Brazilian artist Angelica Dass created the visually stunning project Humanæ, a project that reflects on the colors beyond the borders of our codes by referencing the PANTONE® color scheme. The ongoing portraiture project takes a sample of 11×11 pixels of the model’s face and then matches it to the exact PANTONE® tone. The background is then dyed to the exact tone. All of Angelica’s projects deepen in an important issue: social, cultural and racial identity.

Source: Design Milk

What better way to add fresh pattern to a room without committing to it forever? Designed and produced in San Francisco, Timothy Sue Removable Wallpapers are printed onto polyester fabric material with water-based latex ink. While we can’t imagine wanting to remove this wallpaper after installing it, the fact that it’s removable makes it a perfect option for renters.

Source: Apartment Therapy

The San Clemente Fiesta Street Festival is a unique family-orientated event, held on Sunday, August 12th from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on picturesque Ave. Del Mar, where the two main blocks of downtown San Clemente are dedicated to an entire day of FUN. This event features activities for the whole family, including food and game booths, three stages with live music, a classic car & motorcycle show, and much more.

For more information, visit www.scchamber.com.

Jeff Skierka created this coffee table that pays homage to a technology of the past: the cassette tape. I’m particularly fond of it because it reminds me of my youth… quickly hitting “record” on my boom box to try to capture “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer as it played on the radio, popping those tapes into my portable tape players for a walk around the mall, and then into the stereo of my first car. The table is a 12:1 scaled replica of a cassette tape and is made of reclaimed maple, walnut and Lucite (future versions will have glass). The table is completely reversible just like your favorite tapes (sides A and B). This is a first prototype and one of a kind table, lovingly crafted by Jeff over the course of five years!

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Italian designers Formafantasma have completed a series of objects using various types of discarded leather, including the skin of pigs, fish and cork trees. Pieces in the collection include fish-skin hot water bottles, boar-fur brushes and water containers made of cow bladders. The collection, called Craftica, was commissioned by fashion house Fendi and was be presented at the Design Miami/Basel fair. Read more …

Polyester ratchet straps were designed to tie things down tightly, quickly. They are strong and cheap, and we have recently seen them used in furniture and even houses. Now Studio Lievito of Florence, Italy, uses them in an unusual way to create a desk. Instead of simply holding a box together, like most of the other designs we have shown, they use the straps in tension to pull the tops of the legs together, locking them in place. No screws, no connectors, just tension holds it all together. It doesn’t get any more minimal than this. Not only that, the straps do double duty here, providing a bit of storage and a sense of enclosure.

The designers explain in their submission to Designboom:

The design is an investigation into the simple, industrial qualities of the materials used to achieve a structure without typical joints. To achieve this quality, the table is made from a two-color varnished plywood top, iron milled legs and these are combined by four polyester straps with ratchets. The thing that excites us about these designs is how little there is to them, and how effectively they use simple materials like straps to their best advantage. Less truly is more. Read more …

Ready to finally get your life together in one hip, stylin’ and off-the-floor way? We spotted a ton of neat hooks and hangers at ICFF this year, but before you get on us for pointing out a way “over” trend, let us enumerate: we saw a ton of neat hooks and hangers doing fresh, hip things that we’ve never seen before, and in quite the attractive-to-the-eyes sort of way.  Read more …

A low table with an integrated glass prism marks the passage of time in Konstfack University Masters student Luna Seo’s That Piece of Time project. At a precise time in a given day light strikes the prism and a rainbow coloured projection is produced. The coffee table consists of two levels of different height, with a glass prism filling in the gap between the tops.

Says Seo, “Consider time as a continuation of ‘now’s. Not a single one is the same. So consistent and everlasting, one can easily forget its weight, take it for granted. One meets miracles at every single ‘now’, although some are forgotten and only some remain.”

The objects in the That Piece of Time collection “grasp time from the sunlight and shed unexpected, unrepeatable moments for you to cherish. It unveils pieces of time through the meetings between light and light-refracting materials.” Read more …

Dede Dextrous Design is back with the Fa.B. fabric bookcase that’s meant to have high function with minimal environmental impact. The frame is made of birch plywood and is foldable and easy to assemble. It comes on castors making it simple to push around from room to room to place it wherever you need it. The hanging fabric units are made of recyclable and stain-resistant fabric that is durable enough to hold all of your books and magazines. You can even add more units when your collection grows. It’s a great alternative to your average bookcase and I love the fact that you can even use it as a room divider.
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Each summer for the past twelve years, London’s Serpentine Gallery commissions a different architect to design a pavilion on the adjacent park lands. It serves as an inspirational place to hang out, hear lectures and have a drink. This summer’s has been designed by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei along with the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

It is a serene and surprisingly intimate temporary building. A disc shaped pond hovers over the ground. Twelve columns support the roof 1.4 metres above the earth. Underneath is a cork lined “den” with different levels of cork stools. So simple and so affective. Since the artist is forbidden to leave China, the construction has been anything but simple. The artist has been working with his partners Herzog & de Meuron via Skype, with sketches and models held up for cameras and computers to discuss and decide. Apparently he didn’t mind doing it this way; “Using Skype is lovely. I think all projects should be done with Skype. You only have to communicate the spiritual part.”

The disc, filled with water, will be a mirror for the sky, and a haven for birds. The theme is about the idea of memory. The disc sits on 12 columns in recognition of the ruins of the 11 past ones, plus this one. The excavation was supposed to expose the foundations of previous pavilions, however it turned out that there were none. It was sponsored by Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and his family will relocate it after the exhibition closes.

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