No Smarties has been looking kind of glum lately, and the weather’s crappy and this weekend is an hour shorter than every other weekend, so how’s about let’s spruce things up with THIS AMAZING STOP MOTION MUSIC VIDEO for Nobody Beats the Drum, directed by Rogier van der Zwaag.  You are looking at 4,085 still photographs.  Heck yes!

(via booooooom)

Very Low Quality JPGs by Neil Freeman on Fake is the New Real, where there are ten zillion other great projects you should probably check out too.

Normally speaking, hammock chairs don’t turn my crank.  This is because usually they look like this and fit somewhere between papasans and tuna helper on the things-that-remind-me-of-janky-first-apartments scale.  Right? Right.

Be that as it may, it is still possible to create some pretty baller minihammocks.  I know it’s true because of this thing Patricia Urquiola did for Moroso a while back.  And now, presented for your consideration: this thing!  Which is called the Hammock’s Hammock and is by Argentinian-American designer Maria Figueira.  Now, it’s obviously got this nice cloth-vs.-angles thing going on, but what’s interesting here is that she whipped it up in seconds* with only the materials every designer-maker has lying around the house: some steel rod, some oxy-acetylene tanks, and a stolen pashmina.  It’s like the furniture equivalent of a thanksgiving sandwich.  Only without the bacteria.  What what!

More pics after the jump!

*maybe, or days

Alright fellas, it’s time!  No Smarties has an official Twitter account.  Now you won’t have to listen to my glib comments on personal matters such as creme fraiche and being really attractive and how much I want to make a Quaderna Table cake out of fondant.  You’re welcome, world!

Follow us here.  (Follow us everywhere, really)

Love this nonsensical video of Jon O’Conner playing with a stool.  Your instructions are to mute the audio and put on the Benny Hill theme when you watch it.

See also:  Shrimp running on a treadmill

The office of No Smarties‘ fave Tokujin Yoshioka (whose window display for Hermés was mentioned, breathlessly, here) was kind enough to send over his newest project, which debuts in Seoul this May:  The Rainbow Church.  Which is to say, he’s designed a 25ft high stained-glass window made entirely of light-scrambling prisms.  Over 500 of them.  Chyah!

Tokujin’s words:

The idea of this architecture project “Rainbow Church” dates back to when I was in [my] early 20s.
I visited the Chepelle du Rosaire, which Henri Matisse, a French painter, created in his last years, located in Vence, a commune located near Nice, France. I was engrossed in the beauty of the light that the chapel created.
I experienced a space filled with the light of Matisse: Being bathed in the sunlight of the Provence, the stained glass with Matisse’s vibrant colors suffused the room with full of colors.
Since then, I had been dreaming of designing an architecture where people can feel the light with all senses.

Wish wish wish I was there to see this baby open in May.  If anyone goes, send pics!  And, you know, plane tickets.

On display May 1 – June 30
MUSEUM. beyondmuseum
Gangnam-gu Chungdam-dong 49-21, Seoul, Korea

Pics of the whole installation after the jump.

I hope by the time I have kids I’ll be able to convince them that babies are made in these gold-lamé-and-black-fiberglass cube eggs from the future and then are dropped down our chimney by Devendra Banhart and Gwyneth Paltrow or whatever, and aren’t they glad we got to keep the chaise?

S.O.S. - Sofa of Solitude, by Fabio Novembre.  More after the jump!

via ///

Readers, if you’re anything like us and are ready to have about 500 of Banks Violette’s babies then now would be a good time to head over to Gladstone Gallery, where he’s got a show up until April 17. It’s your chance! You’ll also be able to see numerous new pieces including that boss (& energy-efficient) chandelier above.

Banks Violette, February 12 - April 17, 2010
Gladstone Gallery
530 West 21st Street
New York, NY

Digging the sculpture work of Glasgow-based creative person David Shrigley.

Wow these anatomically-correct yarn animals by British artist Shauna Richardson are pretty neat.  It’s always nice to see disparate craft traditions mashed up - even if her term “crochetdermy” isn’t exactly the most effortless portmanteau.  You can’t win ‘em all.

One warning:  if, like us, you have had it up to here with the Mounted Deer Heads Made Out of Non-Deer Materials trend, you are going to want to avoid numbers 2, 3, and 4 on her website.  Now that that’s out of the way, go enjoy yourself some yarnmonkeys!  Or see more after the jump.

via happy famous artists

RISD student Conor Klein (who, as mentioned previously, has great legs) designed this deceptively minimal plug off of the behavior of leeches.  Just as a leech simply drops from its host when it is full of blood, so too does this plug physically disconnect the attached electronic device when it is filled with electricity.  A great solution for the vampire transformers that draw energy even when charging nothing.

More pics after the jump!

Saves you energy, or something

Alert!  Remember when we told you all about that group show CHROMATOSE that was happening at Nudashank in Baltimore, and how it featured Smarties Tatiana Berg and Ted Gahl?  Well they evidently stole the show and Nudashank has given them their own show to say “thanks” and also “you are fucking awesome.”

Opening tonight, New Painthings:  Tatiana Berg/Ted Gahl
Reception 6-10pm

Friday, February 12
Nudashank Gallery
405 W. Franklin St.
3rd Floor
Baltimore, MD

more info at nudashank.com

This guy Gregoire Alexandre is just super duper

BIID for the furniture world: chairs that have been given decorative glass prostheses.

Check out the disposable & painful-looking sunglasses-on-a-roll

This cabinet just looks so lovely and horribly frustrating

Louis Vuitton again wins the prize for most vaguely-offensive handbag

My Discomfort Is Evident But I Am Unsure Of The Cause (Prelude To An Unfinished Narrative), 2010

Really dig the work of UK artist Fiona Shaw. We are suckers for text work and chairs in things, and boy howdy does she have both in excess.  Yeah!

Love it!

(via acidolatte, at least sorta partially)

No Smarties’ newest BFF and all-around wonderful man Dan Golden has become a fellow bloggeur!  His recently revamped site includes not only his fucking great designed objects but also Sad But Beautiful, his holla at yo’ journalism.  You might want to subscribe to that shit.  If you don’t know who Dan is you can go over and read this interview he did with Design Glut.

Bonus:  Check out this old drawing he dug up and sent over.  Love that guy.

Wowow check out the beautiful photographs of Kevin Cooley.

(via jannike viveka thank you thank you thank you)

Love the Jungle-Book-meets-Seventh-Seal vibe of this new video for Babylon by Congorock, directed by No Smarties BFF Pomp&Clout.

The ethereal indoor/outdoor Lighthouse by Swedish architect Thomas Sandell just looks fucking good.  Look at it!  It’s the type of thing that works equally well amongst clutter or clean.  It’s a moment of calm - whether in the lunar landscape above, or your sock-and-beer-can-strewn living room.

And plus it’s totally the shape of houses that children draw, which to varying degrees is the scale by which I judge things.  Holla to your iconography!

It is available for a weirdly unknown price from this Swedish lighting store.  If anyone’s adventurous enough to call them and buy this thing please send pictures!  And then invite me to come live with you.  thx.

You don't view the club chairs, you are viewed BY the club chairs. Or something

French artist Olivier Bardin installed this gaggle of chesterfield club chairs in the Tate Modern for their exhibition, The Fifth Floor:  Ideas Taking Space.  It is (they are?) a performance. What happens is this: you look at the club chairs, then you look at the people in the club chairs, then you become the people in the club chairs, and then other people look at you.  Bam!

Point is, given our affinity for things chesterfield, No Smarties will be moving offices to this room faster than you can say “brandy snifter.”

"Leafy"

I don’t mean to get all NSFW on you but this paperclip holder is pretty hilarious.  Kind of subtle, right?  Until you figure out what it is.  You’ll have to decide for yourselves if this violates your office’s sexual harassment policy.

Venus’ Clips, by Barcelona-based designer Marc Graells.  According to the designer, the holder can be arranged as “more or less leafy according to anyone’s taste.”

"Less leafy"

HOLY GODDAMN CRAP LOOK AT THESE GUN HOOF HEELS.

(thanks, Anna!)

Little Brown Bat, 2008

Speaking of legs and unsettlingness, have a gander at the delicate and awesome porcelain work of Toronto-based artist Shary Boyle.

The Rejection of Pluto, 2008

Haunt, 2004

Untitled, 2004

Wowow check out this disturbing taxidermied pig with chesterfield treatment, titled Boudoir, by French artist Sarah Garzoni.  Yes, remember, your couch is basically made of bacon.

Bonus!  Also by her, this thing:

Are you aware that there is a person in Scotland who, for a mere $11.00 USD, will make you a humongous knit banana slug.  Just sayin.

(via booooooom)

Interesting read at Sight Unseen about the creation of the Linz stool by Thomas Feichtner, using the apt words “hexagonal spoon,” “milk crate,” and “spaceship part.”

The very nice photography work of No Smarties bff Da Sul Kim

Former I.D. editor Julie Lasky exposes the short-sighted executive foofaraw that killed I.D. Magazine after 56 years in business.

Holy crap look at this disco ball!

I am in no way affiliated with NYC-based Dutch designer Marianne van Ooij or the sales of her objects which is why I can maintain perfect journalistic integrity as I tell you that I WILL SERIOUSLY LOOK DOWN ON YOU IF YOU DON’T GO BUY SOME OF HER NEW PILLOWS AT SUPERMARKET FOR $35.  Seriously, click here.  Or look at more after the jump.

Totally stumped.  The Human Collection by Paris-based designer Dzmitry Samal.

Here at No Smarties we don’t post very many things that one might describe as “too cute,” but check out this totally goddamn adorable photo series called “Fish Date” by Providence-based designer-slash-photographer Frank Cresencia.  Love it.

Bonus: he also does some pretty boss furniture, like this bench, which is all S&M-meets-wine barrel-meets-Saarinen airport terminal:

More from Fish Date after the jump.

I really really dig this set of multi-purpose legs for things by RISD student Conor Klein.