If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Famous Faces and Frames Made With Sticks And Sunglasses.

A couple of months ago photographer Philip Karlberg came up with the idea of pin or stick art, a concept he'd had in mind for years. Only he didn't know exactly what it could be used for. However, after a test with sunglasses, that turned out to his liking, he sent the image to Plaza Magazine, and a week later he started shooting an editorial for them.

Karlberg says it was a real challenge to ”sculpture” the faces of these six well-known classic wearers of sunglasses (all shown in this post). It took him six days to shoot the six faces, and around 1,200 sticks were used.

Karl Lagerfeld:

Johnny Depp:

Lady Gaga:

John Belushi:

Jackie O (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis):

Steve McQueen:

Some images from the photoshoot:

all images courtesy of Philip Karlberg
Philip Karlberg

The Coolest Swimming Pool Slide Ever. The Carbon Fiber Silver Leafed Shoot Slide.

SplinterWorks, formed in 2009 by Miles Hartwell and Matt Withington, is a custom furniture company whose designs are more like functional art than traditional pieces of furniture. Their self described mission is to create functional sculpture that unites conceptual, visual and practical fundamentals to create engaging and inspiring pieces.

One of their pieces that stands out is Shoot, a slide for an indoor or outdoor swimming pool that puts all those hideous fiberglass ones to shame.

Starting as a thin burst and shooting up vertically from the ground, the large shining arc emulates the trajectory of water itself.

Made of carbon fiber coated with silver leaf, the sculptural piece curves inwards at the edges forming handrails and the steps are like artful pedestals that form the footholds for climbing to the top.

While it's beautiful to look at and undoubtedly fun to experience, I do not know how the slide keeps from getting too hot. Although I know that Carbon Fibre (or Carbon Fiber for us Americans) has a very high heat tolerance.

The piece, measuring 1800 mm high by 3800 mm long by 900 mm wide was created in an edition of three.

Based thirty minutes south of London in Guildford, SplinterWorks portfolio consists of pieces crafted from exceptional materials such as marble, concrete, jesomite, mirror polished stainless steel, laquers and exotic woods.

See more of SplinterWorks beautiful pieces here.

Mass Marketed Items Reduced To Their Purest Form in Brand Spirit.

Brand Spirit is a Tumblr project by Andrew Miller of New York's Carbone Smolan Agency. Every day for 100 days, he is painting one object entirely in white, removing all evidence of visual branding and reducing the object to its purest form. He then adds a photograph of the object to his Tumblr site.

above: Victorinox

The consumables, toys, desk accessories, household staples and other objects (all priced at or under $10) are surprisingly recognizable without signage and labels. The exercise/ project proves how many mass produced and marketed items become icons in their own right, based solely on their shape or packaging.

As of May 11, 2012, Andrew had posted 61 of his intended 100 items. Below are 30 examples. Could you tell whose brand all the following objects are? My guess is 'yes.'

Tabasco:

Pez:

Maxell:

Bic (Wite-out):

Sharpie:

Rubik's Cube:

Chiquita:

Swingline:

Twizzler:

Pantone (color chip):

Corona:

Band-Aid:

Hasbro (Monopoly):

Slinky:

Nabisco (Animal Crackers):

Kodak:

Method:

Lego (Minifig):

Nintendo:

Bic:

Coca-Cola:

Elmer's:

McDonalds;

Crayola:

Kong (dog toy):

Trojan:

Master Lock:

Wonder:

At the very top of the post: Charm's blow pop and Gillette disposable razor

Stay up with this fabulous project by visiting Brand Spirit

The Nike "Biomorph" Launch Spot for Their Flyknit Running Shoes And How It Was Done.

Nike tapped David Rosenbaum of Mothership to conceive the :51 second short that launched its Flyknit technology and shoe collection. Inspired by the concept of body schema, David developed a story in which the shoe becomes a seamless extension of the runner’s foot through a progression of organic visuals, and took the piece from start to finish.

"Biomorph":

To develop an accurate visual expression for the innovative weaving process director David Rosenbaum met with Nike engineers and watched the shoes being made on customized industrial knitting machines.

The making of "Biomorph":

Credits:
Andy Walker, Nike/Dave Gold (music), Elias Arts, creative directors; Ed Ulbrich, Digital Domain, chief creative officer/Mothership, president; David Rosenbaum, Mothership, director; Paul Cameron, Mothership, director of photography; The Bergeron, Nike/Tiffani Manabat, Mothership/Nicola Wiseman, Digital Domain/William Lemmon, Digital Domain, producers; Jesse Canright, Nike/Tanya Cohen, Mothership/Digital Domain/Ann Haugen (music), Elias Arts, executive producers; Barb Freeman, Nike, production manager; Birthe Lauchengco, Mothership, production supervisor; Scott Gemmell, Mothership/Digital Domain, head of production; Rachel Mariscal, Digital Domain, digital production manager; Colin Woods, Digital Domain, editor; Richard Poulain, Digital Domain, storyboard artist; Brian Creasey, Digital Domain/Casey Benn, Digital Domain/Dave Carlson, Digital Domain/Gideon Vandergrift, Digital Domain, generalists; Kevin Culhane, Digital Domain, animator; Ken Jones, Digital Domain/Eric Ebeling, Digital Domain/