Another week, another batch of links! This one is a big one so strap in and get ready! We’ve got some beautiful and eerily alienesque architecture, some gorgeous business cards, books, books and more books as well as beautifully delicate packaging.
Kim Holtermand
Found via ISO50, the work of Danish-born Kim Holtermand is breathtaking. The soft colours contrast well with the hard edges of his subjects, which is mostly architecture. Between the colours, framing and topic of his photographs, you can’t help but be reminded of images of our past, that showed us what the future would look like – they have a great familiar-yet-alien quality to them.
Frederic Chaubin – SciFi Soviet Architecture
PingMag has an interview with Frederic Chaubin, a photographer who has been traveling around the former Soviet Union taking photos of some wild buildings that feel like they would be right at home in a Philip K Dick novel.
Card Observer
Business cards fall into one of three categories – 1. Awful. 2. Thanks-for-trying wankery. 3. Brilliant. Luckily, Card Observer looks like it mostly curates work that falls into the third category. A very nicely designed and easy to navigate site has much to be seen and enjoyed. The best part? Not every card is flat-out brilliant, but not every card submitted gets shown, which means no matter your tastes, you’ll find something excellent here.
Mike Stilkey
The always enjoyable Fecal Face has a great interview and studio tour with Mike Stilkey. His beautiful work has a dream-like quality to it that grabs you and a recent installation he put together is breath-taking.
Pepsi Logo – A Response
Lawrence Yang from San Francisco has a different view on the new Pepsi branding. It also serves as a nice introduction to the rest of his work which has a beautiful and delicate feel to it.
Harry Potter Redesigns
There has been a number of these kinds of works lately and truth be told, the whole time I’ve been thinking “oh man, I’d love to see some Harry Potter redesigns”. M. S. Corley to the rescue! I really dig these covers and the spot on references to the book’s story and not just the title.
Lotus Tealight Candleholder @ TheDieline
TheDieLine is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs and it’s because of finds like this one. Trine Design Associates recently put together this paper tealight candleholder, which came to be from “the intricate result of an experiment exploring form, material and laser production methods. Inspired by the beauty and resilience of a lotus flower blossom, the structure of the candleholder comprises of three rings of petals. The intricate patterns on each ring of petals features one type of traditional floral motifs found in Chinese, Arabic and Islamic art respectively.” Absolutely stunning work that I would be too scared to actually put a lit candle into because of the fear of setting the whole thing alight.
National Library of Australia Digital Collection
The National Library of Australia has an amazing collection (over 1700 says the homepage) of printed materials ranging from political pieces on the legalization of alcohol to a series of plates from A voyage to the Pacific Ocean by James Cook.
The screen is a magic medium
I’m not sure how to explain but does it float. It’s an interesting site that seems to have the sole purpose of posting beautiful, intriguing or just plain odd images. This series in particular caught my eye. Normally I wouldn’t find these types of images enticing, yet I find that I’m amazingly drawn in. All from moresoon.org.
Retinart
Coming up is a few fun articles that I’m sure you’ll all enjoy! I’m going to share some old press manuals, a profile on Jan Tschichold, the sketchbooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and why kids have a better mindset for design than we do. Have a good week all.
Comments
5 pieces of brilliance put forth by the audience
Jack from eyeflare
21st of February, 2009 • www
That Russian beach-side apartment building really is like something from Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner. Wonder what they were thinking approving the drawings? “Let’s make it as weird as possible!”?
Alex Charchar
21st of February, 2009 • www twitter
haha, I guess weird can either become something unique or something whacked out, depending on how it’s looked at after some time?
In the interview it’s mentioned that one of the reasons why some of them were designed that way, but you don’t see many like it elsewhere, is because they were pretty disconnected from the rest of the world at the time.. they might have thought it was the happening thing? heh
Esben Thomsen
21st of February, 2009 • www twitter
The former soviet culture had alot going for them, just a shame that its so unexplored in the west.
Kim Høltermand photos might seem alien, but for a dane they are rather familiar :)
Alex Charchar
21st of February, 2009 • www twitter
I guess that for the west, the topic of the soviet culture can seem a little.. mmm.. touchy, perhaps? An area people don’t want to explore too deeply? Kind of like the design used my Nazi Germany.. there was some seriously strong branding going on, but it would be a touchy subject to bring up.. luckily Steven Heller recently put a book together about it all, heh.
So there are a lot of similar buildings in your part of the world, Esben?
Esben Thomsen
23rd of February, 2009 • www twitter
Well Im a dane, so yes its not unfamiliar at all.
Hm it is perhaps a touchy subject, but in reality not every piece of soviet artwork was propaganda or even anti something, as always things are more complicated from what one might imagine. The reason for this is perhaps that the union did survive for quit some time.
But communism did have strong or stronger roots in europe than it did in usa, even to this day (at the moment a old former communist party turned socialist, is the most loved by the people in the polls :-p ).
But it would be a very interesting subject to explorer, from a design point of view, but getting the materials might prove difficult.
Shall you delight, entertain & enlighten
us with your own thoughts?