CONTEMPORARY CURRENCY FOR THE PRESENT AGE

 

In a world dominated by economic crisis, money is on everyones mind. British newspaper, The Guardian, famous for its international multimedia presence, has requested artists and writers to create modern currency to reflect the political and financial times in which we live. Notable writers and artists such as Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, and Tracey Emin answered the question, “What is money?” The Guardian has received some pointed, creative, remarkable, and humorous responses. Here are 8 of the 18 pictures they received. To see the complete set visit guardian.co.uk

Dexter: Killer Posters Inspired by the Show

 

Ty Mattson is killing it with his most recent poster for season 6 of the horrifyingly interesting TV drama, Dexter. Mattson, principle and creative director of Mattson Creative in Southern California, is obviously a fan of the TV series and decided to make posters symbolizing the key events of each season. He mentioned on his blog how the posters ended up being a much larger project than he anticipated, but he loved how they turned out. Apparently so did many others, including Showtime who featured his work on the dvd cover of the 5th season.

Needless to say, the poster’s dark, yet inviting feel have been a hit, and for good reason. Wonderfully arranged on the posters are small, 1960′s style illustrated scenes. The limited yet bold color palette of the pieces make you feel like you are watching the opening sequence of a Hitchcock film. And if you are a fan of the show, there are sure to be pleasant little surprises to discover throughout the art.











See all of them posted, and how you can get your hands on them, here: Mattson Creative Blog

A London Underground “Tube” Map From Kyle Bean

 

Now this is taking the idea of London’s famous ‘Tube‘ quite literally: Kyle Bean, designer, model maker and all around advertising re-thinker has created the London metro map using colored drinking straws. His map uses the colorful tubes in a playful, elementary school craft-time like fashion, which when finished appears completely to scale and quite grown up… that’s because he’s built the design over a large poster of the actual map. His final design, lacking the station labels needed to navigate the system, is still highly recognizable for what it is, a truly iconic design tribute.

Kyle Bean has been producing exceptionally crafty models for quite some time now. Many of his designs have been featured in high profile print advertising, with clients as varied as Wallpaper*, Scientific American and Louis Vuitton. His recently completed child’s toy like iPhone model, called App, features at the bottom of this post and on the cover of the December issue of Computer Arts magazine. For more of his growing portfolio, see kylebean.co.uk.















Via: trendsnow.net 

Mountains of Books Become Mountains

I thought I’d seen every type of book carving imaginable, until I ran across these jaw dropping creations by Guy Laramee. His works are so sculptural, so movingly natural in their form, they’ve really touched me. His works are inspired by a fascination with so-called progress in society: a thinking which says the book is dead, libraries are obsolete and technology is the only way of the future. His thoughts:

“One might say: so what? Do we really believe that “new technologies” will change anything concerning our existential dilemma, our human condition? And even if we could change the content of all the books on earth, would this change anything in relation to the domination of analytical knowledge over intuitive knowledge? What is it in ourselves that insists on grabbing, on casting the flow of experience into concepts?”

Carving into the discarded stacks of books, he has created fantastic, romantic landscapes which remind us that though our fascinations and the value we put on different ideas have changed, we as a species have not evolved that much.

“Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.”

See more of his beautifully meditative works at guylaramee.com.





































Via: etoday.ru

Graphic: The World’s Most Innovative Countries

 

With the world’s economies still badly slumping, many people are looking for answers to jump start their once vibrant nations, and more importantly, put some more money in their wallets.

One way to keep nations working is to continue coming up with new, world changing ideas. This graphic details the world’s most innovative countries, not relying only on how many patent filings take place per nation – a common assumption of how innovative a country is – but also takes into consideration the success of those patents, their global reach and influence on the world.

As the graphic notes, with such forward thinking companies as Boeing and Apple, the US tops the list handily… but not far behind are some proportionally tiny nations that make a huge impact. Noticeably absent from the list is China, which while still producing a large number of new ideas, does less than other nations to spread them to the world.

Produced in a collaboration between Good and Column Five.

Click the graphic below for a full-sized view:

Trippy Alternate World of Insect People

 

Trippy alternate worlds, populated by insect people and anamorphic robots jump colorfully from the page in Kilian Eng’s new digital works.

He finds his inspiration for the works in both classic and futuristic architecture, surrealism, science fiction, theater scenography and the natural and urban landscape.

Born in Stockholm Sweden, Eng attended Konstfack, University of Arts Craft & Design, originally making much of his work using pen and paper. Later he saw the possibilities of making his works digitally and how it could enhance the look he was after while improving his workflow. You can see more of his work on his website dwdesign.tumblr.com or at behance.net.











Via: lookslikegooddesign.com