Love Freo Book

Last week we were champing at the bit to get down to the Love Freo Book Launch on Thursday night. At one of our favourite ever cafés, Moore & Moore, the Love Freo team released their excellent publication. It is right up our alley, as it takes you on a journey through the different areas of Freo, showing you businesses that are old favourites as well as new places to visit. The directory style pages are punctuated by features on various creative pursuits that tie into the Fremantle area: a standout being the photographs of instances of street art through the port town. The small, square book feels lovely in your hands: yes, even though we run a website, we love the tactile nature of publications more than you can imagine. We also love the vibrant colours used throughout the book – it’s just as fun as the cover suggests!

Even better than the fantastic finger food from Moore & Moore was meeting the trio behind Love Freo: Orla, Isobel and Phil. So we asked them a few questions about their exciting project…

We are big fans of the Love Freo website, but for those of our readers who might not be familiar with Love Freo, can you tell them a little about who you are and what you do?

That’s really cool that you’re fans, flattery will get you everywhere. So hello, we’d like to introduce ourselves… Love Freo is Izzi, Orla and Phil. We’re a group of people who write a blog about Fremantle. We’re really proud of Freo as it has bag-loads of amazing stuff and we want people to venture off The Cappuccino Strip and look around the rest of the city.

Recently we decided it was time to create a book with the same kind of content as the website. We wanted to put down on paper all the weird, wonderful and interesting stuff that goes on and make it available to everyone.

A little bit about us…

Izzi Kruger, Izzi used to live in Subiaco and then Mount Lawley, but realised that the coast was the place to be. Her and her partner bought a weather-board cottage and planted their roots firmly in Fremantle. She’s our best photographer: if you ever see a beautiful image on the website it’s probably hers. Did we mention she’s an amazing graphic designer?

Orla Larkin, Orla lived in many places before she found herself in Fremantle back in 2008. A short stay to visit some friends turned into an indefinite residency. Orla spends a lot of her time at her computer creating beautiful websites and blogging. But she does get out a lot and loves faffing around Fremantle.

Phil Martin, Phil is crazy about the water: the port, the beaches, the harbor. He lives and breathes Freo plus runs two boat businesses from here. He’s the person in the group that makes things happen, oils those cogs.

Was creating a tangible product, like a book or other publication, a plan (or dream) from the start of the Love Freo project, or something that evolved since starting the website?

The website has been going for about two and a half years now but right from the get go we’ve always wanted to do the book. Finding the time was always the difficult part as we all work 9-5s. So back in October we just decided to go for it and get the project off the ground; find time and burn the midnight oil.

We love the bright colours of the front cover – what was the process behind designing it?

Seriously we went through so many iterations of the cover and we couldn’t decide on a single image so we though yeah, let’s use them all. It’s an attempt to be everything to everyone. We really want people to notice it, pick it up and take a closer look.

Can you give our readers a little taste of what is inside?

We’ve tried to cover some of our favourite subjects from the blog. So we’ve got features on art, design, the urban environment, unusual places and local people. There’s also loads of info about shops, cafés, bars and restaurants.

How did you know what you would put into the book, and was it difficult picking what to include?

It was hard whittling down what we wanted to put in. Most of the stuff in the book are places and things we personally love. It took a while to get them down on paper and sort through them all. Unfortunately we did have to leave out many things because there simply wasn’t enough pages.

What is your favourite part of  the book?

Izzi: I especially like the dog beach spread. The photos were taken with an old film camera, which I got from one of Freo’s op-shops. The picture on the right shows our crazy dogs and best buddies Elroy and Coaly.

Orla: That’s a tough one. Either the feature on Fremantle artist Dave Wolfy – the way the typography reflects Dave’s brush work and painting style is great. Or the street art section – I love the walls of Fremantle. I could fill a whole book with them.

Phil: The Waterfront Section… although I love all of the book (obviously) but for me Fremantle is about the water and I think the photos of the port and beaches capture what it is about Fremantle that makes it such a great city.

This might be a hard one, but if you could have an ultimate, Freo day, what would it be?

Izzy: Sunny day – early morning walk at South Beach with my man and my dog (it’s still a bit chilly) – getting a take away coffee from the South Beach Café, having it at the beach while watching the dogs play – shopping at the Growers Market (with a break for Pupusas from the Salvadorian stand) – scooting around Freo on our VMoto 50cc – catching up with friends for a concert in the gardens of Fremantle Arts Centre – sundowner trip to Carnac Island (thanks Phil!) – dinner on our deck with friends and dogs.

Orla: If I could get all this in in one day I’d be pretty content… Breakfast at Moore & Moore. Lunch at The Raw Kitchen. Dinner at Ruoccos. Seeing something new on the streets: paste-up/stencil/whatever on a wall or an abandoned space that makes me smile. Skating the cycle path that runs down Marine Terrace, past South Beach and towards the abandoned Power Station. Having drinks with friends at Mumma’s, Creatures or Kelp (for as long as it stays open) as the sun goes down.

Phil: No, that’s an easy one: walk on South Beach with the dog, brekkie at Ootongs, spend a few hours on the boats in Fishing Boat Harbour, bit of kayaking on the river at Rocky Bay, take a look around the shops along High St, off to Mrs Brown for a quick g’n't, fish and chips somewhere nice, pint of Kolsch at the Monk, chill out at home then take the dog for another walk up to the Round House and around the port when it’s deserted at night.

Wow, if that doesn’t inspire you to get down to Freo, I don’t know what will! If you are keen on buying the book, they will soon be for sale at Ootong & Lincoln, The Attic, Café Lumos, Il Cibo, She Seldom Blushes, Wild Poppy, Dymocks (Freo branch) and New Edition. In the meantime you can buy it online here.