Awesome Art & Design

A man enjoys his quiet and calm world every day until something loud and distracting enters his universe to shake things up. Animator Dan Castro’s short film proves that less is often sometimes more, and how sound can be just as important in telling a story as imagery.

These smartly-designed tools make it easy to crank out straight lines, circles, grids, and other smooth and consistent drawings. The complete set consists of a straightedge and a curved arm, and a swiveling base. Available in aluminum or stainless steel.

Commissioned by Bobby Haas, Rodsmith Customs’ The Killer is heavily inspired by a 1935 motorcycle called Killinger und Freund. It’s a front wheel drive bike with an engine made from three 60cc two-stroke engines. More on Bike EXIF.

Tom Scott recently paid a visit a truly unusual and extraordinary collection – a working research library dedicated to the history of color. The Forbes Pigment Collection has spent decades cataloging and storing rare pigments to help verify the authenticity of works of art.

Nathan Darma’s cards offer up – as he calls it – “big deck energy,” and we agree. From the shimmery foiled backs to Gart’s colorful and abstract court card illustrations, they’re just as good for cardistry as they are for distracting your opponents from your poker tells.

This amazing software uses deep learning tech to create photorealistic nature scenes by sketching fields of color which represent objects and materials. The results are impressively convincing, complete with reflections. Learn more on Nvidia’s blog.

Audi’s concept for a smaller and more affordable electric SUV. Like the e-tron, the Q4 e-tron has two motors that provide all-wheel drive. There’s a 200hp rear motor and a 100hp rear motor. It goes up to 112 mph and has a range of over 280 mi.

Building on szabomat90’s LEGO Ideas design, this fantastic kit is based on the boat from Mickey Mouse’s debut cartoon, Walt Disney’s 1928 classic Steamboat Willie. The 721-piece model measures over 10″ long when complete, and includes new Mickey and Minnie figures.

Supinfocom Rubika animation student Lorraine Desserre’s short film revolves around a simple premise – a praying mantis ingests something strange, and goes on a crazy hallucinogenic trip. A short, sweet, and entertaining clip melding traditional and CG styles.

Woodworker Lignum shows off another fantastic build – a sculptural lounge chair crafted from bits and pieces of wood cut into small slats, glued together, then sanded smooth to reveal an eye-catching pixelated pattern.

It’s tricky to shoot good images with a mirror in the shot, but the guys at COOPH show us six clever ways to use these reflective surfaces to capture some truly creative photos. Though we recommend wearing gloves before handling shattered mirror glass.

Circle Line Art School shows a relatively easy way to draw buildings that look like they’re going through the page. The optical illusion is simple enough for the most part. The finishing touch is quite tricky though.

Veritasium spoke with Professor Larry Howell about flexible machines, aka compliant mechanisms. You’d think that a machine that deforms, bends or flexes would be a dud, but these mechanical marvels are actually tough, reliable and cheap to produce.

Artist Ivan Black shows off an amazing kinetic sculpture which works like a giant-sized, light-up Lollipopter. As it spins, its illuminated aluminum bars create hypnotic, mathematically-inspired patterns. Read more about Ivan’s work on Colossal.

DIYer mathisox made door ajar indicators for his old van that keep the vehicle’s retro charm. He attached switches to the van’s doors that activate motors attached to a toy car. If a door on the van is open, the corresponding door would also be open on the toy.

Society6 lets artists sell their work on apparel, phone cases, mugs and more. The company recently branched out to bigger things, namely furniture. Its customizable coffee table measures 35.75″x 17.75″x 17″ and is made of baltic birch and steel.

Odin Makes created a wearable replica of the badass mask and helmet from the fantastic Captain Marvel movie. As usual, he made most of it with craft foam. He put LEDs inside thin polyethylene sheets to make the glowing mohawk.

Toyota and The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have teamed up to study mobility in space, with a fuel cell electric vehicle which could be used for human exploration on the moon. Despite energy transport limitations, its could cover 10,000 km in its lifetime.

Photographer Kensuke Koike shows off a neat trick you can do with any image on heavy paper and a pasta maker. By shredding the picture into strips, the image can be duplicated into progressively lower resolution versions of itself.

Filmmaker Daniel McKee selected over 2,000 flags from throughout the ages, and painstakingly arranged and edited them so they not only blend between related colors and imagery, but so they lined up perfectly with the music of Beethoven.

While many carmakers unleashed their biggest guns at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen brought out this silly little number. The ID. Buggy is a modern take on the Meyers Manx buggy. This electric off-roader has a 201 hp motor and has a 155 mi range.

A brief look at the silly sense of humor of Juan Pablo Zaramella, whose upcoming 52-episode TV series Así Son Las Cosas (The Way Things Are) takes us inside the secret lives of everyday objects, brought to life through the magic of stop-motion animation.

Mondo and illustrator Matt Taylor celebrate the release of Captain Marvel with posters and pins. The colored poster is on sale only until 3/10/19, while the glow-in-the-dark poster is limited to 325 copies. The pins feature Carol Danvers, Capt. Marvel and 90’s Nick Fury.