New in Design & Layout: Discover Ethiopia

Fresh off the print, a brochure I've conceptualised and designed for Adimasu Tours, a tour operator company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The usual triptych: front (R), back (C) and inner page (L)

Map of Piazza — historic Addis Ababa — scanned, hand-made collage and hand-writing 

New in Design & Layout: A Thousand Gardens In Africa

I'm working on the design and layout of a handbook written by Tichafa 'Green Warrior' Makovere, a permaculture expert and the Ethiopia country coordinator for Slow Food.

On the cover: permaculture veggie garden at Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa. 

A Thousand Gardens in Africa is a Slow Food initiative that promotes the creation of a thousand food gardens in schools, villages and cities of 25 African countries.

See the full set on my Flickr. The work is still very much in progress, but images of the first few pages can give an idea of what it'll look like.

Stay tuned.

Muizenberg Postcard Project

An exciting live exhibition is in process as I write this in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa. Brought to you by the peeps at Communitree.

The exhibition will run between Thursday, November 10 and Saturday, November 12, featuring a selection of postcards created by local artists and designers inspired by all that's Muizenberg: beach, white sand, surf, community, arts, good food and genuine, sun-kissed fun.

Below are the ones I have designed.

Africa in my mind, Muizenberg in my heart  

On the walkway

The beach - photo courtesy of Joy-Anne Goodenough

On the walkway 2

Make sure to swing past if you happen to be in the area today or tomorrow.

and Stay Tuned.

Varie / Random Shots

A couple of images I took in the last weeks when I travelled south and ventured in parts of the Omo Valley.

Note "Obama" written in Amharic characters 

German minstrel

My early morning sini (coffee cup)

School children

Siblings under a leaf

More images on my Flickr here.


Stay Tuned

Briefly, Somaliland

I've gotten back to Addis Ababa early this morning, around 8am, after a six-day-long roundtrip to Somaliland. Visa run mission: accomplished.

52,000 Somaliland shillings = 10 US dollars

It took me 24 harrowing hours to get back from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a journey that involved an array of means of transport: 1 Coaster, 1 (highly) shared taxi, 2 minibuses and 2 buses ... I'm knackered but it was worth it.

Street scene. night. Berbera.

Shipwrecks in Berbera's port 

Shared taxi. prayer break. 

Somaliland coast. deserted beach.  

Early one morning. 

More images on my Flickr here.  

Also, I wasn't on my own this time, having found an awesome travelling companion in a young Polish/German free spirit named Magdalena. Check her own blog and pictures here. 

Stay Tuned. 

ps: in other, breaking, news, Muammar Gaddafi is reported to be dead. 

http://english.aljazeera.net/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/oct/20/syria-libya-middle-east-unrest-live

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8838611/Libya-Gaddafi-dies-from-wounds-suffered-in-Sirte-capture.html

Dani hits the road again

By the time you'll read this post I'll be on my way to Harar in eastern Ethiopia, and from there I'll cross into Somaliland.

Somaliland visa (15 mins to get one) and last available page on my passport

In the end I could not get hold of an Ethiopian work permit as per planned, so now I have to leave the country, get a tourist visa in Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital, and then come back to Addis Abeba as a "tourist".

Plans may have changed, but my time in Ethiopia is not over yet. I have a couple of projects I want to follow, both personal work and other bits and pieces for different clients. And the first engagement after my re-entry will be a trip to the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. Finally.

More updates soon. Stay Tuned. 

Food photography - new in portfolio

My new fad. Images commissioned by the Itegue Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Penne with tomato sauce 

Risotto carbonara

Green tagliatelle

Vegetable pizza

Veggie shish kebab

Club sandwich

More images on my Flickr here. 

Stay Tuned. 

Permaculture display @ Taitu

Featuring images of the Taitu Hotel's very own, organic, permaculture, veggie garden.

Sustainable food production in the heart of a big African capital city. A unique project as far as I know.

Part of Slow Food's A Thousand Gardens for Africa initiative.

Meskel_Addis Ababa

Today Ethiopian orthodox christians were celebrating Meskel, or the discovery of the true cross by Saint Helena.

I was in aptly-named Meskel Square in central Addis last night with friends. Here are a few pictures.

Design + Layout: new in Portfolio

Herbal teas menu designed for the Itegue Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

See the complete set of images from the menu on my Flickr.

And Stay Tuned for more.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse image on New York Times

I've just found out today that one of my images from the Route 35W bridge that suddenly collapsed in Minneapolis was published on the online version of The New York Times on July 4, 2009. Great!

The busy, 8-lanes, downtown highway bridge on Route 35W collapsed on August 1, 2007.

Read the NYT article about infrastructure in the US illustrated by my image here.
See my previous posts from Minneapolis here.

And please, do let me know if you happen to see any other stray image of mine somewhere on the Internet ...it'll be much appreciated.

my African journey: a year later

A year on the road has gone by: 365 days ago, at around this time (6pm CAT), I was boarding a northbound Greyhound coach that whisked me away from Cape Town as the sun was setting on Table Mountain. It was the very first step, and the hardest, of a year-long journey across Africa and inside myself.

Muizenberg, May 12, 2010: the day my journey started

After a brief stop in Jo'burg, in the night between May 13 and 14, I crossed into Zimbabwe, then Zambia, Malawi, from there into Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, back to Uganda via the DRC (unofficially), Kenya, and finally Ethiopia. I had planned to be "home" in Italy by now, in time to celebrate both this anniversary and my 30th birthday on Sunday, May 15, but fate and my willingness to listen to its tantalisingly unexpected calls have decided differently: I've received a job offer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, and will base myself here for the near future.

So, my trip is on hold but not over yet, and I feel one day I will carry on from where I paused it, maybe with different means of transport, possibly along a different route. Besides, we all know that it's not the destination that matters, but the journey, and right now, even without moving, I feel like I'm still travelling, still exploring, aspects of life and myself that form that greater journey of my life.

Back to earth, I want to celebrate the year that has been with a selection of images of my trip across Africa from South to North along a somewhat tortuous route: fun, pain, excitement, loneliness, new friends and new love, so many emotions that are hard to describe, and so little space to tell the story properly. More pictures soon on Flickr and, possibly, Facebook.

Postcard from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

The Cape to Cairo pub: Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. 

By the pool at the Lake Kariba Inns: Siavonga, Zambia. 

Drinking the ubiquitous Coke: Siavonga, Zambia.

Chipunga coffee farm: near Mzuzu, Malawi.

On my way to the Nyika Plateau: northern Malawi.

Sunrise over the lake from Livingstonia, northern Malawi.

Fresh, hand-roasted coffee: Lukwe, near Livingstonia, northern Malawi. 

On the Tazara train to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

"Drive slowly slowly": Stone Town, Zanzibar. 

Nungwi beach, north-western Zanzibar. 

Lake Kivu: Kibuye, Rwanda. 

Genocide memorial and church: Kibuye, Rwanda.  

Blue lizard: Gisenyi, Rwanda.

No comment: the border between Rwanda and Uganda.

Artist DEStreet with young pupil: Kampala, Uganda. 

Sipi Falls, eastern Uganda. 

Crossing the Equator: Nanyuki, Kenya.

Inside a matatu: Nairobi, Kenya.

Football game: Kibera slum, Nairobi. 

Approaching Lamu by boat, Kenya.  

The road to Lake Turkana, northern Kenya. 

Early morning bunna (coffee) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

Hazy cityscape: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Wooden scaffolding: Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia. 

Abba Libanos reading the bible: Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Broken-down bus and rainbow at dawn: Lalibela, Ethiopia. 

Stay Tuned, and Happy one-year-on-the-road.