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Monday, February 03, 2014

The Real Intellectuals and How to Become One: An Ode to Contemporary Greek Design.




The Real Intellectuals might humbly profess that they fancy getting their "hands dirty" while standing by whimsically to observe "what comes out of it,"but you should expect no less than immaculate, authentic, breaking ground, sustainable craftsmanship and an aesthetic invested with a corporate responsibility that elevates Greek street wear design to higher strata of appreciation. Founded in 2012 in Athens, Greece, the TRI team is inspired by "the long road" of a creative quest, an honest journey into tracing the best materials and ideas that in turn materialize into sleek Tees and sweatshirts, wallet ropes and key holders, helmets, handkerchiefs, helmet stickers, shopping bags and patches for a "TRI effect," and other innovative paraphernalia for the intellectual female and male lovers of the paths, avenues, and highways of life. Caught up in the two-wheeled emblem of the vintage motorcycle, an enterprising duo of graphic designers transformed their own vision of what constitutes the lifestyle of a sophisticated rover "of many ways" into a creative business project involving among other things,  silk printing techniques, an environment-friendly concept and an ethics of pursuing the dream and making it "real," hence The Real Intellectuals:

"Everything is a hint for brainstorming, anything we experience reflects on our creativity. An adventurous bike road trip with your friends, the wind blowing to your face while riding, the gorgeous landscapes you can come across, an unexpected sleepover in nature, the exceptional designs of vintage and custom made motorcycles, the sound they make. Do you need a ride?
The whole process is an ode to artisan craftsmanship: our atelier is our playground: first we design the illustrations and this is the most exciting part: sketching, drawing, printing, redesigning until we are completely satisfied. Then, using the amazing silk printing technique, we apply the illustration on each item separately. We apply a multi stages artisan task until water based colors form what we have in mind."

Proudly sporting my new TRI granite sweatshirt bearing the signature illustration "Ath-Greece" on the front, I roamed along the coastline of county Clare in Ireland, only a couple of days ago. Unbearably soft and elegant, made of 100% organic Indian cotton, cut  and sewn to perfection, the "simple authenticity" of the bird illustration printed on the front below the signifier of my nostalgia, brought omens of inspiration and admiration to me from home and gazes galore at the exotic "bird" of street style: "I love your top!, a fellow American diner at the Irish sea-food pub exclaimed. And I replied by revealing details of my sartorial acquisition.

Reminiscent of a primitive engraving you could trace on an archaic pelike at a museum in the Greek antiquities section, the "earthpositive" sweatshirt, manufactured in Greece solely using renewable green energy from wind and solar power, transported a bit of "home" to the Odyssean rover roaming the roads far away. And I do not even own a motorbike.

You can adopt the amazing TRI finesse here.

And read my favourite "motorbike" poem here:


Our Motorbike

BY ELFRIEDE JELINEK
TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL HOFMANN
rocket water
eglantine
wooden moon on the roof
                                    signs of night &
                                    the red motorbike's
                                    bleeding muscle
                                    fleshed stalk dripping
                                    and overgrowing our evening
                                    it too
                                    a sign of darkness
a leek's fat body
the red motorbike
our night fire
ravishment of chrome
steel

our red motorbike glazed
with henna and betel it squirts
salmon  juice between the dark
of our thighs it sprouts
and shouts at the bar
                                    it wears a portion of
                                    evening in its eye
                                    it sloughs off sleep like
                                    the bushes drop resin &
                                    berries
our rags dip purring in
even redder roar
our muscles softly skip sweet
sweat flickers we polish
carefully &
assiduously our eyes are perched
on steel antennae surely there is
nothing redder than our motorbike
steed
                                    we will live on it
                                    our red tent
                                    dig our claws into
                                    its heart cherries meat it
                                    shouts out
                                    spittle rip
                                    the juice instructs
                                    the eyes
                                    in the language of iron

the red night squats
pressed against our motorbike

we ride hunting little girls
in the wooden sky.