Happy Mother’s Day
Left: Johanna as a baby with her mom.
Right: Johanna as a mom with Summer
Archive for category: Everyday
Illustration in Progress
J’s working on a couple of pieces, here’s a snapshot of one of them (detail) 
Calendar Book Surprise
Early last year the paper-cut illustrator Gémeo Luís wrote us to ask to if Johanna was interested in exchanging an illustration for one of his. He said he was collecting artwork from several illustrators from around the world, so we sent him one of her sketches. A few weeks ago we were delighted to get this through the mail:
A book! So wonderful.
Some of the pages with work from Anita Kunz , Olaf Hajek, Ofra Amit, and many other awesome artists.
The house that dreams built
This year little Summer Deutsch came along and the studio (which is also part of our home) wasn’t quite baby-friendly. We thought it was a good reason to tidy up and fix our place a bit.
This used to be our work area and in its place we put together the baby’s room. A friend of ours gifted us with an awesome wooden crib.
Teddies are good because they’re furry and friendly.
Meanwhile, we moved our workstations into the other half of our place. This is like command centre right here.
Jo designed this drawing counter with a lot of drawers (like the old library card cabinets). The carpenter and the furniture painter had a bit of a squabble while they were putting this together. The drawers couldn’t be interchanged because they would fit only in the holes where they were cut off from so the carpenter numbered each drawer in order. The painter had not known this and sprayed over all the drawers, thus erasing the numbers. They spent about two hours figuring out which drawer fit into where. There were heated words exchanged and I told them it didn’t matter if they didn’t fit perfectly. But apparently carpenters and furniture painters go crazy over gaping drawers. In the end, after we had all figured out which went into where, we went out and bought hot pandesal and soda. Hot pandesal and soda for the win.
Those are a lot of drawers and each one is filled with all the small things.
Vintage Penguin book covers mounted on the wall.
A lot of the shelves are still bare. We have plans for them but haven’t had the time yet.
Some of the things here we found in flea markets, from travels and our basement. 
Ninjas guard the trophy shelf.
We found these cages in the bird market of Hong Kong. Jo painted them bronze.
We’ve accumulated so many books and toys over the years and it’s quite a nice feeling to see them all stacked up.
A lot of decisions have been made using the Magic 8 ball.
Not a very good chess player but I like playing the game.
Yeah, that’s the King out before everyone else. Told you.
When we first started we had no money to rent out an office. Jo’s dad offered to let us use the garage to start things off and do what we most wanted to do. In the last four years we’ve had our share of working all-nighters, easy days of hanging out with books and music and heading out with our backpacks to see the world. Some of our greatest adventures began right here.
These books, they’re covering our walls
We got these postcards from Basheer in Singapore. A set of book cover illustrations from Penguin books. It would be a dream come true to work for Penguin someday. *Hello Universe*
We glued several of them on wood and mounted them on the wall in our mini-library.
Look what we found
Was in the basement. I wonder what else is down there.
A Long Way Down
I get bonus points for hitting the ceiling!
The studio’s put together. Four walls and a roof. Now for the grueling task of organizing everything, including all the books we’ve accumulated over the past few years.
Hello, Summer
We brought a daughter into this crazy/beautiful world. Summer Leila Deutsch was born on October 22, 2011 and has been keeping us company in the studio day and night. We put a giant basket beside our work tables and it’s been her sweet spot in her first week with us 
Renovating
We’re renovating the studio to add a little more workspace. Making furniture is actually quite fun. You make stupid noob mistakes like having tables with legs that are too skinny but it’s all good. 
Video: Asean City of Culture
Cebu has been named ASEAN City of Culture for its outstanding Creative Industries. Two weeks ago, we were invited to be in a video with some the great folks representing some of the many sectors of the creative community.
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Below is a photo of Remton Zuasola (2010 Gawad Urian best director) working on set. You can check out more behind the scenes photos by clicking here
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In related news, Raymund Fernandez sculpts a marker for the city.
http://cebudailynews.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/marker-seals-cebu-city’s-asean-title/