Apr 05, 2010

What do you buy for the chicken owner, whose chickens have absolutely everything?

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!

.

Mar 19, 2010

Falcon: old and new combined

With my rocky history with motorcycles I have to admit I’m not particularly bothered about them, but as with all other things there are always outstanding examples which make you stand up and pay attention.

Recently I stumbled upon one of those examples and had to point you in its direction. Falcon is a Los Angeles based motorcycle manufacturing company based on high standards of manufacture and quality in design. Ian Barry, co-founder and designer, has been obsessed with old British bikes like Triumph and Norton for years leading to his designing the Falcon when he met his business partner Amaryllis in LA.

Both spent two years sourcing vintage materials and machinery from around the world to create a workshop in Downtown LA where they could make their dream a reality.

So the first result is pretty much what you see above here, an imagining of what would happen would Triumph have produced a Board racer. It’s called “The Bullet” and is effectively a custom Triumph motorcycle, starting years ago as the derelict frame and engine of a 1950 pre-unit Triumph Thunderbird (which for all you movie buffs is the self same motorbike Marlon Brando can be seen riding in the classic movie “The Wild One”.

Everybody will be keeping a keen eye on this and we would advise you to as well, absorb the beauty of the bike, it really is something special. They plan many more bikes all based on vintage forms, so it’s going to really be a thing to watch over the next couple of years.

Good work vintage bike fellas!

C

Mar 16, 2010

Mommy, what does a computer virus look like?

Once in a while a piece of art comes along which strikes you as original, clever and downright good looking. In this instance, a fella has written some code/witchcraft to use malware (the nasty bits of software that do nasty bits of work on your computer) to create a beautiful and organic image to represent the nasty bit of software itself.

Dig deeper into his site and you will find that he also grows something which he calls “spam plants”. These use more code/witchcraft to take spam messages and grow them into more organic looking and in some cases beautiful images.

It kind of reminds us of those art images based on fractals which did the rounds in poster stores in the 1990’s. But there is something wonderful about these images, something which makes you want more. The uniqueness is interesting to me and the way in which they seem different each time you look at them is equally as enthralling.

Just one thing strikes me about this though, and that is that this guy has to have been sent a virus and spam at some point to get this going, so lord help him now his project is public, as he will be doubtless bombarded with the stuff we spend our online lives trying to avoid. Take this one step further and imagine loosing the work to a virus itself… Hope he has a picture called, “My back up” On a serious note though, good work Alex, stunning images and an original idea. Nice.

Design is the fabric of the universe, it wraps us all, keeps us warm and makes you feel snuggly. It needs washing occasionally though, so be careful it doesn’t shrink.

c

Mar 11, 2010

Graffiti To Go

Let us introduce to you: COMBO, a collaboration between Blu and David Ellis. These artists have made a mind blowing wall-painting animation at the FAME festival in the South of Italy in late September last year. This may therefore be classified as ‘old news’, but it’s so cool that we decided to share it with you anyway.

It all looks so effortless; imagine painting your house with this (deceiving) ease. If you know what it takes, making a stop motion animation then you know how much time and effort is in fact involved. What of course amazes the most, is their use of the environment. Window sills become eyes, hanging lamps serve as their irises, no corner is safe. The artists’ recognisable individual styles combine beautifully. Have a look, it’s an absolute joy to watch. Oh, and if we may give you a piece of advice: don’t try this in your own neighbourhood…

http://vimeo.com/6555161

Oct 18, 2008

Painting in public

Since we have been ignoring the more painterly aspects of the arts recently, we thought we would introduce you to a friend we made recently who is painter, based in Austin, TX, in the United States of America. She is a like minded individual with a good ability to capture the moment and its movement. Painting quickly and with confident strokes her work captures the feeling in the local coffee shops she frequents in and around the city of Austin.

Everybody likes her style which is has a quite European feeling, impressionistic in nature and feels like it is painted with vigour. We recommend you have a look at her work over at her blog, which you can link to by clicking the picture above.

Thanks Lavanna, it’s good to see painting be brought back out of the studio again and into the public eye, keep up the good work.