Top — Coke Bartrina: Apparatu, Xavier Mañosa. Home and workshop for Freundevonfreunden

Coke Bartrina’s sleepy, sun-dappled reportage is like no other

Words by Liv Siddall, Thursday 22 November 2012

If you fantasise daily about owning a south-facing studio full of design-related books, or heading through a Bond-like Mediterranean mountain tunnel on a motorbike, this porfolio may induce a special kind of envy. Coke Bartrina, from Barcelona, travels around sun-dappled streets taking photographs to accompany lovely novels about beautiful homes and studios full of talented creatives. Working with publciations such as Apartamento, Nylon and Hercules, Coke’s kind of got the coolest job ever. And judging from his personal work, he’s also got some very, very good-looking friends. Jealous much?

Coke Bartrina: Apparatu, Xavier Mañosa. Home and workshop for Freundevonfreunden

Coke Bartrina: Mallorca for Volta footwear.

Coke Bartrina: Apartamento Magazine #07, Ikebana reportage, interview by The Plant

Coke Bartrina: Salvador: Story for FUEGO FANZINE #02. October 2010

Coke Bartrina: Bombay single vinyl cover+back. El Guincho.

Most Recent

More like this:

Work / Photography Hick Duarte uses his camera to document the plurality of Brazilian youth culture

Based in São Paulo, Hick is committed to portraying the visual codes of Brazilian youth in all their complexities. He does so through considered casting, experimentation across media, and a collaborative mindset.

Ruby Boddington — 11 December 2019
Work / Photography Sepia-infused and cinematic, Sam Nixon turns his lens on the stories of the world

This photographer’s outlook is formed via a harmonious blend between documentary, portraiture and fashion, with a tonal glow running throughout – as seen in his most recent project, Yafo to Jericho, published in Document Journal.

Ayla Angelos — 09 December 2019
Work / Photography In her latest project, Beth Garrabrant recreates her personal Tweenage Landscapes

Growing up in an idyllic suburb in Lake Forest, Illinois, the photographer started obsessively documenting her teenage years after the death of a friend in 2002. 17 years later, she returns to those familiar scenes and objects as an ode to her own girlhood.

Alif Ibrahim — 04 December 2019
Work / Photography Like a digital glitch, Gabriel Boyer photographs the new Puma RS-X3 for Highsnobiety

Channelling his mix of analogue and digital experimentation, the Parisian photographer’s latest commission for Highsnobiety sees the world in slow motion – a series of images where each is as surrealist as the next.

Ayla Angelos — 04 December 2019
Work / Photography Minji Yi explores “the grey zone” in between truth and photography

The Seoul-based photographer talks us through her new book released last month To Bury the Dog Properly, the culmination of two highly personal projects taken in the past four years.

Jyni Ong — 03 December 2019
Work / Photography Martin Andersen turns his lens towards the life-long fans of Tottenham Hotspur

Inside his new project and publication, Can’t Smile Without You, viewers can expect to find over one hundred home and away games photographed between 2013 and 2017, as well as “different generations of fans, the camaraderie, the banter, the songs in the pubs and the madness”.

Ayla Angelos — 02 December 2019

Work / Photography Hick Duarte uses his camera to document the plurality of Brazilian youth culture

Based in São Paulo, Hick is committed to portraying the visual codes of Brazilian youth in all their complexities. He does so through considered casting, experimentation across media, and a collaborative mindset.

Ruby Boddington — 11 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design Fhuiae Kim explores “the third language” in her calming graphic design works

The Seoul-based designer is interested in pursuing the third language through her delicate graphic design works. This is not a written form of language, nor a pictorial one, but somewhere in between.

Jyni Ong — 11 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design Folch designs a typeface embodying the “energetic universe” of acid house

The studio’s senior designer tells us about their new venture into education, Acid House, and the typeface designed for the project’s communications.

Ruby Boddington — 11 December 2019
Work / Illustration Illustrator Michael McGregor turns the mundane into something extraordinary

The LA-based illustrator looks towards his immediate surroundings for inspiration. Whether it’s the market, the cafe, something stumbled upon in his home studio or found on a glorious morning walk, it’s the simple things that he finds most interesting.

Ayla Angelos — 11 December 2019
Work / Publication All together now: Pascale Claude compiles a visual history of the beloved footie record

The Zurich-based curator behind Football Disco talks to us about transforming his 1,000-strong collection of football-related 7-inch records into a book celebrating the wins and own goals of design.

Laura Snoad — 11 December 2019
Work / Illustration “Part-animal, part-household object”: Frédérique Rusch on her wonderfully cryptic illustrations

Encompassing both 2D illustrations and 3-dimensional sculptures, the illustrator’s work challenges and toys with the idea that objects need to have a use or a purpose, and that they should communicate a clear message.

Ayla Angelos — 11 December 2019

Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Ines Alpha on imagining a future with digital pets and 3D makeup

At her Nicer Tuesdays talk in November, Ines spoke with enthusiasm about the future of AR and digital expression, and about how her practice is propelling this unique area of creativity forward.

It's Nice That — 11 December 2019
Work / Art Artist Panayiotis Terzis creates vibrant works inspired by his upbringing in Greece

The Thessaloniki-born and NYC-based artist is a man of many disciplines. Not only does he create colour-rich paintings and drawings, but he also lends his hands to Risograph printing and publishing at Mega Press, a RisoLab in Manhattan.

Ayla Angelos — 10 December 2019
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Vikram Kushwah shares the intimate and revealing backstory behind his award-winning series

The fashion and documentary photographer tells us about his beautiful series The Education I Never Had in which he visits the Indian school his father has taught at for the last 35 years, and reflects on how their lives have become so different.

It's Nice That — 10 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design Can you translate a memory into a digital font family? Klim and Dia collaborate on Söhne

The renowned New Zealand type foundry talks us through its latest typeface Söhne, inspired by Unimark’s visual system for the New York subway. For its release, Klim collaborated with kinetic type foundry Dia to further encapsulate the analogue process behind the new font family.

Jyni Ong — 10 December 2019
Work / Illustration Satirical and humorous, Megumi Ono-Chan illustrates a “lustful labourer”

Funny advertisements on trains, construction sites, hipster clothing from secondhand shops, messy rooms, traffic signs and rural mountain roads: these are the pillars to the work of the Japanese illustrator.

Ayla Angelos — 10 December 2019
Work / Art Jessie Makinson on the intuitive process behind her fantastical paintings

Featuring dandy hats and highwaymen, alien-like creatures and forest on the brink of ecological disaster, the ideas for Jessie’s paintings appear from the random shapes she daubs on her canvas.

Laura Snoad — 10 December 2019

Sponsored / Event The Adobe MAX Creativity Tour shed light on how to creatively empower ourselves

Last week, on the evening of Tuesday 3 December, creatives around the world tucked into an evening of innovation on screen or in person for The Adobe MAX Creativity Tour. Bringing some of the UK’s most creative minds together in a bubbling line up, the event delved Adobe’s latest updates and programs on offer.

Sponsored Content — 09 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design “We want to challenge and disturb the audience”: meet graphic design studio Alliage

Going about its daily business, the Brussels-based studio meets every day of the week – you will rarely see its two founders working separately. “The way we work together is very organic, while having our own single approach to design."

Ayla Angelos — 09 December 2019
Work / Illustration Abang’s illustrations of 15 women aim to reveal her true self

The Seoul-based illustrator talks us through her latest book Ladies consisting of 15 illustrated portraits of expressive women.

Jyni Ong — 09 December 2019
Work / Photography Sepia-infused and cinematic, Sam Nixon turns his lens on the stories of the world

This photographer’s outlook is formed via a harmonious blend between documentary, portraiture and fashion, with a tonal glow running throughout – as seen in his most recent project, Yafo to Jericho, published in Document Journal.

Ayla Angelos — 09 December 2019
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Here are our most inspiring, moving, honest, funny, memorable moments from Nicer Tuesdays 2019

Before we kick off the new year and another run of Nicer Tuesdays, we wanted to take a moment to say thank you to every who took to the stage or sat in the audience during 2019’s events, and to reflect on some of our highlights.

It's Nice That — 09 December 2019
Work / Publication Somnath Bhatt compiles a series of charming pixelated drawings for his new book, Ode

Risograph-printed with scarlet, cornflower and metallic gold inks, the book is a 40-page emblem to his multi-media approach as an artist. “My work has no loyalty to a specific form or media,” he says. “It might be described as a shuffle between genres, centuries, cultures and emotional states."

Ayla Angelos — 09 December 2019

Sponsored / Events How will pineapple leaves, algae and mushroom cement save the future of our cities?

Overconsumption – and the way we as humans have chosen to live our lives in recent decades – has left us in an unprecedented state of emergency. Rapid urbanisation is one of the many factors contributing to the current threat to our planet, and around 55 per cent of the world’s population currently lives in cities, a figure which is set to rise to 68 per cent by 2050, according to a 2018 report by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs. And while these cities are incredible hubs of creativity, innovation and diversity, there is a myriad of issues associated with urban living.

Sponsored Content — 06 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design “I’m a bit afraid of colours”: Romina Malta on her illustrative approach to design

Romina’s multi-disciplinary approach lends itself nicely to the types of projects she likes to take on. Namely an art director, she focuses primarily on editorial and sound design, as well as taking on commissions for various clients, studios, artists, galleries and record labels.

Ayla Angelos — 06 December 2019
Work / Illustration Meme supreme: Daniel Keogh's maximalist illustrations are impossible to scroll past

The Australian-based illustrator starts each project on paper, before moving on to hundreds of layers in Photoshop to make his incredibly detailed images. In his Where’s Wally?-style illustrations, he encourages the viewer to create their own stories.

Alif Ibrahim — 06 December 2019
Work / Art Painting friends in mid-conversation, Alex Bradley Cohen hides as much as he reveals

The Chicago-based artist has a deep interest in understanding the inner logic of painting – how multiple concepts and actions operate to affirm what each is trying to say. Using the language of the Colour Field paintings, Alex depicts the interiority that is revealed once a personal space is created, when unseen identities are explored and exchanged.

Alif Ibrahim — 06 December 2019
Work / Digital Through 3D scans and animation, Agusta Yr creates a dreamlike world for Moschino and Yang Li

By breaking down the traditional means of filmmaking, Agusta’s work is filled with the spectacular. Her most recent project for ShowStudio sees 38 scanned looks placed into a surrealist animated world, and she’s also released a digital recreation of Moschino’s runway in Milan last month.

Ayla Angelos — 06 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design “Perfectly beautiful things don’t attract me”: Heesun Seo on her nontraditional practice

At the age of 12, Seoul-based designer Heesun Seo first ventured into the world of graphic design when she came across an online forum for Photoshop and HTML. She talks us through her unusual route into the medium and how she “didn’t know what the term ‘graphic design’ was," finding it out for herself.

Jyni Ong — 06 December 2019

Work / Illustration Luca Schenardi and Lina Mueller's collaborative illustrations capture the spirit of the mountains

Together Swiss illustrators Luca Schenardi and Lina Mueller have formed a delicate line-based style that is radically different to their individual practices – proof that collaboration and travel can inspire work you would never have come to alone.

Laura Snoad — 05 December 2019
Work / Animation In this charming animation, a small swimmer dives right into her fears

In Islena Neira and Benoît Michelet’s Pool, a small rosy-cheeked swimmer goes up against a few big personalities in the pool. With great contrast in the character design and plenty of moments of tension and release, this short film is all about facing your fears.

Alif Ibrahim — 05 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design Camera Arhiva is an archive of printed matter from Romania’s communist era

Launched by the team behind journal Kajet, the digital archive shows the richness and variety of Romanian graphic design as well as challenging the worrying trend of revisionist history sweeping Europe.

Laura Snoad — 05 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design Sejin Choi blurs the boundaries between graphic design and art

The Seoul-based designer talks us through his playful work which experiments with the Korean writing system, Hangul, in a variety of forms including dance, performance and poster design.

Jyni Ong — 05 December 2019
Work / Graphic Design Dianne van der Hoeven maps her inspirations to her work in Symbiotic Hues

How do you collect and archive your design inspirations? The Rotterdam-based designer wanted to create a tactile way to interact with her references as a way to reflect on her design process.

Alif Ibrahim — 05 December 2019
Sponsored / Found in Adobe Stock Everyday objects melt before our eyes as Julian Mateus reimagines Adobe Stock assets

The Colombian visual-effects artist and animator creates four new films using Adobe Stock 3D assets and Stock videos around the subject of climate change.

Jyni Ong — 05 December 2019