Design

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Design

Enjoy the Art of Printmaking At Home with This Tabletop Press

As an antidote to lockdown boredom, Sussex-based Tom Boulton designed a lightweight, portable printing press that brings the inky art form directly into people’s homes. In contrast to traditional machines that are heavy and bulky, the F-Press was created using 3-D printing and CNC machines and easily fits on a tabletop, letting users produce A5 artworks, greeting cards, and other type-based pieces even without access to large equipment.

Boulton’s press already reached its goal on Crowdfunder, although you still have one week to support the project. Head to Boulton’s Instagram to see some of the prints he’s created using the device.

 

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A post shared by Tom Boulton : Letterpress (@typetomdotcom)

Art Craft Design

Vertical Dwellings Nestle into the Floating Miniature Landscapes of Rosa de Jong

All images © Rosa de Jong, shared with permission

Suspended within Rosa de Jong’s simple wooden frames are miniature dwellings that climb the steep, rocky terrain. Stilt houses, tents, and exceptionally tall ladders form the idyllic environments that are surrounded by faux moss, minuscule trees, and generally rugged topography. Once assembled, the enchanting scenes appear to float in the open air or within the vertical enclosures of test tubes.

Based in Amsterdam, de Jong (previously) shares with Colossal that she hopes to incorporate water-rooted plants and crystals into future projects. “I feel like a huge part of my work is how I frame things—let’s see if I am able to frame these inspiring natural elements,” she says, noting that the actual boxes are hand-crafted by her father.

Follow de Jong’s latest miniatures, which include studies of artificial moon rocks, on Behance and Instagram.

Art Design

A Curved Pavilion Designed by Kengo Kuma Weaves Wooden Slats into a Tessellating Structure

All images © Kengo Kuma and Geoff Nees, by Tom Ross

Wrapping a gallery space at the 2020 NGV Triennial is a bowed pavilion of tessellating wood. A collaboration between renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma (previously) and Australian artist Geoff Nees, the large-scale installation is constructed with trees felled at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens during the millennium drought. The pointed slats interlock without the use of additional supports, a design derived from traditional Japanese joinery, and create a scaly pattern that allows light to stream through.

Titled “Botanical Pavilion,” the curved structure features foraged timber—some of which predates European colonization on the continent—arranged by color rather than species. “By prioritizing natural phenomena over scientific order, the designers call into question the reductive nature of science during the colonial era, a mindset at odds with many Indigenous cultural beliefs and knowledge systems,” a statement about the piece says. At both ends, the walkway opens up to reveal South Korean artist Lee Ufan’s 2017 painting titled “Dialogue.”

“The semi-circular shape of the pavilion invites the visitor into a journey to explore the space and experience the various essences of wood,” Kuma told Dezeen. “The porous structure is assembled like a tridimensional puzzle without the use of metal connections to be able to reassemble it in a different location.”

“Botanical Pavilion” is on view through April 18, 2021. Follow Kuma’s and Nees’s upcoming projects on Instagram.

Design

Carry Around a Tiny Snowman in This Sleek Leather Bag

All images © Tsuchiya Kaban, shared with permission

Preserve your frigid companions while en route to your next holiday party with this elegant new bag from Tsuchiya Kaban. The Snowman Carrier is complete with a carrot pocket and a removable tray, which keeps the frozen figure secure during transport and allows for easy removal upon arrival. Conceived by Yuko Matsuzawa, this waterproof bag follows the company’s watermelon tote and is the latest iteration in The Fun of Carrying, a line that tasks designers with creating playful side projects. Check out the video below to see how Matsuzawa constructed the waterproof carrier and watch her reveal the tiny snowman.

Art Design

Play a Game of UNO with Nina Chanel Abney's New Deck Featuring Her Bold, Energetic Style

All images © Mattel, shared with permission

Artist Nina Chanel Abney revitalizes the classic game of UNO with her distinct fragmented figures and bold blocks of color in a new collaboration with Mattel. Straying from the minimal, numbered cards, lively portraits and mirrored personas emblazon the transformed deck. Just like her larger body of work, Abney’s design is brimming with energy and captures the wildly chaotic experience of modern life.

“I wanted the cards to have personality,” Abney shares. “UNO can be such an emotional game, I thought it would be fun to create cards that could speak for themselves and elicit even more of a response from the players than they already are.”

Currently living in New York, the Chicago-born artist is just the third creator involved in the UNO Artiste Series, which launched in 2019 and previously featured the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. In addition to the deck’s aesthetic transformation, Abney also altered the game’s tenets with the addition of a WILD NO. “If someone plays either a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 card on you, lay down this card to force them to have to draw the cards instead,” the artist writes on Instagram.

Abney’s deck just launched this week and is available for pre-order in Mattel’s shop. As part of the collaboration, the toy company also will be making a donation to Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.

Design Food

Create a Kaleidoscopic Coloring Experience with goober's Stackable Block Crayons

All images © goober, shared with permission

Thanks to their waxy coating, goober’s nutty snacks are sure to stay fresh—that is, until they undergo a heavy round of coloring. Based in Seoul, the company manufactures crayons shaped like peanuts and in LEGO-like forms that can be stacked into firetrucks and trees as easily as they can draw them. The brightly hued blocks are designed for mixing and matching, creating unique kaleidoscopic marks with every use.

Shop goober’s products on its site and follow its playful designs on Instagram. You also might enjoy these chunky, squiggly crayons by Retoolings. (via NOTCOT)