Brilliance from Ikea

Design of the day

Beautiful crisp animal icons from George Bokhua. What is not to like about these?

Brooklyn 1970’s – street art had a different meaning

“In Brooklyn, people did graffiti in the 1970s because they were suffering in society, they felt like they were on the bottom. In China, street art is more like a fashion, like a culture. I feel sad because I see the fashion overseas come to China, but the way people experience it is not the original way – something’s changed.”

DALeast in The Independent

 

DALeast is a street artist from China, currently living in Cape Town. Speaking in The Independent he makes a clear statement about the motivations of street artists in China today. I think you could extend this analogy to many examples of street art today.

Street art is definitely fashionable in the UK at the moment. I’m not saying it is necessarily all devoid of political statement, but DALeast’s statement about China seems relevant to me from my spot in Bristol UK.

That point aside, his work is really beautiful and some of the most original I’ve seen in a while – even if just through online documentation at this point!

 

 

Rochester NY

Vienna, Austria

Old Street, London

 

Via Colossal and The Independent

Fancy a brew?

Much like enjoying a brew in the morning is one of life’s simple pleasures – as is admiring the beaut of these ceramics by Steve Hansen.

 

Via The Coolector

 

Some skills with pastels

Artist Zaria Forman creates large scale pastel Oceanscapes and Icebergs which are mightily impressive. Zaria addresses climate change through her work; travelling to far flung locations around the globe such as Greenland and The Maldives. I am not quite sure exactly how these drawings are addressing climate change, however they are exceptional examples of artistic skill and absolutely stunning. Sometimes there is nothing like the inspiration of someone who is a master of their craft.

 

Via Colossol

More on Zaria Forman here.

 

 

 

These whimsical characters are recycling at it’s best

Japanese Illustrator Takako Handa creates these wonderful characters from cardboard packaging. Using just scissors and glue; no pixels here.

I like the way she carefully preserves some portions of the original branding and incorporates it into the figures.

These are crying out for a stop-motion animation now…

 

 

Via Design Taxi

More of Takako Handa’s work here.

 

Brand engagement encouraged by chocolate deprivation

Sometimes simple ideas are the best.

I think it is the sentiment that is great here.

Admittedly this campaign is from summer 2013, but still brilliant.

 

See more at Creative Guerrilla Marketing

 

 

Must visit

Centre for International Light Art Unna

Website

#buymybarina

Selling your second hand car – why not market it like a brand new shiny automobile?!

That’s what this guy did –

Full colour study 271 years before Pantone

Here you can view a book created 271 years before Pantone’s first colour guide in 1963. By an artist known only as A. Boogert and written in Dutch, this was a guide to mixing watercolours and is frankly pretty impressive.

Lovely inspiring little story.

 

a page from A. Boogert’s book from 1692

 

Example of extensive colour breakdown

 

It is funny to think of the huge popularity of Pantone now and the sense of excitement a humble colour chart can bring. Little did A. Boogert know…

 

 

Via Colossal