Awesome Art & Design

The Q has built some pretty nifty mechanical contraptions from cardboard, and here’s another. Watch as he turns a mix of cardbaord, paper, rubber bands, springs, and popsicle sticks into a working model of a 7-segment numeric display, like you might find on alarm clock.

New Zealand filmmaker Phil Brough’s wonderful animated short tells the story of a fire brigade who attempts to save their city from a fire, but are frustrated by the fact that everything around them is made of cardboard – and apparently filled with gasoline.

Despite his phenomenal posthumous popularity, and having painted thousands of works of art, it’s nearly impossible to find an original Bob Ross painting anywhere. The New York Times dug into the mystery behind what happened to Ross’ numerous paintings in this great short documentary.

Etsy seller Dominima Design makes 3D printed models of animals and cars, each featuring a minimal, low-polygon count style. Whether you’re into bears or Bimmers, penguins or Porsches, rally cars or rhinos, they’ve got you covered.

Hypnotic and wonderfully-satisfying footage of a high-speed laser engraver rapidly etching an intricate geometric pattern into a metal disc. Z-Tech Lasers‘ video wasn’t sped up either, and was shot in real time.

Did you know that it’s possible to create monochromatic LEGO minifigs by collecting parts from numerous sets? The guys at Monofigs have done the hard work for us, collecting all the needed arms, legs, torsos, heads, and hands to create these wonderfully minimalist figures. Incredibly, every piece comes from an official LEGO kit.

What might the iPhone have been like had it followed in the footsteps of Apple’s 1980s industrial design? Future Punk envisions just that – along with a colorful 1990s take as well. Funny thing is, Apple did design a concept phone in the 1980s.

21st century design shop Nervous System uses computer simulations to generate laser-cut plywood puzzles inspired by the crystalline structure of sliced geodes. Each puzzle has unique variations in its image, shape, and pieces. In 180-piece and 370-piece variants.

Celebrate your love for classic video games with one (or more) of RetroBuilder’s miniature arcade marquee light boxes, each with razor sharp color graphics. Each box measures about 7.87″ wide, is made from bamboo wood, and is powered via a USB cable. Choose from 20 different designs, with more to come.

Fans of Pink Floyd will recognize the profoundly depressing lyrics on this print from Todd Alcott Graphics. It features the words from Comfortably Numb, cleverly worked into the layout for a 1960s-style magazine advertisement for pain relief pills. The print is available in a variety of sizes. Check out the artist’s shop for more.

Animator Han Yang’s Unreal Engine CG short film feels more like a video game cutscene than a full-fledge work of science fiction, but it features a thrilling fight sequence, and some truly awesome character design by Ben Erdt, Perry Leijten, and Vick Gaza.

Artist Joe Takayama’s short film juxtaposes modern animation technology with traditional Japanese art styles. He developed an algorithmic method for rendering Kiriko (cut glass) and Kumiko (wooden lattice work) using a system typically used for simulating plant growth in CGI.

A fun coffee table book or bathroom reader filled with random and strange bits of trivia, each accompanied by a silly illustration. Learn how Napoleon was attacked by rabbits, how dancing goats are the reason we have coffee, and how it’s illegal for a mortician to swear in front of the dead in Georgia.

These funky, chunky rings feature intricate sculptures of cities sitting atop them. There are models of Rome, London, and New York City, crafted from copper, silver, or gold, and set under durable, see-through resin. Sign up here to be notified when they’re available for pre-order.

Experimental filmmaker and motion graphic artist Dirk Koy provides a unique perspective of a traffic circle. By rotating top-down, time-lapse footage of vehicles as they pass in and out of the lanes, it almost looks like they’re being magnetically pulled towards the center of the circle, then released back into the world.

The THX sound, the Mac and Windows startup tones, the Nokia ringtone, and the Intel Inside music are all immediately recognizable. Two sound experts explain the psychology and conceptual approach behind such memorable auditory cues, and why they’re so important to brands.

A fascinating work of kinetic art by Piotr Jędrzejewski. This endlessly moving creation uses a pair of gear-driven rotating spheres to constantly keep in off balance and in motion. The sculpture is on display in front of Poland’s Wrocław–Copernicus Airport.

It’s been 40 years since the Sony Walkman first came on the scene, and since been supplanted by CDs, MP3s, and streaming. But if you’re craving that old cassette tape sound, NINM Lab’s portable player/recorder has Bluetooth 5.0, so you can wirelessly send its sounds to a speaker or headphones. Sadly it’s not stereo.

If you don’t have a bag of Skittles lying around the house, you’ll want to run out and buy one right now, just so you can try and replicate Dexter See’s video, which shows what happens when you car fully arrange the colorful candies in a circle then pour hot water over them.

The brick-building enthusiasts at Vonado make a variety of custom LED lighting kits which are designed to bring added life and dimension to dozens of stock LEGO kits. Among our faves are War Machine Buster, ECTO-1, the Saturn V rocket, and the TRON Legacy Lightcycles. Prices don’t include the original LEGO kit.

Janice of East Dixfield, Maine is no ordinary grandmother. She has a love for classic 8-bit video games, and crochets wonderfully soft and comfy looking acrylic yarn blankets using granny squares in place of pixels. Her Etsy shop currently has blankets inspired by Donkey Kong, Galaxian, TRON, and Mario.

Dale Hayward and Sylvie Trouvé’s incredibly inventive animated short film tells the story of a “a vain and arrogant youth dares to enter Baba Yaga’s living house of bones.” But after the young man wreaks havoc on the old lady’s world, she delivers a swift and just punishment for his misdeeds.

Theory11’s vintage style cards are a nod to the rich history of Philadelphia, the hometown of their designer True Hand Society. The cards feature an off-white card stock and 19th century style line art on front, with vibrant red backs embellished with snakes. Packed in an embossed box with gold foil outside and in.