Awesome Art & Design

Build your own polygonal menagerie with these colorful pre-cut, pre-creased paper animal sculptures. Available individually or as a bundle. Sadly, the awesome XXL gorilla has an equally XXL price of $199.

An immensely satisfying demonstration of craftsmanship as two Japanese carpenters show the kind of precision required to perfectly interlock a pair of wooden beams into an extremely strong unified structure.

A visually stunning promo for Cascade Juggling in which fiery bits of steel wool were spun into the air. The film was then slowed down and played backwards to spectacular effect. Its maker assures us they didn’t start a forest fire.

The Q60 Concept serves as the blueprint for Infiniti’s future sports coupes. Its production versions will be equipped with a new line of 3L twin-turbocharged V6 engines and more (hopefully intuitive) touchscreens on their dash.

If there were ever a wristwatch made for supervillains, it’s got to be this timepiece from HYT. Made from black titanium and gold and filled with fluid, which flows around the skull to indicate the hour. No minutes, but who needs those?

Despite its deceptively simple visual style, Director Péter Vácz award-winning short film is a masterpiece of storytelling that will quickly draw you in to its world, as it brilliantly explores the tenuous nature of interpersonal relationships.

The LEGO Movie was one of our favorite flicks of 2014. Not only was it hilarious and clever, it was packed with amazing animation which mimicked low-budget brickfilm style using CGI. They literally built each object brick by digital brick.

5 Pointz in Queens, NY had long been a mecca for graffiti artists, but was recently torn down. While we’re sad to see all of the cool street art go away, it’s also nice to see this abandoned structure razed to make way for something new.

Producer Nobumichi Asai is the party responsible for the creepy use of face-tracking and projection mapping to replace the faces of live subjects in real time. We won’t be held responsible for any nightmares you have after watching this.

David Irvine loves to get paintings from yard sales, thrift shops or from the street and then paints in pop culture elements to humorous effect. On one hand, this makes the original art stand out. On the other hand, ceiling cat.

Similar to the Rinspeed XchangE, Mercedes-Benz’ F 015 Luxury in Motion concept car is a mobile lounge. It has autonomous driving, an interior clad in wood and leather and has rotating lounge chairs. More on 95octane.

LAIKA, the brilliant animators behind films like Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls are auctioning off screen-used puppets and props from their films. A portion of the proceeds benefit The Art of Elysium, a non-profit arts organization.

Photographer Lance Page creates a unique (and literal) spin on the astronomical time-lapse film, by synchronizing the movement of his camera with the position of the North Star, reminding us that it’s the Earth that’s turning, not the stars.

Artist Michael Grab creates beautiful, yet temporary sculptures by precariously balancing found stones upon one another. In this soothing and hypnotic video, he revisits some of the sculptures he created in 2014.

Jeff de Boer makes medieval armor for cats and mice using bronze, silver, copper and leather. He doesn’t make duplicates, but he’s willing to make similar items on commission. He also has a photo book of his armor.

These beautiful kitchen knives have handles and bodies made from Canadian maple wood riveted over a stainless steel blade on one side. They require extra care compared to everyday knives, but they look amazing.

Director Nuno Barbosa shot this mind-bending video by projection mapping video of musician Emmy Curl back onto herself. The whole video was shot in a single take, without post production. Body paintings by João Tiago Fernandes.

Designer Michelle Vandy has had to minimize the use of her hands due to a repetitive strain injury, so being a highly creative individual, she came up with a unique way to interact with her computer – using her nose and an Apple Magic Trackpad.

DJ Qbert teamed up with UK firm Novalia to create this awesome album, which incorporates an interactive set of turntables with printed electronics which work as MIDI triggers for an iOS app when touched. (Thanks Richard!)

Disney Research created this surreal short film which serves as a showcase for experimental digital production techniques, playing with HDR tone mapping, high frame rates, and pixel-level time-bending along the way. 24p version here.

Atelier Dsign’s minimal lighting fixture is made by bending a single (neon?) tube into the shape of a traditional desk lamp and shade, while mimicking the bright white illumination of fluorescent bulbs.

Damp Design takes us on a tour of Norway like you’ve never seen it before, with all of the people, boats, cars and vacationers looking like tiny ants. Sure, tilt-shift photography is so 2012, but it’s really well executed here.

Turns out spinach works even on toys. Headplay Toys made this badass realistic 12″ Popeye the Sailor Man. Well, if you could call a man with arms twice the size of his thighs “realistic.” Limited to 500 units.