"Kako, how's your schedule?", he asked. "I'm f*cking swamped with work. No time to breath", I replied. "I understand. The thing is: we're going to release Illustration Now! Portraits in a couple of months and I need my portrait to be done for the introduction. I really wanted you to do it", explained the man with a heavy carioca* accent. "Consider it done!" And we lived happily ever after!

There are times that you need to make the impossible happen no matter what it takes. And this was such a time. Julius Wiedemann is a man with a long "surname" that says Executive Editor of Design and Director of Digital Publications and the diabolical mastermind behind all those Taschen books that we designers and illustrators would gladly give both arms to have. But for me he turned to be much more than that. He crossed the cold and distant professional barrier and embraced my work in a way that few people have. He became a friend, a brother. And for these few I'll do anything. No matter what it takes.

*carioca = from Rio de Janeiro.