Fowl Footwear by Shoe Designer Kobi Levi.

Freelance footwear designer Kobi Levi turns shoes into art for the feet. My favorites of his many impressive designs are his interpretations of birds into fine leather footwear for women. The high-heeled shoes are imaginative and yet, attractive. Each piece is hand-made in his studio.

Bird Series, 2011

Toucan:



Mallard (Duck):




Swan:




Also worth noting are his 2010 domestic pet animal inspired heels, such as these Miao (Cat) and Dog shoes.

Miao, 2010:


Dog, 2010:



About the designer:


Kobi Levi (above) graduated from the Bezalel academy of art & design in Jerusalem. He is currently working on his women's shoe line in Tel-Aviv, Israel and has designed commercial footwear in Italy, China and Brazil.

"In my artistic footwear design the shoe is my canvas. The trigger to create a new piece comes when an idea, a concept and/or an image comes to mind. The combination of the image and footwear creates a new hybrid and the design/concept comes to life. The piece is a wearable sculpture." says Levi.

Kobi Levi

Hip Hop Heads. 14 Fabulous Illustrated Portraits by Dale Edwin Murray.

London-based freelance illustrator and graphic designer Dale Edwin Murray has created this fabulous and ongoing series of 14 different hip hop head portraits. Wonderfully executed, the features and details are minimally depicted and yet are readily recognizable as the producers, writers, singers and artists they portray:

Pharrell Williams:

Coolio:

Flava Flav:

Kanye:

Snoop:

Eminem:

Rick Ross:

Jay Z:

Tyler the Creator:

Tupac:

Biggie:

Easy E:

MF Doom:

Eiknarf:

UPDATE: Since this was originally published, Dale's Hip Hop Heads have taken off and he now has an entire site dedicated to them at https://www.hiphopheads.co.uk/ 

Dale Edwin Murray

all images courtesy of the artist.



A special shout out to Sean Alvarez for bringing these to my attention!

iSad.

May the man who changed the world forever Rest In Peace.

A Power Pig with 17 Snoutlets (and the Design Process behind it.)

Russian design studio Art Lebedev is always designing clever items, some as concepts, some as produced items. One of their latest concepts is something I wish would come to fruition. Check out the design process and final protoypes of their Power Strip Svintus with 17 snout-plugs (or Power Pig with 'snoutlets' as I like to call it.)



Task: to play up a conventional piggy.

Svintus power strip is a multi-snout cutie that you will not want to hide behind a couch. It’s a pink, fully functional device with seventeen snout-plugs.

Spiral cord evolved from a pig tail:


The built-in circuit breaker protects from overload (Circuit breaker disguised as a mono-nipple):




The Design Process:





Release date: September 30, 2011

Credits:
artistic director: Artemy Lebedev
art director: Timur Burbayev
designer: Kirill Musienko
industrial designer: Alexei Sharshakov
modeler: Alexander Pozdeyev
visualizator: Philipp Gorbachev

A special shout out to Technabob for bringing this to my attention.