Paper Sculpture

On The Other Side, 2006

Cut and folded from one piece of 350 gsm paper

To see more of the artists work, log onto: www.petercallesen.com

Bake-A-Book

A Croatian agency, Bruketa & Zinić, came up with a recipe book as part of an annual report for a food company called Podravka. The catch is...you can't read it until you bake it. After 25 minutes at 100 degrees, the outlines of plates fill with food and the blank pages fill with recipes. How awesome is that?

Amazing

Marian Bantjes is an amazing designer and typographer.

The above images are just two samples of a project she worked on with Rick Valicenti in Novebember 2006 for Fox River Paper (I must get my hands on this paper book!). Check out all of her website and her "sugar" project with Stefan Sagmeister. Simply amazing.

Designing for The Internets

Long ago, when I was a design student at Syracuse, I can remember being forced to work on a web design project. At the time, it was a "good idea" to include some web stuff in your portfolio, but I had no intention of pursuing a path in web design.

And here I am, designing for the web nearly everyday. It's hard for a print designer to really delve into designing for the web. There seem to be so many restrictions and rules and those darn programmers telling you what can't be done!

But I think that's changing. Websites are becoming more beautiful while maintaining functionality and usability. It's almost as if our print layouts really can be translated to the web.

This is great website for some inspiration:
www.thebestdesigns.com

With frequent updates, you can really check out the latest in web design. A few of my favorites:
www.hereslifeafrica.com
www.timlahan.com
www.gettrashy.ca

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

World-famous architect Philip Johnson said it best when he called the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao "the greatest building of our time." It is "a miracle," said The New York Times. Certainly, few buildings in history have generated so much praise or have so greatly changed a city as Frank Gehry's museum on the industrial riverfront of Bilbao.

Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel was a German biologist who drew fantastical illustrations of animals, microorganisms and plants. He made up certain parts of the drawings to help support his ideas of evolution. He believed that each stage of a species entire evolutionary development is represented during the individual organism's biological development. Each page of his book, Art Forms in Nature, is filled with multiple creatures. Ernst has a beautiful line quality to his drawings that emphasize the patterns and the smallest details within the natural life. Some of the drawings are saturated with vibrant colors, making even the recognizable creatures appear supernatural. 

Chip Wass

A periodic table of icons created by one of my favorite illustrators - Chip Wass.

Portrait

Cool pixelated image? This images are not printed. They are not even pixelated. They are portraits composed out of lego blocks!

Sean Kenney is a lego professional. He creates 2-d and 3-d sculptures and gets paid to do it. To see more of his work, check out www.seankenney.com

Ahh, IKEA.

These are the new fabrics from IKEA.

I Love Simplicity

Confession: sometimes I buy things just because I like the design of the packaging. Do you?

Art School Goes Green, Literally

 

This new edition to the School of Art, Design and Media department at Nayang Technological University in Singapore not only looks amazing, but uses sustainable practices to decrease its impact on the environment. The glass windows reduce solar gain while allowing lots of natural light into the studios and the roof doubles as a courtyard while insulating the building and harvesting rainwater for landscaping irrigation. The building visually blends into the surrounding landscape during the day, but becomes a beautiful landmark at night. Needless to say, it would be a luxury to have class in this building. For more information on the project, visit the school's website at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/OFPM/About+Us/Development+Division/adm.htm.

Nahalal

s
Nahalal is a farming community in Israel. It was established in 1921 and is rooted on an old mastery plan. The plan is based on a cooperative that would radiate their highest ideals. At its center would be shared buildings, barns and supply sheds, girded by a ring of private residences, all surrounded by farmland. Living in a circle, all residences would equally enjoy access to facilities and neighbors. Today, Nahalal is home to roughly 750 people, many of whom work here producing olives, grapefruit and raising chickens.

My New Digital Camera

Just a few images I shot this weekend with my new digital camera in and around the very beautiful place I live and grew up, Branford. Sometimes I miss being a photographer (only sometimes). As the official photographer of my family, I haven't taken many images over the past three plus years that didn't have one of my children in the shot. Trying to learn how to use the new digital camera has motivated me get out and look around again. I'm a bit rusty, but its fun training myself to "see" again ...

Great Design Collaboration

As posted on the CoolHunter.net: The latest unexpected fashion pairing comes from Finland’s 56-year-old design powerhouse, Marimekko, and the King of Shoes, Manolo Blahnik. Blahnik Spring/Summer 2008 collection will include shoes in the venerable Marimekko pattern Mini-Unikko (shoe on left). Maija Isola designed the pattern in 1964 in protest to Marimekko’s founder and mastermind Armi Ratia’s pronouncement that there will not be floral patterns in Marimekko. Unikko not only melted Ms. Ratia’s heart but it has become one of the most enduring and recognizable of Marimekko patterns. The other Marimekko Blahnik shoes will be adorned in the more graphic BonBon pattern. Apparently, Blahnik had decided to base his latest collection on the wonderful architectural lines he saw in Hagia Sophia, Turkey. He then came upon some Marimekko fabrics in a little shop in Bath, England. According to Blahnik, “the two just happened to fall perfectly into place — as bizarre as that combination may sound.” To wear these fusions of Turkish architecture and Finnish protest we will need to wait until January 2008 when they will be available in Blahnik stores in London and New York. By Tuija Seipell

Spilling Open

"Spilling Open" was the first book published by artist Sabrina Ward Harrison. She has three other books that are available through B&N - "Brave on the Rocks", "Messy Thrilling Life" and "The True and the Questions Journal". Part journal, part collage and part poetry these books are honest and real while being beautiful to pour over again and again. Below are a few sample page spreads from "Spilling Open".

A Few Interesting Links

So I thought since I haven't been posting the last few days that I would catch up by posting a bunch of links. Any time I come across a website that I think is well-designed or one that holds a treasure chest of interesting work, or even just holds my attention for a solid ten minutes, I bookmark it. So, here are some of those bookmarks. I picked all portfolio sites, except for the 99 Rooms site, which is an art piece. Here they are:

Really interesting photographer's site. I love the side menus where you see a portion of the image.Eccentris

Portfolio website for some really strange and wonderful imagery. WARNING: not in english. (all the more fun to explore)http://cmart.design.ru/

This is the portfolio of a guy who does some really cool hands-on (screenprinting and hand-drawn type) stuff.timlahan.com

This is quite possibly my favorite source of concert posters. These guys are witty in their descriptions and they make a lot of great work. Aesthetic Apparatus

This is a really unique net-art piece. It takes a little time to go through it, but the animation, photography, and sense of mystery is wonderful. 99 Rooms

If you are looking for some well-designed, extremely ornate, and overall badass wallpaper, Dan is your man.danfunderburgh.com

Nylon does some fun ads and music videos. I recommend watching Bittersweet's The Mating Game.Nylon -Motion Graphics

Another silk screening company. Soft illustrations with a lot of line work. LandLand
That's it for now, but there is definitely more where it came from. I'll keep you "posted".

-Katie

Type Video

Good stuff!
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=751400&fr=yvmtf

Accidental Inspiration

Take a close look this Manimani clock offered at Studiomold Editions. I think the negative/positive shapes it creates are stunning. Created by Brendan Young and made in England from laser cut steel, this clocks design was inspired by dropping a handful of antique clock hands onto the floor and tracing their outline.

I love this approach. Next time I have creative block, perhaps I should just try tossing my work overboard and seeing what develops. It might turn into my best work yet.

OPP: Other People's Photos

After several weeks of planning, we finally built a pin-up space in our office. I had purchased these nifty Fotoclips that you can use to hang your stuff. They're cool because you don't have to put holes in your photos or documents. Even better, you can create these endless photo walls, building off of one photo in all directions. Even even better is that you can make 3-dimensional, free-standing shapes!
But what's inspiring is checking out some of the photos that people submit online to the Lomography site (where the clips originate): http://www.lomography.com/
I think we're all inspired by professional photography, but there's some amature photography that's really amazing.






-Rebekka

Fashion

Yesterday I was cleaning out my magazines. Systematically, I would look at the cover then browse the inside quickly. Low and behold I found this neat looking piece of fashion wear. The band has a mix of sophistication blended with industrial design. Most of all I like it because its different. Oddly, I do not wear jewelry.

-J

Happy Prints

These prints by Patapri make me smile.

Grandpa Sam vs. Little Professor

The original LIttle Professor by Texas Instruments circa 1978. A gift my parents gave to me - I suspect - to get me excited about math. Despite that small fact, I have a lot of warm memories looking at this toy. The fondest was my Grandpa Sam's 90th birthday party where he awed me with his mad math skills. The Professor didn't stand a chance against him - as fast as the equations would come (and the Professor was throwing down on Level 4 challenges like 492 x 12), Gramps kept on cookin' without hesitation or even breaking a sweat. Come to think on it, he had a little amused smirk on his face the whole time he was playing. I gained a whole new level of respect for the man on that visit. And as I age and become increasingly more forgetful, the more I props I have to give the man. He remembered all his grandchildren by name (even if he hadn't seen us for a few years in between), walked only with the aid of a cane, kept a head full of hair, and kicked Little Professor's butt. You so rocked, Grandpa Sam.

Comic Stamps

Very cool when the USPS decides to break away from flags and flowers.

If Only We Could ...

And now, for a bit of fun. Design Police.

Saks is Back

Pentagram's redesigned identity and packaging for Saks Fifth Avenue. Just beautiful. I received a gift from a relative in this gift box and the presentation is stunning. It makes me want to shop at Saks again - something I haven't been compelled to do since the 80's. This new identity has given them a "signature" look that they never had - like Tiffany's. Pentagram worked with the amazing font designer Joe Finocchiaro www.joefino.com. He has an incredible body of work - just look at his list of clients. Pentagram has been working on this new identity project since 2004 - and it shows. Bravo.

Quarter Chair

This chair is made out of quarters. The artist painstakingly welds quarters together to create the fluid form. It is not only beautiful, but amazingly comfortable.

Do you ever ponder that one day you will run out of ideas?

Something on a much larger scale than designers block. You are asked to design something, but nothing comes out? I guess its a notion that scares me when I think of it.
This week was the Mac World convention. I usually tune in if I think something good is going to happen. This year, it seemed that Mac wasn’t going to move forward with anything new. How could they? All of their product design is very attractive topping the design of their products in previous years. They have no where to go I told my self. Then I heard the news and saw their latest laptop (image attached). This may not be big for some people, but it gave me comfort in that you can always top a good design and the pool of ideas in all of us is deep.

Just One Line

I have had a song in my head for the past two days, so my inspirational entry tonight comes to me via rocker KT Tunstall and, to be more precise, track No. 9 "Suddenly I See" from her new "Eye to the Telescope" CD. The whole album is good - so I recommend downloading it from iTunes.


The lyrics make me think of my four month old daughter, Adaline, who constantly smiles and makes everyone around her feel good, no matter how crappy your day. I overheard my husband one day talking to the baby and he said "You came to us to make us all happier, didn't you Addie?" 'Tis true.

The lyrics that hit home for me are here:

"You can see she's a beautiful girl
She's a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm"

And, in particular, this one line below. I just have to sit back in awe of the visual power this one line has for me. It sums up an aspect of my child's character so well with a beautiful metaphor that illuminates her personality. I just wish I wrote it, but since I didn't, I'm satisfied that someone else did and put it into a kick ass song:

"She fills up every corner like she's born in black and white"

That is my daughter in just one line.

And check out KT Tunstall's new website: www.kttunstall.com
It's got style.

Starbucks Mystifies

For today's installment of my inspiration, we turn to the Starbucks gift card. A very belated Christmas gift arrived in the mail the other day and in it, a generous gift card for all the coffee we could possibly drink. More important is the housing of the card. Leave it to Starbucks to use a printing process I feel somehow nostalgic for but have no idea what the name is or how it's done. The "raised" part of the design is that velvet-y goodness. Anyone know the name of the process? I bet it's terribly expensive...I must find a way to do it!

-Rebekka

A Good Place to Start

Today’s inspiration: I love a good shopping bag design. I find them very inspirational. I especially love it when companies mix it up for the holidays, come up with a entire holiday “theme” with in-store graphics, merchandise and so forth.

Lately I loving textiles and patterns with a Scandinavian flavor – like this Pottery Barn shopping bag I picked up Wednesday. (Birds also seem to be a huge design element these days – I see them everywhere in crafts and design pieces. Have you noticed?). These Scandinavian patterns and will probably lead to more inspirational entries from me as I research and doodle further. I don’t know where its heading (card designs? A onesie for Addie? Wrapping paper?) but I’ll let you know where it leads.