Art about (or from) Chemistry

I find it amusing how this 'True Colours Miniatures' project is billed "a framework in which nature can express itself and maintain beauty" as if it were in anyway surprising that a natural process (or a chemical process) would create something beautiful and colourful. This artistic, design project is quite literally a chemistry experiment (with typographical flair); Dutch designer Lex Pott (for Found By James) took 6 panels of brass (an alloy of copper Cu and zinc Zn), aluminium (Al), steel (an alloy which is mainly iron Fe) and copper (Cu) and then incited various oxidation reactions everywhere on the plate, except for text recording the materials used and produced.


 ᔥ Bloesem

He has used oxidation previously in his work, including a series of mirrors of differing tints, and various furniture, and has more in the 'True Colours' series on his site.

Canadiana for May two-four - Happy Victoria Day!

Typography meets contemporary Canadiana in Vancouver design firm 10fourdesign's Canada icon font:





If you can identify and understand the cultural significance of each (or most) of these icons you may be Canadian, or deserve honourary Canadian status. So, happy Victoria Day! Take the day off, declare it summer, relax with friends (and two-four) and watch some fireworks.

Confused? Just ask, eh.

Lunar Calendars

Every year I think I should make a calendar, but I never do... though I do tend to gather a bunch of proofs of my prints to make a calendar just for our home. This year I went so far as to work on a design of a lunar calendar. I think that there is too much information to easily capture in a relief print (unless made on an impractical scale) and that this is something better suited to screenprinting or digital prints. Further, the more I worked on it, the more convinced I became that this was something I should be programming, rather than making by hand.

Here are a few of the lovely 2012 lunar calendars I was able to find.


Lunar Calendar 2012 Poster
Silkscreen over Black paper 240 g/m² 48x66cm
Made with programming using Nodebox
Lunar Calendar, Moon Calendar, Calendário Lunar
by Brazilian designer Dimitre Lima, available here


Lunar Calendar 2012
This is a visualization of the lunar calendar for 2012.
columns = months, rows = days.
© Copyright 2011 Michael Paukner.
This doesn't appear to be in his shop right now, but you should check it out (and his photostream) anyway, for lovely design and sciencey goodness!



This calendar on www.ghin.co.uk tries to do it all:

Calendar 2012 is a Gregorian calendar with, moon phases and the Chinese Lunar-solar Calendar integrated, layed out as a circular color wheel. The new additional Chinese calendar is in simplified Chinese.

This years edition of the color wheel calendar marks the End of the Mayan long count. The Maya Long count is the most sophisticated calendar created so far. It consists of different length cycles that makes up the long count which is 5126 years. This long count ends on the winter solstice 21st of December 2012.

Calendar 2012 includes:

- Hebrew, Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist, Gregorian and Islamic year count.
- Fully integrated lunar phase cycle for each day.
- Simplified Chinese Calendar

This calendar is actually from 2011, but you can get the letterpress 2012 version here from lizardpress on Etsy

Photobooth magic

Ever noticed how photobooths are magic? I do not simply mean Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain sort of photobooth magic. I mean the way the pictures are also so good, so true and so real. Well, here is a special photobooth by Keetra Dean Dixon which takes things to the extreme:

The booth is presented in semi-public spaces as a typical photobooth holding no denotation of it's unique qualities. Users enter the booth, pose for 2 shots & exit as usual. During the developing process, the photos are "analyzed" & customized with forecasts consisting of patterns, symbols & messages.

See, it's magic:


There is a huge collection on the site; don't forget to check the key.
[via Oh Joy!]

Undead menace, and other PSA

Oh dear, there has been a zombie-shortage around here.
Check out the work of illustrator and designer Travis Pitts (Dr. Monster on flickr) [via Apartment Therapy]






A work-in-progress, because one can never have too much Bowie.

{He shares the PRoSPERoUS FoX' worshipful 23 allusions}.

clouds - from both sides now

I have long pondered this problem myself: how to make a better umbrella? It seems to me there are several design flaws with the umbrella. Consider this: they are large, cumbersome, are always being forgotten places, never there when you need them (because they are cumbersome you leave your bumbershoot at home), prone to turning inside-out in the wind, leave puddles everywhere, and can inadvertently be used as a weapon, what with the sharp wiry skeletons held near head-level on crowded rainy streets. Though, some of us are clumsier than others... but I digress.



This inflatable cloud umbrella by Holland-based Joons impresses me with its whimsical design. Consider this: it all fits in the tube, so it is easy to carry; it cannot be blown inside out; inside the tube, after use, it could hardly leave a puddle; it is next to impossible to use an inflatable cloud as a weapon; it looks pretty and clouds are hip (you heard it here). If someone on a crowded city street inadvertently bonked you on the head with their inflatable cloud, what could you do but laugh? The main draw-back I see is that it cannot be quickly deployed. I can envision a user cursing in the rain, while using the tube-pump to inflate their cloud. But overall, quite the clever and elegant design!

[via swissmiss]

Handprints

Some of you (are you there? say hello! the birds won't bite... nor will they steal your sparklies) know that I am inordinately fond of hands, and of course prints. I love this screenprint by *Pardon Hy Hindi, (who have a delightful and whimsical blog here):


I also love this image by British illustrator Adrian Johnson (check out his site):


Hands, colour, the earth and a balloon (which according to Holly at decor8 are the it item for 2009) - what's not to love?
[via grain edit]

And for something completely different, there's the mad men of etsy, Mixed Species and their screen printed hand coasters:


[via flickr]