As part of the 100 year celebrations which have seen the entire offices redesigned and opened out to help develop the company and bring it up to date. As part of our ongoing work with Padley and Venables, we were asked to develop a wall graphic for this reception area to reflect the website designer previously by us. The size of this graphic is 5 metres X 1.75 m.

It was a simple thing for us to provide a strong graphic which shows the international nature of the company’s business and reminds every visitor of the scale of the operation. The other side of the wall shown here, is also covered with a graphic which helps communicate the company brand values to the staff on a daily basis.

The interior design and build was taken care of by Domino Commercial Interiors in Sheffield, with whom we worked to produce the graphic and get it in place.

We’ll update you with more on this project soon.

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As lovers of image, this is quite simply breathtaking. We were told about a website belonging to Parisian artist, Guido Mocafico, who produces some literally stunning images. When we visited the site it was one of the rare ones which makes us stop, gather around a screen and click each image. Every one of them.

The ones which we felt compelled to show you first are the Serpent series, which are, as we mentioned at the start of this post, breathtaking. Scientists argue that our brains are hardwired to be scared of snakes (amongst other things) but when they are presented in this manner, you can’t help be see them as stunning examples of how nature can make colours and beauty that man could never make up.

The image shown above is of Dendroaspis jamesoni jamesoni, or Jameson’s Green Mamba – or so I am informed, a snake which comes originally from Burundi, living mainly in trees.

After we discussed it a little, we realised it was the context in which the snakes are all photographed which makes this series of shots so special. Think about it, you usually see snakes in their natural habitat (or a mock up of it’s natural habitat at least) but these are all photographed against a black background, which is obviously containing them and forcing the shapes they are making, usually long, curved and lithe, square and angular. This forces them to become a real abstraction of themselves and results in some amazing images.

This is a website which we would really recommend a visit to for this series alone, but the rest of the photos are as good, so have a look and see what you think. (Clicking the image above will take you to the site of the artist.)

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As is the usual, I stumbled on this whilst looking for something else this morning.

It was so nice that I even forgot what I was actually looking for in the first place. (Not strictly true but it side-tracked me for a while!)

As you can see in the picture above, it’s a quite nicely made table which has rows of little LEDs recessed in the surface in a halftone screen image. In this case you can see it’s a tree. Which is quite an amazing effect. It’s made by a company called NKcharms, hailing from Hong Kong. It’s a really nice addition to the table which would pretty much be suitable in my home. Just sayin’. As is usual, if you click on the image you can get more details for yourself, and see more images.

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I always say that if design can make someone smile it works just as well as if it fulfils it’s commercial responsibilities too. That’s why when I was in Israel recently I made a note of a name I saw in reference to shoe designs. It’s not something I would usually look at as I tend to wear trainers most of the time, but these designs made me pay attention, due to the brilliantly humourous way of looking at what a shoe actually could be.

The designer I’m talking about is an Israeli footwear designer called Kobi Levi, a graduate of the Bezalel academy in Jerusalem who has his own practice and has worked on an international basis with high profile companies as a freelancer whilst maintaining his own practice.

The shoe I’ve chosen to show you, above, struck a cord with me as it reminded me of the poster advertisement being run for at least the last 5 years in Rotterdam of chewing gum stuck to a shoe. On closer inspection you see that the chewing gum is actually the heel of this high heeled shoe.

As ever, if you click the picture you will be taken to the website by Kobi, which shows just what he is capable of, from the clever use of bird imagery to the brilliantly risqué “XXX pump”. Well worth 5 minutes of anyone’s time, especially if you like your shoes a little different.

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I’ve always been a sucker for scale models and really dig making small replicas of big things. I know, sounds a bit geeky, but sometimes there are things that come along which just need to be made public.

In this case it’s a few items on the Makers Market (the sell through site the creative people who read Make Magazine) which we shouldn’t really spend as much time looking through as we do. There is a store on there called “Everything tiny” which has a set of itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny stuff. Mainly dinosaurs, but as you see the picture above shows how you can display tiny origami cranes with their special kit for only $16!

Once again it’s another laser cut related item (seeing a common thread starting here) which we are talking about, but for good reason. If you take the late night mouse to Clickyville on the picture above you will get to see the other items which they sell there.

Everybody says well done Kellbot, these are wonderful little creations that we need to create our tiny desktop natural history museum… now does anyone know where we can get 1:500 scale stuffed Giraffe to start our new “African Savannah” exhibition hall?

Everybody knows that Everybody loves letterpress as a printing method. Results are always interesting, and when combined with a fantastic image and used properly it becomes much amazing.

Recently whilst looking for something else, (as is always the case) we stumbled upon this amazing example of a letterpress poster. The designer, Cameron Moll, was inspired by a visit to the Colosseum in Rome to produce the poster you see a detail of above, it’s an example of what can happen when a designer or artist gets close to becoming obsessive. In this case it is pure inspiration.

You can click the image above to go to the website that he has produced to sell prints of the poster. There is a fantastic video of the production of the poster which will help you understand the process, and hopefully inspire you to make something as beautiful as this yourself.

Everybody says well done Cameron, this is a fantastically inspiring piece which we can’t keep ourselves from looking at over and over.

We’ve had a busy month so we will update the site with more stuff that has inspired us over the last few weeks whilst we’ve been knocking out the work!

Well, not actually made of Pixels, but the wall is covered with them. The Pixel bar is a new wine and Tapas bar in Brussels, Belgium whose walls are completely covered in soundproofed foam cushions. Over 8,000 of them in total, each made from cubed foam pads in 27 different coloured covers.

When viewed from afar, the image is that of a pixelated countryside scene, close up it is a beautifully abstracted bunch of coloured blocks. As ever the simple ideas are the best, and when executed in such a perfect manner you get something as special as this.

Everybody says great work to the  designer behind the bar, Charles Kaisin… Right, Brussels is about 2 hours from here, Friday afternoon drinks there? 6:30pm anyone?

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I’ll start this in the old way I used to start most of my older blog posts… just because it’s true, so here goes.

Once in a while an item comes along and makes you stand up and pay attention. Here is one of them. This is an attractive looking hen house which is quite extraordinary, if only for it’s external beauty!

The wooden, multi-level hen house is designed to be a place to roost and rest for the (possibly more pampered) chicken(s) in your life. Using principles of architecture in the design of a simple hen house is a stroke of genius and we wonder how long it is before someone starts a study on whether chicken lay more in this than a standard koop.

The designer is Frederik Roijé, who is from the east of the Netherlands. After a prodigious period at the reknowned Eindhoven institute and a couple of internships at famous designers’ in both the Netherlands and Italy, he opened the door on his own design practice in Amsterdam during 2003, specialising in product design. His early flair for “interior items” has been continued through his work for companies such as Droog design and many of his own collections.

We thoroughly recommend a good look around his website to ensure you see all his work, it is very inspirational. Click the image above and you will go to his site to see his works and learn about him and his company.

Everybody thinks this is great work and inspiration to everyone indeed!

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For a few months we’ve been into stop frame animation, sure it’s been around for a long time, but we;re gonna post a few examples of how stop frame motion can give a much more emotive feel for video work. Once upon a time the only way to produce animation was to use “Stop Frame Animation”, ie. move something very slightly and take a photo of it each time… when run together you get motion. That’s old school, but it is often the case the old ways are often the best for different reasons.

for years filmmakers such as the legendary Ray Harryhausen used this method to produce mind blowing animations of dinosaurs and skeleton warriors in films before the computer became the pre-eminent production method. Ray Harryhausen was the main exponent of this style in Hollywood movies such as Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad series, one look at his website will give you a great idea of what he is about.

This is the video for the single from Oren Lavie called “Her Morning Elegance” it’s a beautiful example of how stop frame animation can be used to explore an idea. Call it art for arts sake if you want, but in this case it suits the music perfectly. (It has obvious similarities (too similar some say) to a video by the artist Mitchell Rose, have a look here click)

The video show just how an idea can come to life using one technique over another… imagine if this had been produce in a 3d computer style, it would have nothing like the same emotion, drawn either.

Everybody likes this movie, and indeed Stop Frame Animation. As usual click the movie to go to youtube and watch it. It’s well worth 5 minutes of your day.

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In case you are stuck for something to do in Rotterdam tomorrow (Sunday 21st March), we might suggest you get yourself down to the Kunsthal in Rotterdam for the “Made in Holland” exhibition. It’s on for a couple more weeks, but tomorrow being the first day of spring, and the equinox, there might just be the chance of a nice sunny day.

The exhibition covers everything from the Speediest of Speed Skaters’ Speed Skating Skates (say that fast!), to aerodynamic brollies, designed to not turn inside out. Delving into the famous archives of the TU Delft, it documents over 400 years of innovation in this small corner of Europe.

The museum has a great little park next to it, as most people in Rotterdam know already, so can certainly have a nice sit out if the weather is anything like.

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