Rarely does a piece of design elicit universal praise. ‘Betty’ – the 2012 Olympic cauldron – codenamed by the organisers in honour of the executive producer’s dog – has melted even the hardest of hearts. Containing 204 petals for each of the countries competing in London 2012, designer Thomas Heatherwick was apparently told that on no account should he use moving parts. Despite multiple moving parts his design was approved.
Guilhem de Castelbajac has taken one of the most atmospheric lights from the city streets into the home. The French artist has fitted them with LEDs with eight different illumination options and a metal base to mimic the roof of the cab. ‘Off duty no more’ was on show at wanteddesign during NY Design Week 2012. Image copyright designboom.
We may as well accept that it is going to rain everyday for the rest of our natural lives and embrace the fantastically dreich work of Perthshire artist Claudia Massie. Massie is a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art now based with her husband and two young children in Glenalmond. Her fabulous, distinctively Scottish, work can currently be viewed at Frames Gallery in Perth, the Ruthven Gallery in Auchterarder and
Such a brilliantly clever video this for Sour’s Hibi no Neiro (Tone of Everyday) featuring web cam footage supplied by the band’s fans around the world. Some people really know what they’re doing with computers…
Street art was always ripe for a send up. Mobstr, a street artist himself, obviously thought so too. What really gets his goat though is advertising. ‘We’re indoctrinated with the belief that graffiti (or now known as street art) is a blight on our space yet the majority of us happily walk around the visual bombardment of advertising without a moment of questioning its justification. We’ll happily put a six
These carved fruit skulls manage to be menacing and endearing at the same time, especially the aubergine. Carved by artist Dimiti Ksykalov who was born in Moscow in 1963 and lives and works in Paris. Via Bored Panda
Very nice, simple work here from HAM featuring, apparently, ‘unexpected moments from the contented lives of a pig, horse and rabbit’ . HAM is the project of Jo, a farmer’s daughter from the Shires and a graduate of the Ruskin School of Drawing. Her range is 100% British made and includes aprons at £18, tea towels at £9, cards at £2.75 for one and £8.95 for four and prints at
Coat hooks, like calendars, are modest household items which seem to inspire a sort of mania in designers to come up with ever more stylish and innovative prototypes. The ones featured here should allow the design conscious to hammer home their aesthetic credentials the minute anyone steps into their home. Be aware however that when you hang more than one coat on your hooks you no longer see the design
Forget the dreaming spires, this psychedelic fun palace is what Supermachine Studio came up with when asked to design a Creative Centre for Bangkok University. The two storey student village is housed in the university’s already cutting edge Landmark compound and is conceived as a stimulating environment students will want to hang around in after lectures are over. There’s a karaoke hut, music rehearsal room, pole dancing area and snooker
Shiny new super smart travel site Wander commissioned their favourite illustrators to create inspirational, journey-themed postcards which they are putting up on site at a rate of one a week. The results are pretty good.