Awesome Art & Design

Unlike other food carving artists, Japanese sculptor Gaku doesn’t just shape the exterior surfaces of fruits and vegetables. Instead, he often creates intricate and repetitive patterns inside of the edibles. Once he’s done, Gaku says he eats his creations.

The Vinyl Factory takes us inside Third Man Records‘ recently opened record-pressing plant, located in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. The facility combines efforts of man and machine to create unique vinyl discs and album covers, and helps preserve what was nearly a lost art.

Apis Cor has developed a giant 3D printer which can be brought to a construction site, and can output the structural components of a 100 square meter (~1076 sq. ft.) dwelling in about 24 hours, and for only about $10,000. Learn more about the process here.

Console modder Ed Zarick made a replica of the Iron Man-themed Xbox One that Xbox France gave away in 2016. He designed and 3D printed the raised parts as well as the arc reactor. Check out his build log here. You can grab the design and 3D files on his blog.

Illustrator Jonathan Burton’s weird and wonderful playing cards feature whimsical images of royalty with strange personal quirks and unusual body shapes. Our personal fave is the King with the duckie pool float and the balloon.

Brooklyn design studio RockPaperRobot invented this cool chair that folds flat when not in use, but still has a stylish and comfortable design when opened. The trick is the use of a flexible sheet of wood slats that form its back and seat, and sit atop a hinged aluminum base.

Designed by Paul Renner in 1927, Futura became the first widely used sans serif font and remains a popular choice because of its efficient and clean design. Vox put on its Wes Anderson hat to sum up the font’s history.

Kintsugi or kintsurukoi is a traditional Japanese art form that involves repairing pottery with lacquer and precious metals, reminding us that flaws and deterioration are parts of life. Artist Rachel Sussman put an urban twist on kintsurukoi by using it on pavement.

Carry our complete solar system in the palm of your hand with this cool crystal ball. The 3-inch sphere has 8 tiny planets and our Sun 3D engraved inside. Sadly, Pluto isn’t along for the ride. Includes a wooden display stand.

A brief look at some of the fantastic, vibrant, otherworldly, and whimsical environments created by CGI and game development students using the Unreal graphics and gaming engine. Lord of Horticulture is particularly wonderful and charming.

Phighter Images’ aviation-themed tables are custom built from the ribs of airplane wings integrated with a sturdy metal base. Sizes range from a 4 ft coffee table ($5500+) or 6 ft desk ($7700+) to a massive 28 ft conference table, and can be embellished with custom artwork.

(PG-13: Language) Animator Piotr Kabat created this fantastic graphic interpretation of Travis Bickle’s darkly poetic monologue from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. The minimal style and scheme echoes the bleak backdrop of the skeezier side of 1970s New York City.

A while back, we featured Taybles’ awesome, but pricey cassette tape coffee table. They recently launched a Kickstarter to bring down the cost so more of us can enjoy one, complete with the hidden compartment, drink holders, and dry erase top for customizing your mix.

Designer Axel Schindlbeck’s desk and wall timepiece is designed to help improve your math skills. Rather than tell time in simple hours and minutes, it displays equations you must solve instead. Offers four different difficulty levels as your skills improve.

UK pastry chefs Angie Scott Cakes created what would normally be a basic box-tier cake, but its plain white surfaces quickly come to life through the wonders of projection mapping tech. The only thing better would be if you could actually play Pac-Man and Angry Birds on it.

This ancient Turkish art form involves dripping dots of ink into a water-filled basin, then laying in a sheet of paper. Garip Ay’s approach lets the dark water speak for itself. He was recently commissioned to create a series of images for The Crown, Stranger Things, and Narcos.

Ceramicist Jo Scravis creates amazing clay mugs featuring gross, disfigured, and downright disturbing characters from our world and beyond. Each one of a kind work of art is wheel-thrown, then hand-sculpted and painted with food-safe glazes.

teamLab’s interactive installation features a roomful of Murano glass pendant lamps, each of which can detect when a person stands near it, and triggers a gradual spread of color to the lamps around it. This looks so relaxing.

LEGO builder Berthil van Beek created this wonderfully soothing contraption which sees an array of tiny sportsballs surfing across a wave made from 1,150 dancing LEGO bricks in 38 different colors. We want one for our office – in a soundproof chamber.

Graviky Labs developed a device that’s fitted over the exhaust pipes of vehicles and generators to trap and gather soot. The pollution is then scrubbed of toxic materials then used to make ink for markers and screen printing.

This unique wall or table clock uses the power of magnetic levitation to float its hour hand (er, hour sphere) off its surface, creating a dramatic and minimal display as it casts a shadow on the wooden surface beneath. Want the exact time? An LED matrix display hides beneath the wood.

Brooklyn outfit American Heirloom makes this series of sustainably-forested bamboo plywood cutting boards in the shapes of all 50 U.S. states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington DC. We wonder if you collected them all if you could make a giant puzzle of the U.S.

EcoCapsule’s bubble-shaped off-grid living spaces contain a small bedroom, work area, kitchen, storage, and bathroom. Solar panels on the roof and an external windmill supply electricity, and its shape is designed to maximize rainwater capture. (Thanks Linda!)