Nana, you're part of the Brenda design studio. I know that "Brenda" is not only the name of the bureau but also the name of a fictional character created by you and your partner, Sophie Keij. Why do you need an alter ego?
The persona where Brenda is coming from is more from the idea of mystery. Sophie and I don't come to the front as only two people. We blend together as a whole; that was the idea in the first place. It was the way to create a comfortable illusion for our own experiments without people judging our persona.
About the name Brenda, we needed a title for this collaboration. Quite intuitively we both came up with the idea of an abstract personality. Brenda is also a character in the Beverly Hills 90210 series. She is a new girl in town; she still needs to know everyone, so she is trying to find a way to set into the environment, society. It also functions as a try out to find out which kind of character are we going to play out next, how we identify ourselves to the outer world, and it allows you to reinvent yourself. So we call it our utopian playground.
The idea of blending ourselves into one person was because we were both very much into spiritual practices like astrology. Sophie and I have a sun sign, Libra vs. Pisces, but we have similar Virgo moon and Sagittarius ascendant. That means it plays an integral part in the connection we have with each other and how we perceive and want to explore certain interests. We have a very different background and a challenging but interesting alignment with each other. This ultimately defies who Brenda is and what transits she goes through in life.
How does this define your design process?
Sagittarius is the one that explores, always wants to learn and wants to find new grounds for research. What the Sagittarius does, is he shoots the arrow, and then he goes and seek for the arrow. Then you have the Virgo sign which is caring, the one who is looking for balance and beauty, that has focus on relationships, so that's how it would express itself in the way we communicate. A very important aspect of our work is that there is always a process of learning. We have a lot of interests, we like gathering information and going to its history and contents. We are constantly archiving things, and then from the archive, we try to find the essence of the thing we’re looking for and combine that with our personality and our aesthetics that reflects a particular point in time.
Stroom logo: Dieter Durinck
Besides the activities in Brenda, you also collaborate with the label Stroom. Tell me how it all began?
The concept of the label started from the fact that my partner Ziggy Devriendt aka Nosedrip wanted to make radio. He had his Mixcloud show which had quite a lot of listeners back then, and it served as a continuous outlet of his more moody explorations. His idea of gathering some nerdy friends together to try out a streaming site for music eventually grew out to be an experimental online multimedia platform called STROOM.TV, with no possibility for user engagement except for watching and/or listening. We were becoming very good friends, hanging out and I was immediately sucked into this vague concept with infinite possibilities.
Stroom.tv was a TV station because of its visual, entertaining qualities. We would come up with visuals every day. A lot of it was an extension of inside jokes at the studio, getting stoned and goofing around or creating conceptual collages from the archive I had.
Stroom.tv was a TV station because of its visual, entertaining qualities. We would come up with visuals every day. A lot of it was an extension of inside jokes at the studio, getting stoned and goofing around or creating conceptual collages from the archive I had.
All of us had our own archive of things that we were eager to explore for the benefit of entertainment and underlying purpose of schooling our online engagers in a leisureable way.
When we would do live shows with people visiting, they would provide us with material or even just words/concepts, and we would start from there, building up and changing it as it grew. Everything on the radio needed to be very quick, like the visuals I made took 5 minutes to half an hour, I just threw all the images I was saving up and collaged them into the composition. It didn't matter where the image came from, the recontextualisation and recognition was important.
What is your motivation now when you work, say, on the design of the cover?
When I finished studying, the radio was almost one year. For a short period, I used to help at the vinyl shop where Ziggy was working, and I had to order the vinyls alphabetically, so that meant I needed to work as quickly as possible. There I learned about the value of info and readable typography.
What is your motivation now when you work, say, on the design of the cover?
When I finished studying, the radio was almost one year. For a short period, I used to help at the vinyl shop where Ziggy was working, and I had to order the vinyls alphabetically, so that meant I needed to work as quickly as possible. There I learned about the value of info and readable typography.
We decided quite early on that we didn’t want to make obscure objects that are difficult to read, that will vanish into anonymity the day the cloud would be gone. Since we’re mostly a reissue label, we are often confronted with the vagueness of information and it takes a while sometimes to glue all the pieces together, so making something too obscure would defeat the purpose of the research and it's content.
I want to talk about one record that I was particularly interested in - Pablo’s Eye “Spring Break.” On the back of the sleeve, you used the image of a fish. Is this a guest artist work?
It is a very personal design. The artists I was working with, they were already researching my work before I even met them. They are a mixed couple. Like Axel, the musician, is white and his wife, Marie, is mixed. She is partly from Congo. My parents are also a mixed couple. My dad, who passed away that year, is black and my mom is white, so the relationships between us became very personal from the beginning. They were like: “You are completely free to do whatever you want. It is OK even if it is you on the cover.” I started experimenting with the idea of putting myself on the cover, but it felt uncomfortable.
When I started working on the first cover in 2017, it was a period of a lot of self-reflection. It was very difficult, but I continued and I used that opportunity to make a cover as an ode to my parents. So it's actually my parents on the cover. I was looking through the photos and accidentally two pictures fell out which were a photo of my mom and dad, and I thought: “Wow, I’ve never seen this picture. I’ve never seen a picture of my mom and dad like that.” I scanned that and started working with the transparency, I was placing them on top of each other, and suddenly I got the image as you see it now. On the back of the cover, you can see a drawing of a fish I made when I was little. So it’s a symbolic reference to myself as Pisces and as a mixture of both of my parents. Coincidentally Axel is a pisces too. Axel and Marie were very touched and honored. So, of course, it is one of my favorite covers. It is a really special release.
I recall another record from Pablo’s Eye, where you used a photo on the cover.
Yes, “Bardo For Pablo” is the second release. And here it’s is actually my backside on the cover. I was a bit more comfortable with the idea of it and wanted to continue to tell a symbolic story via photography accompanied by fitting artwork. The albums of Pablo’s Eye were the first albums that were purely photographic, with no typo on the cover and where I used the same template. I tried to keep the mystery of all the artists on the album, so no pictures of their profile, also because Pablo’s Eye is not only one or two people. Pablo’s Eye can be a mix of different people.
And then for the third release “Dark Matter” I used a photo made by the artist duo Maarten Alexander and Sofie Middernacht, currently living in London. They have a very interesting portfolio of photography, very personal and a very experimental approach. I think in the coming years they are going to be very big in what they do.
Many labels strive to create a recognizable visual style. What’s your position on this idea?
Sophie and I, we don’t like repetitive stuff. I have a lot of respect for the designers that can create a visual language that you can recognize, and it is solid. It is something that I thought I needed to be, but I’m absolutely the opposite with everything in my life. I need to change the rhythm of things. I’m interested in many aspects of life, art, spirituality. I will always be looking for connections that I can make, research and try to make my essence of diversity. We live in a world where there is not one answer, so I want to be a communicator of that philosophy.
What do you think can make a design unique? And since we are talking about Stroom, what makes it special?
There is no well-taught answer. Brenda is something that came organically, but there is an idea behind the person that she is personifying, so we have a semiotic bone structure as identity and then you can start putting some flesh, some clothes, makeup, you know. With Stroom, the only thing that I can say is that she is female, she is fluid and flexible, you can’t grab her. She’s something that can change every moment, from release to release. In case of the label, we will investigate and sometimes translate the identity of the artist that will be released. That is what makes it unique and special.
What role does personal relationship with an artist play in your design process?
Every artist has his or her own personality. Sometimes you have a click with them like it was with Pablo’s Eye or with “Jan Zonder Vrees,” the first release we ever did, a soundtrack of the first Belgian animation movie by Alain Pierre, but sometimes there is no particular connection. For instance, “An Introduction Into The Insane World Of Alain Neffe.” It was the second vinyl design I did, and it is one of the designs that was the most aesthetically appropriated. The release was a compilation from a part of Alain’s collaborational 80s tape discography. I liked working manually and using xerox prints, similar to his 80s self published stuff. But in the end, he was the one who was the least satisfied. Also because he is a grumpy old man. I’m more aware that you cannot always make everyone happy. You need to stay true to your own identity as a designer too and at a certain point be convinced and satisfied with your own idea. Because if you ask too many opinions, you will get lost and frustrated and it’s 99% that the design becomes too neutral.
What other interesting projects have you been working with lately?
Between 2012 and 2014 most of the things were quite scenographic. Most of the spacial projects were in a context of cultural organisations, like a film festival, music festival or exposition. But also a lot of parties.
Sophie and I basically met each other while partying together, we realised: “Why is it just the DJ and the music? Why not do more with this experience?"
Sophie and I basically met each other while partying together, we realised: “Why is it just the DJ and the music? Why not do more with this experience?"
From the beginning we were working with Ziggy. One of the events we did was a new age festival called Full Moon Healing. It was a collaboration between different groups under Ziggy’s curation with Stroom, Atelier Brenda, Cirq, Social Harmony, DOK and more. We as Brenda filled up the “holes” with artwork like silkscreened bath fabrics, mini constellations, mirror compositions, large painted stones, little altars, a library of books and spiritual stuff, invited a psychic reader, etc. The whole event had something very blessed and magical to it. There’s even a couple that emerged that evening, and they married and are still together.
We did a cassette design for Laraaji, initiated by Cedric Bardawil, “Delidomia” EP by Tristan, some vinyls for Onderstroom Records, Aguirre Records. I did a couple of records for Lullabies For Insomniacs run by Izabel Caligiore, there also was Jane Third from the UK who asked us to make a logo for her label that still has to come out. These are some examples.
Photo of Laraaji: Cedric Bardawi
I think Laraaji is very close to you in spirit. Did you have a brief?
Yes, orange, obviously and Cedric wanted to work with risograph. Another keyword was ‘radiance.’ I really like the way we translated that radiance. Most of the time we start with a choice of type and then layout. The font looks very sharp and had a lot of edge at the time. Lastly we added the color and then combined everything together. It can be nice to work in black and white, because then you focus more on composition and type.
Are there any other mediums that you would like to explore?
Books. A lot of budget goes to books and magazines. I love the fact that it is so tactile and there is just more than one dimension to it, there is the front and back, the sides and the inside. I experimented with it before, but I have never really done a published book or magazine. Another medium is web-design. I have different ideas concerning user experience and interested to explore those boundaries. So working with an experimental coder/designer is something I’m looking out for.
