Awesome Art & Design

LCDs and LEDs are everywhere, from smartphones to watches to TVs, to headlights. Musician and tech enthusiast Posy dives deep into one specific use of these technologies – displays which use segments to create numbers and letters. After a little history, he shows off some concepts for his own segmented designs.

A compact and more affordable version of the awesome looking HyperCube led light cube. The 5.5″ USB-powered cube offers 95 pre-programmed light patterns and can react to sound and music. It works with a mobile app to control its animations, and multiple cubes can be synced together.

Wood seems like a terrible material to make a cushion out of, given its hardness. But Kurahito Craft shows how – with a little ingenuity – it’s feasible to build a pliable (and possibly comfortable) wooden seat using a wooden spring-making technique.

Not only did artist New Car come up with a design for an original concept car, but they also created a 3D sculpture of it using one of those filament pens that works like a free-form 3D printer. The most time-consuming part of the project was all of the sanding and smoothing.

This elegant drawing tool deserves a place on your desktop, not hidden away in a drawer. The brass and steel tool adjusts to create and measure circles from 3 to 70 mm in diameter and includes a walnut insert for centering. We also love their brass Stria folding ruler. (Thanks Richard!)

Artist DP Truong is always coming up with clever and different ways to draw portraits. This time out, they just used a pencil, but the trick is that it was covered with thorns on every side, making it incredibly difficult to grip and sharpen without causing pain.

North Drinkware makes these unique drink coasters based on the topography of mountains. Each laser-cut birch wood coaster features a shape and engraving inspired by famous mountain locations, from Oregon’s Mt. Hood to Vermont’s Camel’s Hump. Sold in sets of two. We also love their mountain glassware.

NeonIcons makes all kinds of cool wall art from LED neon for a bright glow without the fragility of traditional neon tubes. One of our favorite pieces is this pop art of Monopoly’s Rich Uncle Pennybags holding two sacks of cash and wearing a golden halo. Check out their shop for more awesome designs or to order custom art.

The YouTube channel for Mr Custom Crafts is loaded with unique works of art created from metal. In this video, they show how they turned a metal rod and nails into the immensely creepy and crawly scolopendra gigantea, aka the largest centipede in the world. If you enjoyed watching that, check out the scorpion they made.

Geeky pillow maker Throwboy teamed up with the Mineola Knitting Company to create a colorful series of throw blankets inspired by classic Apple Macintosh imagery. The 50″ X 60″ throws are woven from recycled cotton and polyester, and feature images of the MacOS startup face, the iMac G3, and the 5th-gen iPod.

Artist Lorenzo Drago created this life-like environment using Unreal Engine 5 and Lumen for the lighting. The location is based on Etchū-Daimon Station and is a dead ringer for the real deal. In order to capture the greatest detail, he rendered it at 7fps then sped it up, but it can be rendered in real time with less detail.

Love to solve escape room puzzles? Ohm’s Quest is basically an escape room in a cube. It packs buttons, lights, wire jacks, an accelerometer, an RFID sensor, and a speaker to guide players through an interactive puzzle-solving experience. It comes with three games, and new games will be available via a subscription.

At first glance, this object looks like a square, but with a quick rotation it transforms into a circle. Physicsfun shows off this intriguing optical illusion created by Matt Enlow. When viewed from the side, you can see it’s actually madeup of four identical parabola segments. A 3D print of the model is available from Shapeways.

Slow-motion photographer wmhejiu shows us how to make a no-bake cake using a plate filled with water, a jumbo steel washer, and a high-speed camera. It’s too bad he couldn’t take a bite out of it in the fraction of a second that the cake-shaped splash existed.

Wootz steel is a tough high-carbon metal that’s been used to make swords since the 5th century BC. FZ – Making Knives used the technique to create a beautiful and strong katana by melting down an ingot made from ball bearings, forging it into a blade, then honing it to an incredibly sharp zero-point edge.

Expert LEGO builder Brick Bending loves to make complicated geometric structures using repeating patterns. In this clip, they wanted to see how large of a structure they could build using interlocking circles. Watching the 3200-piece build come together is quite satisfying and reminded us of the Olympic rings more than once.

One of the main benefits of a pocket knife is that it fits in your pocket. That didn’t stop The Q from making a folding knife big enough for Paul Bunyon. The enormous knife measures more than 47″ long when opened and has a hefty steel blade and a rather terrifying automatic mechanism.

Nervous Systems’ unique plywood jigsaw puzzle is made of 216 colorful lizards which fit together to form a nearly infinite number of shapes. Despite the flexibility, each lizard only fits in one spot. Combine multiple Infinity puzzles to make even larger designs.

LEGO builder SleepyCow came up with this awesome design for a miniature bicycle, complete with working steering, spinning pedals, a drive chain, a kickstand, and pneumatic front and rear disc brakes. The design uses 999 authentic LEGO bricks and is currently up for consideration on LEGO Ideas for a production run.

MTB photographer Sterling Lorence walks us through his efforts to capture the perfect shot. To get there, he headed to the mountains of Vancouver’s North Shore and followed riders Brett Rheeder and Jackson Goldstone into the misty woods. A great documentary about the creative process from Anthill Films for Ride Shimano.

Whether or not you’re into the bedroom pop sounds of Cuco’s, the music video for his track Caution is a must-watch. Director Cole Kush and Grin Machine take us on a wild and trippy ride with the singer-songwriter through a dreamlike virtual world. It’s a face-melting good time!

CG creator pwnisher once again challenged artists to make frames for a collaborative video. This time, each creator was provided with a basic animation of the interior of a moving vehicle and let their imaginations run wild. 2448 artists participated. Here are the top 100 renders. And if you’ve 3 hours to spare, here are all of them.

After casting a metal bolt with double threads, Robinson Foundry is back to show off another unusual bolt design. This oversize bolt has a maze thread pattern, which requires a complex sequence of moves to remove its nut. Like many of his other builds, he created ceramic molds over 3D prints, which he melted away.