Steampunk, the pseudo-Victorian mechanical aesthetic favored by alternate history and science fiction buffs seems like an unlikely source of inspiration for cake decorating, which is why Cakecentral.com’s recent design contest is so intriguing. Using elements like mechanical cogs, wood, metallics, ornate Victorian detailing and of course, steam power, participants incorporated the Steampunk aesthetic into their confections.
“Toast It” coasters designed by Patricia Naves for Design Studio OITI, are a whimsical take on the traditional trivet. These charming little cork slices are the perfect shade of “toasted brown” and come in a clear bread bag style wrapper. Not only will they protect your table surface, they are a surefire conversation starter any time you decide to break bread
Have you ever watched a reality show and thought – I wouldn’t mind being ridiculed in exchange for a shot at fleeting fame? Are you an emerging or mid-career artist with a unique, powerful voice or at least an obnoxious personality? Bravo is now casting for Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.
The Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology and the Design & Emotion Society are teaming up once again for the 7th International Conference on Design & Emotion. Held in Chicago, October 4-7, the International Conference on Design & Emotion is a forum held every other year where practitioners, researchers and industry leaders meet and exchange knowledge and insights concerning the cross-disciplinary field of design and emotion.
Wordle allows you to generate “Word Clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.
STOPLIGHTS are retro-modern lighting fixtures using glass lenses recycled from discarded traffic lights. As giant truckloads of red, yellow, and green lenses are tossed so that cities across the US upgrade to more efficient lighting technology, Greenlight Concepts takes these “destined for the land-fill” lenses and turns them into chic lights.
Fancy yourself a modern day Don Draper or Peggy Olson? Make your Facebook, Twitter, or iPhone reflect the look of Mad Men’s iconic characters. AMC’s “Mad Men Yourself” allows fans to design and customize avatars based on illustrator Dyna Moe’s renderings.
In the 1950s, Howard Hughes’ Trans World Airlines (TWA) hired David Klein, an illustrator best-known for his Broadway posters such as “Death of a Saleman” and “The Music Man,” to design and illustrate travel posters.
Mixing destinations’ iconic images with bright colors, Klein created some of the most influential advertising in the travel industry in the ‘50s and ‘60s and established himself as a true artist. Klein’s posters have won him numerous awards and his TWA poster for New York hangs as part of the permanent collection in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
You can see more of Klein’s work here.
International architect and design guru Zaha Hadid has created four collections for leading wall-covering innovator, Marburg Wallcoverings as part of their exclusive ART BORDERS series.
