Awesome Art & Design

Artist Stuart Semple has devised a paint that is so black and so light absorptive that it makes objects look almost two-dimensional. It can even cover up shiny surfaces with a couple of coats, rendering them black as a country night. (Awesome lucky cat image via rainbrolly.)

Pasquale D’Amico’s short clip centers around a phenakistoscope – a Victorian-era device which could display moving images by spinning a disk. He scanned in a number of images from inventor Joseph Plateau’s moving picture machine to create this hypnotic animation.

Design students Zuza Gronowicz and Barbara Motylińska came up with a shoe that’s 100% 3D printed and biodegradable. Aside from being customizable, it uses significantly fewer materials and less energy to make compared to conventional shoes.

Transform your basic black Apple Watch into a wearable piece of neo-futurist art with one of Joy Complex’s metal covers. They’re available in cast bronze or silver with a patina finsh, or shiny or distressed cast copper. You can find the watch bands shown over on Amazon.

A unique and puzzling desk sculpture you can build from a dozen pre-cut playing cards to form a 5.5″ tall starburst. Professor George W. Hart figured out the geometry to make it work. Learn more about his mathemagical card sculptures here.

DFRobot’s OverLord ProPlus by DreamMaker printer outputs detailed models from PLA or ABS thanks to a great ventilation system and a heated bed. It’s easy to use, quiet, prints items up to 10.2″ tall, and is also a steal while it’s still on Indiegogo. Full review on Technabob.

You’ll need to take 29 minutes out of your busy life to watch the entire video, but you should at least check out the first minute as artist Shaun Hughes shows off one of his most awesome creations, a 1973 Lincoln Penny that he’s re-engraved with a skull and intricate scrollwork.

Claudio Sibille’s Ludovico Office gives you a set of basic office furniture in a compact and movable design. It comes with a chair that sits flush with the drawers and file cabinet when stored, and there’s a fold out desk on its side.

Electronic music phenom Ronald Jenkees’ music video is a tour de force of colorful retro-style pixel art, created by animator Ben Luce of Soul Proprietor, who will use funds raised by fans of the video to support cancer research. From the new album Rhodes Deep. (Thanks Scott!)

Like all things from Bang & Olufsen, their BeoSound Shape is about seamlessly blending form and function. These fabric-covered hexagons come in speaker, amplifier, or acoustic damper modules, turning any blank wall into both a visual and auditory work of art.

Similar, but larger than JK Brickworks’ drawing machine, VBs LEGO Technic Creations contraption draws by moving a pen in its arms, while rotating a turntable that holds the paper. It appears to be able to draw much more intricate patterns than the smaller machine.

A stunning modern take on the bare lightbulb – the Plumen 003 has a warmly-hued, dimmable LED light source, wrapped in a glass bubble with a faceted gold-toned reflector. The result is beautiful hanging fixture that needs no shade. Available exclusively from MoMA.

After creeping us out with his real-time facial projection mapping, Nobumichi Asai is back with a dramatic video which uses the technique to impressive effect, messing with the faces of two dancers by tracking their facial positions and projecting images at up to 1000fps.

Keep your ideas organized with these color-coded artists’ journals. Each of the 10 notebooks included in the boxed set has 48 grid-dotted pages, and looks like a giant Pantone color chip on the outside.

LaserMad shows off a sweet retro-modern clock that uses high voltage vintage Nixie tubes which float in the air using electromagnets, get their power using a copper induction coil, and transmit the time to the digits using infrared light. Available in kit form or fully-assembled.

It’s far from perfect, but Google’s experimental web app has a pretty nifty trick up its sleeve – it can transform rough doodles into neat line art by using machine-learning algorithms to recognize shapes and replace them with professionally drawn illustrations.

Ricardo Innecco and Mariana Ramos of RAIN Studio created these awesome glass-top tables which look like miniature swimming pools. We’d love to see them with aquamarine-tinted glass, then we’d float some of our action figures on donuts in the middle of them.

Airvada is working on a drone with inflatable arms for ease of transport. The Diodon’s appendages can be inflated or deflated in just a minute. Its electronics are housed in a waterproof case for added durability. The drone will come in different sizes for various payloads.

Do you send packages for your own business? Make your packages stand out from the crowd with Sticker Mule’s latest addition – custom-printed packaging tape. Simply upload your artwork, and it’ll ship in just 4 days. Grab a single 300′ x 3″ roll for just $9 through 4/17/17.

Artist Tim Bengel shows off the making of the first of his works from his upcoming Monuments exhibition – an incredible large-scale piece which appears out of nothing, after painstakingly dusting a sticky surface with black and white sand grains and gold leaf.

A truly unique chess set that uses old-school nixie tubes as its game pieces. Each tube displays a symbol on top representing its position, and they glow without wires or plugs thanks to wireless inductive power. Also available as a DIY Kit for about $300 less.

Brain Vessel Cargo’s fantastically illustrated playing cards feature a series of intricate nautical images, including pirate ship captains, ships, and sea creatures. When placed side by side, the special set of four decks forms an epic battle scene at sea.

A fun kit which lets you build your own motorized wooden marble machine. It sends a cascade of spheres spiraling to the bottom, then finding their way back to the top for an perpetual loop of marble madness. Available as a battery-powered or solar version.