La Carte de Rencontre

Vous êtes à côté de la borne... il ne reste qu’un seul vélo. Il y a vous et une femme que vous trouvez extraordinaire. Quelle chance de lui montrer l'homme que vous êtes (ou quelle chance de pouvoir faire sa connaissance). Vous apercevez une carte dans le panier. Vite ! Accédez à votre Navigo et votre stylo. (Prenez votre stylo). Déchirez la carte et cochez les cases, indiquez vos coordonnées – téléphone, mobile et e-mail – et partez... elle regarde la carte. Sympa ? Ou vraiment con ? Voilà ! Après la Carte Orange, la carte à puces, la carte de crédit, voici La Carte de Rencontre ! Une idée originale de Lalande Digital Art Press. Bientôt dans un panier de vélo près de chez vous. C'est excellent pour les rencontres rapides et imprévues, en passant à pied ou en pleine circulation. "C'est moi !" Il faut profiter de ce moment ! Vous pouvez également concevoir votre carte vous-même. Il suffit simplement d’utiliser une belle photo, d’indiquer votre e-mail ainsi que vos coordonnées au verso. Faites vous-même le design, envoyez-là nous par e-mail, et voilà.

Oui, nous pouvons imprimer vos cartes de visite, cartes de vélo et cartes de « love ». Nous fabriquons aussi plein d'autres choses, bien sûr : affiches, livres, brochures, catalogues, grands tirages numériques. Entre-temps, nous souhaitons connaître vos histoires de rencontres à "vélos" ... Racontez-nous ! Clickez ici: Contact Lalande

And now for the English portion of this blogcast: She's hot, you've got the bike. You're alone. There's the Carte de Rencontre in the basket. Quick: Moral decision: leave her standing or do the right thing? You scribble your number and e mail, hand it to her and fly off. The next day you search Craig's List for "Missed Connections." Hey! Make your own personal Carte de Rencontre next time! She probably couldn't read your handwriting! So take the high road: With a color or black and white photo, your e-mail and mobile telephone number, just e-mail the file to us and you'll have 1000 cards for only 90 € ! Click here now to make your own cards today: Contact Lalande.

Lalande Guides: Xpress Business - Français/Anglais

Lalande est votre imprimeur numérique à Paris. Un clé USB et vous êtes prêt à imprimer... alors les guides, gratuites, en français et anglais sont conçus pour vous. Porquoi? Pour faire le maximum pour votre business, petite enteprise, grande entreprise, lancement du marque, boutique ou votre vie comme artiste, photographe, galeriste ou styliste. Un simple click, et le download est à vous.

Are you a fashion designer, business consultant, software sales rep? Do you live in America? Germany? Japan, Brazil? Are you planning on exhibiting your fashion or art or attending a business conference here in Paris? Is the thought of carrying 20 kilos of printed material across the oceans weighing on you? Or the cost of shipping boxes upon boxes to Paris via some expensive express service a bit scary? Forget it: Lalande is your English language printer in Paris. No need to struggle with people who don't speak your language in trying to produce critical mission documents, posters, catalogues, brochures and marketing material. Take a look at our free guide in English. Click here: We speak your language.

On Glass: Kareen Kjelstrom

Watch out: Kareen Kjelstrom is a girl with a blow torch. She uses it to melt and shape glass and sterling silver into jewelry designs that also build bridges between cultures. Born in Hawaii and raised in California, Kjelstrom grew up on the Pacific Ocean. (Her mother is Tahitian). Kareen's 2007 Titaua (Tee-tao-ah) collection features fine Italian glass beads and sterling silver that echo the artist’s Polynesian heritage and bring it into a sophisticated and breezy European sensibility.

The French have noticed: Since the spring, her necklaces have gone on the air, sported by Marie Drucker of France 3’s "Soir 3." The French television personality is a big fan; Kareen's designs have also been showcased in the U.S. on Home & Garden Television.
Established in 2000, “KbyKareen handKrafted” jewelry works are one-off creations and limited series pieces. Working with glass beads from Effetre (Italy) and hand-formed sterling silver settings, this self-taught jewelry designer makes her magic happen under the steady blue glow of an oxygen/propane mix torch.

"I moved back to Paris at the end of 2004 and have since been trying to get everything I need to make jewelry here," she says. "Do you know how hard it is to find propane in Paris?" Lalande has been working with Kareen for nearly two years, producing the artist's signature square promotional cards and a "look book."

Kareen splits her year between studios in Paris and Los Angeles, and travels extensively in search of cultural nuances. "I'm something of an archeologist looking for the meanings – as well as the fashions – of contemporary jewelry round the world. My work is really a personal sculpture, a synthesis of a personal history and, of course, femininity."

With representatives in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Amsterdam and Barcelona, exclusive boutiques in the Marais, as well as the VIA Gallery in the Viaduc des Arts, Kareen is fashioning her brave new world out of brilliant glass and silver. Check out Kareen's newest pieces here.

Lillies & Birds: Nugent Davis

American artist Nugent Davis repaints nature in thick, impasto oil-on-canvas portraits of dripping flowers (mostly lillies), mysterious women silhouetted in deep rich reds against a scumbled calligraphic ground (Lilly II, left). We've been working with Nugent for nearly two years, producing post cards, annoucement posters and most recently, a tidy ton of cards and printed pieces for her July wedding. Come la rentrée, the honeymoon moves into another phase with an exhibition of new works, opening 19 September at Style Pixie Salon in Ivry-sur-Seine, with full on abstract oils from this lush series. The show runs through 19 October.

"The series is inspired by nature and science," says Nugent who paints out of her Studio Rabbit on the southern edge of Paris. "Through the paint itself, I'm also writing a kind of language." The colors are highly charged, and literally vibrate. Nugent's abstractions touch upon those from de Kooning to Pat Steir, to artists like Kenny Scharf ("Object," right). Color is always turned on full blast in Nugent's Studio Rabbit.

"I paint from my own center and choose a subject so I can almost step into it; that's what gives me pleasure," she says. "I don't try to control the paint at all and allow it speak for itself." Contact Nugent for details.

Street Marketing Controversy

French marketing consultant Emmanuel Brunet discovered our Vélo promotion cards in the Velib baskets around Paris and posted about it on his blog. After congratulating us on the initiative tying the retro-American photo of kids on their trikes and wheels to the "bobo" demographic of Velib riders, a number of questions about "street marketing" has arisen. La conversation sur le "street marketing" est devenue très animée. Voir l'article et les commentaires – c'est très interessant. De tout façon, les petits sur leur vélos nous ont livré des très bonnes reponses et commandes pour les cartes postales et tirages numériques.

One Thousand Paintings

Art & commerce have never been so mathematically married as Swiss artist Sala's project, One Thousand Paintings. With more than 750 of these simple and elegant number canvases sold (the majority, 350 or so, to Americans), for increasing prices tagged to availability, Sala's effort to distribute his genius and unroll the magic of numbers across the globe has worked brilliantly. It's the kind of art and marketing we at Lalande Digital Art Press appreciate: An energetic, living, limited edition work of art.

Marketing guru Seth Godin has tagged Sala's project an "Idea Virus," and Godin himself wrote: "It's so classically, perfectly viral. It will make him hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few weeks. And it will make you smile. I bought painting 552. I may donate it to MoMA."

"One thousand numbers = one thousand paintings. All beautifully painted on canvas (approx. 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches). Each number is unique - the number and the demand define the price. An experiment of art & mathematics, on the web, the first of its kind," writes Sala on his site. It's a work of Fluxus-inspired brilliance that pushes the mail art concept into a new dimension. (The works are mailed in yellow boxes to collectors). And an art that values itself according to the market.

Sala's price calculator states: "Price = 1000 - number. Initial discount: 90%. Current discount: 20%.The discount will decrease by an absolute 10% for every 100 paintings sold. Min. price: $40." So if you bought number 500, you pay 1000 minus 500 for $500.

The project began more than a year ago in Zurich. Wired Magazine featured the artist in their piece, Paint By Numbers. Collectors are varied for their interest in art and their interest in numbers and numerology and Sala cites their stories on his blog, along with photos of their "installations." One collector, Tosh Cooey, purchased the initial 12 digits in Pi, beginning with 314 (3.14159265...). Cooey wrote Sala: "I wonder just what the longest possible sequence is using only your paintings. Because many prime numbers were bought early, it would seem that many of your buyers were numbers and maths buffs, perhaps one of them would know the answer to that question."

Still others have very specific and personal stories with numbers – a wedding anniversary or an address, the number of days in the year (365). Among other things Sala has created in his One Thousand Paintings project is a unique, global community – one with a lot of buzz.

Après Le Quinze Août

Paris Tourism

Pour les Parisiens qui ont profité du Velib, et qui ont trouvé une de nos quatre images dans leur pannier, voilà, on a fait contact. Comme vous voyez, on vous offre des cartes de visite avec vos cartes postales. Envoyez-nous vos photos de velos à Paris, en France ou n'importe où dans le monde entier. On va les mettre sur le site, et si on les imprime pour une promotion, on va vous imprimer des cartes postales pour vous remercier.

Did you find these postcards in the basket of your velo? We'd like to continue with more shots like these. So if you're any kind of photographer, or just have a camera, send us your photos of bicycles in Paris, France or anywhere in the world. Lalande will put them on the website and if we use them in other promotions, we will print up post cards for you for your contribution and to say thanks. These images are copyright-free retro-Americana photos from the 1940s. Click on them to enlarge and see how great they are.

If you'd like to discuss a project of yours, click here to Contact Lalande. Bonne route!

Love It And Leave It: Nathalie Latham

I met the Australian photographer and filmmaker Nathalie Latham about a year ago when she contacted me at Lalande about doing some high-end scans for her exhibition about Australians who have left the island continent for other ventures and never returned. I know a few of the subjects, including fashion designer Martin Grant who lives and works in Paris.

These elegant black and white portraits were first exhibited at the Australian Embassy in Paris and then at The Australian National Portrait Gallery in Canberra this past spring. Out of her research – interviewing and photographing Australians working in Europe and the US and elsewhere – came the fantastic book, LOVE IT AND LEAVE IT - AUSTRALIA'S CREATIVE DIASPORA, published by T&G Publishing and The Australian National Portrait Gallery (2007, 157 pages).

The photographer writes on her blog that she had never met the designer, Gianni, and the book was assembled and put together via e-mail and phone calls, with Nathalie here in Paris and Gianni in Sydney. "We met for the first time in Singapore the day before the book went to print," she says. The age of technology and publishing! There are only 1000 copies of the book in print, so if you would like one, hurry and contact Gianni (gianni@tgpublishing.com.au) to order it.

Nathalie left the City of Light to move to Go-Go Berlin for a year to live and work in an artist residence there, focusing on her photography and films; for August she has headed off to India to shoot a film. She produced a design for t-shirts (above, middle), which she will distribute to orphans on her trip. Then, she will return to her fabulous studio in Marienenplatz in Berlin. She's currently exhibiting her photographs at "Eating Up Beijing" at Kodak Eastman House Summer Biennale, Rochester, New York through September 2007.

Skin Deep: Paris Tattoo

Paris-based photographer David McCairley has long sought images that skirt the center and subjects who live on the wild side. He's photographed prostitutes, the down and out, the down trodden and most recently, dozens leather-clad French men and women who gathered at the Paris Art Tatoo Expo this spring getting, well, down. His subjects, often sporting a half pound of metal piercings, happily collaborated with McCairley for these "action" skin photos in black and white. They sit or lay on tables while the skin doctors get to work, weaving illustrated fantasies on their arms, backs, legs, bellies and elsewhere." It becomes an addiction," says David. "Once they start, they want more and more of them. Until they are a living tatoo." [Click on the images to get a full-screen shot].

These signs give body language a new dimension – one of fantasy – much like Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man." But tatoos are not new. Every culture practices the art of the tatoo – from body painting in New Guinea to scarification of the flesh in dozens of African tribes. The meanings are as diverse as the images and marks added on to the flesh. "While they might look intimidating, these tattooed types turned out to be amongst some of the nicest people I have ever met," says David. "Really."

McCairley works out of Paris on a range of projects documenting outsider lifestyles and edgy attitudes across Europe. "I've been concentrating up until now mostly on my web galleries, but I'm looking to explore large-scale exhibitions and various printing options on paper with Lalande." We've worked with David on a number of small print pieces, but this series is more expansive and we will produce a number of proofs for him on a variety of papers – Epson matte, Epson brilliant and Canson matte – in order to deliver the grit and the beauty of these crisp, elegant images. David says he'd like to make a signed and limited edition of prints as large as one-meter wide. (Contact him for orders). Cool stuff, should draw a crowd.

"Travels with a Sufi," a photography book with Mary Inayat Khan, the widow of the venerated Sufi leader and teacher, Pir Valayat is another of David's current projects. "Wherever the wind blows, that's what's interesting to me," he says. You can contact him via his web site, and while you're there also take a look at some of his other clients – most (but not all) of whom are wearing shirts.

Le photographe basé à Paris David McCairley est un photographe atypique. Il a photographié des prostituées, des douzaines d'hommes en cuir vêtus, ainsi que des femmes participant à l’exposition Paris Art Tatoo ce printemps dernier. Ces sujets, souvent percés, assis ou couchés sur des tables, tandis que les perceurs arrivent pour travailler leur corps, tissant des fantaisies illustrées sur leurs corps...

"Cela devient un penchant," dit David. "Une fois qu'ils commencent, ils veulent de plus en plus d'eux. Jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient une entièrement tatoué."

VELIB PARIS

Paris is now a biker's paradise with thousands of bicycles – velos – ready to ride all over town. Ever the opportunist, we created a special "Velib" promotion for new clients, putting one or two of the TIPOGRAFIA cards in the baskets of the cool new bikes. The rider takes one, hikes his or her way across town, and leaves the second card in the basket for someone else. Talk about an "idea virus," this allows us to diffuse our material in a friendly manner to our demographic. We're printing up new images that will be a bit retro like this one, above. If you do find one of our cards, bring one home (and leave the second card in the pannier for the next rider, please); then check in here on the blog, and let us know where in Paris you found it. Christine, technical princess and green citizen at Lalande, reminded me to tell people: Ne jetez pas sur la voie publique, s'il vous plaît.

I wrote about the Velib Phenomeon for The Paris Blog. Here's a quick snippet: "Putting Parisians on two wheels 24 hours a day has ushered in a new local aesthetic. With the cool weather, sunny days and breezy nights taking the velo for a 30-minute trot about town is quite agreeable. The little "pannier" up front is framing an emerging look: Toting about colorful fruits and vegetables, could very well produce a spread in Vogue. Part-retro fashion, part-health kick, big-time Amelie Poulain and clear-sky friendly, it's evident Parisians want to look like they're busy doing wonderful things and carrying legumes about on the velo is a quick fix to that end."

We're looking for great photos of bicycles, from all corners of the globe, so send one of yours to us and maybe we can use it in another Velib pannier promotion, and reward you at the same with some post cards, digital prints, or cartes de visites. Become a big wheel; we'll help you get there.

Paris est maintenant le paradis des cyclistes avec des milliers de bicyclettes prêt à aller partout la ville. Jamais opportuniste, nous avons créé une promotion "Velib" spéciale pour de nouveaux clients, mettant une ou deux des cartes TIPOGRAFIA ou petits cyclistes dans les paniers des nouveaux vélos frais. Velib Paris.

Going Optical

This summer we've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and his newest, Blink. The question: What factors come into play to create an "epidemic" of sorts. Words and images. Thin slicing, snap judgements. It's making me a bit dizzy trying to figure out how and why I respond to images during the initial two seconds of contact.

"In my parents shop, a high-end green grocery in England, my grandmother showed me that just by putting certain juxtopositions of colours in front of the customer's nose you could increase sales of a particular item," recalls Robert Ruscoe. "If you turn tomatoes outwards with their stalks showing and frame the box with bunches of parsley, you sell more tomatoes and parsley. Or grind fresh coffee beans (or display the beans) with lots of people in the store, and it triggers the desire to drink coffee so buy some beans."

Clearly it's easier to work with food; how does one make printed material a tactile experience that triggers not only desire to take the card or read the poster, but to act? Is it just the creative aspects – color, touch, perfumed paper stock, images – that trigger response? "TV is mostly image," says Robert. "Advertisers seem content with that – a woman in a shower, a guy racing a car, images that brace the distance between desire and need." Or well being.

So what kind of response do we want to generate? What kind of sale is a good sale, and what kind of sale is nothing more than a one-night stand? An illusion? Thoughts?

Sage

Sage, the financial software maker for businesses, asked Robert Ruscoe to star in a recent print campaign. Robert's Polyflash business, the mother company for Lalande, has long produced reports, large prints, brochures and cards of all sizes and shapes for Sage. "Their business is always mission critical," says Robert. "It's always about getting materials to them now." Apparently Sage thinks Lalande's wizard is a sage as well. Robert says he's happy to work as a model. His fees are reasonable – a nice bottle of Côte Roti will persuade him. Give him a shout.

Sheridan in Dublin

Malachy Quinn, the Paris-based Irish playwright is taking his successful tragi-comedy, Sheridan, on the road to Dublin. After a sold out run in Paris this spring, Sheridan, directed by theater veteran Yves Jégo, will play in French with "some simultaneous translation" at the Andrews Lane Studio theater in Dublin. Lalande played a role in this play, producing flyers, posters, invitations, program booklets and the very cool A2-sized panels that will be flipped during the play so Dubliners will be able to follow the wonderfully absurd action led by the soldier painter in his quest to vanquish non-believers in his artistic enterprises. We used a special Ray Johnson typeface created by UK font designer Keith Bates for the "subtitles." Ray Johnson, the late artist and an acknowledged master of collage and "father of mail art" was a living legend (and a great friend).

If you are living in Dublin or planning an August visit between 9 Thursday to 11 Saturday and want to book a seat, call, from Dublin: 01 679 5720. Tickets are 15 euros.

A La Carte Postale

When I made my first post card for a 1990 exhibition in an abandoned shoe store in my home town in New York, I was slightly terrified. I had serious doubts about this enterprise. Why? I was very unsure of the marketing end of my art-making activity. Was it good enough? Too amateur? Who did I think I was to make a card? "Get over it," I told myself. "You're on your own."

I eventually chose a self-portrait standing next to one of my silhouette "baby" collages, made a photocopy, printed out a short text, and designed a page using tape and glue to hold it all in place. These were the days before scanners, digital cameras and USB keys. But I could produce decent-looking type on the Mac SE and my laster printer. When I began handing and mailing out these cards, I quickly understood the power and value of producing printed material myself. No one was going to do it for me.

That same year I wrote a feature piece for Art & Antiques magazine about artist-produced invitations, touching upon Duchamp's crumpled "readymades" sent through the mail for Julien Levy's Surrealism show, Yoko Ono's disappearing cards, Yves Klein's blue stamp for "Le Vide" at Iris Clert in Paris in 1959 (below, worth some 4000 euros) and dozens of other innovative designs that were works of art themselves. My "Immaculate Perception" collage on the invitation for the Berlin exhibition "Herzschmerz" in 2006, inaugurated Gallery Tristesse Deluxe. The image of a girl in a lemon tree went all over Berlin. [The original was purchased by French artist Eric Michel.]

Not only do these paper works – whether catalogs, post cards, posters or large-format prints – contribute to the sense of a personal history, they also reinforce an aesthetic direction. After printing more than 50 or so different cards for myself, I now work closely with artists and store owners embarking on the same trajectory. I've encouraged them to embrace the "do-it-yourself" ethic. Make postcards. Put them – and yourself – in the world. Allow people to have a compelling image and message in their pocket, on their refridgerator or bedroom wall or in their office. Give them two; they can give one to a friend.

Post cards serve as an appetizer as well as a travelling, portable art show. Send them to Beijing or Oslo, The Tate, or the Museum of Modern Art in New York (nothing mailed to MoMA is thrown out). Post cards are limited editions – tiny, inexpensive works of art. Printed in quantities ranging from 1 to 2,000, these printed rectangles, ephemeral in nature, dot one's history in a familiar and friendly way, but also generate value and interest in all directions, particularly when the original art work has already been sold. A cancelled stamp on it gives the post card a bit more history. Duchamp's invitation for Julien Levy's Surrealism show – a crumpled poster stuffed into an envelope is a sought-after collectible work of art. His "Rectified Readymade," his French pun – L.H.O.O.Q. – on the Mona Lisa from 1919 is an icon of modern art. It began its life as a post card of yet another icon.

Creative and graphic efforts that issue from the launch of an exhibition, restaurant, boutique (or even your blog) go down in history, and sometimes up in value. Those little squares of paper end up creating the biggest sensation. Ms. Glaze, a four-star chef sensation and video star as well as friend of Lalande offered me one of her amazing dishes in a digital version for this postcard promotion, "A La Carte Postale," targetting restaurants and bistros in Paris.

I tell all Lalande clients taking their first steps in printing that the post card has great power and potential – a small work that speaks when you're not around. Send me your images and comments about your post cards: E-mail or call: 01 53 68 16 10. We want to know how you became famous.

The Wedding Band

You might have seen them playing around Paris, on the Rue Daguerre in the 14th, on the bridge between the Ile St. Louis and Ile de la Cité, knocking out jazz and country standards by the dozen. It's the Wedding Band, a group of mostly ex-pats, grooving when the sun is up and sometimes playing late into Parisian summer nights.

Michael Rosen (guitar, lead vocals), Chris Hudson (slide trombone) Tim Puckett, (soprano saxophone), Jimmy Gibson (contrabasse) and Johnathan Dickinson (drums) are the boys in the band, and they've been working together for years. Gigs at Chantilly for the races, Ferrara, Italy (for a wedding!), the Duc des Lombards in Paris, a ton of corporate affairs, and festivals in Belgium and throughout France keeps these guys busy. Film maker Agnes Varda heard them and put them in one of her films, including their music in another. Even the mobile phone company, POP, in Poland signed them up. Ring tones?

You can buy their CDs off their web site. We hope to produce a booklette for them in the near future. The Wedding Band just released a new CD. Since 2000 they've sold more than 25,000. That's a lot of music.

I've known the Wedding Band for years and saxman Tim Puckett asked me if we could print up a few thousand business cards and reproduce a couple hundred CDs as well. While we're no longer reproducing the CDs, we regularly print up their cards. So if you have one of theirs, it's also one of ours. It's great to be a part of the band, even if we don't play any instruments.

TIPOGRAFIA

Robert Ruscoe, Lalande's master printer, is an accomplished photographer as well as a digital wizard. While in Venice he produced a gorgeous portfolio of Venetian doorways, buildings and architectural details. His photograph, TIPOGRAFIA, is close to Robert's heart, being a type maniac and the kind of person who lusts after elegant decay, a specialty of Venice and its façades. Immediately, I wanted to use it as a promotional post card, and also to offer it as a signed, limited edition print. Robert is planning on producing it in an enormous semi-transparent adhesive print for the façade of our studio on Rue Labrouste in the 15th arrondisement.

LIMITED EDITION PRINT OFFER
We've decided to offer TIPOGRAFIA a limited and signed edition of 21. The full-color print measures 65 x 55 cm, and is produced on the Epson 9800, using 100 per cent cotton, acid-free Arches paper, 240 gram weight. The price is modest: Only 75 euros. Contact me to reserve your signed, limited edition print and arrange delivery in France – or anywhere in the world. It's a great work of art for yourself, or a gift for someone who loves Venice and its fantastic façades.

ARE YOU A NEW CLIENT?
For new clients, we're offering a time-limited promotion: Through the end of July, if you order 500 Full color postcards (10 x 15 cm) with black text on the back, we'll print up 100 cartes de visites (business cards) for you with whatever image you like. The postcards are 99 euros HT. For your business card, you can use a picture of yourself as a kid and your e mail, your company logo, or anything else you like. Make one for a friend as a gift. We'll need images sized to a standard business card – 9 x 5 cm. Send us a good color image, saved as a .jpg or better, a PDF, set to CMYK.

Actually, you can make other things with us – books, brochures, posters, catalogs, large prints – and we'll produce the business cards free for you as well. This offer extends until the end of July.

Like Robert's TIPOGRAFIA, if you take a great picture, you can produced limited edition prints, or post cards, or business cards, make them known, put them in the world, and become famous.

Christian Xatrec's Signs

Frenchman Christian Xatrec is the Fluxus-inspired artist who spun the EXIT sign around to read EXIST. He loves signs and is happiest when he makes his own. We asked Christian, who is still making his art as well as working as vice president of the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice and New York, if he would permit us to produce an inkjet print with one of his pieces, both as a way to create a portfolio of fine art digital prints for Lalande, and to see how he would react to the piece produced large, in color on 300 gram Arches paper. The above print from 2004 measures almost a meter square. Entitled "Danger: dangers," Xatrec's pyramid of caution in red and black with splashes of green and yellow serves as a maddening lexicon of where to go and how to get there. A great piece, we think, pointing us, at least, in the right direction.

Robert Ruscoe: Lalande Wizard

Robert Ruscoe, my friend and partner at Lalande, is an Englishman who crossed the Channel to France some 25 years ago "to work on his French, make art, make a fortune and drink better wine."

He's done all of those and at the same time has become a master digital printer, ad proofer, photo retoucher and has made more than 1000 highly detailed rubber stamps. We first exhibited together in Paris Mail Art in 2003, a show curated by Christian Balmier, and have been friends ever since and partners soon thereafter.

There's very little Robert doesn't know how to do with a computer or a computer file, and more importantly, turning those computer files which confound all of us, into valuable printed material. I've never seen anyone work a Quark layout as fast as he does. He's an expert on the Xerox, the Konica Business Hub and the two Epson inkjet printers. And Robert is going nuts these days making books on a new machine he picked up that binds and glues (hard or soft cover) books of all sizes, shapes and flavors. He produced a wedding book (for himself) and just published a dozen copies of a 48-page book about his Spring trip to Venice. I'm still waiting for my copy.

This portrait (above) of Robert at the studio in the 15th is by Lalande client, the Paris-based Dutch photographer, Jeremy Stigter.

Ricardo Bloch's Lifescape Books

Lalande Digital Art Press printed half a dozen Lifescape books for Ricardo Bloch. This Paris-based, Mexican-born photographer, makes portraits of living spaces in book form, on command – apartments, houses or children's rooms. They are soft- or hard-bound, and are made in unique editions with anywhere from 36 to 100 pages. Ricardo is also working for small- and medium-sized companies to produce limited edition books on their businesses, properties (real estate), or boutiques.

Robert Ruscoe, Lalande partner and technical wizard, worked closely with Ricardo to carefully bind the books and produce a limited edition that would blow the mind of the client. For a book of nearly 400 images Ricardo wanted to produce about Denver in the late 1970s, Robert tweaked nearly every photograph to get both the "vintage" and "fresh" effects Ricardo wanted. Check out Ricardo Bloch's website to see his books, portraits and photography.

Robin Jonsson Business Post Card

Robin Jonsson is a Swedish photographer living and working in Paris. We helped him launch his fashion and design photography business with a short run of postcards.

STORMHOEK WINE LABEL

Sometime ago we made self-adhesive (autocollant) labels for Stormhoek Wines, a South African winemaker slowly distributing its white and red wines in Europe.

This image, from my series, A Perfect Friend, was printed in full color, cut to size and applied to the glass bottles – about 72 of them – in record time. They were produced for IVY PARIS as part of their group exhibition at the I V Y Paris Group Show at La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpetriere. We've made wine labels for La Cave des Papilles, perhaps the best natural wine shop in Paris. It's on Rue Daguerre 75014 Paris, and one of our favorite places to buy wine.

Self-adhesive stickers can be cut and trimmed in pretty much any way you like. You can even make HELLO ... MY NAME IS... stickers for your event, kids' parties or just to remind yourself who you are. We all forget sometimes.

Collage By Stephanie Jenny

We made some posters and postcards for artist Stephanie Jenny, the adorable babe at Zango on the Rue Daguerre in the 14th. She launched her art career in June with the Portes Ouvertes along the Butte aux Cailles (in the 13th arrondisement), opening up her studio during a weekend art fest. Stephanie hung about 30 works and sold nearly a third of them, including this one. For her postcard, we isolated a section of a larger canvas, and used a digital photo of the entire piece in black and white on the back for a "stamp."

We love working with artists and offering whatever know-how and marketing we can offer so they get the exposure and traffic they're looking for. "Put your images out there," I told her. "You're the star." I suppose she thought about that for a day or so, but when she had the posters and cards in hand, she quickly laid the groundwork for a successful exhibition: Stephanie put up the 25 A3-sized posters in local shops and cafés where she lives, just off La Butte.

Well, they came, they saw, (probably drank), and they bought and some bought two! She has the eye, the scissor + glue skills, and the ebuillient temperament needed to make a go of it. Stephanie undoubtedly raising her prices for her show this September.

LALANDE DIGITAL ART PRESS

Welcome to Lalande Digital Art Press! Bienvenue!

We are Your English/French Language Printers in the Heart of Paris.

We are a Paris-based Digital Printing Press for Artists, Photographers, Galleries, Boutiques, Small and Medium-sized Businesses.

We offer expert quality, rapid service, and that little extra you don't often find in Paris. We speak both English and French.

Ask us about post cards, brochures, posters, reports, business cards, catalogs, and large-format digital prints for artists, designers, photographers, galleries (limited edition prints on Arches acid-free paper), and boutiques.

We print on the Epson 9800 and Epson 9600 inkjet printer: Arches paper, canvas, Canson papers and Epson papers for your signed and limited edition prints from 1 meter wide to 10 meters long.

Call us for quick quotes or to discuss your project. Whether you need 1000 brochures, 2000 post cards, 50 one-meter square digital prints, or a catalog of your latest designs, or even a limited edition of your last novel.

Words and images, we understand both very well.

Our Business is Your Business. Tel: 01 53 68 16 10

Ask for Robert, Christine, Matthew or Francine.