Category — Website/formats

What a busy week…
Monday, Ellis and I went to the Arnhem Mode Biënnale to promote Mint. For a month the centre of Arnhem will literally form the core of the third edition of the Arnhem Mode Biënnale. SHAPE is the connecting thread of the greatest cultural fashion event in the world. This year, more than 80 fashion labels are participating, including Lanvin, Raf Simons, Hussein Chalayan, Jil Sander, Rick Owens, Martin Margiela and Viktor & Rolf. Where fashion is, is Mint. We decided to promote Mint at the Mode Biënnale, because that’s the place were fashion minded people will be. We spread flyers around town, hung some posters, and ‘accidently’ dropped some flyers in the exhibitions.

On Wednesday the magazines finally arrived. We all were very excited to see what they were going to look and feel like. After unloading the truck we finally got to see the magazines and yearbooks for real! And I must say, they look AMAZING J In this week the whole minor looked like a little factory. All of the 2000 magazines and yearbooks had to be put together in one sleeve… This was quite a challenge because the magazine had to be at the distributors by Friday. It was quite a job but we all pulled together and got it done in time!

Thursday was D-day for the graduates and Mint! The graduates got to show off their designs during the Fashion Transit show in the World Fashion Centre. Mint was present with a beautiful stand, where the magazine was presented to the outside world for the first time. Visitors of Fashion Transit had the honour to be the first to see and buy the magazine.The Mint webteam was also present, filming the show for the website, and asking people what their special relationship is with their clothing. You can see the video and people’s answers on this website.

Friday Anouk and I went to three distributors in Nijmegen, Arnhem and Utrecht. It was a two hour drive to Nijmegen, but the reaction to the magazine in the bookstore was worth it. The owner was very taken with the magazine, and was curious to read it. Next stop was Arnhem. We delivered the magazines, and after a quick drink and snack, we went back to Utrecht. It was quite a long day, but a very exciting one, because our magazines are really in stores now!

Check for points of sale www.mintmagazine.nl/where-to-buy

The last few weeks were exhausting and exciting! After months of hard work our site is launched. From filming to editing, layouts in Photoshop to Dreamweaver, blog writing to posting text in Wordpress we’re on top of it all. We passed different stations on a wild ride through webland.

Since I’m not a child of the internet generation this has all been very new to me. I like to send handwritten postcards instead of emails. I find it more personal but knowing the possibilities on the web is very useful.

I joined the website team to learn new skills. A few months later, I’m proud to see what we’ve accomplished in a short period of time. Especially knowing that we built the site with such a small team. This Thursday Fashion Transit will begin, and on Wednesday of next week the Mint party will kick off. Nice!

22th of June 2009

Although we’ve now been working a long time on this website it’s still in progress. I love inspecting and investigating if everything works on each page. It’s pretty hard to navigate the website and it needs to be clear for every visitor. This week I am focussing on the product page, which needs to look great to sell tons of products. I already set aside the quirky belt and the bowties; I just love them!

Today my group mates Ellis and Thom are going to the Arnhem Mode Biennale. This is one of the biggest fashion expositions in the world where fashion designers and labels such as Lanvin, Viktor & Rolf and Martin Margiela show their work. Unfortunately I can’t go, but I am dying to hear from them how it was.
They are filming the event, which can be seen on the website.

Just a few more days and Mint will unveil their products, magazine and yearbook to the world at Fashion Transit. This is the graduate fashion show for the students of Amsterdam Fashion Institute.

I can’t wait!

Anouk Rijkenberg (webgeek)

‘Sarah, a fisherman’s wife, saw Peter slowly approaching the shore, coming home after being away for three months. “Finally…He is coming home. I’ve waited all this time to feel his kiss on my cheek.” For this special occasion she changed her outfit 400 times; she wanted to look at her very best. Finally she decided to put on her favorite dress, the one she wore on their first date. It was a dress that Peter loved very much. On the shore she waited, just like the other ladies who were just as exited.’

This is what fisherman’s wives must have felt when their beloved ones sailed out. And these woman were represented at the new fashion exhibition ‘Gone with the wind’, organized by the Zuiderzeemuseum. I have wanted to see this exhibition for a long time. Partly because a friend of mine (and some other students from various fashion institutes) were invited by Alexander van der Slobbe, a Dutch designer and guest curator, to make costumes inspired on those women. It was a spooky, but also moving sight to see these black puppets welcoming the boat that we were on. Great concept!

As we continued our journey we walked through typical Dutch streets, for the Zuiderzeemuseum is an open air theatre. As we strolled along we ended at a the indoors exhibition, located in a fabulous building from the VOC era. A place where some of Dutch most famous fashion designers, illustrator and photographers, displayed their work. They are constantly inspired by Dutch traditional clothing. A combination between contemporary design and traditional costumes made the long journey to Enkhuizen worth wile. If you want to see the exhibition yourself (and I highly recommend it): it is at the Zuiderzeemuseum till the 22th November 22th 2009.

May 29th 2009

The web-geeks…

Online, internet, web, browser, platform, template, blog and so on; these are the words we struggle with. I am the ‘website creator’, otherwise known as the web-geek. Ellis Schrijvers , Thom Snoek and I (Anouk) have created the website for Mint. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it. For me it’s a pleasure. We are now working since the 20th of April 2009 and we have until 25th of June 2009 before the magazine will be in stores. Before selling the magazine the website has to be ready, so I naturally get a bit nervous when I think of the time we have left. Beside this, I am having a great time with my other two buddy-web-geeks Thom and Ellis. Maybe we are a little goofy but we are very serious when it comes to our work.
Thinking of it, let’s get back to work!

Keep looking at our website “http://mint.amfi.nl” and stay informed on our progress. Remember, Mint is growing!