Some works of art just make your day. I love these two pieces by Italian artist Andrea Marini. ‘Gemmation’ is a blooming wall of sculptural fibreglass that is both serene and exploding with texture. “Flows” is an installation of mirror waterfalls tumbling from the wall like starched bundles of tinsel. I’m a rather mesmerized by that gorgeous metallic beauty…

(images via andrea marini / saatchi online)

A fantastic print campaign for Expedia by Ogilvy & Mather that uses airport IATA codes to form clever travel-related phrases. There are over 9,000 three-letter IATA codes for airports around the world so I can imagine it was quite the task to sort through them and find witty copy. For example, WSH EWE WRE ERE (or Brookhaven, Ewer Indonesia, Whangarei, Erave) and SUN SEA SND SEX (or Sun Valley, Seattle, Seno, Sembach). I love the pops of colour and stamps in the corner providing a bit more context to the travel code wish. Oy, so simple and brilliant. There is plenty of fun to be found in the luggage carousel…

(photographs via/spotted on creative review)  

Black and white packaging with a pop of colour just plain tickles my fancy. Showcasing the colour contents of a product, serving as a copy or brand hue highlight, creating a colour-coding system, adding a burst of bright hue — there are no limits to the various ways this approach can look fantastic. With so many great examples, perhaps this post will need parts one through ten…

(photographs from top: lovely package, prospector co., anaise, the dieline, heydays, the dieline, frontier, mox botanicals, refinery 29, design work life & packaging of the world)  

In his installation Black Cloud, Mexican artist Carlos Amorales created a world that perfectly fuses downright gorgeous with rather frightening. Carlos crafted 30,000 moths of 36 different variations out of black paper and, with the aid of a team, hand glued them to every surface possible of a gallery space. The images above are of the piece installed at Yvon Lambert in 2007 but it was also re-imagined on the walls of a converted old church in Spain called Espacio AV in 2009. I would love to see this fascinating installation in real life so I can only hope it appears again one day. Meticulous handcrafted detail swarms white walls in strikingly beautiful fashion…

(photographs via yvon lambert; information via philadelphia museum of art)  

Gorgeous lettering by illustrator Lord Bunn for the rear of The Great Gatsby pub in Sheffield, England. I love it when a typical graffiti location features beautifully modern typography. Streetscape meets art gallery…

(photograph via lord bunn; spotted on typeverything)   

I love this typographic chess set by hat-trick design‘s Jim Sutherland based on characters from the Hoefler & Frere-Jones typeface Champion. Laser-cut acrylic letters and a greyboard foiled in black – what a handsome piece of design. I can only hope there will be a new trend of interpreting board games in beautiful, modern ways…

(spotted on creative review; set purchase info here)   

Created by South African artist Marco Cianfanelli, “Release” is a gorgeous monument to a true icon of peace: Nelson Mandela. To mark the 50th anniversary of Mandela’s capture by apartheid police in 1962, Cianfanelli created 50 columns of painted laser-cut steel in the South African town of Howick. Intriguing shapes up close, the pieces create a striking profile of Nelson from afar. Cianfanelli says, “the 50 columns represent the 50 years since his capture, but they also suggest the idea of many making the whole; of solidarity. It points to an irony as the political act of Mandela’s incarceration cemented his status as an icon of struggle, which helped ferment the groundswell of resistance, solidarity and uprising, bringing about political change and democracy.” Such a powerful and beautiful piece of work…

(photographs via designboom)  

It’s no secret that I love perforated surfaces (particularly when light pours through the tiny holes in rather dreamy ways). In her photography series Daré alla Lucé, Canadian artist Amy Friend allows new light to pass through found vintage images by altering the surface with tiny pinholes. I am in love with the ethereal results and how a real sense of magic seems to infuse these images of years gone by…

(photographs via amy friend)

Last year, I posted about designer Konstantin Datz’s gorgeous braille rubik’s cube and it remains one of my favourite pieces of thought-provoking design. I came across Konstantin’s folded paper typeface this morning and fell in love with the sharp angles. Featured on the cover of Web Designer magazine, there is a real modern paper craft meets origami feel…

(images via konstantin datz)  

My love for modern, typography-focused neon grows daily it seems. This once-of-a-kind neon sign by Adam Garcia is a perfect example of why. Oy, how I would love to put this wise and handsome gem on a studio wall…

(spotted on colossal)

Oh, how I love sport photography (especially when it is downright artful). This shot by Peter Svoboda of cross-country skiers in the Austrian Alps is a sublime example. Beautiful geometry/angles and crispy textured tracks…

(photograph by peter svoboda)

I saw Swedish designer Pernilla Jansson’s ‘A New Proposal’ for the first time yesterday and have completely fallen in love with it. Building on a desire to “disturb the established order”, Pernilla lets the standard office fluorescent light become a playful installation of beautiful neon. Simple and so very beautiful. I would love to see an office embrace this idea. One hanging over a reception desk or main studio table would certainly showcase a culture of breaking through the standard way of doing things…

(images via pernilla jansson and dezeen; spotted on rena tom’s pinterest)

This lightbulb typography sculpture by Brighton-based designer Kyle Bean stopped me in my tracks this morning. The piece was created for a Time Magazine ’10 Ideas’ feature and manages to be both industrial and delicate. It is a great play on the “light goes off” element of idea creation and makes me want to see an entire installation playing with light bulb typography…

(photograph by victoria ling via kyle bean)

Paper chains are timelessly awesome. That might be why this typography by Madrid-based studio IS Creative Studio makes me so happy. The designers created the paper chain alphabet and logo for the the Getxophoto Photography Festival identity. I love how they photographed the shadow-filled typography in pure white but also threw colour behind it for elements like the eye-catching neon poster. Perhaps a paper chain symbolizes a connected festival of like-minded people? The name of each photographer, featured in the final official Getxophoto book, were also cut out and used as chapter titles. Long live the paper chain…

(photographs via is creative studio)

I have a soft spot for hotels that find beautiful branding opportunities. Technology perks are great but something tangible and old-school often has distinct magic. Case in point: this sublime star-studded black stationery and silver pencil by L’and Vineyards in Portugal. Perfect for crafting one exquisite letter home (or notes of a memorable trip)…

(photograph via condé nast traveler & l’and vineyards)

French artist Suzy Lelièvre manages to take everyday objects and make them thought-provoking and playful. I especially love her pieces Gravity Dice and Dominos Gravitation. Why shouldn’t dice dots fall to the bottom of the cubes? Why wouldn’t domino spots all hail the mighty ‘one spot’ leader? I might refuse to play any games that aren’t as handsomely designed as these pieces…

(photographs via suzy lelièvre)