LA – based artist Fernando Reza has a super clever twist on history with these Super Mario Bros. themed World War II propaganda posters. All available to purchase online! Via Laughing Squid:
This super sleek and futurist home in Bel-Air stands apart from the stately mansions and celebrity gated communities. Looking like a cross section of a Star Trek ship, the home features lines that are supposedly automotive inspired, and created using CNC machine milling.
The 7,440 square foot home would seem enormous in most places, but fits its corner lot surprisingly well, featuring three elaborate levels, dramatic interior features, and luxury finishes.
A 16-foot cantilevered second floor, movie theater, swimming pool and more make it just about as posh as can be expected from its $16,500,000 list price.
If you end up purchasing the home, we kindly request an invite. See more on Compass Realty.
Laurie Freitag is a self-taught, digital photographer making pictures with her iPhone based in Los Angeles, California. Her early years, spent in the Bronx, Coney Island & Far Rockaway, influence her work with themes of family, childhood, memory & home.
We love the way she makes cellphone images come alive in ways you might not expect.
After 20 years working behind the scenes in TV news, she took a buyout & went back to school where she took every Child Development class offered.
She’s been working the past 12 years as a nanny where she has intimate access to documenting children. Freitag says, “I enter their world. Watching them puts me into positions I could have never thought up. This latest series, ‘In the Garden at Chislehurst’ had me sitting very low as a 4 year old played in the dirt next to me. As I looked up, I found the wonder of the Dracena trees above me.”
See more of her work on her website, and at the Susan Spiritus Gallery.
Images used with artist’s permission.Β
$200,000 USD doesn’t seem too unreasonable for a home purchase. Until you realize that it’s sized for a small mouse or a hummingbird. Artist and craftsperson Chris Toledo specializes in exquisitely built and detailed miniature homes, specifically those in the Los Angeles region.
His work regularly fetches six figures, and is so realistic and detailed that you’d be hard pressed to see that it’s tiny, so he often photographs his work with full-size objects, like a bulb of garlic or toothbrush to show scale.
A native Angelino, Toledo was always mesmerized by miniatures, and started working in the medium decades ago, honing his craft, and perfecting the smallest of items to capture that realism.
Indeed, the tiny imperfections are often what lend his work the most believability. We see panes of glass with scuffs, sinks with chipped porcelain, and a well worn patina that make these miniatures feel lived in, and loved. Created as special heirlooms for clients or for his own collection, Toledo works in all manner of architectural styles, albeit in 1:12 scale, even creating working lighting to bring the homes to life.
Check out his very impressive collection on his Instagram, ibuildsmallthings, and read more about his process on Architectural Digest.
All images Β© Copyright Chris Toledo.
Los Angeles is a huge and sprawling place, full of stories and personalities. George Townley captures some of the city’s iconic buildings and places in warm and bright illustrations. His style has been called Wes Anderson-like, but we’d just called it inviting. His series includes some major icons as well as lesser known architectural treats, like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, and the “Dingbat” house. Via DesignBoom:
Bokeh (/ΛboΚkeΙͺ/ BOH-kay β also sometimes pronounced as /ΛboΚkΙ/ BOH-kΙ, Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”.
This stylistic technique has been utilized to create lovely branding for a line of wines by the same name. Β The resulting labels are bold and dramatic, with an attention grabbing pop of color and gradient that is sure to catch your eye. And while we’re not saying you should pick your wine based on the label, this Bokeh branding, done by Thrival Design, sure is doing the trick for us. Via The Dieline:
βSimple & whimsical design for a contemporary wine
Bokeh Wine is an artisanal wine our studio created to capture and depict the lighthearted faded tingly feeling experienced when enjoying a glass of fine red across the table from a significant other. The bold use of colorful circular gradients celebrates the journey traveled through lively conversation while blurring out any distracting peripheral elements. The metallic foil pressed term βBokehβ comes from the Japanese word boke (ζγ or γγ±), which means βblurβ or βhazeβ, or boke-aji (γγ±ε³) and elegantly finalizes the minimalist design.β
Before you worry, this post is SFW. But with a title like “Craigslist Encounters”, it’s fair to be nervous. Craigslist conjures up shady, seedy images, and truth be told, there is a lot of unsavory business done through the online site. Β But that’s part of the intrigue behind Craigslist Encounters II, an ongoing series by Kremer Johnson and Jeff Whitlock. Using the following Craigslist posting, they’ve been meeting fascinating people for portrait opportunities:
“Portrait subject needed. Compensation: $20 per hour.
Portrait photographer seeking subjects. Looking for interesting people to photograph… All shapes, races, genders and sizes are welcome. I will come to you at your convenience.”
The series started in Los Angeles, though this second installment looks to take place in the Bay Area. It’s fascinating to see the variety of people that respond to the ad and volunteer to have their portraits taken. Β The outfits and locations are as varied as the type of people that the photographers encounter. From goth types in their living rooms, to ballerinas next to a swimming pool, the series is a small snapshot of America, thanks to the strange persistence of an old-school website.Β Via Behance:
In the late 1960s, strange markings started appearing on walls and gates of Paris, a city in the midst of violent upheaval. The markings were always stripes of exactly 8.7-centimeter width, and always alternated white with a color, say, blue or black. Soon, the same stripes appeared on bus stops all over Los Angeles and in Tokyo. Before long, the art world had taken note, and two years later, the rogue poster artist–Daniel Buren–wasΒ hanging a 66-foot-tall banner of stripesΒ in the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum.
If that sounds like a meteoric rise, itβs because it was–especially for an artist who has spent his career refining a singular visual tool. He calls themaffichages sauvages–savage posters–and theyβve appeared on Hermes scarfs and the vast interior courtyard of the Palais Royal. Buren has experimented with numerous other mediums: Last year, as the fifth artist to participate in theΒ Monumenta series, he installed a canopy of brightly colored lenses that transformed the floor of the Grand Palais into a raucous light show. Still, he continually returns to his signature stripe, which he uses as a unit of measurement, a standard way to frame and call attention to space.
This week, Buren returns to his roots withΒ Electricity Paper Vinyl, a show at theΒ Bortolami GalleryΒ in New York. The 74-year-old artist will unveil newaffichages sauvagesΒ that, thanks to the help of textile companyΒ Brochier Soieries, glow with fiber-optic-enabled luminescence. βAfter having worked with flags, linen, silk, and other fabrics, [Brochier] came to me six or seven years ago asking if I wanted to try to use a very new technique they were developing using optical fibers as a material instead of cotton or silk,β Buren tells Co.Design. βI did a first prototype and then continued developing other possibilities to push the game and see what this new technique could give.β A recent show atΒ Lisson Gallery, in London, had the artist experimenting with radiance and color, but the works at Bortolami are an entirely new technical paradigm.
Animated GIF psychedelia,Β Via Colossal:
Fine artist and designerΒ INSAΒ creates elaborately painted walls that are photographed in sequence to create these amazing, psychedelic animated gifs. His latest piece (top 3 images) is a collaboration with artistΒ Stanley DonwoodΒ calledΒ Hollywood DooomΒ to help celebrate the release of a new album forΒ Atoms for Peace,Β AMOK, for which Donwood did the album artwork. INSA painted the entire exterior ofΒ XL RecordingsΒ four timesΒ to create the frames for the animation. Of the work he says:
My challenge was to take two very static items, a beautiful lino-cut and a less beautiful box of a building, and bring them to life. After a week of sweating in the Los Angeles late summer sun re-painting the whole building several times I got there. Animated as a continuous GIF it may only live online but some would argue that is where most now live there livesβ¦
You can see more of INSAβs gif work and other pieces on hisΒ blog. (viaΒ the creatorβs project)
On a less-designy note, the NBA basketball season has started, and as a semi-fan, I have caught a couple of games.Β I was mystified and amused/impressed to hear that Los Angeles Laker Ron Artest has legally changed his name to Metta World Peace. What? Β In his words,
“Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world,”
His publicist, Courtney Barnes, said that World Peace chose Metta as his first name because it is a traditional Buddhist word that means loving kindness and friendliness towards all.
The eccentric 32 year old’sΒ Twitter page is not necessarily awe-inspiring, and his infamous malice at the Palace makes his case a little murkier. Β But, I’ll take a very public display of world peace when I can find it.Β And perhaps the cause can be furthered, one basketball jersey at a time.
Thanks to Noah for the tip.
