Patrick Dougherty

Being that the 4th of July is tomorrow, I'm already in vacation mode and Patrick Dougherty's sculptures make me think of tree houses from my youth - how cool would it be to stay in one of these? Patrick uses tree saplings and primitive building techniques to create his installations.

We'll be back on Monday! For all the Stateside peeps, happy fourth of July!

Dazzle Camouflage

Who would have thought the military was so avant garde? Naval units around the world employed Dazzle Camouflage during WW1 against optical rangefinding/targeting devices by using angles and colors to distort their location and heading. The patterns served to confuse instead of conceal, similar to many moth species such as the Saturnia pavonia.

Katy Horan

The Shiny Squirrel has some great new prints by artist Katy Horan in the shop.

From the artist's website: Katy Horan’s paintings and drawings are meant to be the long lost folk art from an imaginary world. Based on a wide variety of interests and influences, her work tells stories about the characters and communities that populate this world.

Saw V Poster

Lionsgate released the new poster for Saw V recently. While I do not really support movies like Saw that parade torture as entertainment, the movie poster is very intriguing. The facial expression and bleached-out medical preservation colors slow down the image to a somber portrait instead of a gory sideshow. Though, Dr. Lecter is slightly critical of it.

Make Some Green

We are excited to announce the Make Some Green competition, conceived of by Keeseh Studio and sponsored by Sub-Studio (and many other great blogs and publications). Students and design enthusiasts are invited to celebrate the pursuit of ecodesign through an international competition to utilize waste material.

The brief:
A given manufacturing facility creates many copies of a product; therefore they create many copies of their waste material as well. Waste material can be used as raw material for other products or processes; this concept is known as upcycling.

The goal of the competition is to promote upcycling by encouraging the use of wasted materials to generate innovative designs and redefine the standards of environmental sustainability by fostering balance between conservation and development. This competition will provide a stepping stone to help educate viewers of the vast opportunities and future development of environmentally friendly processes, materials, and products.

There are three categories of entry:

Manufacturing Processes:
Explorations of waste material and how it can be manipulated to create new materials or manufacturing processes while minimizing waste and harmful output in these newly developed processes.

Products:
Explorations of waste materials and their properties to create beautiful and functional objects/products/furniture.

Packaging:
Utilize waste material in new ways to minimize the enormous quantity of packaging that is sent to landfills – and/or – explore the potential of packaging, that would otherwise be sent to landfills, to create new materials, manufacturing processes, or products.

All entries must be received digitally or by mail no later than October 1st.

Judges:
Jaime Salm – Creative Director of MIO Culture
Kristi Cameron – Senior Editor at Metropolis Magazine
Allan Chochinov – Designer, Educator, and Partner of Core77
Graham Hill – Founder of TreeHugger

3 entries will win media coverage and recognition of their product or process and one will win a cash prize of $1000.

Visit the competition website for more details.

Medicom Alien VCD

I can't get enough of this little guy! The Alien VCD (vinyl collectible doll) from Medicom Toy is too amusing not to laugh at. Even though the alien species is one of the most terrifying movie monsters ever imagined, the re-proportioned doll is almost cute. And with its arms outstretched, it's only looking for a hug, right?

Anne Morgan Digital Safe-Keep

Anne Morgan sent over images a while back of her amazing jewelry line "Digital Safe-Keeps" - jewelry with integrated USB drives. She likens them to modern day lockets that allow the user to keep their dearest memories, photographs, songs and videos on them at all times. A very personal story motivated the jewelry line:

"The only thing I want to leave to my children is the memory of my first-born child. Lucia was born on September 6th, 2003, and died 8 days later. All the photographs we possess, and the songs written for her by her Dad, are on the USB memory stick, that is contained inside the ring. Our lives have moved on with another daughter born 15 months on. It is difficult to bring Lucia’s name into everyday life. This ring allows her life to be marked and celebrated. She will not be forgotten from one generation to the next."

Oxo Pop-Up Strainer

The Oxo Pop-Up Steamer looks like it should be a communication dish detached from a Mars probe. Instead, you put veggies in it. A pull on the handle expands the fins from storage position to create more cooking surface.

Sandra Backlund

Hello, hello! This is a special post for me, because it's my first day of self-employment! We decided it was time for me to move on from my architecture job in order to focus on Sub-Studio full time. We're very excited to see how things progress and are looking forward to spending some quality time on new projects!

Anyway, back to the blog: Sandra Backlund is a Swedish fashion designer whose work is more wearable art than every day fashion. I love Sandra's use of unusual materials (clothes pins?!) and the way that her knitted textiles are taken to the next level by becoming larger, rope-like pieces that are woven together to make the whole.

Itchy and Scratchy : "Presidential Politics"

If you have never seen McFarlane Toys, then you may not know that they are really more like small sculptures than toys. This one: Itchy and Scratchy: Presidential Politics" takes a scene from The Simpson's Movie and brings it to your desk. They look too nice to play with, but I might not be able to help myself from flinging them across the room at each other.