Recently we came across this beautiful and inspirational project by the Bergen, Norway-based Of and With Studios. They recently released a collection of leather bags crafted from the last batch of leathers ever tanned on Osterøy Island, Norway. The project started in the summer of 2010, when they met Erling Teigland, initially to find out if there were grounds for a collaboration. Erling had worked at the Borge tannery since he came out of high school in 1970. Unfortunately only months after the first meeting between Of and With and Erling, he had his last day at work, because the world-renowned tannery was forced to shut its doors. The company that had been tanning since 1889, quietly supplying the finest names in high-end goods, from Louis Vuitton and Hermès to entire African royal families was no more. This moment sparked the ambition to start a journey to honor sincere and joyful craftsmen like Erling and the fine tradition that Borge represented. A journey that continued on to eventually become the first in-house lifestyle brand by Of and With Studios named Ætt. [ Continue reading ]
Esme Winter’s work can be typified by her extraordinary talent of creating beautifully patterned products in a fantastic scala of colors. Based in London since 2008, Winter works from her studio with partner Richard Sanderson. Both designer have heritage in high esteem, which resulted in a modern British company rooted in quality production and design. Each beautifully detailed accessory is a product of careful thought and inherited taste in antiquarian books and mid-century modernism. Working with the best makers and materials from the UK, they craft items that reflect the innate value of hand-binding, weaving, and finishing. Last year they unveiled their 2013 'Paper Collection' consisting of notebooks and patterned paper. The collection is a beautiful one, simple yet refined, with most likely some of the more beautiful original patterns you'll find today. Some have called it a mixture between Japanese papers and Bauhaus textile prints; the Paper Collection offers the perfect color saturated solution for your gifts and goods. [ Continue reading ]
Ouur is the latest beautiful endeavor by Nathan Williams, brand director and editor in chief of Kinfolk Magazine, and his team. Pronounced just like the word our, the brand is centered around a visual motif of underlines. These underlines represent an effort to collect like-minded elements into a single place. This translates into collections for men and women which are clearly in line with the Kinfolk aesthetic, primarily using textiles such as linen, cotton and wool. Created with a sharp attention to detail, classic silhouettes and a neutral color palette, each item has been made with an emphasis on comfort and utility. The goal Williams has set for the line is that pieces in the collection will be interchangeable, functional and wearable in all seasons, which clearly shows in the newly released lookbook for the Autumn/Winter 2014 collection. [ Continue reading ]
We aren't major game fans, but since the elegant Monument Valley was released for iPhone and iPad at the beginning of this month, we have really been appreciating it. The newest adventurous game from ustwo, who created Whale Trail and Blip Blup earlier, is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent Princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, taking advantage of optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People. Inspired by the art of M.C. Escher, Japanese prints and minimalist 3D design, each level is a unique, hand-crafted combination of puzzle, graphic design and architecture. Like listening to an album or walking through a museum for the first time, Monument Valley is about discovery, perception and meaningful beauty. [ Continue reading ]
Recently the fascinating 'The Ghoda Cycle Project' was brought to our attention. The project is a visual document of the myriad avatars of bicycles in the rural and urban landscape of India by Mumbai-based illustrator Sameer Kulavoor, who works under the name Bombay Duck Designs. The linchpin of 'The Ghoda Cycle Project' is to lay emphasis on the framework, structure, decoration and design of the cycles of India. Ergonomically these cycles may not be the best examples of bicycle design, but they have the strength to carry the hopes and aspirations of a big section of the Indian population. No wonder they are called ghoda, which translates to sturdy or durable, cycles. In India basic necessities like cooking gas, milk, bread, newspapers and tiffin are delivered to people's homes on a cycle. And next to this activity, there are the mobile cycle shops that sell, among other things, tea, vegetables, waist-belts, ice-creams, SIM-cards and so on. Bicycles in India are truly multifunctional beyond Western imagination, which is caught perfectly by Kulavoor. [ Continue reading ]
We love the amazing still life campaign featuring Linda Farrow's Spring/Summer 2014 icons, shot by the highly talented Belgian photographer Frederik Vercruysse in a collaboration with art direction studio Uber en Kosher. Vercruysse is most known for his minimalistic, but highly stylized photography and former collaborations with Filip Dujardin. For the seasonal pieces shot by Vercruysse, Linda Farrow draws inspiration from cosmetic pastels and a new-found love for the eclectic stylish Seventies, creating a diverse and adventurous exploration of fashion eyewear. The constant elements are the hyper-luxe materials including snakeskin and gold, superlative finish and fashion-forward shapes Linda Farrow has become renowned for. The campaign showcases the LFL306 model, crafted from yellow gold and ash snakeskin frame teamed with gold plated lens, and the LFL300, made out of rose gold and its amazing mocha snakeskin frame teamed with a rose gold lens. [ Continue reading ]
Luke Stephenson just started a Kickstarter campaign to publish his latest beautiful series in a collaboration with YES, who also designed 'An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds'. Named '99 x 99s', the series is a photographic project which documents the story of the 99 ice cream through a photographic road trip around the UK. In the summer of 2013, over 25 days and 3,500 miles, Stephenson travelled around the coastline of Great Britain. Going from place to place the photographer was fascinated by the human touches that make each 99 ice cream unique. In the series the seaside ice cream vans and parlours that sold the 99s are also portrayed and the myths which surround this very British icon are discussed, giving the project a significant anthropological dimension, next to Stephenson's excellent eye for finding beautiful aesthetics in unexpected places. [ Continue reading ]
