Awesome Art & Design

Matt Gilbert’s Crane Lamp lets you drastically change its height and shape just by pushing or pulling its body. With its exposed scissor structure, it revels in its mechanical form and encourages you to use it and inspect how it works.

A free application for the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift that lets you build 3D models using a newbie-friendly interface made of six basic commands and a drag-and-drop mechanic. You can share your creations as 3D files or as animated gifs.

While 3D printers typically use filaments made purely from plastic, Make Anything shows off how a special composite filament called Timberfill can be used to create sandable, stainable wooden objects, like the cool acorn-shaped storage containers shown in the video.

Simon Stålenhag is back with more retro sci-fi paintings. Set in an alternate ’90s US and centered on a young girl traveling with her robot, The Electric State is a 120-page art book with a supplementary narrative written by Simon as well. More on his site.

A demonstration of a ridiculously complicated wooden puzzle box, which requires numerous maneuvers such as rotating and sliding boxes in and out, and twisting keys and knobs to unlock its deepest compartment. We’d love to see a build video of this thing.

Get Hands Dirty made a beautiful two-player pinball machine mainly by carving wood and acrylic parts using the X-Carve CNC machine. It doesn’t have electronic parts, but the execution is still top-notch. Complete design files and parts list available on Inventables.

Using projection mapping and a mix of tracking systems, creative studio THÉORIZ shows off a slick prototype which projects 3D images that dynamically adapt to movements, creating a sort of Holodeck version 1.0. Everything you see was captured live, with no post-production.

“I think the strongest paintings reflect the highs and lows, kinda like the full spectrum.” Callen Schaub makes gorgeous abstract paintings that combine energy with serenity, but watching him at work and hearing him talk about his process will make you appreciate them even more.

Leslie Nooteboom’s Komorebi projects soothing computer-generated light shows. While it can project anything, Leslie intends for Komorebi to display visuals that mimic natural light, such as a silhouette of a window or light bouncing off of a body of water.

Director Murat Sayginer’s abstract, purple-hued animation is filled with imagery so bold and surreal, that it could do double duty as the title sequence for a Netflix or HBO drama.

We’ve seen metal miniature kits before, but never ones like these. Time 4 Machine’s big selling point is that their detailed models are mechanical. The wind-up cabrio and tank actually drive, the clock tells time (for an hour), and you can actually play the table hockey game.

Students at Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group proposed a computer interface that is meant to be projected or displayed on a desk. Aside from responding to touch, apps or windows can also latch onto or avoid objects to maintain visibility.

Instructables member bongoboy23 won the DIY site’s Lights Contest 2017 with his programmable infinity mirror coffee table. It has forty individual infinity mirrors and over 960 LEDs. It also has four USB ports, two AC outlets and an inductive pad for charging.

Illustrator Sean C. Jackson’s nifty book is packed with dozens of fun and challenging maze designs of tiny isometric villages, dotted with buildings, trees, staircases, fountains, bridges, monuments, and more.

Etsy store OriginArtwork specializes in beautiful layered wooden maps. Most of their products are based on real locations, but they do have the occasional fictional subject, such as this detailed map of the world of Game of Thrones. It’s available in four sizes.

Given the dearth of typewriters in the modern workplace, we’re surprised that Liquid Paper is even still a thing. Draw with Jazza shows how the opaque white correction fluid can be used to draw intricate works of art – assuming you have his mad drawing skills, that is.

Neo Tokyo state of mind. Artist Mau Lencinas aka Easy Demons Club re-released his wicked collection of posters featuring characters that combine modern street wear with traditional Japanese symbols and objects. Each poster measures 18″x 24″.

If retromodern videos are to be believed, the 1980s were defined entirely by a neon glow and synthwave music. Vox takes a look back at the actual ’80s to figure out where some of the key styles that defined the decade came from.

Artist Xavier Segers aka “The Last Dodo” created these incredible insect images by precisely placing letters from various fonts. See if you can guess what font each one was made from, then head to the bottom of his Behance page for the answers.

To launch the Smithsonian’s new wing, The Nation We Build Together, LEGO Master builder Erik Varszegi designed a 9 foot-tall replica of Lady Liberty, using 25,375 bricks. The 1/32-scale sculpture will be on display at The National Museum of American History through 2017.

Digital artist Florian Renner created this neon-lit promo video for the synthwave collection Magnatron 2.0 from New Retro Wave. While the imagery and sounds are certainly inspired by the ’80s, they’re also crazy slick and futuristic. The track here is Star Fighter by Wice.

Glitchcatcher. Artist Leonardo Ulian’s Technological Mandalas are large mandalas made of electronic components such as computer chips, capacitors and solder. You can see more of his work on his website and Instagram account.

Emil Ferris’ critically-acclaimed graphic novel is drawn and written as the diary and sketchbook of Karen Reyes, a monster-obsessed 10-year old living in 1960’s Chicago who tries to solve the murder of her upstairs neighbor.