Curated Design:Related Inspirations

Counting Koi

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:03:53 GMT

Counting Koi is a new addition to House Industries’ line of typographic products. The Counting Koi set includes 10 wooden fish embossed with numerals pulled from the Worthe font.

“Straight from the pure breeding environment of Uncle Goose’s exclusive stock pond, our new Counting Koi are reared from original House Industries numerical data and feature the most coveted pure black bloodline.” —House Industries

the art of Sun Yeo

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:57:05 GMT

Sun Yeo is an artist and graphic designer based in Los Angeles. Her artistic illustrations are both whimsical, minimal, and at times spiritual.

painted billboard made of tweets

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:45:46 GMT

In Mexico, paper company Scribe funded construction of The Billboard House. Architect Julio Gómez Trevilla designed an elevated house with a billboard attached.

Artist Cecilia Beaven was the first resident to live in the house. For ten days she painted a mural on the billboard based on 50 different requests from Twitter.

MoMA kinetic sculptures with littleBits

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:17:00 GMT

The MoMa Design store collaborates with littleBits to construct large scale kinetic sculptures for their windows. The window displays are titled “littleBits Make Big Things Happen” and will be on view through May 12th, 2013.

“…The installation required no programming, no wiring, and no soldering – just sensors, switches, lights, and motors snapping together with magnets. The projects aim to present electronics as just another material, accessible to everyone including kids, artists, makers, and designers – not only engineers and experts…” —littleBits press release

“We partnered with Brooklyn-based design studio Labour and challenged them to restrict themselves to only using littleBits for electronics, and no other hardware platform, or robotics tools for the entire display. Something as remarkable as a giant shark swimming after a tiny lure, or a cyclist turning a large Ferris wheel 10 times her size are at once iconic and familiar but absolutely distinctive in how we have merged two worlds, the world of art, and that of electronics…”
—Founder and CEO of littleBits, Ayah Bdeir

Beauty of Letterpress

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:09:51 GMT

Neenah Paper has launched a new online resource and community for letterpress design, The Beauty of Letterpress.

“Within the letterpress and design community at large, the passion for paper thrives and the appreciation of print remains alive and well.” —Neenah Paper

The initiative also serves to raise awareness and assistance for the relocation of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.

Arrested Development Vintage Album Covers

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:07:15 GMT

These faux vintage album covers by Josh Cox are some kind of amazing. The playful works by Cox drew their inspiration from Ty Mattson’s Homeland project.

the art of Joseph Burwell

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:40:47 GMT

Joseph Burwell’s solo show at Miyako Yoshinaga gallery, entitled A Survey of Nonexistence at a Glance, consists of meticulous drawings and sculpture. The witty titles of the pieces add significant depth to the work. The exhibition is on view in New York City through April 13, 2013.

A Typical Example of Mid Century Medieval Modernism

“This exhibition is based on the idea of altering historical narratives by generating a visual system of architectures from disparate cultures that collide in time and space.” —Miyako Yoshinaga gallery

The Exact Location of a Sacrifice

Isometric Funeral

Castle Elbow

Sacrificial Office Plant

Tomb Design of the Late Period

Section of Scaffolding

(top piece titled: The Center for Modern Disintegration)

Little Blue and Little Yellow

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:25:31 GMT

“From time to time, from the endless flow of our mental imagery, there emerges unexpectedly something that, vague though it may be, seems to carry the promise of a form, a meaning, and, more important, an irresistible poetic charge.”—Leo Lionni

Leo Lionni (1910-1999) wrote and illustrated more than 40 children’s books. Little Blue and Little Yellow was his first and my all-time fave. He was also the art diector at Fortune magazine for 12 years...back when people held jobs in publishing for that long.

Fully Booked: Ink on Paper

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:15:18 GMT

One of my favorite publications on book cover design, Fully Booked: Cover Art & Design for Books, now has a follow up, Fully Booked: Ink on Paper. Although the book includes a survey of contemporary book cover design, it also explores both conventional and unconventional forms of the printed book, showing impressive examples of artist books and catalogs.

Published by Gestalten, Fully Booked: Ink on Paper is edited by R. Klanten, M. Hübner, and A. Losowsky. Andrew Losowsky offers thought-provoking texts throughout the book. In his preface, he envisions an alternate world where the Digital Age precedes that of the Print medium. The overall theme is an appreciation for the tangible book and “long live print.”

The hardcover book is broken down into 5 distinct sections: The Storyteller, The Showmaster, The Teacher, The Businessman, and The Collector.

“In order to better understand how and why these print books have arrived so boldly and so beautifully in our supposedly digital world, we have divided this book into five sections: The Businessman reveals the unexpectedly creative side to corporate tales, annual reports, and catalogs; The Storyteller is filled with the most remarkable book covers and physical manifestations of conventionally told tales; The Showmaster is an unveiling of remarkable creations that reinvent the printed book all over again; The Collector echoes artwork and gallery exhibits through printed matter; and The Teacher guides its readers through clever design and thoughtful object-based content.” —Andrew Losowsky

“Fully Booked: Ink on Paper features work by groundbreaking designers and design studios such as A Practice for Everyday Life, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Irma Boom, Deutsche & Japaner, John Gall, Joost Grootens, Julia Hasting, Heimann und Schwantes, Jung + Wenig, Konst & Teknik, Leftloft, Made Thought, Peter Mendelsund, Niessen & de Vries, Prill Vieceli Cremers, Raffinerie AG, and Studio Laucke Siebein. Its stunning range of visual examples is put into context by texts from Andrew Losowsky, books editor at The Huffington Post. By documenting current experiments and future possibilities for printed publications, Fully Booked: Ink on Paper makes clear that the most exciting phase in the history of printed matter has just begun.” —Gestalten

The book also includes cover designs by Rodrigo Corral, Catherine Casalino, Matt Dorfman, Kimberly Glyder, Jenny Grigg, Heads of State, Jamie Keenan, Jim Tierney, David Pearson, Miriam Rosenbloom, Isaac Tobin, Sanda Zahirovic, and more.
Coinciding with the book release, Fully Booked: Ink on Paper - An Exhibition of Design and Concepts for New Publications is on view at Gestalten Space in Berlin until April 21st, 2013.

(thank you Gestalten for providing a review copy)

folded book sculptures

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:36:26 GMT

Vermont-based artist Luciana Frigerio transforms old books into typographic folded book sculptures. The different word creations can be purchased through Etsy.

(via Art is Epidemic)