Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Biblio

industrial design, typography, bookends, alphabetindustrial design, typography, bookends, alphabetGraphic design student Jack Curry, currently at Cal State University, found that he needed bookends and set out to design typographic ones. Using the classic off-the-shelf black metal bookends as a guide, Jack began calculating how each letter of the alphabet could be cut out, finding open ended letters such as A, H, and K to be the easiest and closed bottoms a bit trickier. He had a test batch cut from stainless steel and powder-coated in orange, spelling out “READ”.

Read more on Jack Curry’s site.

via typetoken

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The Architecture of Ruy Ohtake

Cool architecture, buildings, sao paolo, Brazilarchitecture, cool buildings, sao paolo, BrazilRuy Ohtake, a Brazilian architect and son of Japanese artist Tomie Ohtake, is known for his dynamic and unique building designs.

From top to bottom, left to right:
Unique Hotel, São Paulo; Berrini 500, São Paulo; FCC, São Paolo; Ohtake Cultural, São Paulo; Laboratório União Química, Brasilia; Conjunto Habitacional Heliópolis, São Paulo; Brasilia Shopping and Towers, Brasilia.

Equally spectacular inside as out, a visit to his website is well worth the time to see all the projects documented from the beautifully simple concept sketches through to completion.

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City Leaks: Urban Spaces/Moments

Urban, installation, artUrban, installation, artCity Leaks, a group of artists/street artists that describe themselves as “An Urban Investigation of Inventive Dwelling.” Recently this Melbourne based group created PlayMo (top images) and Hotel Facebook,  (bottom 3 images) both collaborative projects, the second via Facebook photo uploads as “check in”.

They have a sort of manifesto on their facebook page and seem to stick by it.

On PlayMo:

PlayMo was born from the intention of inventing a space that turns into a place where people meet, spend time and play. Its name comes from “playmobil”, a Lego styled child’s creative play toy. Using milk crates was like playing with big Lego pieces.Milk crates are a fantastic material for many reasons; they are structural, light, modular and they have an iconic role in Melbourne’s cafe image and laneways. We believe that familiarity to a material plays an important role in engaging with it.PlayMo uses 3 different types of crates. Black = platforms, Grey= stairs, Green=moveable. The green crates provide the undefined random element; people rearrange their seats or even build small stairs themselves. There hasn’t been a single day where we found them in the same place.
Finally, PlayMo is designed to grow and adapt. People are encouraged to leave things behind and to add to the structure. We found artworks, plants, toys, pillows, new crates and received hundreds of letters. We even found that people had constructed a bin so that it could be kept clean.

 

via sub-studio

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Bike Racks

Industrial design, product design, cool bicycle racksIndustrial design, product design, cool bicycle racksMaybe it’s because I was recently given a bike by my lovely daughters, but I’ve been more aware of bicycle design as well as the accessories lately. Or maybe I would have noticed anyway, the way I tend to notice design that I like.

In any case, I liked these bike racks. When grouped together, they look like grass or a flower bed. I don’t have any info on the designer or where they can be purchased, or anything else for that matter, but I just thought they were smart and nice-looking.

via Juxtapose

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Scaffoldage

Architecture, photography, tumblr, construction, buildingsArchitecture, photography, tumblr, construction, buildingsBeing related to a structural engineer, we probably notice scaffolding more than most. We even have the occasional vacation photo that includes a close-up of some unique type of scaffolding, though we’d have to confess to some eye-rolling on our part.

That said, I was so surprised at how much I loved the site Scaffoldage.com maintained by Shaun Usher. Fantastic! All the images are amazing and interesting for different reasons. Some for the sheer beauty of the photo; others for the incredible feat of the workers actually positioning themselves on the precarious structures; and still others for the unique abstract designs and patterns they create. Such an original idea and a bit addictive.

Check it out here.

via My Modern Met