We love these colourful geometric designs by Portland, Maine-based artist Joe Kievitt. They are made using tape cut at various widths and a custom-made tool to isolate areas for ink and paint washes to be applied.
We love artwork created by hand, as this is, as it has a personality (something that a computer cannot capture). - Long live the paintbrush!
George Tscherny
We love these 70’s City Guides by George Tscherny.
Test your friends by covering up the city name and seeing if they can guess which city they represent.
Artist Jack Long has created these beautiful Flower images called “Vessles and Blooms”, not from traditional materials but from drops of paint! The images are painstakingly planned in advanced but they are still quite random. We can’t imagine how many pictures it took before getting the perfect one! If only they could last for more than a split second. Stunning.
We like this: Book Spine Poetry. From the curators of the always interesting Brain Pickings, the ‘poems’ are created by reading through the combined titles of books when stacked on top of one another. Something anyone can try at home (assuming you have some books).
Bookcase Petrol Bowser
An art installation by Nissan for their LEAF model in Sydney, Australia showing how petrol bowsers might be used in a ‘World Without Petrol’.
The Diamond Jubilee celebrations are almost upon us. The National Portrait Gallery has just opened what looks like a fascinating exhibition of unofficial images of Queen Elizabeth II throughout her reign - creating an extraordinary insight into the huge changes in artistic and social conventions across her 60-years on the throne. Featured photographers and artists include Cecil Beaton, Pietro Annigoni, Andy Warhol, Annie Lebowitz, Lucien Freud, Thomas Struth and Gerhard Richter.
Museums & Galleries are marking the occasion with a set of commemorative stationery products featuring an iconic image of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Developed in partnership with The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, this unique portrait was specially commissioned for Face Britain, a project using thousands of individual self portraits by the nation’s children.
left: Dorothy Wilding: Queen Elizabeth II, 1952 (NPG “The Queen: Art and Image”)
right: Chris Levine: Lightness of Being, 2007 (NPG “The Queen: Art and Image”)
Before I Die is a public art project by Candy Chang that invites people to reflect on their lives and share their personal aspirations in public space. Painted with chalkboard paint and stenciled with the sentence “Before I die I want to _______”, the wall turns a neglected space into a constructive one where we can gain perspective and understand our neighbours in new and enlightening ways. Life is brief and tender, and there is a lot we can learn from the people around us to help us lead better lives.
As you would expect comments range from the witty, to the obscene, to the profound.
Some of our faves:
… Make a difference
… Be someone’s cavalry
… See
… Find my purpose
… Evaporate into the light
… Catch the chalk thief
And our overall fave…
… Dance fast
The project is currently expanding to cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Querétaro, Almaty, San Diego, Lisbon, Brooklyn, London, and beyond.
For anyone interested in the basic theories of colour relationships, here’s a little crib-sheet to get you through the day, care of web design company Paper Leaf.
Type Matters. We couldn’t agree more, and really like the look of this book by Jim Williams for Merrell Publishers. Based on a series of handout sheets for students that the former designer and typographer-turned lecturer produced whilst working at Staffordshire University, Type Matters is an excellent primer in the art and practice of typography for anyone interested in developing or honing their skills. Simply and beautifully laid out and focusing on illustrative examples throughout, the book has the feel of a vintage reference book, complete with a natty black faux leather cover.
We think it should appeal to all but the most experienced or snobby design-heads, and will be the first to admit to wanting a copy!
Camper shoes have often commissioned well know designers to create the interiors of their stores, but it was the design of their new Lyon store that got our attention. The Dutch designers Stuido Makkink & Bey have designed an interior inspired by basic walking movement creating stairs that appear to go on forever. The stairs form display stands for shoes and are outlined in bright red to merge with graphics printed onto the walls as though the steps continue. Movements forward, upward and downward are shaped in staircase pedestals, stools or stepladders and outlined in bright red lines on the stairs, walls and floors.
The interior of other Campers stores can be seen here
(Photography by Sanchez y Montoro.)
