Sailing Ships in the Air!

Awww, it is beautiful right? "These Sailing Ships are colorful, whimsical, and fully flyable. Aerodynamic without remote controls or engines and constructed entirely without commercial factory parts or labor, these designs soar. Emily Fischer founded Brooklyn-based Haptic Lab to counter the rapid digitization of our lives and celebrate the real, physical world we live in. Her handcrafted kites are built together with Fair Trade artisans in Bali out of bamboo. They are inspired by traditional ships, sailing through air instead of water. Though they look delicate, bamboo has greater tensile strength than steel, and can shrug off crashes on beaches or grass. They are easy to assemble, you can learn how in this video. Emily spent years researching kite history and traditions. Kite-making was her hobby while she worked as an architect for four years. After spending three months traveling through Asia meeting kite artisans and learning from them (how to balance a design, what materials to use, how to tie specific knots), she assembled her kite-making team. Her designs are inspired by the golden age of kite-flying that occurred around the turn of the nineteenth century. She shares: “There was a sort of ‘space-race’ as inventors, engineers, and governments competed to create the first manned flight. I wanted to create kites that captured that spirit. The only ones I’d ever flown were cheap plastic pieces that fell apart in an afternoon, and I was determined to make something beautiful that would last for years." More here: http://news.gestalten.com/news/haptic-lab-kites

The Latest Pop Up Trend: Mobile Skateparks in Rotterdam

Love this one: "When I was growing up, skateparks were always depicted on screen as the ultimate backdrop of cool, be it in Larry Clarke’s iconic film Kids through to the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video-game franchise. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, skateparks aren’t representative of much more that that – a hangout for local kids and scenesters. Perhaps this is why the Netherlands fail to view skateboarding as a legitimate sport, and in hand, the municipality of Rotterdam has failed to provide a decent skatepark for the healthy skating scene in the city. Martijn Hartwig and Dario Goldbach, the guys behind Jira Jira, decided they’d had enough fruitless meetings with the council to try and rectify the issue, and decided to opt for a bit of D.I.Y. The project, which had its maiden voyage in the form of a guerrilla skate session on the 7th of July, also tied in as their final work required to graduate from the graphic design department of the Willem de Kooning Academy." More here: http://popupcity.net/rotterdam-collective-creates-modular-mobile-skatepark/

Broken Dreams - An Artist's Vision on Detroit's Decay by Sandra Osip

Strong and beautiful right? Loved it as soon as I saw it. "In a dark series of sculptures titled Broken Dreams, Brooklyn-based artist Sandra Osip captures the decline and decay of suburban Detroit. The works are inspired by Osip’s memories of the city: the streets she roamed as a child, the corner stores she visited, and the neighbourhood—now destroyed—that surrounded her former high school. She sculpts the skeletal husks of houses that are burnt down, collapsed, and decaying, evacuated of all life and purpose. In more abstract renderings, Osip has created “junk heaps” of urban ruin, crushed-up buildings that represent entire neighbourhoods left to the cruel forces of time and neglect." More here: http://beautifuldecay.com/2015/08/20/sandra-osip-sculpts-ruined-piled-houses-inspired-detroits-decay/

Where Can You Find the Most Awesome Basketball Court? PARIS!

"Ill-Studio has collaborated with French fashion brand Pigalle to create a multicoloured basketball court between a row of buildings in the 9th arrondissement of Paris...Named after its location, the court is situated on Rue Duperré and was first renovated by Pigalle founder Stephane Ashpool and Nike in 2009. Last year, the two Paris-based studios came together to update the court and create a backdrop for the Pigalle Basketball Spring Summer 2015 presentation. The Pigalle label was founded in June 2009 and the brand launched its second line, Pigalle Basketball, in 2014.

Ill-Studio took inspiration from a 1930s artwork called Sportsmen by Russian artist Kasimir Malevich – a boldly coloured oil painting that depicts four figures stood side by side." It looks amazing and kind of like walking into a painting right? More here: http://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/12/pigalle-duperre-ill-studio-paris-basketball-court-multicoloured-installation/

The New Marketing Movement : Moving Away From Gender & Gender Bias

This is slowly becoming a trend. This piece is on US retailer Target's new marketing strategy : "Late last week Target announced it will phase out some gender-based signs in its stores, specifically in the toy and bedding aisles. Giving shoppers a more gender-neutral experience seems to be the brand's response to complaints it received on social media earlier this summer. Now Target's decision to retool its in-store experience is making headlines, but could it kick-start a trend with other major retailers? According to Target's announcement, it will remove references to gender in toy and bedding sections over the next few months. It'll also stop using pink, blue, yellow and green paper to denote shelves with items targeted to boys or girls. The brand listened to feedback from consumers and "decided that this was the right time to make a couple of adjustments in our stores," according to a spokeswoman." More here: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/could-targets-move-away-gender-based-signs-kick-start-trend-166315 

Mr. Printables' Summer Fun!

These are cute! "If you’re a parent who loves modern design, Mr. Printables should be saved at the top of your bookmark list. Their nav bar includes drop downs for learning, activities, parties, stationary, and lots more. More importantly, everything has a modern, graphic look. Perfect for developing your mini modern design lover…
These fun graphic ice cream printables (above) are easy for you and your kids to download, print and build. They’re great for playtime or party decor, or just for rainy days…"
More here: http://design-milk.com/sweet-graphic-design-mr-printables/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

~ Goodmorning ! ~

The New 'Thing' - Public Eco Art

Spain is a lot trendier than we often think...a lot of inspiring new creative ideas come from Spain, the Spanish love festivals. Citykids will love this idea: "the fallas festival takes place annually in the city of valencia, spain. for a few days each year, the city transforms into a frantic amalgamation of parties, fireworks, tourists, and of course, viewing sculptures. on the night of march 19th, the last night of the city-wide celebration, each sculpture or installation is burned in a special ceremony. spanish studio nituniyo — standing for neither you nor I — was commissioned by the falla castielfabib to create a work for this year’s event. for the few days the festival is on, main public areas such as monuments are essentially shut down with fences. doing so prevents any damage that could be caused by the huge increase of pedestrians, but it creates a disconnect between the visitors and venue." Source: http://www.designboom.com/art/nituniyo-somnis-de-pes-cardboard-elephant-sculpture-installation-08-08-2015/

Lithuanian Artist Makes Amazing Hand Cut City Maps

"Lithuanian artist Virgilijus Trakimavicius creates marvellous hand-cut paper crafts that are based on actual city maps: “Most of my current works involve hand-cut paper sheets. On these sheets, which are based on actual cities, I try to discover the fragments of an angel, the blossoming of a tree, the memories of my past travels, a likeable street, and everything involving the city that I have visited or intend to visit in the future” explains Trakimavicius in his artist’s statement." Nice huh? More here: http://www.boredpanda.com/lithuanian-artist-makes-incredibly-intricate-hand-cut-paper-art-that-will-make-your-jaw-drop/

Artist Carl Cashman & Boxheads

Haha - I Love these images!  I think they are titled 'Boxheads'. I wrote about artist Carl Cashman before (read here) and his show in Norway, now a gallery here in Amsterdam is showing his work. I'm a fan ;-)! The gallery  and the exhibition: "“Intersubjective” is a joint show by Begoña Toledo a.k.a Boxhead and Matthew Knight together with a long array of guest artists. Inspired by this year’s Pride theme: “Share”, the vibrantly colourful artworks in this exhibition have been collectively created with a universal consciousness perspective, focused on the concept of the collective mind and the importance of sharing in shaping our ideas and relations."
http://www.gogallery.nl/en/gaypride-exhibition-intersubjective-july-25/

Favorite: The Penguin Logo Design

Oh this is one of my most favorite logo designs - my favorite logo designs are always animals. I also love Stabilo's swan. Here's a little bit on the story of the Penguin logo and its history: "When the first ten Penguin books were finally released, to the British public they looked starkly original; to a German bibliophile of the nineteen-thirties on the other hand, the Penguin books might have looked like nothing more than a rip-off of a pre-existing German book series. Albatross had been producing English-language paperback books in Hamburg since 1932: they were the first to mass-produce paperbacks and the first to colour-code by genre. Albatross books also featured sans-serif typographic covers with a prominent logo in the form of a bird – the comparisons with Penguin are obvious. The similarities show that Allen Lane knew a good thing – and an opportunity – when he saw it however, and as Albatross books weren’t allowed to be distributed in the U.S.A. or the British Empire, in the pre-globalised world of the thirties there was no reason not to copy this remarkably modern German format..." More here: https://www.grafik.net/category/logoform/penguin-s-classics#