Finding more togetherness
An occasional newsletter as a deep dive into the minds, habits, obsessions, affairs, and influences of our friends and fam.
Yes, we’re finally back at it! It took a while, but with good reasons (we hope). A few months ago we divided our little online community into an inner circle (paid) and an extended family (free). After this mail is sent, we’ll invite all the subscribers of this newsletter into the extended family (slack)channel too, hope you’ll enjoy! To have more reason to be there, from now on we will share bi-weekly recaps of what’s happening and shared within subscribed part. For the inner circle we have created a small thank you (more on that below) to celebrate that we’re officially Together. And we will keep doing that from this moment on as part of the new arrangement.
Not in the least because we still very much need togetherness. Maybe more than ever. In the last period, our roles, work and mood has changed, maybe shifted, and definitely upgraded - so everyone can expect a lot more (public) work from us here. In the vein of the things we were able to do in the last period, when we had a lot less spare time. Like last year’s zine with photographer Milan van Dril, capturing behind the scenes of Jim Taihuttu’s 2023 gabber film HARDCORE NEVER DIES. We did a XL publication with one of our favourite young Dutch artists Mike Dings on Dead Cowboys. We also officially collaborated as Together & with graphic design office HouseTMM (now LMNOP) for client work on a sunglasses rebrand, which will go public in the near future. And finally we’re also still working on a running capsule collection with Lennard Kok, that should be finished soon. So, expect fresh and new work from us, and in all kinds of new compositions, as the Together& family grows!
Looking forward to connect with you all again!
Together & Dassemus & Andreas Samuelsson
Together& is a place that actively assembles like-minds, always in search of resonance between people, projects and products. It lives mostly on Slack, still, but it will break out of that digital domain more and more in the future to come. For our first (network-only) edition, we connected the exceptional bio-dynamic Vineyard Dassemus with artist Andreas Samuelsson’s stripped-down essence.
Together, they resulted in a new creation we love. An organic red sparkling wine—made according to the traditional method in a small village in the south of the Netherlands—paired with the outstanding, impactful, and fluid aesthetic of Andreas Samuelsson from Gothenburg, Sweden. A refreshing, fruity, and nutty taste featuring a hand-pulled screen print on the bottle by the analog print studio Kapitaal in Utrecht. In the composition of these elements, you’ll find everything we appreciate and aspire to with Together&.
Andreas Samuelsson
Andreas Samuelsson works as an artist in a poetic graphic manner. He has worked with most major publications in the world (New York Times, Spiegel, La Republica, Forbes, Apartamento etc) and with many famous international brands (Nike, Flos, Volvo, Apple, Kiehls, Aesop etc). With his seemingly stripped-down images, he makes the complicated simple and the simple a little more complicated by exploring, challenging and contrasting the representative, associative and concrete properties of line, surface and shape.
“I constantly work with the circle as a starting point and try to capture the simplest expression. Being able to delete and add details to create a clearer image than the original image. The more I work with my forms, the more I realize that a sea of impressions opens up. I collect images along the way, capture sections in the moment and fill in with my thoughts on how this might look visually.”
Vineyard Dassemus
Vineyard Dassemus is located in Chaam, a small village in the southern Dutch province of Brabant. The inspirational endeavor of Ron Langeveld (theoretical Mathematics graduate) and his partner Monique van der Goes (former lawyer/director in the judiciary sector), is named after a hamlet in the close surroundings of the village and originally started with one hectare on Ron’s parents’ land in 2005. Today, the vineyard spans six hectares and is certified organic and since August 2021 bio-dynamic certified. While having been involved throughout the years, from 2023, Monique, became a full-time participant in the business after having said goodbye to a long career in law that mostly took place in the European quarters of Brussels. Together, Ron and Monique are a delightful duo that combine an infectious passion for and wide knowledge of the craft of winemaking and the inherent consequences of their choices to do this completely in harmony with nature. They inspired us with both specialities.
“You work all year towards that ultimate goal: the harvest. And that never gets boring, as you’re a farmer, half a chemist in the wine cellar and then you have to sell it too. Every year is different, you keep discovering. […] Ron and I want to work as naturally as possible and therefore don’t use pesticides, not even those allowed in organic viticulture. So, we planted “PIWIs”, new hybrid grape varieties that offer protection against fungal diseases, such as the white souvignier gris, solaris and the red cabernet cortis. In the end we still had bad years, because some turned out not to be resistant after all. You don’t know for sure until about eight years later, so then we uprooted some and planted new vines.”
Things we learned while visiting the vineyard, together
It takes focusing on the small things to see how great your local business is.
It takes keeping it real (rather than overpromising) to appreciate what you can actually do.
It takes slowness to truly experience how you are organically growing your organic business.
It takes a strong conviction to do what you believe is right.
It takes setting your own standards to create in harmony with nature (because the standards are industrial).
It takes wide acceptance to see how the seasons treat your harvest.
It takes a level of isolation to continue the road you are on.
It takes creativity to keep growing into a scale that meets your ambition.
It takes passion to do what you love.
It takes continuously reengaging with what you love (which might evolve over the years) to be passionate in life.
While, it also takes love to be able to let it go, and let it be.
Until the next one!
(more images here)
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Quick highlights from the Slacks (in no particular order):
Must see DJ Mehdi, Made in France - via Jelle
Recipes for Food - via Joachim
Inside Nike’s Big Marketing Vibe Shift - via Chris
The Prince We Never Knew - via Kimberly
A$AP Rocky’s Tailor Swif is next level - via Joachim
Yes, the’re Selling sunlight - via Michael
The Nemesis Guide to Being Early - via Joachim
Hope you enjoyed this one - And as always, let’s get Together soon on Slack & IRL!
PS. There are enough bots and ghosts in our lives. We’ve always seen Together&, human and alive, so please enjoy, participate, share and forward this. And we'd love to see you in Slack to discuss things often. If you know people who should join, let us know!