quirky, original, beautiful, oh, and we've got six to giveaway.....
Toys
February 18th, 2010
Seeking an innovative solution to bring lasting enjoyment to an age old gift, the greeting card, London based designers, A Studio for Design, decided to… erm, well… put a garden into a postcard!?!? Yes, bordering on the unhinged it may be, but entirely charming it is too, as the conventional element of the card remains intact – it’s postable, has space for a written message, and features a lovely little images – yet the ‘Postcarden‘ also comes with seeds, instructions and a pop-up garden plot that will grow and keep for 2-3 weeks… successfully achieving their desired extent of it’s enjoyment lifespan. Taking the shape of three distinctly British environments, the Postcarden is available as a city, a botanical gardens and a charming allotment, all printed in Wales by ‘Ethical Packaging’, with the seeds also sourced within the UK.
Postcarden Giveaway
we’ve got 2 of each design to giveaway…..
Tomorrow’s weekend edition of our bi-weekly newsletter will contain our exclusive ‘Postcarden Giveaway’… if you’re not already signed up then you had better click here right away…..
the garden shed gets a luxe makeover....
Toys
February 17th, 2010
Tucked away in the corner of your suburban garden like the bastard offspring of a traditional garden shed and a lunar landing module, the Archipod is a whole new reason to work from home. Centered around the concept of removing the tie between work and home, the Archipod allows for an external working space without the cost, bureaucracy and inconvenience of building an extension or out-building. Of course it’s not just your office you could set up in your ‘pod… it’s an ideal space for a mini recording studio, a rather luxurious playroom for the kids, or perhaps just loading with tools and acting as a designer replacement for your shed… whatever you do with it, you’ll have endless hours of fun watching the neighbours reaction to the wooden spaceship that’s taken up residence in your cabbage patch….
trendy freeski brand get their hands on iconic 'box' car....
Toys
February 12th, 2010
With even the likes of Wallpaper* and Dezeen getting excited about Nissan’s cult, opinion-splitting Cube, it was only a matter of time before a plethora of Mini style collaborations would begin to eek out… In what, as far as we’re aware, is the first – of undoubtedly so many to come – super cool French ‘freeski’ brand, Black Crows have partnered with the Japanese giants to deliver two special edition Cubes in signature bold colouring with accompanying iconic skis. If this is all it takes to look hot on the slopes… count us in.
playing cards as mathematical functions and geometric shapes...
Toys
February 9th, 2010
Not yet 30, San Francisco born artist, Tauba Auerbach is already causing a noteworthy buzz on the American art scene. Her interest in typography and calligraphy alongside logic and physics are seemingly the catalyst for these truly remarkable playing cards, of which only 250 of each deck have been produced to a beautifully high standard, in collaboration with Brent Dzekciorius of DZEK. Consisting of two different decks, one based on mathematical functions, the other on geometric shapes, you probably won’t be cracking these open for a game of Texas Hold’em anytime soon…. however, thanks to their stupendously high production quality, and in particular those stunning linen and cardboard cases with blind de-bossing, you’ll no doubt be cherishing your collectors items as they continue to grow in value. $175 a set, from Project No.8.
Paolo Martin designed Geneva Motor Show concept...
Toys
December 16th, 2009
Designed in 1967 by Pininfarina’s Paolo Martin as a concept for Ferrari, the Modulo is every bit the fantasy car of the future we’ve all grown up imagining, something that belies the fact it’s over 40 years old. Finally unveiled at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show, Martin’s Modulo was a wild futuristic vision that stood head and shoulders above anything at that years Motor Show and for that matter anything to this date. Obviously, the concept was never realised and the car remained unknown to those of us for whom replenishing our cars with oil is as close as we will ever get to ‘piston-head’ status… that is until we found these tantalising images from the fabulously talented photographer, Benedict Redgrove. Redgrove’s images reveal a hidden gem, a car that we should be driving today as we close in on 2010, a futuristic siren that looks just like the future we expected, a design classic that we couldn’t help but share with you……
wonderfully menacing, spectacularly limited....
Toys
December 16th, 2009
German artists Mark Landwehr and Sven Waschk, as ‘coarse‘, started creating beautifully chiselled art sculptures from resin and/or fibreglass back in 2003, finishing them by hand at their workshops in Hamburg and Hong Kong. Living in two such diverse cultures, the artists exquisitely blend eastern and western aesthetics to create unique original sculptures, ‘coarse originals’, that through traditional toy production techniques are transformed into enchanting vinyl figures under their ‘coarsetoys’ imprint. Sold exclusively through corasehkg online and selected worldwide retailers, False Friends are a menacing duo with beautiful detail, a butch man-like rabbit and an aggressive little chap in a rabbit outfit….. their imaginations are frightening! Packaged in a lush, tenderly crafted wooden box with monkey-rabbit nose handle(???), the pair are put to sleep between two cotton pillows, embroidered with the incredibly limited running number, and with only 200 available from 7th January, we can see these two becoming a serious collectors concern.
You know where Raleigh bikes went wrong? They should have called the re-invented Chopper the Thunderfucker 2. That’s a bike we want to ride. And we could, if we had a spare £1,700. Fast Boy Cycles lovingly crafts bikes (such as the Thunderfucker) out of their NYC studio to order. But this is no assembly chain operation, the driving force, Ezra Caldwell, crafts no more than 20 bikes a year. He’s a man with a mission: bikes aren’t just eco-alternatives for clogged city commuting, they should be objects of beauty too. His signature slender wooden handlebars see to that, as do the sleek contours of the frame itself. It may look like it’s straight from the set of Heartbeat, but make no mistake – with full disc brakes and racing tyres, this is a psycho-cross machine well up to the challenge of eating up those city streets.
Whether or not Theworldsrichestlivingartist™, Damien Hirst, sold his ‘For the love of god’ for the reported asking price of £50m (he claims he did, the art world beg to differ), the likelihood is that you probably couldn’t have even dreamt about being able to bid the £14m it cost to produce. So, is £49.99 a more reasonable price for a modern work of art? You bet it is! IARTISTLONDON have brought the Airfix DIY ethos to the contemporary art scene with their collection of classic modern pieces such as the aforementioned diamond encrusted skull, Tracy Emin’s tent and IBANKSY stencil and spray paint kits which are available from vending machines around London for just £9.99.
