Friday Favourites

Germany agency Kolle Rebbe has created the world’s first Tea Calendar for Hälssen & Lyon. Tea leaves have been pressed into wafer thin pages of a calendar that can be torn off to brew a fresh cup of tea for every day of the year. Found via Neatorama and Junk Culture.

Being a bit of a fan of paper sculptures, I couldn’t resist sharing these animals by Brooklyn-based artist José Suris IV. Some of them are based on specific characters from cartoons or games such as Pokemon or Zelda, made into either masks or mounted heads; others are sculptures of the whole animal. They are built from a mix of different papers, paper clay, wire and styrofoam, and the intricate work involved to create the fur, feathers or fins is just incredible. Found via My Modern Met.

Illustrator and designer Si Scott also uses 3D paper sculptures in some of his work, but I was initially drawn to his pen and ink illustrations of insects, found via Colossal. His Resonate series of animal illustrations was created for Silent Records, but he has also worked on projects for Nike, Dove and Coca Cola to name a few.

Photographer Beth Galton teamed up with food stylist Charlotte Omnès to show us what popular dishes look like on the inside. The food cut in half project was inspired by a photo shoot where they had to cut a burrito in two. As food photography usually focuses around appetite appeal, it was interesting to explore a different perspective by shooting a cross section the interior of certain products instead. Found via Feel Desain.

I have stumbled across a number of artists recently whose work involves the alteration of portraits, often changing the face dramatically to give a slightly jarring effect. Julie Cockburn and Henrietta Harris are a couple that spring to mind. One of the nicer examples found was Nandan Ghiya’s work on NYC Arts, where he manipulates not just the image but the structure of the frame too. It reminded me of tools like Glitche, mentioned in a previous Friday Favourites, used to corrupt pixels in digital photos.

The world’s most attractive compost bin?

“What is the world’s most beautiful compost bin?” Yes, that’s what I typed into the search engine.

Why? Because last week was Compost Awareness Week (who knew). Plus, if we’re all about good design, then surely we should be looking at the stuff that is well designed, helps us live a more sustainable lifestyle, and in a more rewarding fashion.
In the UK composting has had a considerable uptake because of our obsession with gardening, along with government schemes encouraging more homes to compost in order to divert waste, so you might think that an article on composting might seem a bit Brit-centric. However, when I typed in my search criteria, scrolling past all the typical formats, I discovered an unlikely composting ally in Southern India: that’s right, it’s all the rage in Hyderabad. And I think Hyderabadis do it better. Look at this:

Khamba – stackable terracota compost bins

Okay, so they might not be to everyone’s taste, but as gardens are increasingly a considered part of the home in design terms, it certainly makes you think differently about the notion of a what a compost bin should be. It doesn’t have to be morbid statement of dark plastic looming in the garden that literally chews up waste; instead, something that feels a bit more in keeping with a natural environment, whilst delivering great functionality in its everyday context. Also available unpainted:

Check out Hyderabad Goes Green for more interesting ideas.

Friday Favourites

This installation for the Hermès store at Hong Kong International airport was created by French artists Zim&Zou, who are famous for their intricate, colourful sculptures. Using leather off cuts from the Hermès workshops, they have built wonderfully detailed jungle animals to sit alongside scarves, ties and jewellery as part of The Eternal Jungle. We featured Zim&Zou’s paper objects on a previous Friday Favourites, so I was a bit excited to discover this new project on If It’s Hip, It’s Here.

Thanks to Chris A for sharing Your Logo Is Not Hardcore – a great Tumblr idea which points out how many samey X-based logos there are around. It’s astounding that there are enough examples to fill several pages, showing the same brand identity style for niche clothing brands, bars and restaurants, craft beers, artisan food brands and much more. It seems it’s a case of if in doubt, put some stuff in the gaps around an X shape, shove it in a roundel and you’re done. Just STOP IT everyone.
You can follow Your Logo Is Not Hardcore @LO_X_GO

Thanks to Holly for finding this: “Objects of Use is a shop in Oxford full of beautifully crafted objects from around the world – everything from sponges to pencil sharpeners – beautifully curated and really inspiring! They now have an online shop – perfect for pressie-buying but also lovely photography too…”

If you’re a bit of a type geek, you’ll love this wonderful little animation by Ben Barrett-Forrest. It tells the history of type, using simple paper cutouts to tell the story of how various fonts came about and the impact of computers on lettering. Found by Iona on the Good.is blog.

Thanks to Dan P for finding this beautiful work by Alessandro Lupi. He takes individual strands of thread, paints them with fluorescent paint, then arranges them, back-lit,  to create ethereal, ghost-like figures floating in space. Found via Beautiful Decay.

Friday Favourites

Thanks to Daniel for finding the work of Jonty Hurwitz who created a series of anamorphic sculptures that cleverly reveal themselves when positioned next to a reflective cylinder. He describes himself as an ‘artist scientist archetype’, but he has also been described as a ‘mathematical sculptor’ as he uses algorithms to create interesting forms and visual interpretations of ideas. Check out his website for more of his work. He has a varied work history; apart from his sculpture work he is of the founder of both Wonga.com and the Separated Child Foundation. Found via Ignant.

Dave H spotted this latest Bompas and Parr project via an email from our friends at research company The Big Picture. To celebrate the launch of five new flavours of Heinz Baked Beans, Bompas and Parr have invented a  musical spoon that you listen to through your mouth, which comes with a different type of bowl to match each flavour. Each spoon has a tiny MP3 player inside it, which is inaudible to anyone else but the person using it. On biting down on the spoon (which thankfully is plastic, not metal) the taster hears music which fits the flavour of the beans.

For the cheese flavour, the bowl is made from yellow cast wax shaped like a traditional wheel of cheese, and the spoon plays a tune inspired by Elgin played with a cheese wire. The garlic and herb flavoured beans have a bowl shaped like a bulb of garlic which is made up of layers of laser cut paper, to replicate the nature of garlic skin. In the spoon users can hear the sound of garlic skins being rustled and tins being knocked together.

For the fiery Chilli beans, the bowl is made from spiky layers of wood and metal, with the spoon’s soundtrack playing high frequency sounds to replicate the sharp kick of the chilli. The bowl for the Curry beans is inspired by the shape of piles of spices, the spoon playing bhangra inspired music created from tins filled with various spices and seeds.

The Barbecue beans bowl is made of charred limestone to give a scent of smokiness, accompanied by a spoon that plays the blues and sizzling sounds. Genius. The Heinz Beanz Flavour Experience is available in limited numbers from Fortnum and Mason in London. It featured on many blogs this week, including Dezeen. Check out the video below to hear Bompas and Barr describe the project in more detail.

Thanks to Dan P for finding a couple of great examples of posters showing graphic depictions of quotes. Ryan McArthur has has taken punchy quotes from famous names including Oscar Wilde, Thomas Edison and Victor Hugo and created a witty graphic treatment for each one. Found via Shortlist, and you can buy the posters here on Etsy.

These typographic artworks by Pete Ware feature characters and quotes from famous films. Some of them are more legible than others; they seem to work best when they are simple and colourful and you can recognise the film or character. Found via several blogs including HiConsumption. Again, you can buy them on Etsy.

Beertone is a colour guide for beers in Switzerland, created by Alexander Michelbach and Daniel Eugster. Taking inspiration from Pantone books and including Pantone colour references for each beer, the chart is designed for beer enthusiasts, with each card detailing the brewery, alcohol percentage, taste, location of the origin and more. The project has been successfully funded by Kickstarter, and the guides and gift sets are now available to buy. Found via If It’s Hip, It’s Here.

I loved these embroidered images created from sections of the New York Times by Lauren DiCioccio. Laurent’s work explores the notion of everyday mass-produced objects (such as newspapers) being at risk of becoming obsolete, using painstaking handiwork to preserve them. Thanks to Dan P for finding these via Beautiful Decay: “I particularly like the way they’re sort of half finished, and they look like they’re caught in the middle between unravelling and appearing out of the mist.”

Friday Favourites

Thanks to Chris for sharing Pete Fecteau‘s portrait of Martin Luther King, which uses over 4000 Rubik’s Cubes carefully rearranged to create a mosaic effect. He has built several other portraits of famous people in the same way, including Einstein and Lincoln among others. Found via MAKE.

I loved this sound installation by Studio Weave, it’s such an innovative use of an ordinarily dull space. The ‘Lullaby Factory’ is a network of musical pipework within an enclosed space between London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and the building next door. Inspired by the exterior pipework, the industrial tubes have been enhanced by decorative horns and vessels that create ‘listening pipes’, which pump out a soundtrack of lullabies created by sound artist Jessica Curry. Some of the taps and gauges used were recycled from a decommissioned hospital boiler house.
In case you hadn’t seen their work before, Studio Weave have created some lovely sound installation work in the past, including The Hear Heres - a series of trumpets which amplify the sounds of the countryside. Found via Dezeen.

Thanks to Robin for sharing this, found via Colossal: “Everybody loves a good sunset pic (right?). These ones come with added technical brilliance and artistic flare. Matt Molloy has devised a way of stacking photos – up to 500 frames for one image – in Photoshop in order to create incredible skyscapes straight out of an impressionist’s dream.”

Russian street artist Sy makes stunning murals that are clearly inspired by 8-bit graphics and 80s video game art. The blocky  panels of colour and light make them appear as if they could be brought to life in 3D using either LEGO or card.  Sy’s work has been knocking about a few blogs over the past couple of weeks, but I first saw it on Beautiful Decay. See more on his Flickr stream.

The winner of the Cool Graphic Designer Dad award must go to David LaFerreira. To make his kids’ lunchtimes at school more fun, he decided to draw a different illustration on their sandwich bags every day using Sharpies. He’s been doing it since 2008, so has built up quite a collection of illustrations, so the challenge is to find a new idea every day that can be drawn quickly and confidently. Thanks to Becky for sharing this, which was on a few different blogs this week, including Buzzfeed.

Finally, this inspired cover for Boston Magazine caught more than a few eyes within DB this week. Design director Brian Struble used running shoes from the Boston Marathon runners to create a striking image. Found via Explore.

Shortlisted for two New York Festivals awards

We were excited to hear that two of our projects have been shortlisted for New York Festivals International Advertising awards this week. Our identity and retail branding work on Dress2Kill was shortlisted in the Design competition, as well as our 25th Anniversary book, 25 Stories. The final round of judging will take place this week involving thirty of the world’s most respected creative directors on the jury. Results are announced on 2nd May, so fingers crossed!

Our work on bespoke tailoring brand Dress2Kill covers everything from brand identity to in store branding, copywriting and tone of voice, art directed photography, as well as press and billboard ads featuring rugby player Chris Robshaw. Check out the full case study here. 

25 Stories is a coffee table book we created to celebrate Design Bridge’s 25th anniversary, to capture who we are and share ideas, anecdotes and stories that have made us the company we are today. Given just to DB employees and clients, it’s not available to buy, but if you’re passing any of our three offices you can browse through the copies in reception.

 

Claire Parker judges corporate design Bulls&Birds

Claire Parker, Creative Director at our Amsterdam office, is part of the ‘corporate design panel’ of Marketing Tribune magazine, so every month she will judge a corporate design, together with Tom Dorresteijn from Studio Dumbar and Stefan Pangratz from VBAT. This time the design panel was asked to judge the corporate identity of the recently started online fashion store: Bulls and Birds  designed by Pirate.

Bulls&Birds is an online fashion store with lifestyle shopping aspirations initially for the Dutch market. With Bulls&Birds you can buy a complete outfit: from clothing, shoes to accessories. Bulls&Birds loves fashion, comfort, quality and affordability. Target Group: Men and Woman 20-45 years. Here’s an inspirational introduction video and here’s the full translated article:

A great British evening in Amsterdam

With so many different cultures at our Amsterdam office (Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, Venezuelan, Spanish, British, French, German, Irish, New Zealand, Swedish and Greek) you always learn something new from others and it’s nice to exchange information about your home country or exchange travel tips. We’ve had a German lunch, a true French Epiphany cake, we celebrated Saint Lucia (Scandinavian) and this time the Brits -24 amongst us!- wanted to celebrate all things great (and not-so-great) in true British fashion. Robin White, one of our (British) designers, explains:

Beige. That’s what makes a true British platter isn’t it?

Longing for the comforts of home, some of the more anglo-orientated members of the Amsterdam studio decided it was time to have a good old Blighty themed knees-up. Festooning the studio with great British delicacies and decor, Design Bridge Amsterdam was set up for an evening of thoroughly British capers and a slap-up meal.

Afternoon tea was served at the civilised hour of 4pm, accompanied by an excellent range of biscuits (not cookies). Chocolate digestives, HobNobs, custard creams and Jaffa Cakes all featured. With the primary ingredients in place – jollity ensued. The mid afternoon break did everyone a great deal of good. Spirit and morale lifted, quaint phrases and guffawing could be heard drifting through the building.

Later the festivities continued into the evening with a full spectrum of beige providing something of a cultural melting pot for the Dutch and English. While there are many differences between these great nations, the desire for quality carbs is a common pursuit. Much appreciation was shown for the sausage rolls, the cucumber sandwiches, pork pies, scotch eggs and of course the crisp sandwiches (come on – you lav it don’tcha?!). Dessert was of a similarly high standard; further biscuit consumption accompanying strawberries with whipped cream and an outstanding home made lemon meringue pie (Sam Wilkes – you legend).

Social étiquette starting to dwindle and refreshment required to balance the posh nosh, we sampled the Pimms, Newcy Brown and the Guinness. Inevitably the mood shifted from ‘high tea on the village green’ to something resembling the Royle family on a lazy Sunday. So what better way to round it all off than to slump on the sofas with a nice bit of telly?

All in all, the evening was a triumph, bringing all nationalities together to enjoy some of the smaller things that make Britain great.

Friday Favourites

Nathan Sawaya, aka The Brick Artist has teamed up with photographer Dean West to create these hyper realistic scenes, which feature props made of thousands of LEGO bricks. The In Pieces project was on show recently at the Avant Gallery in New York. Earlier this year some of the team in our Singapore office visited his work at Art of the Brick, currently on at the Marina Sands Bay Hotel, which is continuing a tour of Asia and the US this year. Can it come to the UK please? Found via So Bad So Good.

We’ve featured quite a few nice creative ideas that have used Google Maps, Street View or Google Earth in previous Friday Favourites and here’s another interesting example. Postcards From Google Earth is a project by Clement Valla, an artist and designer whose work explores computer systems and digital technologies. He has collected ‘anomalies’ from Google Earth, which at first look like images that have been somehow digitally corrupted, but they are in fact created from the natural effect of the visual records for Google Earth being updated from a variety of sources over time. I love the way the roads appear to have developed a melted, almost liquid quality. More details on Twisted Sifter. Thanks to James for finding this one.

This reminded me of something else I found this week on a similar theme, via Creative Applications. Glitché is a new iPhone app created by Vladimir Schreider that deliberately corrupts your photographs to create some rather nice (if sometimes migraine-inducing) effects. Here are just a few examples but you can see more here.

Thanks to Paul M for sharing these simple graphic posters of deconstructed famous packaging, which are for sale in order to raise money for Storehouse and Dundee Foodbank, two food charities in Scotland. These were found via MakeMatter, a great fundraising idea from Ed Watt, Creative Director of O Street and contributor to FormFiftyFive. He ‘matches creative projects with worthwhile causes’ and invites creatives to submit projects and ideas that can be brought to life and sold, with all profits going to charity.

These long exposure photographs of wakeboarders at night are from a project called Motion to Light, by light painter Patrick Rochon. Created in collaboration with Snap! Orlando and a bunch of famous wakeboarders whose boards were fitted with lights, the project was for the Red Bull Illume photography competition. I preferred the stills to the film, but it’s worth a watch. Thanks to Gav for sharing this, via HypeBeast and also on FastCompany.

A peek into the world of sign making

As you may have noticed from previous blog posts, we do like a bit of lettering and signage here at DB. With previous visits to vintage signage specialist Glyphics, and the neon fest that is God’s Own Junkyard, it was time to check out some big brand signage made from scratch.

This week the 3D team had the pleasure of visiting John Anthony Signs in Essex, who create beautifully crafted signage for famous brands such as Harrods, Louis Vuitton and Ferrari. We were welcomed by Jamie and David, who very kindly answered all our questions and gave us a tour of their very capable facility. Besides the usual machinery and work benches you’d expect to see in a factory, the place was full of interesting letter off cuts, colourful vinyls and beautiful bits of 3D type waiting to become a sign.

I guess the main point I’m making, is that when most of us walk down the high street, we don’t realise how much tender love and craft is put into creating shop signs, and how much expertise is necessary to create one of high quality. Of course there are signs and there are SIGNS.

John Anthony Signs are responsible for all the Starbucks signs across the UK and Ireland and also created the stunning high end Louis Vuitton sign seen at the flagship store in London’s New Bond Street.

So we came back pretty impressed and inspired. One of the most interesting things was their study on LEDs. They created an LED wall (below), a simple, yet effective way to communicate how there are tons of manufacturers out there who claim they produce ‘white’ LEDs and how very different they look in reality; ‘white’ appearing in a multitude of shades. The box on the far left of the image looked orange, so it can be deceitful. Proper white LEDs are more expensive and large quantities are used even in a single sign, so using cheaper ones can have implications for brand colours.

These guys do not sacrifice on the quality of the end product. They are exceptional at creating bespoke signage no matter the size or the requirements and that is probably what we like most: they are willing to push the boundaries and find new and innovative ways to make things happen… a philosophy close to our hearts.

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