Fazool

Welcome to another Edition of Fazool!

iTANK HouseOnce again we cook up a serving of saucy tidbits in this edition of Fazool. There have been some big changes at iTANK since the last edition. The office space crush and rental boom of 2007 that prompted our move back to New Farm seems so long ago. Since moving out of our Valley studio of 4 years we are happily settled into our Merthyr Road premises. Before our stint in the Valley iTANK was located only a few doors away from our current studio so it's been very easy to become comfortable with the familiar old scenery. It's also an even shorter walk home and very handy for client parking! We are occupying a charming significant building from the late 1800s. It is the middle one of a row of 3 matching houses. The houses on both sides of us are currently undergoing a fastidious restoration and interior renovation which will have the corner looking brilliant when work is complete. If you haven't been around yet give us a call to make a time to drop in.

Thanks again to those who sent feedback on our previous edition. Please send us any comments about our stories or if there's anything you'd like to see (or not see) in future editions of Fazool.
Cheers,
Pasi

If you didn't receive this Fazool by email you can click here (opens in new window) to have Fazool delivered to your inbox!

IN THIS ISSUE:

What's that art?

Lamp by Tony Gray"Laund-re Cycle" by Tony Gray 2001. This lamp has been a focal point in the studio for many years now. The shade is made from the innards of an old clothes dryer or front loading washing machine. The former life of the base remains a mystery. It was purchased at one of the early exhibitions of art made with recycled materials at Reverse Garbage in West End. Reverse Garbage aims to keep materials cycling within the economy, reducing the demand for "new" raw materials as well as reducing the environmental impact of waste. Visit the Reverse Garbage website to learn more about them.

Yes, the lamp is running a low energy compact fluoro.

Peek under the lid – iTANK projects examined.
iTANK Fine Art and Reproduction Prints

Pasi checking test prints for art reproductions

 

iTANK produces exceptional art prints for a range of clients; we produce limited edition prints from original paintings for gallery sale; our art prints from photographic montages are sold in an exclusive game park in Africa; there are prints of fish images used as awards in Mexico; we make exhibition prints of photographic and digital artworks; our prints have won national print awards; we have designed and produced art books and ranges of greeting cards from clients' artworks.

Providing art reproductions for artists and galleries or printing images for photographers and digital artists requires passion, skills and the ability to communicate with artists. Pasi has been involved in making high-end art prints for over 25 years. In this time the technologies he's employed have changed but the careful approach to the work has not. It has been the consistently excellent results that have meant we have been making images for some of the same clients for over a decade. It was pleasing to see the kind acknowledgement of our work in "Arts and Crafts International" Vol 71 in a feature profiling Normana Wight and showing the exhibition prints we've been making for her over many years.

In the 1980's Pasi was making Cibachrome prints for exhibitions and commercial applications. In the early 1990s he was the first in Australia using the Iris 3047 as a fine art output device. As there was no one in Australia experienced in this type of art production & reproduction Pasi visited the famous Nash Editions in Los Angeles who were pioneers in making high quality fine art prints using Iris printers. Back then this type of output was known as "Iris prints" however the term "giclée" was later given to art prints produced on the Iris printers using fine art stocks and archival inks to distinguish them from the pre-press prints which Iris printers were more often used for. Since then the term "giclée" has been more generally applied to prints made with all manner of ink-jet technologies.

A recent example of our work has been the challenge of producing prints from an enormous painting by Nadeen Lovell in Kununurra. Nadeen's painting "Beyond the Beehives" is a whopping 16m long and 2m high. It is painted on 8 canvas panels of 2m x 2m. We would normally use an original as our starting point and in-production reference for making prints, however a painting this large is not a very easy thing to ship to iTANK from the remote north of Western Australia. We decided to have a try using separate photographs taken of each panel in Kununurra and then join them back together in our studio.

Nadeen hanging the giant painting 

It turned out that when the photographs were taken there was significantly uneven light on each panel. This meant that for each of the 8 panels there was a lighter side that needed to join to the dark side of its neighbour when the whole image was reconstituted. The edges did not fit together perfectly either. Because we understood how much Nadeen really wanted to be able to make a print of this mural we weren't going to give up easily. After some experimentation and carefully adjusting the tone and colour of each panel we made a seamless print of the whole mural and sent it to Nadeen for her approval. As we'd never seen the original it was great news to hear that she loved it and needed only a minor adjustment to some of the orange colours so that it would stand up to the demanding test of a viewer looking at the original and print together.

Soraya packs prints for shippingThe enormous mural has proved to be a major attraction in Kununurra and the prints have been a winner with fabulous sales results. We've been making and delivering the prints of the mural to Kununurra for the 2008 tourist season and expect that Nadeen's sales of them will increase into 2009 and beyond. The print is available in two sizes, 1.3m long and 1.75m long.

Visit the Lovell Gallery website and be sure to drop in to see the original when you are next in Kununurra!

Do you know an artist or gallery that might benefit by working with iTANK? Please drop us a line if you do. We love referrals!

What's on the boil in the team?
In this edition - Pasi gets back to Tokyo Designers Week

Pasi at Tokyo Designers Week 07As this edition of Fazool goes out Pasi is on another quick dash to Tokyo Designers Week to see what's been happening in the design world, benchmark with other designers and get a charge of enthusiasm.

The 07 TDW attacted designers from all over the world and featured major exhibitions and presentations in a central Tokyo location and smaller events at other venues all over the city. The event has expanded this year and so I'm hoping for an even deeper immersion into the international design world! I know the creative boost from attending TDW08 will translate into better results for our clients' projects!

The passing of Larry Leopard

We were saddened with the recent death of old Larry Leopard, our Amazonian catfish. He has been impressing clients and other visitors who have seen him in our tank since 1999. We don't know how old he was when he arrived.

Recently he lost his appetite and started getting thinner so we had him checked by the Fish Doctor who does our regular tank maintenance. A prescription of fresh zucchini tied to a rock seemed to perk him up for a while. Unfortunately it seemed his time was up as his recovery was not a lasting one.

The memory of Larry lives on. Besides featuring on our stationery and website, we have named the drive of our newest computer Larry Leopard so his name remains visible over the iTANK network.

Thanks & congratulations if you've made it this far through Fazool. Send us your comments & we'll take them on board for our next edition.

Visit website | SUBSCRIBE to Fazool | Email Us |
Call 61 7 3358 3088 | ©2006-2008 iTANK pty ltd