Heikki Ernits has created more than 20 different award-winning animated films and illustrated over 30 books, his famous Lotte stories have won a lot of international nominations.
In Europe, there are two countries that are really known for animation and they work closely together- Estonia and Denmark, like historical ties, the collaboration in drawn animation is long ongoing. Heiki is an Estonian animator who has created many successful international projects and happens to be a friend of mine.
Heikki also is my very favorite animator. I am very proud to tell the story of how our Kite Buen Hombre famous logo came to be. the very first year when we started to bring people to Buen Hombre, a world-traveling couple from Germany stayed with us in Cabarete and in Buen Hombre. One of them happened to be an excellent photographer. We have a series of great photos taken by him and one of them is the famous shot of Miky kiting with Lucky. Lucky is the first of our current 5 dogs. We call him the mascot, definitely the Alfa male. :) He is a big part of our story.
When we decided with MIky to set up the kitesurfing school in Playa Buen Hombre, my idea was always to do something original and different from most of all the kiteschools which is to put on the logo a fancy jump or trick. For us was the photo of Lucky and Miky kiting and one night I sent the photo to my friend Heiki with a humble message, could you please make me a simple animated cartoon-like drawing from the photo pretty please? Heiki is a very busy man and his answer the next day was in the manner of I am so busy and really do not have time. ...I just love Heiki's drawings that he has been making among others for one of the biggest newspapers in Estonia- The Estonian Express, they are so recognizable and have lots of character. Well, I have to admit I was a bit sad to hear his answer. The cool news came the next day, he just sent me this drawing and asked, if I meant something like this.
I loved it! Exactly what I was looking for, I knew Heiki would be the best possible person to create this style and attitude. So happy that we got the logo that makes us smile and is based on a true story and a picture that has a lot of meaning for us from the first days when we started in Playa Buen Hombre the Kite Buen Hombre kitesurfing school. Next, I actually spoke to my long-time partner in the film business Andres Rohtla, he has designed so many film posters for me and we developed a super easy and understanding relationship. He was the one who put it into the logo and designed all the materials that came later. Thank you, my friends, I know I am living a "bush life" away from the busy media where I used to belong before but this is where you really know your real friends and people you want to reach out to.
The final logo of Kite Buen Hombre is in black and white. Miky and Lucky 2014
The best is always the simplest things and comes from a good story and collaboration or many good creative souls. Thank you Heiki and Andres for helping me in this process.
The next challenge I asked from Heiki was to draw something very special. Buen Hombre is a faraway place from the capital and other main cities in the Dominican Republic being a faraway spot, there is a major part of the around 1000 village people do not read or write. as Sundays are the beach days in the Dominican Republic, quite a lot of people come from the surrounding towns to Buen Hombre to eat the fried fish and relax on the beach, the problem has always been that there is very little respect toward the nature. Unfortunately, people happen to throw a lot of trash on the beach as also there are not enough organized trash cans for a public beach. so my challenge always was how to communicate to the people who cannot read not to throw trash on the beach with some conversations about the cultural background Heiki draw me these pictures.
Sketches by Heiki Ernits for the Playa Buen Hombre, for the clean beach campaign.
Images that speak without words.
What do you think our friends? drop us. a note in email kitebuen@gmail.com.
Thank you and stay tuned for the next newsletter with some big news!