Awesome Art & Design

Artist Etienne Cliquet creates intricate paper cut designs, which measure less than an inch wide, then unfold (and fold) to form new shapes as water gradually invades the paper via capillary action.

We wouldn’t usually use the word “Epic” to describe a grand piano, but Robert Majkut’s Roland-powered digital grand piano, inspired by the beauty of the sea-faring mammals is truly deserving of the word.

Director Chris Milk created this interactive music video for ROME, a project by Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi featuring Jack White & Norah Jones. Using WebGL tech, it plays best in Chrome Canary.

It wasn’t enough for Duncan Jackson to plan on building a Fortress House. He actually converted an old British defense tower into a home. The views make up for the constant threat of French invaders.

The folks at Dorothy came up with this prototype foam chair based on the original Space Invaders arcade game, sure to make all the time we spend pretending to save the world a little more comfy.

Designed to prove that you can live in a space just 3x3x3m with a carbon-neutral footprint, The Cube is a complete home, with a living, dining, kitchen, sleeping quarters and a (yuck) composting toilet.

A cartoon re-telling of Swan Lake made the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper. Also it stars sumo wrestlers. Greg Holfeld spent 5 weeks drawing a total of 1300 stills to make the cartoon.

Michael Kritzer is the talent behind the Buell Cratetable, perfect for tinkerers; the bike crate that the motorcycle arrives in is pre-cut to be repurposed into a useable workbench.

An aluminum lounge chair that looks like it was made with bulldozer parts. Despite its utilitiarian appearance, the chair is supposedly comfortable, and its parts will be adjustable via the red knobs.

Designer Keita Ogawa created these icy LED lightbulbs that look like they’ve melted into a pool of water. Unfortunately, you can’t buy these, but at least you can look at them and wish you could.

A brilliant short film about two containers of milk, made by Catsnake for Friends of the Earth. The props and scenes are so effective, we constantly had to check if the containers were animated.

Jillian Mayer has a message for her future grandchild: “That incomprehensible old hag is not me, that bedridden body is not me, that corpse is not me. This is me, child. Also, babies are scary.”

Designer Aeron Tozier’s hyper-modern furniture collection is crafted from composite carbon fiber and resin-coated brass. Quilted leather cushions echo the geometry of those modern materials.

Illustrator A.J. Hateley’s ongoing series Thirty Days of Videogames features beautiful vintage-style fake book covers inspired by videogames. You can get some of them as prints here.

We loved these interlocking blocks the first time we saw them. Now win one of three 256-piece Blocklets kits, worth $50 each. (Contest Has Ended, Thanks for Your Entries!)

The University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library houses up to 3.5 million books and periodicals in its underground robotic shelving system delivering books to readers in a minimal reading room.

Designed by Jurgen Mayer H. and located in Seville, Spain, it’s the world’s largest wooden structure. Its sweeping forms are captured in these photos by Fernando Alda and David Franck.

While we’re still not huge fans of typing on touchscreens, you’ve got to hand it to Laura Lahti for her thoughtful dual-screen Keyless Lifebook with its fully customizable keyboard and trackpad.

By taking a gigantic electromagnet and a bunch of pit balls loaded with their own electromagnets, Physalia Studio manages to create the greatest plaything ever. Or it could just be CGI. Still cool.

A Skywalker Ranch staff bike pimped with an Episode V theme. Accessories include a Hasbro AT-AT head, Master Replicas FX lightsabers, and a chrome Vader head from a PEZ dispenser.

Sam Klemke captured a small bit of his life every year for the last 35 years, compiling them all into a bittersweet clip that moves backwards in time all the way back to when he was 20 years-old.

Designers from Makhno Workshop really captured the essence of a twister with storm cloud chairs, raindrop light fixtures and splintered walls for this restaurant in Kiev. Maybe the food’s good too.

Taking design cues from a simple toaster, Michael Kritzer’s Day Maker concept would charge two iPhones, popping them up when the alarm goes off in the morning. Needs more toast wallpaper.