Awesome Art & Design

Catch a glimpse of this unusual office building located in Hyderabad, India – shaped like a giant fish. Naturally, it houses the National Fisheries Development Board. Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger rod and reel.

Boston-based artist Jake Fried has created a very entertaining, minute long animation with ink, gouache, white-out and coffee, drawn by hand. You might want to watch it more than once – the details are rich and fleeting.

Watch the Airigami team assemble one of their latest creations at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. It’s a 20-foot balloon acrocanthosaurus, accompanied by balloon plants and insects. More photos here.

Graphic artist Matt W. Moore created this series of diagonally-illustrated ceramic tiles which can be rearranged into numerous configurations, allowing for a wide variety of eyeball-stimulating Op-Art patterns.

Johan Scherft makes realistic life-size papercraft scale models of birds. He makes templates on a PC then paints the printed templates by hand. He also has a few colored templates on his site and tutorials on YouTube.

Designer Thibaut Rouganne came up with the Envol, a portable desk for frequent travelers who could use a workspace on the go. The Envol can be used on a table or while in bed. It also doubles as a briefcase.

Artist Jeff Nichol pays tribute to the great Willie Nelson with an amazing paper cut portrait in honor of the Red Headed Stranger’s 80th birthday. The track is a chill remix of Willie’s Georgia on My Mind by Worldwide Groove Corp.

Made by Joseph Sandor, the Pirate Pancake Griddle is a cast-iron mold with a skull & crossbones design. Makes three 5″ pancakes per batch. The griddle can also be used to fry other food. Plus, blueberry eyeballs.

Seat belts save lives. Thabto’s Buckle Up saves keys. Made from an actual seat belt buckle, it comes with a keychain that lets you clip your keys to the buckle. Available in three colors.

Suck UK’s take on the intentionally fragile piggy bank. What’s funny is that an Amazon customer claims that you don’t need to break the glass because the back cover can easily be removed. Also it’s made only from plastic.

We’ve seen a way to put your favorite t-shirts on display. Boox does that for books. Available in three sizes, it’s a glass case with squishy rubber orbs that hold an opened book in place.

Mike Mitchell shows his love of the movies by creating his digitally produced collection of favorite film characters; if you’re in Austin 4/26-5/25/13, check them out in person at Mondo.

Designed by Andrea Ponti, each Fusion kitchen knife is handmade from a single piece of wood, either ebony or white maple. Available in two different lengths and in serrated and non-serrated versions. Contact Andrea to order.

An upcoming product from Quirky, the RotoBlade is a more versatile version of the box cutter. A knob lets you change the blade’s orientation so you can use it to scrape or rip in addition to cutting.

Russia’s Art Lebedev Studios outs a watch that beautifully integrates the look of nature into its face, inspired by the rings of a tree. We only wish it were made from actual wood. Maybe they can get together with the guys at Mica.

DIY Print Shop sells kits that contain almost everything you need to make screen printed posters or T-shirts, including a manual and instructional DVD. You’ll have to supply the electronic printer though.

UK artist Dylan Shields crafts his intricate sculptures out of old potato chip boxes and packing tape. Much of what he creates is rather epic, which fits with his use of biblical themes.

The BlueBulb is an LED bulb that you can control from an iOS device. No word on pricing yet, but since it uses Bluetooth instead of connecting over the Internet, it should be more affordable than the Philips Hue or the LIFX.

(Some images NSFW) Artist Ben Frost has chosen an unusual canvas for his art – he uses McDonald’s iconic french fry packaging as the backdrop for some of his pop art paintings. Only one question: Where’s Frylock?

Designed by Lucien Langton, the FireWriter is a dot-matrix printer that uses a torch to burn images into a surface instead of ink. Not only is it highly impractical, it’s a major fire hazard. Still, the ink cartridges are a bargain.

Loopwheels are unusual 20″ bicycle wheels with built-in suspension in the form of flexible carbon composite springs. The wheels still work with conventional hub brakes and gears.

A group of art students at the UK’s University of Derby have been creating a series of images using the CMYK halftone technique to reproduce color photos – with one minor difference – they’re drawing every single dot by hand.

Explosive lamps designed by Docstone.  Mister Boom is a light switch shaped like a comically large and old-fashioned detonator, while Little Miss Dynamite is a small dial switch. Both connect to dynamite-shaped “light bombs.”