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

Meat And Greet: Business Cards Printed On Beef.

What better way to make a lasting impression than to give someone your pertinent information on a piece of seared, lasered dried beef? At least that's what artists Christopher Thomas and John Young thought when coming up with the disgusting yet equally compelling idea of meatcards, business cards on beef jerky.

The two clearly have a wonderful sense of humor in addition to the know how to come up with something this novel.

The description of the process on their site is infused with humor and because they have just recently introduced this protein-laden product, they ran a challenge whose winners would each receive a prototyped card.

The Challenge? Recreate one of 3 Frank Frazetta images with actual live people (I told you they had a good sense of humor). The contest entries were almost good enough to warrant their own blog post. Below is one winning example:

To see the 15 challenge winners (yes, the contest is over), go here.

The successful prototyping occurred May 6th as Chris and John used Original Flavor Giant Slab Jerky from Tillamook, Oregon. The winners were named and will receive their Alpha tested cards.

Now all they need to do is figure out some way to vacuum seal them and voila! ...your name in game:

above: They tested them using Giant Slab Beef Jerky from Werner Gourmet Meat Snacks in Tillamook, Oregon. Flavor: Old Fashion

Below are photos of the protyping process:

above: Chris getting set up at the laser table. These are two 150-watt laser tables. Chris uses Corel Draw to do the image setup.

above: Each piece of jerky is about 4" wide by 11" long.

above: The laser table is like a big inkjet printer, except of course it has a laser in lieu of ink cartridges. The laser itself is in a big cartridge at the back of the table; a mirror bounces it sideways, and then another mirror bounces the beam down onto the material.

above: Chris holding the successfully-lased jerky.

above: chris photographing the jerky

above: The final product is surprisingly legible, and no doubt, tasty.

MeatCards.com To learn when the meatcards will actually become available for purchase, follow them on twitter @meatcards

special thanks to John Young for the photos of the process

Inky Dinky's Spookily Cool Halloween Countdown Calendar

above: Detail of John Littleboy's illustrated Halloween calendar.

Inky-dinky introduces something wickedly clever for one of our favorite holidays: A Halloween Countdown Calendar.

Open the paper gates of the cemetery and step into a darkly droll world of stylish and sinister characters strolling the moonlit grounds of a graveyard.

For each day in October, open a die-cut window and read a story about this macabre cast of the recently deceased.

The calendar measures 12 x 16 unfolded and can be wall mounted or sit up on your table top as a decorative Halloween tableau.

When closed:

When open:

No longer available.

Inky Dinky features the beautifully illustrated products of John Littleboy.

See the work of John Littleboy here.

Don't Say It. Spray It. Tagger-inspired Art & Chairs By Sander van Heukelom

Sander van Heukelom (1972) already began experimenting with typographic design and graffiti as a teenager.

Although his basic style has not changed much since then, his current work makes use of many different materials, such as styrofoam, plexiglas, synthetic resin and wood.

In addition to being a mixed media artist, he crafts 3D sculptures, and has a series of painted 'fatcaps' ( the term used for the plastic piece atop a spray can that when depressed expels the paint), and has designed two funky urban chairs made to look like fatcaps.

All of his work is clearly inspired by graffiti and the tools of the tagger.

The Artistry Of The Cap was a solo show at the Outland Modern Art Gallery in Amsterdam that featured Sanders' painted caps, his artworks and his two chair designs.

The painted caps:

The Sculptures:

The Artwork:

The Chairs:

The New York Fatcap Chair:

length 42 cm
width 42 cm
height 65 cm
Order the chair here.

The Hooded Fatcap Chair:

length 81 cm
width 81 cm
height 64 cm
Order the chair here

The artists' initial renderings for the chairs:

all images courtesy of the artist

above: Sander van Heukelom

Sander, who is a graphic designer by profession, draws his inspiration from his extensive travels. After five years spent travelling around the world and teaching kite surfing on several continents, his creativity has taken wing. Sander is now known especially for his three-dimensional typographic sculpture and paintings with spray can and resin.

See Sander van Heukelom's entire portfolio here

MORE GRAFFITI-INSPIRED STUFF!

Be sure to check out one of my favorite posts... Tag You're It!Graffiti Is Appearing Absolutely Everywhere And On Everything.

Skull Rings, A Knuckle Duster & An Alexander McQueen Clutch All In One? Siiick!

I've always liked edgy fashion designer Alexander McQueen's Skull clasp clutches, but he's taken them a step further with these amazing weapon-cum-handbags, the Knuckle Duster Clutch. Hard-sided oval clutch purses in various colors, patterns and materials are clasped together by a knuckle duster of bejeweled skulls. It's like wearing amazing jewelry plus a handbag, all in one. In hip teen lingo, it's 'siiick'. And that's a good thing.

Buy the black patent one here.

And yes, Alexander McQueen does make the knuckle duster ring without the clutch:

buy the ring here

Some of the wonderful available variations of the Knuckle Duster Clutch:

Buy the pink one here.

Buy the red whipsnake one here

Buy the black python clutch here.

Buy the long knuckle duster clutch in striped snakeskin here.

And like I'd mentioned earlier in the post, his Skull clasp clutches are also to die for: