In the recent weeks I’ve been working on a new project with H-Farm Ventures, a very good venture incubator here in Italy. H-Farm is very unique, built around an old farm just outside Venice, it consists of various structures that house all their startups, and also a couple companies they founded. The project we are doing together is really amazing and I can’t wait to tell you about it. I’ll announce it over here first, sometime during the end of September and the beginning of October, and I’ll also talk more about H-Farm and their founders in the future, but for now take a look at some pictures I made of the campus.

P.S. If you happen to pass by Venice add me and PIG Mag to your Foursquare friends, I’m constantly adding the best places to hang out over there.

*(If you read me through the rss feed you probably saw my last post about the 90’s. Unfortunately it was a draft that slipped for mistake through the google cache. I was writing down some notes and quick thoughts and hit publish for mistake before deleting it. I hope you enjoyed that 90’s the dancey playlist though :)

Anyway, this post is for two reasons. The first is to quickly talk to you about the design studio I’m setting up, and the second one is to publish the tracklist for my new tape, number 21.

As most of you probably know by now Simon’s tapes are a selection of my favourite tracks that air on PIG Radio, and organized into 80 minute playlists (for cd burning). So a special thanks goes to D3Pop for his music selection for the Radio. For those of you who don’t know, PIG Radio is an online web radio which airs 24/7 non stop since 2005 and plays what I’d like to define as the REAL POP music. New, creative, fresh, intresting and talented artists from around the world. PIG Radio is free and there’s no advertising, so go and listen to it now! Theres’ only 300 listening slots available at any given time.

But first things first. The studio! Based in Milan, Italy, the goal of the studio is to design useful and fun objects for everyday use.

A quick design cv below:
I was born in 1974 in Milano, grew up in the 80’s and 90’s studying at art schools and practicing product design. Since back then my passion has always been to follow brand and product design marketing and communication, having been lucky enough to be a kid and a teen right in the middle of a lot of the great product success stories, from Walkmans to Jordans to Swatches and Apple’s. Dropped out from the Politecnico di Milano Industrial Design faculty (needed to work), published PIG Magazine and PIG Radio for 10 years and was part of the team who created Super Sunglasses, for which I’m very proud to say it has become a worldwide phenomenal success. This stimulated me to go back into design again so I decided to open my personal studio and use my skills for companies who would like my designs. Zimen is the nickname I always signed on my drawings since the early 90’s, and probably the name of my studio. Above this post is the new logo. I hope you like it!

So to celebrate I created edition 21 of my Simon’s tapes.

Thank you and enjoy!

Tracklist (with itunes links where available):

1. Washed Out: Eyes Be Closed
2. Cut Copy: Pharaohs & Pyramids
3. Radiohead: Lotus Flower (Radio Edit)
4. Nite Jewel: It Goes Through Your Head (DaM FunK’s Club Dub)
5. Lykke Li: I Follow Rivers (The Magician Remix)
6. Crystal Fighters: At Home (Scuola Furano Remix)
7. Selebrities: Can’t Make Up My Mind
8. Winter Gloves: True Blue
9. Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
10. Grimes: Vanessa
11. Nicolas Jaar: Variations
12. Jai Paul: Btstu
13. Visions Of Trees: Sometimes It Kills
14. MGMT: Brian Eno (Cornelius Mix)
15. Southern Shores: Grande Comore
16. Jamie xx: Far Nearer

So, Phil came to Milan recently and we had alot of fun together. During his visit he filmed an interview with me for a feature on his new space in Berlin called MADE (see some pics below). It’s purpose is to promote creativity by offering a space where selected artists or brands can invent and expose any kind of project. Long story short: my interview has been published and also Hypebeast picked it up! Here’s the video. And below are also a video and a picture I made of the lighting system at MADE space.