This Is Antwerp commissions animated portraits of the city’s young creatives

The city of Antwerp employs 18,000 professionals across more than 8,000 organisations meaning one in six of the companies in the city is creatively focused. As the Belgian port city looks to cement its status as the creative capital of the country, This Is Antwerp has commissioned Studio Make Stuff, to create a series of animated portraits depicting some of the city’s leading creative figures. Below, we introduce some of the people who are helping shape the city’s future and learn about how and where they work.

Kastaar Studio (above) is a graphic design studio and analogue print factory. Founded by An and Stoffel, the pair have a profound love for strong typography illustration and graphics and started collecting old letterpress machines. Combining artisanal and modern techniques to preserve traditional graphic design techniques, Kastaar wanted to explore the contrast between slow printing and the emphermeral nature of social media of today.

Devon Halfnight LeFlufy is a Canadian born, but Antwerp-based fast rising fashion designer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. For his Autumn/Winter 2016 collection, the designer reflected on Jacques Derrida’s prophetic 1994 assertion that “justice is deconstruction’ and what this could mean for a modern wardrobe. “Justice is deconstruction’, can be reinterpreted as finding calm within chaos, which Halfnight LeFlufy finds as an apt analogy for contemporary culture today and furthermore, the disappearance of subcultures. The collection presents an elevated take on wardrobe essentials, such as the double breasted coat, the T-shirt and the suit.

Klein Agency is an architecture and furniture design studio founded by Los Angelino-Slovenian couple Jon and Masa Kleinhample right in the heart of upcoming neighbourhood Eilandje. The couple specialise in designing interiors and furniture. Their signature work consists of locally sourced leather and oak with black steel frames, all industrially tooled.

DTM FUNK aka David Tricot Mizero is the co-founder of Antwerp-based clubnight and record label Foot Juice Art. His monthly party provides up-tempo funky, juke, ghetto booty and boogie beats. Foot Juice Art is derived from the dance technique footwork that originated in Chicago, and was relatively unknown in Belgium before David and his crew. David also participates in three another Antwerp based concepts called Champion Sound, Shuttles and Park that serve as platforms for promoting talented beat-makers and producers from Belgium.

Stephanie Specht graduated from the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp as a graphic designer. Stephanie designs magazines, books, identities, posters and much more. Besides working on the design of famous books such as _Ugly Belgian Houses_ and redesigning the latest S Magazine , she is also the author of her very own book called These Five Years , a five-year diary.

About This Is Antwerp
This Is Antwerp keeps a firm finger on the pulse of what young and upcoming creatives are up to in the city and keeps interested visitors up to date via the platform thisisantwerp.be. A group of enthusiastic young locals keeps a lookout for all things edgy and new, in the music, fashion, art and lifestyle scene.