Awesome Art & Design

In 1971, the 1,250 foot-tall Empire State Building was the tallest building on Earth. Today, the Burj Khalifa, is more than twice that height, at 2,717 feet. MetaBallStudios offers up a visual comparison of the tallest skyscrapers along with some planned and conceptual future projects which could tower over the Burj.

Swiss watchmaker VAULT expands its collection of artful automatic watches. The V2+ RCT features a 5-part chassis Fatcarbon’s Dark-Matter carbon composite, a layered 3D display with Super-LumiNova numerals, a titanium hour disc, an 18k gold-plated minute hand, and a salmon skin and ostrich leather strap.

WIRED introduces us to LEGO Master Model Builder PJ Catalano. Since 2013, he’s has been building incredible LEGO structures at LEGOLAND California. In this episode of Obsessed, PJ talks about the basics of LEGO construction, how to make letters with bricks, and how his creations come to life. Also, we need those LEGO pliers.

Looking for a unique idea for a Christmas tree? Woodworker TyeMadeIt shows off a tree he made by cutting 288 wooden stakes to different lengths then stacked them on a pole and twisted them. Since making the one shown in the video, he’s been commissioned to make custom ones for clients. Build video here.

dP Art Drawing has made some pretty sweet flipbook animations. While these typically require hundreds of sheets of paper, he wanted to see what would be possible with a single sheet of paper. Over the course of 52 days, he drew 211 frames of art, erasing and redrawing portions of each image to create this animation.

Illustrating just how interdependent the world has become, artist Neil Mendoza built The Fragility of Complexity, a motorized, kinetic art installation composed of a row of hammers that rotate perilously close to a series of moving light bulbs. Neil says only a single light bulb was broken during its construction.

Ukraine-based shop Flampic makes wonderful wooden desk lamps. Among their creative designs is this adorable dog lamp. Its articulated legs and tail let you pose it in a nearly endless variety of charming poses. Available with metal wing nuts or handcrafted wood hardware.

Iron fences are typically made by shaping and welding together multiple pieces of metal. But this factory uses a technique where entire fence sections are cast in large molds, with multiple workers pouring in molten metal to fill in the complete pattern at once.

3D Sanago once again shows off their 3D pen skills by creating a miniature of the creepy killer doll from the Red Light Green Light episode of Squid Game. It even has a rotating head and plays authentic sound effects. English subtitles available.

New York City’s public transit system carries millions of passengers each day, so it’s bound to have its share of items left behind on its seats and platforms. Vicente Cueto’s documentary short film tells the story of lost items and their owners, as told by Sonny Drayton of NYC’s Subways and Buses Lost & Found department.

Official Día de los Muertos celebrations took place in early November, but with this deck of cards, you can pay tribute to those who came before us any time. Artist Brad Fulton, Illustrator Jeff Trish, and Art of Play created these fantastic playing cards featuring a heaping helping of skulls and skeletons living their best afterlives.

Insight Editions offers a glimpse inside the mind of filmmaker and adventurer James Cameron. The 392-page coffee table book is packed with exclusive images from Cameron’s personal archives, revealing concepts that led to classics like The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic, and Avatar, plus other films that were never produced.

This easy-to-use desktop 3D printer is designed for kids. The printer works with a mobile app filled with hundreds of toy designs and includes eight filament colors (aka “printer food”) for cranking out creations. Save an extra 20% on Black Friday with code BFSAVE20 in The Awesomer Shop.

Filmmaker Jan van IJken offeers a look at the microscopic world of plankton. These fascinating organisms can be found everywhere you find water and are a critical part of our ecosystem. Some provide food for marine life, while others produce oxygen through photosynthesis. Stream the full 15-minute version here.

The classic lava lamp finally gets the rocketship makeover it deserves. Created by lava lamp originators Mathmos, the Saturn Giant floor lamp measures 5 feet tall and stands on a trio of shiny aluminum legs. Each one is handmade in the UK and can be ordered in one of 10 lava color combinations.

We’ve seen how The Mandalorian uses a giant wraparound screen and camera tracking tech to produce immersive environments. Jelle Vermandere doesn’t have a Disney-sized budget, so instead, he built a homebrew rig that uses a ring of lights synced with a virtual environment to match his lighting to the scene.

The Zen Work Pod provides a soundproof space that’s perfect for getting away from the kids while you work. It’s made from wood, aluminum, and tempered glass, and comes with shelving, a SmartDesk Connect, a ErgoChair Pro+, and more. Assembly takes just a day. It’s currently on sale for $21,000, including free US shipping.

This experimental short film from Pixar effects artists and director Krzysztof Rost is quite the departure from their story- and character-driven productions. Instead, we’re presented with a wordless world to bear witness to nature’s fury. We’d love to see a crisp 4K version, as YouTube’s compression algorithm destroys the detail.

Artist Amy Tannenbaum works in a variety of media to create her works. In addition to making portraits from twirled yarn and magazine clippings, she creates images out of tiny slivers of colored paper. Here she shows off a detailed image of a tiger that she made using the cut paper technique.

After a long hiatus, film essayist Kaptain Kristian is back with a great video about the subtle and not-so-subtle audiovisual tricks that Stanley Kubrick and music editor Gordon Stainforth pulled to intensify the horror and suspense of The Shining. As he mentions, it’s a film that masterfully reveals more with each viewing.

This new variant of the awesomely spinny Mezmocoin adds a colorful image to its top. The precision-machined discs spin smoothly for up to 12 minutes and fascinate the eyes with their holographic images of galaxies set beneath a clear resin dome.

Nicholas ‘Nico’ Martin took a MINI Electric and wrapped it in 2000 Twinkly LED smart lights. The festive electric car is touring various locations in the UK this holiday season, bringing cheer and helping to raise awareness and donations for three charitable causes: The MS Trust, Duchenne UK, and the Alzheimer’s Society.

Artist Steven Richter is known for creating impressively realistic busts. In this video from 2020, he makes a 1:2-scale sculpture of himself which he posed making an even tinier 1:4-scale version of himself. We need to go deeper!

South Carolina’s Moore Than Just a Book makes works of illuminated using layers of laser-cut paper under glass to create a silhouetted depth effect. Our favorite is this scene inspired by the world of Super Mario. It measures 8″h x 10″w and comes with either a black or white frame.

You’d think that a simple Walk/Don’t Walk sign would be enough to keep people from crossing against traffic, but it’s not. VFXHD came up with some creative methods for keeping pedestrians from getting run over. While the boxing gloves and hammer setups are silly, the water curtain and pop-up barriers aren’t bad ideas.

58Products‘ playful porcelain pieces bring a smile to faces with their silly and expressive characters straight out of a Disney cartoon. They come in various shapes and sizes, including bowls, cups, mugs, sugar bowls, and storage jars.