Expensive Garbage

Packaging matters... and no other example quite illustrates the point as well as New York-based artist Justin Gignac's initiative started back in 2001.



To prove his point to a colleague that packaging design is integral to increasing the value of a product, he began an experiment which saw the artist collecting and re-packaging trash found on the streets of New York city into specially designed cubes - each signed and dated by the artist.


8 years down the line, New York City Garbage has sold over 1200 items. The collection also boasts "Special Edition" cubes such as 'New Year’s Eve Times Square 1-1-08', at a price starting merely at $100.

Via - PSFK, NYC Garbage

Louis Vuitton Book Promotion

Louis Vuitton will soon be releasing a book called Art and Creation, aimed at the young and aspirant who are continuing to place increasing importance to design. The book is set to cover topics ranging from fashion, art to architecture.

The brand has taken an interesting direction in promoting the new publication in the form of a beautifully crafted online trailer, which should certainly appeal to those with an appreciation for creativity.

Via - Adverblog

Interactive Digital Graffiti

For decades graffiti artists have been actively fighting for their skills to be accepted as an art form, yet society still associates it with vandalism. A UK based company called YR Wall, is set to change all perceptions about graffiti.

The company is launching an interactive digital graffiti wall. The wall avoids the typical negative connotations associated with graffiti, as no paint is used. Graffiti artists paint on a projection screen using a can that's actually an infra-red beam controlled by a button and tracked using a computer vision system.

The spray can’s button works like a cordless mouse and each can is connected to a specific colour. Although this form of virtual digital graffiti will not match the adrenaline of real street graffiti it is a solid contribution to the graffiti renaissance and enables the public to truly celebrate graffiti as an art form.

via: yrwall.com

Burger King's New Studio

Fast-food giant Burger King has launched their Burger King Studio, which allows users to create their own personalized Burger King shirts using preselected BK icons.

To create your own Burger King shirt, just click and drag elements onto the shirt. You can tweak their orientation, color and size.

When you’re finished, the shirt is then silkscreened and sent to you. For those who are not feeling creative, there's a "Randomise" option which allows users to choose from one of the many already-submitted designs.

Via: BK Studio

BMW's Transparent Speed

BMW’s latest Art Car exhibition, called Transparent Speed, is currently on show in Tokyo.

The artwork, designed by Japanese artist Jun Aoki features his interpretation on the visualization of speed.


Aoki wanted visitors to not only visualise movement, but physically feel movement, while at the same time seeing the artistic displays.

To accomplish this, the artist hung 10,000 clear plastic pipes of varying lengths from the ceiling providing a tangible presence for the air in the room. The end result bears a strong resemblance to the images produced by aerodynamicists while studying airflow.

Have a look at the Wallpaper for more information and some amazing visuals.

BMW 2015 Concept

The third year students at the at the Istituto Europeo di Design School of Turin had the ultimate opportunity to showcase their talent with an amazing brief from BMW.

The thesis brief was "Designing the BMW of 2015, interpreting the language evolution and the trademark essence, in view of the company’s future perspectives", with the 8 finalists having their designs built to 1:4 scale models and displayed until the end of September 2008.


The initial phase of the project required the students to concentrate on the philosophy behind their proposed exterior design. The participants were asked to find inspiration by looking both into natural elements like the sun, the sea, the wind or the earth and in forms of expression such as music, painting or arts in general.

During the second phase of the project, designers had to use the project essence and formal language individuated in the previous stage to develop both the interior and exterior of an actual car. The model had to be able to fit in with a hypothetical life style in the year 2015.

Throughout the internal stages of project development, a BMW Commission including Thomas Plath, Director Model Techniques and Process Management, and Anders Warming, BMW Exterior Design Director, under the supervision of Chris Bangle, Chief of Design for BMW Group, were present to oversee and guide the participants.


Some really amazing work resulted from the collaboration and it’d be great if one of these concepts were kept in mind for future production.

Via: Carbody Design

Land Rover Sculpture

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Land Rover brand, the car manufacturer has unveiled a very big sculpture at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The Festival of Speed is regarded as the world’s biggest and most diverse celebration of the history of motor sport and car culture. It’s held each year at the Goodwood estate 60 miles outside of London. The festival is known for it’s yearly hillclimb event that pits cars from all eras against the clock on the 1.16 mile course that winds through the grounds.

Designer Gerry Judah, who has been designing and producing large scale sculptures for the event for over ten years was commissioned by Land Rover for the giant sculpture.

The structure weighs 120 tonnes and is held together by nearly 5000 bolts. Anchored to the structure is a selection of 5 current and classic Land Rover models.

Must have been quite an impressive sight and shows off the brands heritage rather well, in my opinion.

Via: PSFK

Puma Runs Inside The Tate Gallery

Puma has enlisted the help of British designer and artist Martin Creed for the creation of a rather interesting take on brand activations.

Creed, known for conveying messages on serious topics with an ironic point of view (with artistic works about vomiting, and the "F*ck Off" Project dedicated to Macintosh computers), has decided to infuse the world of art and sports.


Known as the 'Work No.850', the "display" is dedicated to the beauty of human motions. Puma's part comes in the form of the official supplier of designer sportswear with Puma shoes for running and other clothes and equipped people in Puma running in the Tate Gallery’s passages as quickly as possible. The event occurs every 30 seconds until the 16th of November.

A rather different take on brand placement and sponsorships, but one that would surely generate a disproportionately high amount of PR for the brand in a fresh way.

Via: BrandNews

Reptilian Art

As an ongoing celebration for their 75th anniversary, LACOSTE has already dreamt up what the future of tennis could be.

The brand has also moved into the art sphere by commissioning 11 Berlin artists to create artworks inspired by the brand's iconic 12.12 polo and crocodile logo.


Gallery 12.12 includes sculptures, installations, collages and video-installations by various artists, whose works have now been installed in one of the 11 windows of the prestigious KaDeWe Department Store in Berlin. The art is available via silent auction online at www.lacoste.com/1212berlin with the artists splitting the proceeds equally with the youth charity StreetUniverCity Berlin e.V.

To view some more of the artwork, click here.

Nokia's Global Art

Nokia has invited the world to take part in a collaborative animation competition with 1000s of people worldwide.

The mechanics of the competition is pretty straight forward, but the results (so far) are quite amazing. How it works is as follows:

1. 1000s of people hold blank frames
2. Universal Everything draws cell animation onto each frame
3. We all become part of an animation which crosses the globe
4. The process then continues with public submissions, creating an infinite global animation

The contributor with the most images also stands in line to win a new Nokia N95 8Gb

The project will be an ever-growing social piece of video art, shown on the video walls in selected Nokia Stores and related public displays. Below is a clip on the art collected so far:

Universal Everything / Nokia from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Via: Notcot

Can-Statues From Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, aware of the amount of waste their products contribute to the world, has arranged for some fine artists to convert their used cans into treasures. With these beautifully crafted sculptures being displayed with a message to reduce, reuse and recycle, Coke hopes to be seen as part of the solution and not the problem.



Artist Sam McGeever has recreated iconic London landmarks including Big Ben, Angel Of The North, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and even the Birmingham Bull of Wall Street fame.

via:Trendhunter

The Biggest Drawing In The World

In very much the same vein as the Nokia N82 campaign earlier this year, a Swedish student has created a self-portrait with the help of GPS technology.

However, instead of mapping and creating the drawing with the Nokia N82, Erik Nordenankar enlisted the help of courier company DHL to create the world's largest drawing. Below is the very professional looking GPS device which was sent around the world.




It's unclear whether the idea was "inspired" by the marketing folks at DHL but executed in a way to make it look like a personal project or whether this was in fact a student project. Either way, it's great coverage for the DHL brand.

To learn more about The Biggest Drawing in the World, click here to view Erik's blog, including some "making of" clips.

Toyota Says "Waste Not, Want Not"

To mark Toyota Land Cruiser's first US redesign in a decade, Saatchi & Saatchi LA have transformed a traditional print ad photo shoot into an entirely interactive online campaign.



National Geographic photographer Randy Olsen was hired and contributed over 20000 photos and many hours of video footage, spanning from the Australian Outback to the Yukon in Canada.

Taking it one step further, Toyota have launched a traveling photo exhibition and lecture series in various cities worldwide. The effort is also being followed up in a 30 minute TV show, as well as a coffee table book and print campaign. You can view the online element of the campaign by clicking here.

Pretty decent return on investment I'd say.

Nike & The Art of Football

Nike launched a new social networking-type program called 1/1 earlier this month in an attempt to build a community of artists around the Nike brand and the theme of soccer.

The site invites users to join the 1/1 community and submit a football-themed piece of artwork which is then displayed in the online gallery from which 11 winners will be shown at a real-world exhibition in Basel, alongside the work of 11 professional creatives. Ultimately, one artwork will be used on a limited edition pair of shoes.

There're still a couple of days left for you to submit your inspired design as entries close on the 18th May 2008!

"Where's Wally" In The 21st Century?

22 year old Canadian artist Melanie Coles has brought the "Where's Wally" game well into the 21st Century, by painting an enormous Wally that can be seen by Google Earth satellites.

The 55ft figure was installed on an undisclosed rooftop in Vancouver last month, sparking a flurry of interest among internet users keen to be the first to spot this Web 2.0 Wally.

But competition is tough. Not only do they have to locate his roof perch, they also have to wait for Google's imaging equipment to pick him up, which could happen at any time. The company does not reveal exactly when it updates its images.

"It's like this huge shift. Radio is going to the Web. Television is going Web. And now Waldo is going Web, which is pretty fitting right now."

Coles, an art student who publicised the project on her blog www.whereonearthiswaldo.com, is encouraging others to follow her lead and create a network of Google Earth Wallys across the world.

Art From "Design and the Elastic Mind"

We've blogged about Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition before, and while the concept of organising traditional research data into aesthetically pleasing works of art sounds like a great idea, it's hard to understand fully how amazing some of the art works can be.

Below is a clip called "I want you to want me", which examines and organises data from online dating sites and reveals some deep insights into who we are and what we are looking for.

"I Want You To Want Me", by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, for their "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition.

Big Adidas Shoes To Fill

As part of adidas Originals' new initiative, Celebrate Originality, which invites sneakerheads worldwide to express their creativity in web films throughout the year, New York City's Surface2Air (Gordon Hull, Daniel Jackson, and Alexia Stamatiou) and San Francisco's Upper Playground (Sam Flores) have joined forces to honor their favorite sneakers, the adidas Originals' shell-toed icon, the Superstar.

Collaborating on a video titled The Left-Right Project, the bi-coastal creatives were supplied with exact SUV-sized replicas of the shoe. Splitting the pair between the East and West Coast of the US - the right shoe went to Surface2Air and the left to Upper Playground - the artists customised their respective shoe over three days, after which the shoes were re-united in California as part of a public exhibition.

Below is a short film documenting the experience.

Chanel Merges Art, Architecture & Design

Chanel exploits the growing trend of architecture and art as luxury brand communication as its UFO pavilion began its two year global tour in Hong Kong earlier this year.

Chanel Mobile Art is a groundbreaking travelling art exhibition, all housed in a mobile, 2,300-square-foot UFO-shaped structure. It weighs 180 tons and was shipped to Asia in 700 pieces, each no bigger than an inch or so thick and about seven feet wide, then assembled in Hong Kong over the course of a month. Organisers predict that it will take two weeks to disassemble and about three weeks to ship to the next stop in Tokyo. From there it will continue on a six-city tour that runs until early 2010, traveling to New York, London, Moscow, and, finally, Paris.

Disaster Zone

There's something innate in human-nature that leaves us fascinated by other people's minor tragedies and imperfections.


Adverblog directed us to another great spot where we can marvel at others' errors, called "Photoshop disasters". All you creatives and DTP operators out there, have a look and feel great about yourself by clicking here!

Red Bull Artvertising

The Red Bull Art of Can Exhibit will run from July 11 - 26, 2008 at the Galleria in Houston, Texas. The contest has been held successfully in various parts of the world since 1997, including South Africa.

The works the artists put together in the past are truly amazing. They have worked the silver and blue aluminium cans - as per the stipulated contest rules - into the most magnificent sculptures. It’s a great way to make use of the caffeine-fueled energy for potential entrants, and it’s also a great way for Red Bull to immediately sell more cans of energy drinks to potential contestants, I suppose.

Registration starts April 8, 2008. To enter, go and register on their site.