The Donut Project

To celebrate the release of The Plus Series, the next generation of the classic Pantone Matching System, Base worked with director Greg Mitnick and producer/Cool Hunting editor Ami Kealoha to give a rare look into the behind-the-scenes of the design world’s color standard.

Dutch designers Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn began developing the idea of creating community-driven art interventions in Brazil. After painting two murals in Vila Cruzeiro, Hass & Hahn began the third stage of their Favela Painting project in the community of Santa Marta. Located in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, Santa Marta is one of Brazil’s most notorious ‘favelas’ or shantytowns. Employing local residents and training them in professional painting techniques and safety, the final result was a huge work of art spanning 34 houses.

I’m always in awe when I see projects like this. It’s hard to imagine something so dramatic and so colorful on buildings here in the States.

(via kitsune noir)

These postcards by Sweet Tart gave me a little chuckle. Darling illustrations with a “tart” message. Purchase yours here.

Eric Daugh uses thumbtacks to make large portraits of people. Sort of along the lines of
Christian Faur’s crayon art we posted a while back, Daugh uses a 3D round object, thumbtacks, to create a pointillist piece of art. These large pieces look realistic from far away but are very abstract up close.

It’s obvious whoever wrote his description/bio owns a thesaurus:

Using push pins, the innocuous, adhesive, near-detritus of our everyday Eric creates the view from here. His work is that rare arial perspective of the faces we see everyday, the vistas of common personalities, the longview of the human. You can stand up close, squint into the vacu-formed industrial sheen of some common object but such a perspective only argues the atomic structure of his work. As we pull back one quotidian reference morphs into another, objects become portraits, the pedestrian becomes sublime. Molecules, pixels, cultivated fields all speak to his medium. He starts with a flat 5 color cadence, all just rhythmic loops, then relationships form, a singularity shifts into subtle congress and depth and tones appear. We step back further and slowly, as if through the portal of some remote ship we suddenly recognize. That’s us. That’s me. His grids are pictoral DNA, a seemingly simple sequence that when sounded in its complexity reveals the honesty of the unreapeatable person.

I wish artists’ bios simply spoke human. Anyways, the work is awesome, and I want some of it on my wall, and that’s all that really matters.

See more of his work at his site, including a mega-cool high-resolution-zooming-thingy which lets you zoom in and out to view the piece, or the tacks: www.daigh.com.

The Shibafu Table, by Emmanuelle Moureaux is a table with 56 slender colored acrylic feet randomly arranged into a table top of transparent acrylic. “The sticks support the transparent acrylic panel, while refracting and reflecting light as if they were soaking under water.” HOLY SHIT. The way the light is dispersed, it looks like tons more of the rods are in the ‘water’ than are actually there. So cool.

(via mocoloco)

On such a dull Monday here in Cleveland, the bold colors in Stina Persson’s illustrations are really brightening my day. This Swedish illustrator uses watercolor, cut paper, and photography to create these stunning pieces. Enjoy more of her work here.

(via simple blueprint)

I was so thrilled to see a tweet from Mig Reyes about the new Heads of State From Sea to Shining Sea posters. I immediately bought the Philadelphia one for my boyfriend who recently moved there and I can’t wait to see it in person! For only $40 ($30 + $10 shipping for me) you too can have your very own. In printed runs of 100, you have to hurry before they’re gone! See the entire collection and purchase them here.

Really great poster work and design from Adam the Velcro Suit. See more of his work on his flickr, here.

via ok great

Stunning double exposure photographs from Fiona’s flickr photostream. She has a great collection of photos with stunning color and light and I highly recommend a little trip over to her flickr stream to get some color in your life. This overcast grey sky is really getting to me! Check her photos out here.

via mustard & sage

A representation of the evolution of Crayon colors since 1903. The original 8 colors are now 120 colors! An interesting read at: Weather Sealed