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Design History Illustration

Who’s She: A Laser-Cut Guessing Game That Celebrates Accomplished Women Throughout History

Who’s She is a new guessing game by Polish designer Zuzia Kozerska (previously) which celebrates the achievements of famous women across the world. The laser-cut wooden board flips up to reveal the faces of 28 painters, athletes, scientists, and astronauts, in a similar style the classic Guess Who? game did from the late 1970s. Instead of posing superficial questions such as “does your character have glasses?” the game asks players to inquire about achievements and contributions like “did she win a Nobel Prize?”.

Faces range from the early 20th-century painter Frida Kahlo to contemporary athlete Serena Williams, all illustrated in watercolor portraits by artist Daria Gołąb. The game is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. You can follow the evolution of the project on Instagram. (via My Modern Met)

Photography

Uncanny Resemblances Between Classic Dog Breeds and Humans Captured by Gerrard Gethings

Gerrard Gethings has captured a lot of personalities as an animal photographer, including his own canine muse Baxter. Therefore when he began shooting his latest series that paired humans and look-alike dog breeds, it would only make sense that he would first focus on finding the perfect animal models before locating matching humans. For the memory game Do You Look Like Your Dog? Gethings spent a year creating images that examine the classic trope of owners looking just like their canine friends. The new game presents 25 matches, which include a long-haired Afghan and equally silky-haired owner, a messy-haired kid and his scruffy puppy, and Schnauzer with a matching beard to his leather jacket-clad owner. You can now purchase the memory game through Laurence King, and see more of Gethings’s animal portraiture on Instagram.

Animation Design Illustration

Take a Virtual Vacation on Vera van Wolferen’s Animated ‘Thought Hopper 3000’

The Thought Hopper 3000 is a new project from the mind of Dutch paper craftsman and stop-motion animator Vera van Wolferen (previously). The interactive website presents the viewer with a five-minute vacation programmed inside of a quaint mobile camper made entirely from paper. Players are encouraged to click around for “hot spots” hidden throughout the site which spring to life when selected.

The game is currently in its first demo version and is condensed to around five minutes of play. Van Wolferen hopes to expand the Thought Hopper 3000 universe to include several other animated components and add more rooms for the user to explore. The short game’s scenes are animated by Raymon Wittenberg, the sounds were produced by Flavia Faas, and interaction design, graphics, and programming were done by Floris Douma.

You can learn about new additions to the project by visiting its website, and follow van Wolferen’s paper and balsa wood-based sculptures on Facebook and Instagram. If you like this interactive game you might also enjoy playing Short Trip, another animated paper world designed by Alexander Perrin.

Design Illustration

Dodgy Dogs Chase, Beg, and Bark Their Way to the Top in a Humorous Card Game Illustrated by Jean Jullien

Part of the unending charm of the human-pet bond is our tolerance for all sorts of annoying, destructive, and disruptive behavior from our domesticated animal pals. Illustrator Jean Jullien captures the range of bad dog habits from stealing and chasing to begging and biting in a new card game, Dodgy Dogs. The project was created in partnership with Yolky Games, and is currently funding on Kickstarter, where it reached its funding goal in under six hours.

Animation Art Illustration

Transport Cats Across an Animated Countryside With Alexander Perrin’s Interactive Illustration ‘Short Trip’

Short Trip is an interactive illustration by Australian artist Alexander Perrin. The meditative simulation places the player in the conductor’s seat of a cross-country train, allowing the user to use their arrow keys to go forwards or backwards through the game’s peaceful black and white countryside while delivering a series of animated cat passengers.

The illustrated simulation took Perrin five years to complete, from researching how a graphite-based drawing could be presented on a digital platform, to creating all the necessary components of the train’s journey by hand. His interest for this particular scenery came from riding on the Hakone Tozan Railway in Japan, one of his favorite ways of travel.

“It’s a magical, rickety switchback railway that ascends a forest shrouded mountain all throughout the year,” Perrin told Colossal. “There’s something about the beautifully crafted forms of the railway in sculpted union with the cliff faces and trees that just hits such a therapeutic, aesthetic sweet spot. It’s a little bit like riding an enlarged miniature railway, if you know what I mean. You remain passive and enjoy the ride for the sake of the journey.”

The game was built with this passiveness in mind, the only “goal” of the project to get to the other side of the railway while you enjoy the scenery and relaxing soundtrack of gentle bird chirping and cable car as it softly rumbles across the tracks. We recommend make the game full-screen with audio to get the full, tranquil experience of Short Trip.

You can watch a scene from an earlier game prototype by Perrin called Noirmittens in the video below, and see more clips from his current simulator on his website and Instagram.

Design Illustration

Father Draws a New Maddeningly Intricate Maze for His Daughter

Two years ago we stumbled onto the story of a girl in Japan who was going through her father’s old belongings when she discovered a hand-drawn maze rolled up in a tube. Kazuo Nomura spent 7 years drawing the sprawling labyrinth while working as a janitor and it hadn’t seen the light of day since 1983. After posting photos of it to her Twitter account, Nomura’s work went viral around the web, and it was quickly turned into a print so others could have a try at solving it.

Responding to pressure from his daughter to draw a second maze, Nomura initially said he had “had enough of mazes.” But, after a 32 year hiatus, he finally sat down to try again earlier this year with the hope of drawing a puzzle that was a bit clearer and easier to solve. After two months of drawing he’s finally done, and if you posess the patience of a saint you can try your hand at solving it: Papa’s Maze 2.0. Nomura assures the maze has a solution, but according to reports from people insane enough to try, it’s actually more difficult than the last, and takes about two days to work through. Read more on Spoon & Tamago.