Awesome Art & Design

Backgammon is one of those old-school board games that deserves more love. This Lucite game set from Sunnylife is a nice upgrade from cheap boards. Its see-through board doubles as a carrying case and has built-in trays for its colorful game pieces and translucent dice. They also make Lucite versions of Jenga, Connect 4, and Chess/Checkers.

This animated short film by Luke Etcheverry takes inspiration from the Bloodhound supersonic race car. It follows the story of a driver, a high-speed test drive that goes wrong, and his resolve to get back on his high-horsepower horse and try again. The 16-bit anime pixel art style makes it that much better.

Filmmaker Joerg Daiber traveled to the wonderland of Alaska. While he says the weather wasn’t great during his visit, he still captured some incredible aerial footage of its natural beauty, including glaciers, wildlife, waterways, plus some of its urban areas. As always, Joerg used time-lapse and tilt-shift techniques to produce a magical, miniature effect.

This limited-edition poster from artist Danny Haas and Mondo celebrates the classic 1980s TV series Voltron. The vibrant 18″ x 24″ print features the Defender of the Universe itself and the five pilots who combined forces (and their robot lions) to form the mighty mech.

Add some whimsy to your house plants with these goofy tentacles from CraftIRL. The set of eight 3D-printed tentacles turns your plants into an undersea wonderland as an imaginary octopus dances between the leaves. They vary in shape for visual interest and come in small and medium sizes in many colors. We love the glow-in-the-dark suckers.

This artfully animated short film by filmmaker Kei Kanamori took home Silver in the 51st Student Academy Awards. Its concept is simple, but its execution is sublime – as a magical character transforms folded sheets of CG-animated paper into living plants and creatures. Think Fantasia, but with paper.

To celebrate Monument Valley 3, Netflix and Ustwo Games released this animated short that builds on the style of the artful puzzle game. The short drops us onto a mysterious island where Sula is on a quest to get to a towering lighthouse to send a signal of hope to everyone on the planet. We loved seeing this universe fleshed out in three dimensions.

In this video from That Works, master swordsmith Ilya Alekseyev shows off his skills by designing and fabricating one of the most beautiful swords we’ve ever seen. Ilya used traditional and modern techniques to create the iron, damascus steel, and silver piece. Dubbed Transubstantiation, the sword is both a work of art and a functional weapon.

This tabletop gadget from Keebmonkey has 12 quartz glass tubes filled with colorful LEDs that move to the beat of your music or other sounds. We like how it combines the high-tech look of its tubes with the warm, natural look of its walnut wood frame. It has a built-in microphone to detect sounds and ten selectable light effects.

A volumetric display is one that can display images with height, width, and depth. James Brown, aka Ancient shows how he created a display that uses spinning LED panels to create 3D moving images via persistence of vision. He mounted its components inside of an acrylic sphere so it looks like a high-tech crystal ball. Like all cool gadgets, it even plays DOOM.

Istanbul, Turkey artist Woodmess Design Studio creates these eye-catching modern cuckoo clocks. Each handcrafted clock is made from layers of birch plywood embellished with colorful paints and varnish. Each hour, a mechanical bird pops its head out, chirps, flaps its wings, and makes its cuckoo sounds. The bird is smart enough to stay quiet overnight.

Piece together one of Jay Gatsby’s notorious parties, where real and fictional figures from the life and books of The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald are hidden in the puzzle’s busy scene. Find Daisy, Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway, and Waldo (just kidding) surveying the wreckage as you puzzle towards the story’s tragic conclusion. Illustrated by Adam Simpson.

Can you tell a diamond from a piece of glass? We just watched this animation by Meat Dept., and we came away both hypnotized and perplexed. The surreal short is populated with strange-looking characters embroiled in a war that involves interpretive dance, shawarma cookers, and jet-powered wingsuits. The clip is underscored with an excellent track by Arlo.

SkyArt makes unique furniture and home decor that incorporate aircraft parts. Their Mono Rocket Coffee Table features a combustion chamber from an Airbus A320 jet airliner. It has a tempered glass top with a custom wood and metal structure. The table measures 55cm (21.6″) wide and (20.8″) high, so it’s more of a side table than a coffee table, though.

Most phone stands are made from plastic, wood, or metal. This LEGO-inspired phone stand is carved from stone. It holds phones between its studs and has cutouts for routing a charging cable. Available in orange jasper, green serpentine, and creamy soapstone. Each 3.25″ brick is handmade in Peru by DAR Proyectos and available from Art of Play.

Instantly upgrade skateboards, club bathrooms, and anything lame with some of the world’s coolest street art by slapping on a peel-off sticker from these two legendary Stickerbomb books. Updated for Laurence King, each edition is awesomer than ever with more than 300 artist-commissioned stickers. Grab both books: Stickerbomb 1 and Stickerbomb 2.