illustrations: Sophia Halamoda.
Barbecuing on Tempelhofer Feld seems to be an inherent part of the classic Berlin lifestyle. As with most things in this town, everyone has a different vision and approach to this particular activity. This often results in a quite interesting scene made up of the most diverse Berlin inhabitants who don’t seem to have much in common other than some (however fleeting) fondness for outdoor grilling.
For her new comic, illustrator Sophia Halamoda (who some of you might know from the Berghain comic) looked at the most popular types of folks at the barbecuing area of Tempelhofer Feld – which one can you relate to?
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by Michalina | People
photos: Guen Douglas.
Berliners are known to have a certain affinity for tattoos. Luckily for us, the city attracts some of the world’s most amazing tattoo artists whose designs truly transcend the visuals. One particular artist whose works are especially brilliant – bold, beautifully executed, and abounding in cultural references, is definitely Guen Douglas from the Taiko Gallery studio. We had a little chat with Guen to find out more about her background, style, and some inspirations behind her designs. Read on!
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by Michalina | Art, Design
This female artist makes Berlin come to life in thick black lines and vibrant colors.
From Bogota to the Big B, after stops in Firenze Italy as a child, studies of fine arts and illustrations in Bogota and Madrid, Xuehka, or Xueh Magrini Troll, moved to Berlin to study visual communication at the Weißensee School of Art. Artistry runs in Xueh’s blood, she follows into the creative footsteps of her mother and grandmother as a female artist. Xueh, who calls legendary painter Frida Kahlo one of her biggest influences, has made the German capital the main source of inspiration for her lively cartoons, drawings, and sketches.
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by Andy | Art
Partying in Berlin is a whole thing. The ritual of preparing yourself for a long weekend of non-stop techno has its own steps and rules. For the techno lovers and night creatures, it’s like a sacred ceremony of the modern days. It takes time and money that not all Berliners can’t really afford to spend. But in the techno tribe, too much is never enough. They have consecrated themselves to the Club God and they are ready to give it all. For some people it seems almost impossible to get out of the spiral of techno, that drew them in over and over again.
The young Berlin-based illustrator Josefine Aspvik has perfectly captured the absurdity of taking yourself too seriously. Her drawings are honest and witty and I’m sure you’ll recognize in them that friend that refuses to meet if not at Berghain.
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by Amanda Artiaga | Art, Party
Sometimes getting along with your neighbors could be more difficult than releasing your childhood traumas. So, in order to smooth this process, we squeezed through your future neighbors’ windows to chronicle their lives, and give you a sneak peek at how they might look like.
From the family that “incubates” their hardcore-punk band in their apartment to the friendly gay couple that is obsessed with their visits to the psychotherapist — here is a short guide to the family next door depending on your neighborhood.
Disclaimer: No stereotypes were harmed in the writing of this text.
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by Guest Author | People, Stories
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The spirits are even higher than usual among our team today. We are absolutely thrilled to launch a series that is a complete novelty in our over 10 years of blogging. For the first time ever, we’re introducing iHeartBerlin-themed real life products – titled IHB/IRL. The first edition is a colorful sheet of 13 cute stickers created by our talented in-house designer Berk Karaoglu with images you might recall from some of our editorials. The batch is limited, so get ’em while they’re hot!
Over the years, we’ve seen that you heart Berlin just as much as we do, so we’ve tried to figure out an outlet for that love to spread outside of the Internet too. IHB/IRL is a chance for you to have the iHeartBerlin vibe visibly present in your day to day hustle – that’s why we chose to go with stickers for the first edition.
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by Michalina | Design, Products
illustrations: Berk Karaoglu
You might be familiar with German as the mighty code used by ridiculously inquisitive forms and just as nosy club bouncers. In this article series, we are challenging that rather unfavorable notion by collecting some of the juiciest bits this vocabulary has to offer. It’s only natural that this quest has eventually led us to feature some quirky dirty talk. This listicle might therefore be a bit less practical than our previous editorials featuring casual German, some fine German insults, and unique German words of happiness. But if either wacky sex stuff or just bizarre compound nouns is your thing, you’re about to get lucky!
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by Michalina | Most Popular Posts, Stories
We have encountered many memorable illustrations of our favorite places in Berlin. Of our go-to clubs, our favorite freaky Berlin people and Berlin’s eclectic nightlife, but we have never seen an illustrator capturing the mental showdown of it all. The meta-level of what is playing out in our minds, when we go party in all of these places, with all those weird-ass freaky people we love so much, living it all up under one sweaty roof. That’s why we were in awe, laying eyes upon Virginie Kypriotis epic depiction of Berlins nightlife for the first time. Her ability to fuse her gift of illustrating with her sensitivity to special situations creates a whole new level of nightlife illustrations that we are excited to share with you.
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by Franziska | Art, Party
illustrations: Sophia Halamoda
They say every city can be a bittersweet experience, but Berlin has a penchant for taking everything to the absolute extreme; it’s syrupy like Glühwein and pungent like take-away coffee from a Turkish run späti. No mouthwash – not even Pfeffi – could ever make you forget its taste.
How did you feel when you realized Berlin is the World’s Greatest Circus, and upon moving here, you could leave the audience and get on stage? Everything is improvised, it can get ugly – and the only character that’s even trying to be funny is the BVG. But you stayed, watching others, trying to learn the cues, and ultimately you fell in love with the beautiful mess around you.
How well do you know it now? Can you tell the cliches from the truth? Have you been to the wild side? Are you even vegan?! In other words: how much of a Berliner are you, really? Let our quiz be the judge.
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by Michalina | People
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The Bikini Berlin is never short of a lovely surprise when it comes to using their amazing space for beautiful creative projects. Just like last year they have teamed up with an artist duo to transform the center of the concept shopping mall into a wonderland for the senses. Combining a fun photo wall, a greeting card station, a present wrapping service and a cute little winter punch booth the colorful illustrations of the lovely guys from Zebu magically materialized as a little playground full of curious animals and creatures.
The heart of the installation is the free Christmas wrapping service in the middle where you can bring all your Christmas presents to be masterfully wrapped in the exclusive paper designed by Zebu for Bikini Berlin. Or if you are crafty you can also swing the scissors and ribbons yourself at the big self-service tables. The paper comes with three artworks that represent different aspects of Christmas and embody the style of the two artists perfectly. The fact that they love to work with animals makes so much sense given you are looking straight into the monkey house of the Zoo right next to the mall through its big panorama window. In fact the sheets look so cool that you could as well frame them and hang them in your house as art prints.
The postcard station offers your the possibility to either send Christmas greetings to your loved ones (Bikini Berlin will cover the postage) or cut out and fold the animals to start your own little zoo. It’s all too cute!
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by Frank | Misc.
