Awesome Art & Design

First we saw Manhattan 400 years ago, and now it’s horizonless: this poster of Manhattan reminds us of Halo, but it’s actually a curved 3D projection that allows us to see over obstacles.

Celebrate 10 years of collaboration between LEGO and Star Wars: any order placed at LEGOshop.com on 5/3 and 5/4 will get a free, limited edition poster with 160 minifigures.

Thank god for kooky artists like Bill Durovchic; his beautiful Gear Box Sculptures have no discernible use, but are fun for not only burning calories but a nice-sized hole in your wallet.

You Fade To Light is an array of interactive OLEDs, effectively digitizing the shapes and movements of passersby; it was commissioned for Phillips and uses software by Chris O’Shea.

NSFW: Russian designer Ramm ND has an aptly suggestive name, as his racy beer can art is some of the strangest yet smartest we’ve seen; the pantyhose can is pure genius.

It’s only a concept, but Burak Kaynak and Cem Has’ T-shirt Sketchbook is pure genius: the handy shirt shape lets designers easily jot down ideas whenever inspiration strikes them.

This hand-printed silkscreen by illustrator Andy Smith puts a dark humor spin on these trouble times; titled The Face of Disaster, the 33″x23″ poster has a limited run of 20 pieces.

It’s not the most glamorous of materials, but H. Mathis’ Dirt From Every State project is a collection of geographically-shaped soil from the 50 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico).

Sure, it’s a bit rough around the edges, but Angus McLeod’s WWII: The Simple Version is a funny illustrated primer for anyone who needs to bone up on their history. Thanks, Brian!

I Heart Chaos’ Periodic Table of Video Game Characters is one that we could get lost in for a good half hour; they’ve managed to pair (by letter) a character with each real life element.

Known for his quirky steampunk art, we’re devouring all the details in Scott Campbell’s Home Slice exhibition; it’s composed of funky cutaways of rockets, whales and other objects.

Artist Chris Grine is working on an ambitious but very cool project: three new robots each week for an entire year. He’s on #13 but already has several winners, including Warm Tender Heart.

From robots to UFOs to giant monsters, Franco Brambilla takes classic sci-fi staples and mixes them with near-photorealistic imagery; some giclee prints are available here. Thanks, Rick!

Darth Vader never mentions Other Vaders, and with good reason: twang-speakin’ Uncle Garth and bare-butt Barth embarrass the Dark Lord–with the exception of Flavr Vader, of course.

Siberian artist Vitaly Samarin’s work is a fantastic blend of digital and traditional pieces; he specializes in sci-fi and fantasy themes with a leaning towards post apocalyptic scenes.

We’ve seen 3D street art before, but we’re amazed by the sheer scale of Edgar Mueller’s end of the world pieces; who doesn’t relish waking up to a chasm in their driveway?

This 48″ x 18″, poster-sized 2009 Bubble Calendar may not be the best idea for bubble wrapaholics; if we got our hands on one, chances are we’d pop the whole year in a day.

Leading Light Conceptual Design has a gallery of lush concept art for the tentatively named Survivors, a disaster survival game that makes us giddy with post-apocalytic glee.

Infinitely cool for math geeks: Perfectly Scientific’s Prime Number posters show primes up to 2^43112609 – 1; they’re printed so small you’ll need a magnifying glass to read them.

While this Scintillation video is no doubt beautiful, it’s the method that’s most amazing: it’s a 35,000 shot stop-motion film with fantastic DoF focus shifts and live projection mapping.

Somebody get artist Mike Rivamonte a movie studio right now; his retro-styled robots each manage to have a personality all their own, perfect for the next animated short film.

Andy Warhol’s iconography gets Imperial with The Vader Project, a collection of 100 custom fiberglass Vader helmets by street artists including Frank Kozik, Marc Ecko and Dalek.

These 1960s-style paperback covers actually show off contemporary movies including Shaun of the Dead and Big; made by Mitch Ansara, they’re a funky blend of cinema and literature.