Archive for the ‘Design + Creativity’ Category
Vintage Travel Posters
Vintage travel posters and hotel stickers provide for some of the best travel inspiration. They remind us of a long gone, romantic era of travel, when explorers embarked on long boat trips across oceans to discover foreign lands; when you packed a leather suitcase and set off for a train trip across the continent. I compiled some of my favorite vintage posters, as well as some history on them, in this article over on Been Seen.
Recycled Colored Pencil Rings
Often, attempts at making eco-jewelry can be a tad too juvenile. But Italian artist Maria Cristina Bellucci makes playful rings out of old colored pencils that still manage to be chic and sleek. By attaching fragment pieces of colored pencils, the rings reveal both the color and natural wood base. A striking use of upcycling!
Moleskine Color a Month
Just like any other self-respecting traveler writer (ok, or crowd follower), I can’t pull myself away from Moleskines. They’re compact, beautiful and so much fun to write and draw in. So of course I love the 2010 Color a Month planner series. In fact, with a different color for each month, the planner is almost a work of art itself, even before you go personalizing it with your quickly jotted events and happenings.
Google Earth Alphabet
These alphabets were made using Google Earth images all taken in the Netherlands. There’s even a punctuation and numbers version. It’s amazing what natural and man-made structures look like when seen from above.
Tio Gruppen Stockholm
Tio Gruppen is a name synonymous with Swedish design. The design collective, founded in 1970 by ten young textile artists and designers, has produced more than 600 printed fabrics and wallpapers. With a classic Scnadinavian aesthetic, Tio Gruppen designs incorporate simple and natural designs in a style that manages to be both contemporary and classic.
The Tio Gruppen store, located in Södermalm in Stockholm, is a design lover’s paradise, the walls covered with colorful prints in the form of bags, napkins, aprons and textiles by the yard. Always a favorite stop of mine when in the Swedish captial… very much worth a visit! And if you can’t make a quick Scandinavian jaunt, take a peek at the website.
Full gallery after the jump.
Winter Palace
As we head towards colder months, here is some gorgeous winter inspiration. Restaurant Tusen is a creatively and naturally inspired building in Ramundberget, Sweden and was designed by Swedish firm Murman Arkitekter. They recently won first prize in the “holiday” category at the World Architecture Festival.
More at my article in Been Seen here.
Garbage Bag Art Work
Especially for people who live in urban areas, sometimes it’s easy for us to shut our eyes to all the trash that our society produces; think of all the trash cans you walk by without even noticing. Garbage Bag Art Work is a project that pulls garbage away from its usual habitat — garbage cans and landfills — and negative association and puts it under a more creative light, forcing us to truly look at the problem. Using garbage in this way, the Tokyo-based Garbage Art Work project hopes to encourage more people to look at the waste problem, the environment, and the future of this planet.
Colorful Inspiration
On gray, rainy days, sometimes you need some colorful inspiration, like these funky stairs are in Wuppertal, Germany. The 112 steps are painted and the various colors express different emotions. Makes me want to go get out a paintbrush.
[Photos: Example.pl and Coconuts and Limes]
New Josef Frank Textile Designs from Svenskt Tenn
Svenskt Tenn might be one of the most influential design stores in Sweden, a well-known lifestyle company and boutique that’s been around since 1924. Founded by designer Josef Frank, his prints have been synonymous with the shop, and even though he died in 1967, his design legacy lives on. The store just recently released two new Frank prints, called Aramal and Ceylong, produced in the 40s but that have up until now never been in production; Svensk Tenn actually owns about 160 different Frank textile prints that are archived and released at random. The new prints are available on 100% linen textiles sold by the yard.
Makes me wish I was able to take a stroll down Strandvägen and take a look.
Full print images after the jump.
blog.annabrones.com 
