Stas Chepurnov has more going for him than a sweet name. Like this awesome piece he created for Designcollector’s sixth anniversary. In it, he’s managed to make something awesome and fresh out of two design elements (sharks and diamonds) that are totally played out. That’s Russian ingenuity for you.
I don’t care if this has already been posted on uncrate; this is worth posting again. Miju’s wall mounted CD player [$180 USD] is entirely self-contained, speakers too. As if the sleek lines alone weren’t enough to sell you on, they’ve integrated the play and stop functions into the dangling power-cord. Just pull to toggle playback, just like that bare 40W bulb hanging in your dingy basement.
Win.
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With all the mock covers floating around out there, it’s easy to forget that this design meme was inspired by real book covers. Judge a book has compiled awesome Penguin and Pelican book covers, and it’s obvious where these re-designers get their influences from.
If the image above looks familiar, it could be because you recognize the radio emissions detected by the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cambridge. Still not ringing any bells? Well, designer Peter Saville used a similar illustration on the iconic cover of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures in 1979. Growing Points was published in 1972. Saville, the designer of what is one of the most recognizable album covers of all time, was beaten to the punch by a science textbook. Ouch.
There’s a new craze sweeping the nation, totem poles! Dolly Oblong has wrangled together a set of artists to make some totem poles for her project. No word if any more designs are coming, but so far we have Shin Tanaka, Tougui, and Ben the Illustrator pitching in for the project. Grab them (and possibly future releases) here.
Height competition anyone?
Let me set one thing straight: your socks do not need to match your shoes, belt, slacks, tie, hat, or any other part of your outfit. Anyone who tells you otherwise is your grandma, or setting you up to fail. If you listened to them, you’d never be able to fit Ashi Dashi‘s sweet foot coverings into your wardrobe.
Unless you’ve got intestine slacks or warp pipe shoes. In which case, uh… carry on.
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The ghettos, known as ‘favelas’, of Rio de Janeiro are a rough place to grow up. These are the worst parts of urban Brazil, and often have murder rates higher than those of contemporary war-zones.
Two dutch artists, Jeroen “Haas” Koolhaas and Dre “Hahn” Urhahn set up a project to give the favelas a brighter face in the media. Part of me sees projects like this and thinks “why not give more kids more medical care, or education, not paint and cameras”. Then I think to myself that perhaps that attitude just excludes guys like Haas & Hahn from helping out in places that need it. The kids look as though they’re having a pretty wicked-good time in any event, so though the depressing statistics remain in the back of my mind, I’m all for it.
Start with an underground night club. Dress it up with with posters, neon signs, and newspapers circa 1980. Park a cavalcade of New York taxi cabs, police cars and tanks outside to set the mood, and pack it with protesters, hookers, police officers, raving lunatics, and of course Dr. Manhattan. Finish it off with an appearance by illustrator Dave Gibbons to introduce the night’s feature film, and you have something that closely resembles Future Cinema’s premiere of Watchmen.
Apparently, this kind of thing is a monthly event across the pond. Massive cinema parties. Whatever. No big deal.
I’m sure I’m not doing this event justice; it’s the kind of thing you need to be a part of, or at least see, to really appreciate. To that end, I suggest you check out this video of the recent Watchmen premiere, or their gallery on flickr. In the meantime, I’ll be packing my bags for my move to the UK.
I was drawn to Nirani’s stuff before I found out she hails right from Toronto and is a fourth year student at OCAD, then I liked it more. Nirani’s got her ish on lockdown, it takes some hardcore patience to get stuff like this done by hand. Follow her on twitter or check out her portfolio for more design action.
Bryan over at Paper Foldables has some great papercrafts for you all. One of his more recent ventures is Krang, the nemesis of the fighting quartet, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just cut, fold, tape and you’ve your yourself a perfect action figure to plot the demise of them four pesky turtles.
