Click to enlargeChus Garcia-Fraile lives and works in Madrid, Spain. She works in all mediums, fluctuating between photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation.
Barcode is an oversized sculpture that she created as part of the International Festival of Bennicassim — a music festival on the eastern coast of Spain, north of Valencia — a few years back. Nice!
Photos from fiberfib’s flickr
We are very (no, really, VERY) excited to announce the launch of our first CollabCubed production: EARonic iPhone cases. Designed by Daniela Gilsanz – a cube root of CollabCubed – the EARonic iPhone cases are EARefutably EAResistible. Available in our new shop, in five different styles, it’s your chance to don that multi-pierced ear you’ve been wanting, or maybe just the opposite.
Daniela first came up with the idea last fall when applying to art schools. She was getting a portfolio together and while sketching some ears in her sketchbook (one of the prompts from a school) the initial EARonic mockup and portfolio piece came to be. (See spread with sketches second from top.)
Since then, we’ve improved on the original concept, photographed many an ear, and produced the actual phone cases. So, go take a look at our new shop and check them out for yourself.
UPDATE: We are giving away three EARonic iPhone 4 Cases. To enter, just like us on our facebook page by September 27th. We will announce the winners on our facebook page on Wednesday, September 28th.
UPDATE on November 27th: Starting today, shipping is free within the U.S. for standard first class mail and $5 for international shipping via USPS air mail.
To see him, you wouldn’t think Joshua Stern to be the spitball-throwing type, and you’d probably be right. He is, however, a spitball-creating type who, instead of firing spitballs at others, chooses to make the tiny objects into sculptures of heads. He then proceeds to photograph them and magnify these miniature spitball sculptures onto 4 x 6ft. prints, or a least that’s what the artist did for his solo exhibit at Parker’s Box in Williamsburg, Brooklyn titled Straw Economy. “Magnifying the grandness of the insignificant” seems to be a theme in Stern’s work with some of its significance relating to art market values today.
You can see more of Joshua Stern’s work here and here.
When we were in Istanbul last month we spotted the Bosphorus Bridge on multiple occasions, usually during the day. One night, however, we passed and witnessed a sort of LED light show with changing colors and animation. We wondered if it was a Ramadan-related occasion or some other special event, but as it turns out it’s more of a we-just-like-our-bridge nightly event.
Built in 1973 and linking Europe to Asia, the 1500 meter bridge has been illuminated at night since 2007. It’s a pretty impressive show. Watch it in action in the video below. The light show begins midway into the video.
Here’s a very fun couch for the right room. The Punched Sofa designed by Serbian-born and Canadian-based designer Danilo Cvjetkovic, is an “interactive” sofa. The bendable plastic bars are covered with soft foam and colorful fabric (they remind me of those pool noodles) and get inserted into the punched holes of the fiberglass shell base functioning as the backrests. Different heights and angles are possible and adjustable by the user. Manufactured by Furnituredesignmarket.com in Norway.
via designspotter
If you ever have trouble remembering to add water to your flower centerpiece, then the Corey Balloon Vase is definitely the vase for you. Cleverly designed by recent graduate of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) Corey Green, using a regular latex balloon as the central body that when shriveled indicates a need for refreshing the water supply. The easy-to-assemble acrylic frames mimic a variety of more traditional vase silhouettes and serve as the holder for the balloons which come in an assortment of colors.
These made me chuckle when I saw them at the NYIGF a couple of weeks ago and now I found a place that sells them.
One of these would be fun to have in the middle of our living room. Or maybe two or three to spell something out.
Jimmy Fiction Esq. is the man behind these giant three-dimensional letters, which are also available in numbers or symbols. Maybe a huge ampersand would be the thing to get. All letters are made of welded steel and resin or powder coated. They are sturdy enough for all-weather outdoor use as well.
These monumental type sculptures are manufactured to order and priced on an individual basis but, just to give you an idea, the ones pictured start at £700. My favorite line on Jimmy Fiction’s site? “If you want to write your beloved’s entire double-barrelled name across your garden, then well done you, you romantic and stylish fellow… and yes we can probably do you a discount.”
via typetoken
Australian artist Angela McHarrie works in multiple mediums including sculpture, painting and installation. Her series of sculptures above deal with balance and uncertainty. As McHarrie points out:
This playfulness and experimental nature is also present in her most recent show at Perth Galleries titled Experiment in Production (bottom 4 photos), which ended this past weekend. This work explores genetic modification and our world of production, from research and development to the desired end product.
Click to enlargeSabina Lang (originally from Berne, Germany) and Daniel Baumann (originally from San Francisco) have been living and collaborating in Burgdorf, Switzerland since 1990.
Known for many different, usually, large-scale works that include Op-art wall and floor murals and mid-air hanging staircases, here we are focusing on a few of their latest inflatable sculptures/installations from the past couple of years.
You can see much more of their work on their website.
When I stumbled across this sculpture by Swiss artist Marc Moser for this summer’s Sculpture on the Sea exhibit in Aarhus, Denmark, it made me smile. Clever from its concept through to its punny name: Sea Pink. It’s pop art at its best; huge, oversized sunglasses at the beach with pink tinted lenses that allow the viewer to see, well, “sea pink.”
Here’s a short video to see it from all angles:
UPDATE: Here is a link to Marc Moser’s website.
Tabletto is a stencil and/or game that allows you to design letterforms (or anything else for that matter) from ten existing shapes.
Developed by Mark A. and licensed by Thomas Dahm Graphic Design in the Netherlands, Tabletto is available as a stencil or box.
Ever wish that your Joy dishwashing detergent bottle, or your Lysol disinfectant bottle could be used as a vase? No, me neither. But I have to admit that when I saw Middle Kingdom Porcelain’s new line of colorful porcelain cleaning product bottles at the NYIGF this weekend, I loved them. They have a matte finish that I like but may give some, more sensitive people, chills to the touch. They’re fun and funny and instantly made me think of Claudio Bravo’s still lifes.
They’re not on Middle Kingdom’s website just yet, but I’m sure they’ll have info on them soon.
Click to enlargeThe Dutch design trio that form the collective We Make Carpets are Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg. Together, they have made a series of contemporary interpretations of the centuries-old medium. Their most recent carpets are presently hanging at the Graphic Design Museum in Breda, the Netherlands, made up of over 30,000 clothespins (see top four photos.) Previously, We Make Carpets have used everyday objects such as paperclips, pasta, bandaids, plastic forks, toy soldiers, and bricks, just to name a few, to make carpets of mostly large-scale dimensions.
If you’re in the Netherlands, the exhibit in Breda will be up through August 28th. If, like me, you’re nowhere near there, there’s always their site.
Waste Landscape, at the Centquatre art space in Paris, was created by artist Élise Morin and architect Clémence Eliard using 60,000 recycled cds which have been hand sewn together and placed over domes resulting in the undulating, metallic landscape.
You can watch a video here.
via Contemporist
City 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
Being 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
In the new video by OK Go (always a clever crowd-pleaser), “All Is Not Lost”, they teamed up with the modern dance troupe Pilobolus. There’s something for everyone: cool dance; kaleidoscopic effects; human typography…what’s not to like! If you’re a Chrome user, you can view the interactive HTML5 version here and type in your own message…which is, apparently, “way cooler.”
via Wired
Sydney based design studio The Evie Group creates housewares, lighting and furniture with its own unique personality.
The Silhouette Chair, made with birch ply and black rubber lining, is a modular seating system that, closed up, is a chair for one, but when opened can form a curvaceous bench for two or a decorative art piece; all left to the user’s discretion. So many possibilities!
CollabCubed 