Creatives under 30

I had photo-shoot in Paris so I had to get up much earlier than usual.

There are two guys with bleached hair. One is a model –Roman– I shot in Berlin last month (all those pics are from one day of shooting), and the other one is Szymon, my best friend's boyfriend.

Definitely this girl is:

I have been living in Warsaw for the last two years, and I like this city. I find it as creative as other places in the world. Almost most of my friends are living here and they are doing cool stuff and fun things, so we find it easy. If you want to visit Warsaw you should meet some local people, because everything is changing so fast and so many places are opening right now.

Hi, I am someone who tries to develop my own identity, or tries to upgrade myself constantly. I’ve always been busy with giving shape to certain products, spaces, my world. At the moment, I’m building and designing a lot of furniture, as well as working full time at Urban Outfitters as Display Coordinator, and running my own company, Nick Bal.
I’ve been practicing all kinds of hand-labour disciplines, though. From drawing, tattooing, glassblowing, graphic design, silk printing, 3D-printing, laser cutting, wood-building to welding and many more. I have the constant feeling that this is the way to upgrade myself as a human being. Next will be auto-mechanics and probably a course in computer programming.

I’ve always been busy with building: I grew up on a huge farm outside of Antwerp. My dad and grandad raised me up with the idea that you can do everything you want to if you work hard for it. They both worked their entire life 12 hours a day, and still do. I started building together with them, because we needed sheds for the animals. Those sheds had a lack of design, but they were built up with the materials we found. After school I was always working at the farm, even in the evenings, or I was building these insane constructions together with my brother out of Lego or Meccano, #goodtimes.

I’ve always been working as a freelancer. The Public Image was one my first big projects. I first started building furniture for smaller exhibitions, most of the time for friends or contacts. Later on, I worked a while for a small design studio. I learnt a lot from them in terms of concepts and building up products or installations. And then I ended up in Urban Outfitters. I’m still there, but thinking more and more about going freelance, because many projects are getting bigger and more interesting

Big fan of the design studio I’ve worked for: Unfold.
Klein Agency: design couple from food to furniture that recently released their first collection.
Mxwtattoo: my best friend and incredible tattoo artist, who started out only a couple years ago, but makes great designs and interesting drawings.
Eltipographic: “next level” graphic designer who uses both digital design and hand labour in his designs.
Stella Lou Bal: my daughter, who recently started painting and building furniture and installations with Duplo and Lego.

No, not really, we worked with my friend Nina (the one you can see with me in the video) on clothing, only with yellow as a directive line. We have the same taste for material, shapes and the spirit of the clothes, so we didn’t have to talk that much to agree. Then, Kevin just enhanced everything thanks to his work.

Yes, absolutely. I don’t really get how deep other artistic stuff affects my own work, but I’ve always been convinced that there is a strong link between everything. Moreover, the link between music and visual art on the internet is almost automatic, so it’s hard, I think, to dig out one of the two elements, you know, and this is good the way it is.

There isn’t any secret when you start something. First thing is exploration and patience. If you want something, then you are patient. Most people learn to use software by themselves; you can find anything on the internet thanks to tutorials, for example. But like any other discipline in the world, it can take months, even years, to achieve a cool result, or at least to get something you’re proud of. But if you are passionate, everything’s easier.

Cool places depend on cool events. In Paris, good parties are generally hosted by the LGBT community or the Permalnk crew (with Bye Bye Ocean’s parties). Personally, I don’t go to any particular places regularly, but some districts are nice, like Stalingrad and Belleville, I guess.

I was like a little boy with pink toenails and a Courtney Love-like voice. Mischief was my main activity. When I was around 9 years old my dad bought this big old film camera; that thing has been my third eye ever since. My mother started out as a fashion designer, my dad is just mentally insane, in a good way. I still haven’t figured out where the true art core of my family tree is hidden.

I have to say the Europe trip I did last spring/summer with my love in our old Mercedes mobile home called SKUM (which is Swedish for foam). During this six-month trip I mainly focused on enlarging my film archive. The film-stills are a small impression of my new short called Where confetti falls like stardust. It’s a playful and uncanny after movie where image and sound merge together. 

It was amazing! Katinka van Gorkum and I are collaborating as an artist duo called Live vanuit de werkelijkheid (“Live from reality”). Subbacultcha!, which is a really cool music and art platform, asked us to create our own reality in their basement for two months. We lived, filmed and danced in our handmade bubble made of foam, fake blond hair and inexplicable costumes. In the end, it took the form of a video-installation.

Floating in freedom, where the word “job” doesn’t exist and where we can eat glitter soup. I’m almost there.