New Wallpaper for the New Year?

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The new designs from Nama Rococo have finally come. Always organic and free-flowing, Karen’s latest designs continue with a sophisticated-but-fun color palette. Her latest patterns are called “Amsterdam” and “Shuboes.” Inspired by flora, lava flows and Gaudi’s Barcelona apartment buildings, “Shuboes” is described as a “flower power cocktail with a dash of biomorphism and a twist of Ring of Fire.”

“Amsterdam” was inspired by both the rooflines of Dutch 18th-century canal homes and David Bowie’s songs (what’s not to love in that combo?). The soft neutral color palette captures that yellow, dusty Dutch light perfectly. You can pick up sheets of both styles (and existing Nama Rococo styles) right here for $126 per sheet.

For more design tips and tricks, visit our tips and tricks section on our blog.

Bookshelf Modification

Although IKEA bookshelves generally look the same from house to house, there are still ways for you to “dress” up your bookshelf so that it looks amazing. Tanya of Dans le Townhouse puts works of art to use in a wonderfully functional way. In order to break up the grid visually and add some interest, Tanya created hanging canvases to cover certain cubbies. I love her combination of sharp, graphic zigzags and softer, abstract pastels; I also love that they can easily be switched, swapped out or removed as needed.

For more design tips and tricks, visit our tips and tricks section on our blog.

Crayon Sculptures

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These crayon and pencil sculptures (created by artist Diem Chau) are so detailed. It’s like a miniature version of a totem pole. I wonder if he would be interested in creating a miniture version of the Stanley Park totem poles.

Common Things, Redesigned – Part 2

This is another simple object redesign. The DVD packaging for Pago de los Capellanes, a special winery from Spain, was designed with a simple idea: The sun comes out at Pago de los Capellanes Vineyards. It is a simple and innovative design, making DVD’s easy to remove or return. There’s no excuse for not returning the DVD’s now!

For more amazing designs, please visit the amazing design section on our blog.

Christmas Tree Made from 40,000 Recycled Plastic Bottles

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Like many Europian countries and cities, Kaunas, Lithuania is currently in a dreadful financial state and they don’t have much of a budget for Christmas events. For the third consecutive year, the city asked artist Jolanta Šmidtienė to assist with their annual holiday decorating. Jolanta challenged herself to build something that wouldn’t rely on administrative funds set aside for the event. She used nearly 40,000 recycled green bottles and zip ties to build a 13 meter tall Christmas tree. At night, the tree is lit from the inside resulting in a glowing, translucent, emerald green spruce that’s making headlines across the country. This tree brings awareness, Christmas spirits and innovation together. It would be great if other cities jumped on this bandwagon, saving both money and resources.

On behalf of the Fluffians, Merry Christmas to everyone!

Be Your Own Souvenir

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Be Your Own Souvenir by Barcelona-based blablabLAB is an awesome machine that produces a miniature green-army soldier version of yourself. Using custom software developed using openFrameworks and openKinect, visitors film themselves in front of 3 kinect sensors for a full 360-degree scan and within moments a 3D printer known as a RepRap machine spits out a little army-guy version of themselves. It is such a cool souvenir idea for your family and friends and a great story to tell too!

Coffee Time

We love stop-motion animation, especially well produced ones. Designer Ching-Wen Wu was inspired by Mike Crozier’s  stop-motion short, titled “SNASK” . Although many of the shots, sequences, and effects are almost identical shot for shot, Wu’s appears more refined. It is hard to believe that this is her first attempt at stop-motion animation. View some in the making shots here.

To see more amazing designs, please visit the amazing design section on our blog.

Evil Pet Candle

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Thorunn Arnadottir is a London-based designer who created “The Devil’s Pet”, an innocent geometric kitten candle that once lit reveals a ghostly metal skeleton. The ball of yarn is the candle wick and the result is a cat skull with a ball of yarn on fire inside. The candle brings to light the contrasting and rich typologies attached to every day objects like candles and how we seem to have lost sight of the original function and meaning. Things may not be as they seem.

Human-Sized Pinscreen Toy

This fun human-sized pinscreen toy is designed by clutch and tote designer Lulu Guinness. I am sure many of you have played with the popular 80′s toy. As an interactive art piece, participants are invited to step up to the device and press their bodies into it, creating all manners of hilarious, touching, and inevitably interesting body portraits. See dozens more images on their Facebook page.

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For more amazing designs, please visit the amazing design section on our blog.

New Moon?

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Artificial Moon is a sculptural piece by Beijing-based artist Wang Yuyang constructed from hundreds of various compact fluorescent lightbulbs. At over 13 ft. wide (400cm) the piece is an imposing recreation of Earth’s moon, using strategically placed lights to mimic craters and other surface features. Its creation is also particularly poignant, as it was originally put on exhibit in Shanghai, a city that due to light pollution is often unable witness the actual moon moving through the night sky. Speaking of which, which side is the dark side of this moon?

For see more amazing designs, please visit the amazing design section on our blog.