For all those 8 year old modern architecture lovers out there, comes this new lego version of Frank Lloyd Wright's seminal creation, Fallingwater - one of the few modernist buildings that seems to integrate entirely and perfectly with its natural surroundings.
I'd never heard of these guys Marimekko before, they make pretty fabrics, which are mostly a bit boringly retro for me, but some patterns and items they sell do have a bold and quirky charm about them. Their website and online catalogue are very nice too....but shouldn't talented designers like them be doing something else by now - I mean this retro 70's funky wallpaper revival stuff has been going on for about 10 years now....
Ohhh yeah, sexy french car alert! This one, never actually made in a driveable version, was called the Citroen Karin, produced in 1980 - of course the 3 seats and the acre of dashboard are totally ridiculous, but the looks.........ooh la la!
And I think you can certainly see the genesis of the later, lovely BX in this styling exercise
Apparently Harry Beck didn't just start and finish his career with his famous London Underground map design, he also had a go at Paris too...
A collection of weird and wonderful digital watches
this one had a built in drum machine (!?)
What is that? Some kind of bizarre retro-futurist jet car? - Its actually a vacuum cleaner (sans hose) produced by Panasonic in Japan in the 1960's.
I think that this was the first plastic-constructed vacuum cleaner ever built, and with its swivelling track wheel on the bottom and light weight durability (along with gorgeous futuristic looks) it helped to usher in the new era of plastic consumer goods.
Goddamnit I just love all those amazing front cover designs on old penguin paperbacks. so many of them look great even today, and they do seem to have an 'aura' about them, they have widely differing styles, yet are so instantly recognisable and nostalgically redolent.
There's a whole load to be seen on this Flickr page
They should make posters of all of these designs and I could buy some & actually make my house look kind of cool, instead of like a granny's house that has been accidentally squatted by some teenagers.
I randomly stumbled across THIS WEBSITE, which shows a collection of soviet-era calculators, many of which are quite cool to look at
Original dazzle camouflage designs that have been added to the
Rhode Island School of Design website
dazzle:
Created by artist Norman Wilkinson, dazzle was very popular in WW1, and to a lesser extent in WW2. Dazzle was not meant to camouflage the ship in a conventional sense, but to create an optical illusion, making it hard for observers using naval rangefinders to gauge the size of the vessel and the speed & direction it was headed, making them harder to be hit by naval artillery.
Apparently there is great debate as to whether the dazzle had much effect, most agreed that it was rather uneffective against submarines, but there was great credence put on the morale boosting power to the troops of seeing such large and lethal machinery bedecked in such exciting patterns and colours. It also increased the morale of people not involved in fighting; hundreds of wonderfully coloured ships in dock was like nothing ever seen before or since.
This looks like a pretty amazing design indeed. It was a proposal for the new Taipei Centre for The Performing Arts, and was to contain 3 large theatres. Unfortunately it appears that the architects hadn't thought at all about the acoustics of those theatres, and so the design was shelved. Pity.
found HERE
They've been round for a while now, but they are still lovely! People will always need plates make lovely, very expensive plates and mugs using vector drawings of modernist architecture. I'm not sure how many of them ever get used to eat off of though. I'm pretty sure that most of them get hung up on walls!
These two wonderfully sexy bits of kit are both French - and unfortunately for now, both just prototypes! Why oh why can't they just put these things on the road??? I'll never understand car designers!
The top photo is an updated Renault Megane, and the bottom pic is the new Citroen DS - yes, that's right, DS - as in the sleek cult classic that doesn't look anything like the pic above. Personally I think it's good that Citroen have avoided going down the mini/beetle/fiat 500 retro look, which frankly is a bit passe and wouldn't have done the iconic DS justice -
It seems that what Citroen have decided to do is work within the 'ethos' of the original DS to attempt to produce a truly ground-breaking and class leading small car that is technologically streets ahead of it's rivals (and probably rather more expensive)
both pics and further details (in french) at
FUBIZ
Up till now, I had never considered roboticizing my keys. But now I want to. More than anything in the whole world
robo key covers
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