Awesome Art & Design

DanCreator has made some pretty amazing cardboard objects over the years. Now he’s gone and built not one, but three full-size vending machines out of the corrugated brown paper. Not only do they look like the real thing, but the soda fountain, can dispenser, and instant ramen machine are fully functional.

One of the simplest but most entertaining games out there is Rock, Paper, Scissors. We think it can be pretty intense with the right participants, but the guys from Corridor amped up the drama by turning it into the storyline for an original anime. Who will reign supreme in this epic clash?

Lollipops are a fun way to enjoy hard candy. They’re even better when they’re edible works of art. Food Kingdom takes us inside Orbsei, a factory in Korea that makes spherical, sugar-free lollies that look like planets and galaxies. What makes them even more amazing is how much handwork goes into each one.

Classic arcade machines have a big cabinet necessitated by a CRT monitor and multiple circuit boards. Jody Del Bianco’s Plycade embraces modern tech like a flat screen and a compact PC and sets them into a 28mm-thick plywood cabinet for a small footprint and a light, airy design. A wall-mounted version is also in the works.

MyronDesign creates concrete decor inspired by architecture. Among their pieces are these desk organizer cubes, which look like tiny houses. Each has cutouts for storing pens, pencils, office supplies, or, as one buyer suggested, Astroturf. Sold in a set of four. Save 5% with the code THEAWESOMER.

Steampunk Interiors handcrafts unique switchplates that turn standard U.S. light switches into hefty machinery controls. They feature steel plates and gears, with available copper or wooden handles. They come in single, double, triple, and quadruple versions, as well as dimmer knobs made from water valves.

Computational designer Hassan Ragab shows how AI-generated imagery can be used to create unique and original art. He made architecture come to life by feeding MONDAY12’s footage of model Lauren Johnson into Stable Diffusion, prompting it to generate buildings in her shape, then post-processed the transitions.

You can find all sorts of great household items and furniture at IKEA. But if you ignore the assembly instructions and make up your own, it’s possible to hack together stuff that’s not in their catalog. Tchiks guitars shows us how he used wood from various things from IKEA and turned them into a great-sounding electric guitar.

Photographer Kien Lam has been traveling the globe for over a decade. He spent 343 days before the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 shooting this spectacular time-lapse video. In all, he visited 17 countries by plane, train, and bus, and shot more than 6200 images. You can follow Kien’s ongoing adventures at Where and Wander.

Wild Oaks Metal Works handcrafts these unique desk lamps from steel and copper. Their conical shade and articulated base pay homage to the iconic Anglepoise lamp, but with a brawny industrial look. The gears and chains are functional too – turn the crank to adjust its height. They also make an extended-reach version.

Macrofying is an expert at capturing macro and slow-motion imagery. This compilation video shows incredible close-up footage of everyday objects, including a ballpoint pen, a dissolving pill capsule, a cigarette lighter, and salt poured from a shaker. We’re still scratching our heads about how they shot the zooming effect.

Maker BigWR takes a momentary break from building strange bicycles to show off another skill. After taping a pattern around two glass bottles, he used a well-lubricated glass cutter to slice perfect spirals out of their sides. Then he got to the really tricky bit – separating the pieces without shattering the parts he wanted to keep.

Celebrate your love for classic video games every time you take a sip with these fun drink coasters from CoastyMarshmallow. These hard plastic coasters are inspired by both arcade and console games, from Street Fighter II to Dance Dance Revolution to Q*Bert. They also have an extensive pop culture coaster collection.

If you’ve eaten at a Japanese restaurant, you’ve probably seen a maneki-neko. These decorative cat figurines are believed to bring good luck to those who possess one, so they’re incredibly popular. Process X visited the Umetsuki Tomimoto Doll Garden factory, birthplace of roughly 80% of ceramic maneki-neko sold in Japan.

Woodworker Paul Jackman’s latest reclaimed pallet wood project is a biggie, literally. After facing off in a table tennis tourney with fellow maker Giaco Whatever, he decided the best way to make sure no balls got past him was to build an oversize ping pong paddle. Check out the full build log and gallery on Imgur.

Petros Vrellis created an amazing kind of portrait inspired by philosopher Heraclitus, whose doctrine was that everything is both connected and not connected. Each image in the artist’s Out of all things one, and out of one all things is an individual abstract pattern but reveals a face when layered. Matthew 21:31 combines multiple faces.