The iconic London Underground is celebrating its 150th year of operation this year. The “Tube,” which opened all the way back in 1863, still serves the city with trains packed to capacity at rush hours, shuttling people to places both central and more remote. Almost as famous as the trains themselves is the design that has sprung up alongside the long running system – so to celebrate the anniversary, the London Transport Museum is showcasing 150 Underground posters from the past. [Read more...]
Sometimes, hidden in long forgotten cupboards, there are treasures to be found. That was the experience for London based designer Kristian Bodnar, who discovered a small leather bound book full of vintage Hungarian matchbox covers tucked away in his grandmother’s house. The approximately 300 tiny images were meticulously collected by Bodnar’s father, Zoltan Bodnar, in his childhood. At the time, the images were glued to matchbox covers and could be soaked off by children to enjoy. You can imagine, for a designer, it was like finding pure gold. [Read more...]
Unless it’s brail, it’s not often you can reach out and touch the type that you’re reading. Graphic designer, Aries Wan recently created an experimental type project which allows us just that. Her work uses traditional hand embroidery to create the alphabet, numbers and a selection of punctuation marks, but manages to still give a nod to old-fashioned four-color printing at the same time. Each of her letters uses two CMYK colors, offset as if by printing error, to create what she calls an “optical 3D effect.” [Read more...]
If there’s one unifying thing about children around the world it’s this: they love to play. Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s latest project “Toy Stories,” captures this aspect of our young people’s lives through their prized possessions, artfully arranged around them in the places where they live. It’s an intimate and revealing look at the worlds diverse cultures as experienced by kids. [Read more...]
Looking like microscopic images of the molecular world, these intriguing images are composed of modern buildings, folded, extruded and repeated into a kaleidoscope of glass, cement and steel based beauty. But, if you think these fascinatingly manipulated buildings seem smart, you should know something about their creator: he knows Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience and is passionate about art – his name is Mattia Mognetti. [Read more...]
Words you don’t expect to hear while duty-free shopping in the air: “Could I get that £15,000 painting with my champagne, please?” But, it happened this February for travelers with Virgin Atlantic – specifically in the “Upper-Class” section where they staged the very first aircraft based art gallery. It was called “The Gallery in the Air,” and the artist that graced the skies above us – none other than internationally renowned English street artist Ben Eine, displaying his now iconic typographically based works. [Read more...]
What is considered sacred? What signifies a tribute and what is blasphemy? It’s often a fine line and subject to the attitudes of the time we live within. German artist Miriam Jonas rides this touchy razors-edge, creating relief portraits of clerics inside tin-cans using a very unusual medium: Play-Doh. [Read more...]
Without even trying, cats can be really creepy at times. Well actually, maybe they are trying. They run maniacally around the house for seemingly no reason; they hide in boxes for us to find them; and most disconcertingly, they stare at us with those big, glowing, curious eyes. Artist Casey Weldon knows this so he’s lately been creating cat paintings with double the creepiness – cats with four eyes. [Read more...]
Even from the airport terminal it’s hard to make out the tiny people packed into a modern jet, but if you strain your eyes you can see expectant faces waiting for takeoff… or anxious to get off and stretch their legs. Photographer John Schabel’s series captures just that, travelers in the space of time after seating and before takeoff. [Read more...]
You might be surprised if you plop down on the comfortable looking classic armchair pictured above; that’s because it’s made entirely out of thin sheets of paper. These exquisitely crafted sculptures from Los Angeles based artist Vincent Tomczyk seem to break all the rules of possibility, representing objects from a soft white dress shirt, to an iconic Eames chair with almost perfect accuracy. His gossamer creations are beautiful to behold. [Read more...]
