Awesome Art & Design

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.

Christophe Guinet aka Monsieur Plant loves to use plants in his works, such as turning sneakers into flower pots. One of his newest works is this beautiful skateboard made of a single plank of wood with its bark intact.

Maxim Stick released this touching stop-motion animation which features 1,000 cafe lattes, each with a work of art drawn on top. They cheated a bit using stencils and cocoa powder instead of drawing in the foam, but its still well done.

Bureau A’s Antoine is a house and a sculpture in one. The wooden cabin blends in the rocky hillside of the Swiss Alps thanks to its irregular concrete exterior. Inside it is a fireplace, bed, table, stool and window. More at designboom.

This German shop makes beautiful lamps using discarded motor vehicle headlights. Aside from bearing scuff marks, rust and other signs of wear, some of the lamps are also decorated with other automotive parts like odometers.

A group of scientists study a demon frog in a towering laboratory as its fellow creatures look on in this stunning award-winning diorama by Cristoph Blumenthal. Check out his gallery to see just how detailed and alive it looks.

A compilation of animated GIFs created by 38 artists from around the world. To make things interesting, composer Paul Fraser created the music before the GIFs were turned in, then Kevin Sukho Lee sequenced them to go with the track.

The Recidivist is a modded Harley Davidson Softail adorned with tattooed leather on its tires, tanks, seat, rear fender and more. Polish tattoo artists Tomasz Lech and Krzysztof Krolak spent a total of 250 hours inking the bike.

Cardboard Safari’s laser-cut build-it-yourself skull models come in a variety of color schemes, including white, black, natural and zebra-striped. Choose from a 2-3/4″ tall or 6″ tall versions. The boxed edition is especially awesome.

Equal parts decorative and functional. Designer Tony Ruth recommends “using it to clamp verbally associated objects together into some sort of visual pun: bacon and eggs, salt and pepper, turner and hooch.”

This short film impressively mimics the styles of Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Alfonso Cuarón, and Terrence Malick – using nothing but visuals and music from Shutterstock’s stock footage and audio library.

Animator Nathan Hibberd attempts to teach us how to animate a character in Autodesk Maya, when the animation decides to school him instead. A clever idea, seemingly inspired by a the classic 4th-wall busting of Bugs and Daffy.

Miss playing with that Spirograph you had when you were a kid? Look no further than Inspirograph, an interactive browser-based Spirograph emulator, designed by Nathan Friend. Say goodbye to your afternoon.