David Downton Illustrations

I'm sure many of you are familiar with these fabulous illustrations if not from the very recognizable style of the artist than from Vogue or fashion ads.

Seed Cathedral by Thomas Heatherwick

Seed Cathedral by Thomas Heatherwick will be ready for the Shanghai expo due in May.  This structure will represent UK. It is a pavilion holding 60,000 plant seeds individually encased in eight-meter-long  glass fibers. On the one hand one might imagine it as a museum to showcase the variety of flora of a given part of the earth, yet I think that it is also a very interesting concept of modern day cathedral with seed vaults holding a myriad of different plants, like noah's ark, ready for a natural catastrophe where all flora would be swept from the surface of the earth.

(Images from Bldgblog & Blueprint Magazine)

Fairytale furniture: Studio Job, Frederickson Stallard, Tord Boontje, Sebastian Brajkovic, Niels van Eijk, Vincent Dubourg, Atelier van Leishout.

These are furniture pieces from an exhibition i saw about a year ago in the V&A; Telling Tales. As I mentioned before when I introduced pieces by fabulous designers represented by the David Gill Galleries I worked for as a part time assistant two years ago,  it has become apparent that more and more designers push the boundaries between art and design. It was interesting to see that there was a lot of furniture at this exhibition which I have seen before, at the gallery. Not only the final products as they were at the V&A, but the pieces in course of production. I have to say, contrary to what one might think, it is for most items a very difficult and long process,  a lot of experimentation on behalf of the artist/designer as well as the gallery representing him. Some items were going through a production of several years before they could create the first prototype.. As it often happens, the designer might have an amazing idea which looks amazing on paper and 3D, yet how to make it is a totally different question..

The first set of photos are pieces by Sebastian Brajkovic (represented by Carpenters Workshop). There is certainly a dark edge to his work of mutations, a bit of Chapman Brothers. The image following these is of a wardrobe made by Tord Boontje, a table by Vincent Dubourg, a seat by Atelier van Leishout and a table by Demakersvan/Jeroen Verhoeven.

Images from Dezeen.

Fairytale furniture: feathers, skulls and magic. Part 1.

The beautiful gold feather coat in Alexander McQueen's amazing  fall/winter 2010 collection inspired by Byzantine art made me think how amazing it would be to create interiors and furniture pieces covered in feathers, something probably i will include in my current project. As usual, whatever a designer thinks of more or less exists and has been done before.. Although not entirely how I imagine it, this piece 'Portrait of George I' by Elyse Hochstadt is for sure not an ordinary one. What I find interesting is the use of various feather lengths, yet what I would definetly change is the legs of the chair.

Simon Costin

Simon Costin is one of the most talented set designers. As mentioned before to my mind the greatest creative people are the ones with endless imagination, capable of pushing the borders and to think out of the box.

Nick van Woert: Reinterpreting classical forms

I have just discovered this artist on Fabio Novembre's blog and I must say I fell in love with his work. I love when designers reinterpret objects our eyes are so familiar with and give them a new context, meaning.. Like Barnaby Barford transforming porcelain figurines, Woert reinterprets classical busts.

Housing project in Helsingborg by Wilhelmson Arkitekter

I love when designers think out of the box and create unexpected, aesthetically astounding projects. This is a project where Wilhelmson Arkitekter designed a housing project with windows like gilded picture frames.

Louboutin and Lynch Fetish: an exciting collaboration.

I know this collaboration was aaages ago, but looking trough the work of Erwin Olaf (a series of images of hotel rooms) on the Hasted Hunt Kraeuter gallery's website I thought of the infamous David Lynch and his collaboration with Louboutin a couple of years ago. I remember I was working for Fiona Leahy the amazing events designer and she was pitching to design the opening of the exhibition.