okay, it’s official, i have found my favourite website in the world. Simon Foster is a designer and former DJ who has rolled his love of design and music into the magically epic Decorated Playlists. i have already made my way through Run For Cover Part One and Part Two featuring cover songs 99% of which i didn’t even know existed. not only is the music selection superb (and highly educational) – the site is an absolute dream to use.
i was recently given a beautifully designed scarf as a gift, which i am tempted to have framed because the design itself is far more interesting to me than actually wearing the scarf. now i’m having second thoughts after seeing these silk scarves designed by textile designers Amélie Charroin & Marie Colin-Madan for Milleneufcentquatrevingtquatre - which means 1984 in french, the year of birth of the two designers. it’s quite awesome to see how such interesting designs transform depending on how you wear the pieces.
Based in Lyon, the historic cradle of silk, and passionate about art – they decided to play with the codification of the silk scarf and create their own collections of printed squares. Their printed scaffolded four hands are steeped in both the traditional world of square flat frame and a contemporary design influenced by the music, clips, videos, painting, art history… Their images combine unique mixed media, drawing,painting, photomontage.
(google translated from french)
i briefly mentioned Melbourne based design company A Friend of Mine (quite literally) a few years ago when i was blabbing about how i like my coffee, and in the same breath how much i liked their identity design for a coffee bar in London called Milkbar . they are unsurprisingly still doing amazing design work – some of which i couldn’t resist sharing
i am pretty fussy when it comes to jewellery. i can appreciate beautiful pieces but actually wearing something is a different story. i don’t like anything gaudy or flashy and i really, really have to love something in order to wear it. so -my eyes almost popped out of their sockets when i saw this ring by mirta jewellery over at amateur couture. the designer andrea simic is an architecture student who makes jellewery on the side. i would wear all these pieces.
i discovered The Elements of Happiness by designer Laura Javier via Things Organised Neatly (great tumblr, highly recommended) and spent the next while paging through the online copy. it is beautifully designed and, certainly, an incredibly interesting read.
The Harvard Study of Adult Development is the longest prospective study of mental and physical well-being ever conducted. For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been following 824 individuals through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. In this book, I’ve taken 10 representative case studies and visualized their salient character traits, personal timeline, social supports, and physical health to draw conclusions about “the happy life.”
i can picture an arrangement of origami animals by south african origami artist quentin trollip on a table somewhere in my house. that would be magic. these have been designed & folded from a single uncut square of paper (where the animals have more than one colour two pieces are MC’d together)
you may remember the jewellery by oh dear megan from alix’s things i like right now post. i really love megan‘s stuff, especially the pieces that incorporates old south african pennies & military buttons. the pieces made from watch parts also have a great steampunk feeling to them. my kinda jewellery. you can buy some of her stuff at spence now.
bia van deventer is a graphic designer from cape town. she recently completed the beautiful vintage inspired styling & design work for the debut album of local gypsy band manouche.
i love the detailing in the band members’ dresses – click on the image for a better view
like minded studio created this amazing print campaign for a new australian documentary called immigration nation
jan and rohan run a graphic design company called fanakalo in my hometown of stellenbosch. i regularly see their designs when i’m walking around town, especially on posters for local markets and on many a south african wine.
i LOVE this wine label design they did for helderberg wijnmakerij. i remember seeing it for the first time when i was wandering around in my supermarket’s wine section trying to decide what to get. living in the winelands means we are spoilt for choice & on top of that i’m a total wine heathen… i don’t really know what is good or not (when it’s cheap it’s bad, right?) THEN i saw this bottle and picked it up right away. another case of judging a book (slash wine) by its cover – this usually works out for me, though. if something has a great design 99% of the time the product is great too.
the rest of their work is wonderful too…
all designs by fanakalo
