Archive for the ‘Design + Creativity’ Category
Tuesday eye-candy: Up and coming Swedish designers
My two current favorite Swedish designers are young women, fresh out of school and full of inspiring ideas.
Hanna Nyman with her three-dimensional wallpapers.
Lisa Bengtsson. Born in 1981 Lisa obviously hasn’t wasted any time on being creative.
I am not a Paper Cup
I refuse to buy coffee if I don’t have my own mug with me (unless the cafe gives me a real mug to drink out of). And I don’t buy bottled water. Call me a Portland freak, but it’s probably doing a small part to reduce waste. That’s why this mug caught my eye; it’s green and creatively designed…. looks like a horrible disposable cup, but really it’s made pf porcelain. And won’t burn your hands. Obviously the company is banking off of the whole “I Am not a Plastic Bag” craze, but I am sort of hooked on the idea. You can buy one at the momastore.
[Via 1plus1]
A little bit of design love for bike racks
I got tipped off about these NYC bike racks today over at Wend and I couldn’t help posting them here too.
Time to play outside
I’ve been reading Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from nature deficit disorder which makes the public artwork by Bruno Taylor in London all the more poignant. The artist says this about the project:
71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now. Are we designing children and play out of the public realm?
[Via Treehugger]
A good reason to write a real letter
For design lovers, there’s never been a better stamp… A few weeks back I bought the above collection of Charles and Ray Eames stamps myself, but unfortunately have yet to use a single one of them. It might be because the stamps look so good together and I have a hard time imagining pulling one off and leaving an ugly white space, but my lack of stamp use is probably more related to an unhealthy amount of time spent in front of the computer. Hence, a new goal for the end of the summer: send one real letter — or a postcard which feels a little more realistic — each week. Here’s to less emails and more genuine correspondence.
New York: nature and art together in a major installation
I wish I was in New York to see this insane (and at $15.5 million, pretty expensive) art installation that just formally opened today. The four waterfalls are big — 90 to 120 feet tall — and they churn an incredible amount of water: 35,000 gallons of East River water per minute which makes 2.1 million gallons per hour. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, artist Olafur Eliasson sees Waterfalls as making nature tangible to people, an imperative task in a world where the use and preservation of natural resources is an on-going discussion. Combining nature and art… in my opinion, always an impressive statement.
Read more in the New York Times article.
[Photo via NYTimes]
Blog tip of the day
The amount of RSS feeds that I find myself scanning through in the mornings is starting to get overwhelming, but I have found a new travel blog/journal that I LOVE! Pret a Voyager is all about design and travel (my two favorite things) and it’s fun to look at and read.
Beach art
Last week, my artistically prolific mother (click on the link and go to page 34) drew my attention to the World Beach Project. Being a fan of outdoor art — think Andy Goldsworthy — I loved it. The idea is to have people around the world create drawings out of beach stones, photograph them and display them in an online exhibit through the Victoria and Albert Museum. Read more about the project in my Been Seen article.
Biggest drawing in the world… cool even if it is a hoax
This amazing drawing was the mastermind of Swedish artist Erik Nordenankar. On March 17, 2008 he sent a briefcase with a GPS tracking device and specific travel instructions with global shipping company DHL to create this incredible image. The continuous stroke totals out to 110,664 kilometers. Pretty neat… except for the fact that Nordenankar made the whole thing up!! But you gotta give him credit for attracting a whole lot of attention for it. Learn more here.
blog.annabrones.com 