Onelargeprawn » Inspirational Designs

World’s Smallest Aquarium is Super Cute

prawn1 — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:59:03 +0000

Anatoly Konenko is a Russian artist who specializes in miniatures, so much so that he even has Guinness World Record to his name. In 1996, Konenko created a 30-page, 0.9 mm by 0.9 mm book complete with text (and illustrations!), and won the award for the world’s smallest printed book.

Carrying on the theme of microminiature as he has done for 30 years, Konenko has recently created the tiniest of aquariums. Measuring just 30mm wide, 24mm high, and 14 mm deep, the glass tank holds 10 ml of water, plants, stones, and teeny-weeny fish! He uses a itty-bitty net to place the little Zebrafish into their home, and he has even crafted a water purification filter to keep the habitat clean and healthy. You must see images of this adorable little aquarium after the jump.

And here is a video of how Koneko assembles his aquarium.

[via The Awesomer]

Amazing Light Paintings by Trevor Williams

prawn1 — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:15:00 +0000

Trevor Williams is a camera freak who loves light painting and shooting things in the dead of night. He is a part of Fiz-iks, a bunch of photographers based in Japan who specialize in light painting. Williams uses a variety of xenon torches, LED lights, electroluminescent wire (el wire), and other doodads to create some fabulous light paintings. Take a look at some of his art after the jump.

See more of Williams’ wonderful light paintings on Flickr. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow Williams, @fiz_iks.

[via Fuck Yeah Light Painting]

Wonderful Wildlife by Iain Macarthur

prawn1 — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:15:41 +0000

Freelance illustrator Iain Macarthur from Swindon, UK uses intricate geometrical patterns to create the faces and bodies of the animals in his series entitled “Wildlife”. The line work is fantastic and detail is absolutely amazing, they’d made fantastic tattoos I wager. Have a look at his wonderful wildlife portraits after the jump.

Macarthur also applies these geometric patterns to the other portraits and designs that he creates. See more of his work on Behance and follow him on Twitter.

[via My Modern Met]

Intricate Cardboard Sculptures Created by Algorithms

prawn1 — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:15:00 +0000

Oh my, maths can indeed be pretty. As an architect and programmer, Michael Hansmeyer uses mathematics a great deal in his life, saying that however complex a task may be, there is an algorithm that can describe it. And through CAD applications and various digital fabrication processes, algorithms can not only be visualized but they can be built. And this is what Hansmeyer did. He created a model of a Greek column and then applied an algorithm to it to enhance the details.

Hansmeyer’s intricately detailed model contained several million faces which standard 3D printers can’t handle so he resorted to a manual, pain-staking method of making his subdivided columns a reality.

The result is a 3D model with between 8 and 16 million faces, but 3D printers can only handle half a million, so Hansmeyer needed an alternative solution to transform his creations from virtual to physical reality. He sliced the column into 2700 pieces and used a laser cutter to create each slice from 1mm-thick cardboard, then reconstructed the column by layering the slices together with a solid wooden core. The whole process only cost $1500 and took about 15 hours, with three laser cutters working in parallel.

Have a look at his incredible cardboard sculptures that he built after the jump.

For more images and information about the subdivision and fabrication process and on computational architecture, visit Hansmeyer’s website.

[via Wakeangl on Twitter | NewScientist]

Tall Painting is Awesome

prawn1 — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:00:31 +0000

Oh my, what a wonderful idea. This video directed by Dave Kaufman shows the painting style of a New York-based artist, Holton Rower. Instead of restricting his painting on flat canvases, Rower uses gravity to shape his colourful pieces.

Kaufman has also created a time-lapse video of this painting process. Have a look at that after the jump.

[via David Perel on Twitter]

Intricate Salt Labyrinths

prawn1 — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:15:37 +0000

For the past decade, incredibly patient Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto has been creating the most intricate mazes from an unlikely medium. As a tribute to the life of his sister who died of cancer in 1994, Yamamoto spends hours upon hours using a plastic squeezy bottle to create beautiful labyrinthine patterns from household salt.

In an interview with Hi-Fructose, Yamamoto explains the use of salt in his memorial artwork.

Salt seems to possess a close relation with human life beyond time and space. Moreover, especially in Japan, it is indispensable in the death culture. After my sister’s death, what I began to do in order to accept this reality was examine how death was dealt with in the present social realm. I posed several related themes for myself such as brain death or terminal medical care and picked related materials accordingly. I then came to choose salt as a material for my work. This was when I started to focus on death customs in Japan.

… Drawing a labyrinth with salt is like following a trace of my memory. Memories seem to change and vanish as time goes by. However, what I sought for was the way in which I could touch a precious moment in my memories, which cannot be attained through pictures or writings.

Have a look at his salt labyrinths after the jump.

See more of his work on his website.

[via The Awesomer]

Wonderful Light Graffiti by Michael Bosanko

prawn1 — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:30:14 +0000

What may look like fantastic Photoshop manipulations are in truth made using a variety of coloured torches and digital camera set to a long exposure. Welsh photographer Michael Bosanko creates the most wonderful images of light graffiti in the urban environments of Cardiff and Newport. When creating light graffiti, Bosanko sets the exposure from a little as 10 seconds to almost an hour. He explains that his seven-year fascination of light painting came about in a chance encounter on a holiday to Greece.

“I was taking a picture of a very bright moon one evening when I noticed a swirling effect because the exposure had been left too long. I then realised the beginning of my work in light art and have continued ever since.”

Have a look at a few of his wonderful light art images after the jump.

Aren’t these amazing? See much more of his artworks on his website.

[via The Telegraph]

Shinichi Maruyama’s Amazing Water Sculptures

prawn1 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:30:39 +0000

Born in Nagano Japan but working in New York City, photographer Shinchi Maruyama makes art with materials of a transient nature. Using a combination of high-speed strobe light photography and water, Maruyama creates beautiful sculptures that are here one moment and gone the next. The following video shows this spontaneous process.

Maruyama is also famous for his “Kusho”, another series of liquids in motion. For this, he flung a type of calligraphy ink into the air and photographed the abtract forms created. This video is also lacking a soundtrack so feel free to imagine “Intro” by The XX is playing in the background.

And have a look at some of his images after the jump.

More of Maruyama’s artworks can be found on his website.

[via Redux | Designboom ]

Thought of You

Cloud_Ratha — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:24:12 +0000

Ryan Woodward, the director and animator of this piece, has magically captured the essence of style versus emotion. He portrays his characters in a surreal sense which draws the viewer deeper into the film.

Thought of You was born out of Ryan’s desires to connect several of his passions into one art piece. Figurative works, 2D animation, EFX animation, and contemporary dance. The theme revolves around an intimate relationship and it portrays this exceptionally.

“Rather than creating a narrative animated piece that communicates a well defined story, this piece allows for each individual who views it to to experience something unique and personal that touches their own sensibilities.”

You can also check out the “making of” from Ryan’s site listed below.

[via conteanimated.com]

What’s Tony Stark got there?

Macross — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:35:35 +0000

Well I was kicking back and watching some movies yesterday. Was watching Iron Man 2 and just for a brief moment, in a couple of scenes, Tony is downing some green muck from a beautiful flask. Kept wondering what the hell it was, is it metal?, is it battery operated? Mental note to self, google after movie.

Amazingly I wasn’t the only one interested in it as it returned a number of hits and some youtube vids. It’s the KOR water hydration vessel. A beautiful piece of design by RKS, a design house, for KOR founders Eric Barnes & Paul Shustak.

Essentially it is just a water bottle for the iPhone generation, where carrying water on the move has became a necessity and an accessory nowadays. There’s a lot of facts on why this particular bottle is better than the run-of-the-mill ones, which I wont get into, but I love this product…..and so does Tony.

See more images after the jump.

These bottles are currently retailing at over R500 locally with shipping. Pricey but you know you want one.

Vintage Travel Posters for Comic Book Cities

GoDsGiMp — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:54:35 +0000

Are you looking to travel somewhere different this holiday season? Tired of the mundane island paradise, bored of African safaris and weary of European coffee shops? Why not walk the streets of Gotham City, safe in the knowledge that batman is keeping watch! Why not visit Metropolis or keep an eye open for Spiderman in New York. Travel to any one of these amazing cities and we guarantee you will see your favourite super hero in action, even if we have to stage a bank break in. See all our exciting destinations after the jump.

Justin Van Genderen’s vintage style travel posters for the storied cities of comicbookland are on sale for +- R130.00 each. Find them here

Furniture Made from Russian Deep-Sea Mines

prawn1 — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:30:20 +0000

It is said that when life gives you lemons, you should punch it in the face make lemonade (but not without a license in America as this 7-year old found out). There’s a slightly different saying in Russia, about when life gives you old weapons of war, you should make housewares.

And this exactly what 51-year-old Estonian sculptor Mati Karmin does. In the coastal zone of northern Estonia, there are reportedly loads of rusty mine shells laying around. Made in the 1950s these deep-sea mines weighed over a tonne and housed 240 kg worth of explosives and we used to destroy submarines. Karmin re-purposes these disused hunks of metal to make very functional bits of Steampunk furniture including desks, armchairs, fireplaces, swings, aquariums, chandeliers, and even a pram.

Have a look at some of his unconventional furniture after the jump.

I’d say you could see more of his distinctive “mine furniture” at Marinemine but the site seems to have been sunk.

[via Boing Boing | Tree Hugger]

AJ Fosik’s Amazing Animal Sculptures

prawn1 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:09:08 +0000

AJ Fosik’s animal sculptures are truly striking and remind me of the Sri Lankan devil masks that are used in dances to ward off evil spirits. What initially looked like papercraft to me is in fact wood and Fosik is able to work wonders with the material. He uses wood, paint, nails, and minimal help from his computer to create some very colourful, intricate, and hypnotic 3D pieces. Have a look at them after the jump.

Fosik talks more about his style in this artist profile.

See more of his work on Flickr – he seems to have a thing for knitting sweaters too.

[via My Modern Metropolis]

The Domestic Transformer

prawn1 — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:15:30 +0000

With a population of over seven million people living in Hong Kong, space is a precious commodity. Architect Gary Chang played with the ideas of space (or the lack thereof) when he transformed the tiny tenement apartment that he used to share with his family into a fantastic, modern living space. Using an ingenious sliding wall system, he is able to create up to 24 different “rooms” in the apartment. He calls it the Domestic Transformer.

As green as Chang’s redesign might be it didn’t come cheap – the apartment cost USD 45,000 to purchase but design changes added a further USD 218,000 to the bill.

[via GOOD]

No related posts.

Nick Veasey’s X-Ray Vision

prawn1 — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:23:34 +0000

Nick Veasey isn’t a traditional photographer. In the same vein as microscopist Alan Jaras who uses a scanning electron microsope to create a story about exploration, Veasey also makes uses of medical equipment to produce some unconventional art.

Veasey left the world of standard photography behind when he was asked to X-ray a cola can for a television show. Since then he has created X-ray photographs of everyday objects from mp3 players, toys, and clothes to all manner of plant life and animals. His experimentation has led to view the innards of larger subjects like motor vehicles, an office building, and even to capture the anatomy of a Boeing 777!

Veasey uses industrial x-ray machines and in the case of the airplane, 500 individual films were processed and then joined together on the computer to create the composite shot. For his “human” subjects, he has the option of using skeletons in rubber suits or cadavers. He reportedly has eight hours in which to pose and photograph the cadaver before rigor mortis sets in. I don’t know about you, but I find that a little macabre. In any case, the results are amazing to see. This is what he has to say about his art:

My work is real. X-Ray is an honest process. It shows things for what they are, what they are made of. I love that. It balances all that glossy, superficial bollocks. I’m real and straightforward. And so is my work.

Have a look at some of this most fascinating x-ray photographs after the jump.

Here’s Veasey talking at about his form of art at a TED conference. It’s called Exposing the Invisible.

See many more images at www.nickveasey.com.

[via Flylyf]

The Birth of a Jedi: A Beautiful Painting in Time-Lapse

prawn1 — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:45:55 +0000

As you get older, you tend to lose the sense of awe and freedom you experienced as a child somewhere in mire of despair and cynicism that is adult life. I think artist Robert Burden feels that way, but in his paintings he likes to think back on his childhood days when the action figures he played with captivated his imagination. He says his with his paintings he wants to “renew my faded sense of awe”.

The Birth of a Jedi is an amazing 10ft x 7ft oil on canvas that took him over seven months to complete using action figures as his models. Iconic Star Wars figures adorn the borders of the painting with Luke and his Tauntaun as the centrepiece.

His seven months of effort have been condensed into a 2.42-minute time-lapse video. Check it out below.

Prior to this, Burden spent an inordinate amount of time painting a man-sized Voltron and He-Man’s fighting mount, Battle Cat. See those time-lapse videos after the jump.

Voltron. Defensor Mundi.

Battle Cat Statant

See more of Burden’s work at www.robertburden.net.

[via io9]

But is it Art?

prawn1 — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:20:56 +0000

The “video games as art” debate has been going on for a while. Popular film critic Roger Ebert has long stated that video games could never be art but after a several thousand comments, he had to rethink this stance on the matter. He mentions this in his journal.

I was a fool for mentioning video games in the first place. I would never express an opinion on a movie I hadn’t seen. Yet I declared as an axiom that video games can never be Art. I still believe this, but I should never have said so. Some opinions are best kept to yourself.

I may not know much about art but I do know what I like. I think the creatives at video game companies, like artists, are from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. They too put so much time and love into making something that tries to leave an impression on you. And I appreciate their efforts as much as I would appreciate a Jackson Pollock, or Georges Seurat’s fine examples of pointillism, or Peter Paul Rubens’ baroque paintings.

Now a website dedicated to video game photography wonders whether screenshots from games could also be considered as an expression of art. Dead End Thrills say this is their type of photography.

An attempt to portray the drama, spectacle and beauty of games using angles and subjects beyond the player experience. The site’s mission is simple: to celebrate the medium, explore the unseen and fire the imagination.

Their most recent set of screenshots is taken from the surprisingly entertaining Transformers: War For Cybertron (our review is coming). Could these screenshots be art? Maybe, maybe not. But I like them and maybe you might like them too. Have a look at them after the jump.

These screenshots are best seen at their highest resolution so take a look at the 1080p versions at Dead End Thrills’ Transformers: War For Cybertron Flickr set.

[via The Opposite of Reality]

Beautiful Papercraft Sculptures

prawn1 — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:22:59 +0000

British artist Richard Sweeney studied 3D design at university and graduated with a degree in awesomeness. Using a combination of hand-craft and CAD techniques, he takes takes papercraft to the next level with his most beautiful sculptural forms. Have a look at some of his “forms in paper” models after the jump.

See more of Sweeney’s work on Flickr.

[via Smashing Magazine]

You Won’t Believe It’s Varnish in a Fish Bowl

prawn1 — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:00:53 +0000

Earlier today I had spotted a post on The Given Collective about the seriously sexy art of Italian illustrator Alberto Seveso. He has become quite famous for mixing black and white portrait photos with colourful vector designs. The style is known as “sperm shaping” and can be seen in his A me mi piace la gnocca! series (possibly NSFW).

I like exposed nipples as much as the next guy but do you know what interests me more than that? Seeing varnish coming into contact with water. In his Medicina Rossa series of photos, he poured a red coloured varnish into a fish bowl full of water, and used a blue varnish in his Sequence verdastra/bluastra/bastarda series. The images of this beautiful reaction look like they could have been computer-generated but Seveso assures people they are not. See them after the jump.

Medicina Rossa

Sequence verdastra/bluastra/bastarda

You can see more of Seveso’s work at www.burdu976.com.

[via The Given Collective]

ALT/1977: Modern Tech Re-Imagined as 70s Gear

prawn1 — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:30:43 +0000

Given what we know now, I wonder how many of us would love to go back in time and change a couple of things to the betterment of our lives and that of our families? If there’s one thing you wouldn’t want to do, it’s to kill your grandfather, for you then wouldn’t have been born, and consequently would not have been able to go back in time to kill your grandfather. I believe this sticky point is called the grandfather paradox.

Anyways, it seems digital artist Alex Varanese from San Francisco has pondered about time travel and decided he’d grab all the modern 21st century tech around us and zap back to the late 70s, where he’d re-design all the gear, sell it, and make a bazillion dollars. He took four popular consumer products – an MP3 player, a laptop, a mobile phone, and a handheld game console – and created a set of spectacularly retro print ads to advertise them as if they had been designed in the late 70s. The set is called ALT/1977: WE ARE NOT TIME TRAVELERS, see it after the jump.

Laptron 64

Pocket Hi-Fi

MobileVoxx

Microcade 3000

See more of Varanese’s work on www.alexvaranese.com.

BONUS: You may also like MY DESK IS 8-BIT, Varanese’s vision of what video game might look like if it was a stop motion animation.

[via Behance]