Awesome Art & Design

Transform your mechanical keyboard into something special with NPKC’s wooden keycaps. This set comes with a full 104 keys, including numeric keypad, arrows, and function keys. Available in beech, rosewood, or walnut, and compatible with Cherry switches. Pre-order now from Drop, with shipping starting January 2021.

Filmmaker Natalia Mirzoyan’s animated short depicts a brief moment in time at the beach, where people of all ages come to enjoy the sunshine and saltwater. While painting an evocative portrait, the film explores the different ways that people perceive time throughout their lives.

Rogier Wieland Studio created this captivating stop-motion promo clip for Trombosestichting, The Dutch Thrombosis Foundation, who is distributing a free e-book to help educate people about the dangers and warning signs of blood clots, wrapped up in the guise of a noir thriller.

There’s no question that people love Stranger Things. But what is it about the Netflix series’ mix of sci-fi, horror, and ’80s coming-of-age flicks that make it work so well? Michael Tucker from Lessons from the Screenplay delves into some of the audio and visual tricks the Duffer Brothers have used to create such a magical blend.

Urban95 makes some great industrial style furniture, including this skinny writing desk that’s ideal for laptop users. Its 20″ x 60″ top is covered with an aviation-inspired riveted metal and sits atop skinny, but sturdy bent rebar legs. A perforated metal privacy panel finishes the look. Also available with a concrete laminate top.

I Like To Make Stuff teamed up with The Smugglers Room to build a piece of custom Star Wars-inspired furniture that holds a large TV and server rack filled with audio and video equipment. The finished piece looks like something from inside of the Echo Base control room and would make a great design for an arcade cabinet.

Artist Chet Phillips expresses his askew world view with a wink and detailed renderings of creepy creatures from pop culture and literature. His limited-edition playing cards feature 58 illustrations of characters from Cthulhu to “The Muppets”’ Animal. Half the fun is how Phillips IDs the critters with pseudo-Latin names.

With Season 2 of The Mandalorian fast approaching, LEGO enlisted the help of three builders to create a replica of The Child (aka Baby Yoda) out of nearly 15,000 bricks. The 22″ tall model took over 119 hours to complete, and also includes the little green dude’s floating bassinet.

Maker King Minhvuong shows off a really sweet design for a tabletop Bluetooth speaker. He built it using hundreds of stacked colored pencils set into epoxy resin, then cut, shaped, sanded, and varnished the resulting block to form an eye-catching enclosure.

Looking for the ultimate mini notepad? The latest Nanobook has a titanium cover with a meteor crater texture. Its pages are made from waterproof, greaseproof, tear-resistant, and fire-resistant stone paper, and you can write on them with just about anything with a sharpened tip. Available in 2×3″ and 3×5″ sizes.

The Bobby Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee created a truly special centerpiece for their rooftop pool area. The hotel teamed up with the Hemphill Brothers Coach Company to turn an old Greyhound bus into a lounge. The bus features custom hydraulic doors by Schweiss Doors to protect its interior from the elements.

Plane Pieces’ drink coasters are a great gift for aviation enthusiasts. They’re made using authentic Pratt & Whitney gears from WWII radial airplane engines. Each one is encased in clear resin, surrounded with a machined aluminum outer ring, and has a protective bumper underneath. Sold individually, or in sets of four.

From Chiquita to Count Chocula, from the Geico Gecko to the Jolly Green Giant, mascots have long been a staple of the advertising industry. Author Warren Dotz’s two-volume series is filled with characters from the iconic to the obscure, from the lovable to the downright weird.

This flat-pack wooden kit not only comes together to look like a camera, it actually works. Rather than using a lens, it has a small pinhole opening which captures fuzzy, but artful images onto 35mm film. The 79-piece plywood kit takes about 2 to 3 hours to assemble, and the camera even has a tripod mount.

Add a little space to your desk with this playful astronaut lamp from Paladone. The tiny moon man takes his spacewalk at the end of an adjustable gooseneck, as he floats above the lunar textured base below. Runs on USB or 3 AAA batteries, so it’s definitely just an accent light.

It’s fun to play a game of chess in the park. But carrying around a full-size chess set can be a pain. This cleverly-designed set features a roll-up board and pieces that stack inside of each other inside of a tube. Choose from steel, zinc, or plastic pieces, leather, PU leather, or silicone board, and a leather or polyester case.

Fred Conlon’s whimsical metalwork is all over SLC, especially his mischievous monsters made from industrial scrap and old tools. “Proudly made in the USA from worldwide junk” is the Sugarpost motto. He really nailed it with office supplies like a pliers pen cup, wrench desk caddy, and Hammer Hits Nail business card holder.

The machete is one of the most imposing bladed weapons out there. In this clip from blacksmith Green Beetle, he walks us through the process of creating one by recycling steel found in a rusty old push-handle lawnmower. It’s interesting to see how he determines the carbon content of the steel on the grinder.

Desktop accessory maker Craighill’s stainless steel puzzle forms a complete sphere when assembled, but figuring out how to put its three components together is harder than it looks. It measures the same diameter as a pool ball, but weighs a hefty 1 lb, 12 oz. Pre-order price available for a limited time from Drop.

The CGI in TRON seems primitive by today’s standards, but back in 1982 it was not only groundbreaking, it pushed the limits of available technology. Using modern tech, the guys at Corridor Crew decided to see if they could accurately replicate the famous light cycle scene in less than a day.

Each year, Tom BetGeorge creates an incredible Halloween light show to raise funds for charity. As part of his 2020 show, he programmed a performance that syncs up perfectly with Metallica’s Enter Sandman. If you’re near Tracy, California, you can view the light show in person during its performance schedule.

Marvelous Decks‘ created this colorful deck inspired by our tiny feathered friends. Holographic foil can be found throughout the deck, while the tuck case adds sculpted embossing and multiple foils for added effect. Available in red, blue, or purple. The gilded three-pack is extra special. Pre-orders start shipping 1.2021.

Back in the day, there was this great video game called Battle Chess, in which chess pieces fought to the death on the board. This clip from CGI animator lotsalote envisions what a next-gen version of that game might look like, as individual chess pieces explode violently on impact with their opponents.