscapes at the top of the Mountain and in the winterly woods.
It was one of those weekends that feel like a Week and also like just a blink of an eye.
Product shots for amazinc. skincare
The Beauty Of A Single Fin
Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.-Lao Tzu
There is eternal Beauty in Simplicity. Forms, Structure, Void - This is the visual Story of the Beauty of a Single Fin.
The Swiss Ding Doc
To cover a steady demand for repairing Surfboards in Switzerland of all places? Sound like a crazy idea. For Claude Hächler, this dream manifested into reality. Self taught with help from some Mentors of the Atlantic coasts of France, Claude took his experiences back home to Switzerland where he know owns a Garage as a working space to expand his knowledge of this craft. With the river surfing on the rise and some new artificial wave pools slowly popping up all over Switzerland, Claude found a way to cut back on his regular Day to Day job and spend more time on the craft where his heart guides him.
For the WaveUp Mag Blog I joined Claude for a Day and shot some Pictures that went along the Interview.
Read the full Story here.
Re-Connect to Nature
In Lak’ech Ala K’in - As above so below, as without so within. I am another you, you are another me.
Oceans are being polluted, forests destroyed for big corporate needs. Animals are harmed and humans suffer around the planet. We need to re-connect with ourselves through nature.
The goal of Amazinc! skincare is to create range of products that are only natural - nothing more and nothing less. Products that we can produce and consume for years and years without damaging the environment and our planet.
Product- Web content shots for Amazinc. Skincare
Amazinc. Skincare is a 100% plastic free, sustainable and organic product that is produced without any animals being harmed. So that you can be safe to take it into the ocean for a surf, put on your hands for a hike or protect your lips in the snow. Thanks for the support Amazinc. Skincare.
Dear Los Angeles...
The way your streets mean so much to your inhabitants.
The cold concrete and the blurry sky.
The hot weather and foggy mornings.
Loud music is sounding from the cars.
The people call themselves Angelenos.
Your culture rooted so deep in musical history.
In film making, for you, a form that extends the art.
Subcultures emerge straight from your heart.
So many of them you made famous.
Hollywood, Venice Beach, Compton, Inglewood, Downtown, The Valley, Malibu…
there’s no stop in your diversity.
The waves are crashing on the shore,
the smell of Coffee is coming out of a corner somewhere far off
. Sure you got your problems. But, dear Los Angeles, you are amazing.
Before the Warmth
The sun kisses the wet ground. The hot steam from the Coffee cups merges with the morning dew and disappears in the pines. We awake with our senses. The golden color in the morning, the fresh smells, the calm excitement to start a new day.
Web content product shots for Sunday.Collab
Skid Row Crisis
In late Fall 2016, on the way to the Arts District in DTLA, we accidentally ended up in Skid Row. Unaware, it was stunning as I looked left and right and all of a sudden, there were no more shops. No more restaurants. No more cars - as just one block further up the road...
There were pople living in tents on the boardwalk. Beaten windows. Shut closed doors and empty streets. A man walked by, looking at me and my friends. Eying the blinded tourists we were. Walking straight at us he was shouting some un-understandable things. Feared as we were we turned around walking back to our car where we came from.
I was able to get two pictures of the scenario. As I later learned, Skid Row contains one of the largest stable populations (between 5,000 and 8,000) of homeless people in the United States.
That was 2016. Since then, there are more homeless people than ever. The city of Los Angeles is struggling to handle the situation as the numbers grow. Covid doesn't make it any better.