Find the artist in you

It strikes me as so important for designers (of whatever ilk, architects, product designers, web designers etc) to create an occasional concept piece on own initiative.  It’s an opportunity to let go completely and discover the artist in you, and if it’s good, it’s clearly great for establishing your reputation. Here’s an example by Frank …[ read more ]

The Swedish founders of video magazine StockTown are creating their own road movie set in South Africa. Very intriguing, love the way they’ve found some totally brilliant, creative characters to document.  Exciting times indeed! “A road movie directed by Swedish based directors Teddy Goitom and Benjamin Taft, Stocktown X South Africa takes viewers beyond the …[ read more ]

Lyall Sprong and Marc Nicolson are two designers from Cape Town who set up their own designer-maker consultancy called Thingking.  They earn a living designing things for clients (some cool concepts, check out the milk cookie jar or the stethoscope ad for Africa Health Placements) but they also initiate projects independently, opportunities to truly let …[ read more ]

Abie Abdillah is a young Indonesian furniture designer who has a passion for local materials, especially wood and rattan, a sustainable material from South East Asia. A rattan palm grows very rapidly, is somewhat similar to bamboo but much solid and flexible. Abie is gaining international recognition for the way he creates modern, striking designs …[ read more ]

New Zealand is known for its natural beauty – ‘pure’ New Zealand they call it. If you’ve ever visited you’ll know what I mean, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the ever present views of oceans, bays and rolling green hills. To do the country justice from an architectural perspective is no easy task. Fortunately, …[ read more ]

Nils Vik used to make a living as a designer and photographer. He was really good too, winning numerous awards. But today he makes coffee. A strange career switch perhaps. But take a look at Parlour Coffee in Winnipeg, Canada, and you can see the designer coming through. Here’s a coffee experience that simply oozes …[ read more ]

Mick Wroblewski is a Chicago-based software developer whose company, Babylon Technology, recently launched its own mobile app. Ticket Tapp is a ticket scanning solution for event organisers. It basically allows them to use an iPhone or iPod to scan people’s tickets (much cooler and more convenient than clunky barcode scanners) and do real time reporting …[ read more ]

Michael Rea is an artist who doesn’t take himself too seriously. As he says, he’s ‘sort of stuck making odd sculptures’ and worries that it’s all he knows what to do at this point. Perhaps, but the work certainly makes an impact. His gigantic wooden space machines, weapons and time travelers have enthralled audiences around …[ read more ]

Emily Rothschild is an industrial designer who keeps on surprising people with her innovative concepts.  Her approach is to spot areas of our lives that are often overlooked and develop new, often humorous design solutions.  She’s probably best known for her design concepts for storing and organizing medications – basically she’s reinventing the medicine cabinet …[ read more ]

Eko Nugroho is an Indonesian artist with a distinct urban heritage and appeal.  Eko tries to challenge his audience to think about Indonesia’s many social and political issues and relies on a variety of different mediums – painting, sculpture, animation, video, puppets – to visualise these issues, often using humour and ambiguity to get his …[ read more ]