The typical carpet comes in a few familiar fabrics and textiles, but the artists Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg at We Make Carpets have been throwing in a dose of the unexpected by making rugs and carpets out of everyday objects. Staples, cocktail sticks, paper clips, bandaids, and more become repurposed to form illusory carpets in their temporary installations.

Its a clever commentary on how we use and see modern-day objects and old forms of craftsmanship. Some of these carpets really look as if you could walk on them (but there would be dire consequences for your feet if you actually did walk on cocktail sticks!) From We Make Carpets:

WE MAKE CARPETS, consisting of Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg, mix traditional skills and a critical view of the consumer society in unusual carpets.

At a distance, we simply see a decorative carpet. Closer inspection will, however, surprise us. WE MAKE CARPETS sampled analog everyday items of use into carpets with impressive sizes. Products that normally have no value once they have been used, such as plastic forks, plasters, paving tiles, pasta, cotton balls and pegs are arranged in an inventive way to form a graphic pattern.

WE MAKE CARPETS are inspired by the colour, shape and possibilities of the material chosen. The result is not just a decorative carpet, but an object that makes us think about the consumer society that produces these ‘weaving materials’. A contemporary interpretation of wealth.

I’m particularly drawn to the monochromatic rugs, like the all-white beauty cleaning supplies one, or the metallic sheen of the paperclips gently going down the stairs. [Via Present & Correct.]

This made me smile today: Simon Laliberté, a student at UQAM, designed this clever and quirky paintbrush packaging for a fictive company called Poilus that uses the two brushes for humorous effect in the package design. Hand-drawn faces on the packaging look back at you bemusedly, and the bigger paintbrush acts as an enormous moustache, while the smaller paintbrush peeks out below lips as a soul patch.

A quick Google search made the company name even funnier: apparently “poilu” is a warmly informal term for a French World War I infantryman, meaning, literally, hairy one. The faces strike a great balance between being bizarre and silly, yet not TOO frightening. I would want to keep the paintbrush in its packaging though, rather than taking it out to use it. From Laliberté’s Behance page:

This humoristic packaging offers the function of assembling two products (two paintbrushes) together with only one cardboard printed on both sides. One paintbrush is a big one and the other is a small one for finishing touches. Once it’s folded, the package has two possibilities: 1. Protecting paintbrushes while you carry them on. 2. Support paintbrushes when it’s filled with paint. Each paintbrush has been named and linked to a size number to identify them. The natural hairs of some paintbrush have been dyed. A paintbrush wall support is offered after you bought the product in order to keep you workspace clean and organized.

I wish this was something you could actually see on shelves in America– unfortunately, I think the Walmarts and Targets of our fine nation don’t particularly enjoy things like a slightly grotesque design or hairy packaging. [Via Designer Daily.]

This post needs no fancy title– “Awesome Inflatable Meat Balloons” seems to explain everything perfectly. The Chicago-based Object Design League (ODL) handpainted these fantastic meat balloons by hand for specialty butcher shop Japan Premium Beef, for this year’s NoHo Design District during New York Design Week.

Its amazing how the baggy balloon latex/rubber perfectly mimics the texture and consistency of meat, cured or otherwise; the meticulously painted balloons are interesting objects to see whether blown up or limply lying in their trays. ODL explains their process:

We made sausages and four cuts of steak: porterhouse, flank, T-bone, and filet mignon.

Each balloon takes about three hours to go through the assembly line. First a hand-sculpted balloon former is dipped in a soapy substance to prime it before it’s dipped in a latex vat. A thin coat of rubber adheres to the surface—this is the actual balloon, which holds the shape of the former.

At this step in the process, latex colors can be mixed or the balloon can be hand-painted. Once dry, the rubber is leached and vulcanized (or rinsed and heated), which strengthens it for inflating. Finally, the balloon is stripped and inflated. The whole process is precisely timed to get the maximum output of balloons per day.

I wonder if anyone could convince them to fill these babies with helium: a floating steak, anyone? Also, I’ve been wanting to go to Japan Premium Beef for a while– their washu beef is supposed to be heavenly. [Via Collabcubed.]

I’m smitten with these handmade glass terrariums by Matthew Cleland of Score+Solder– according to Old Faithful Shop, which is where I first saw these beauties, Cleland is a traveling gypsy who hand-solders these lovely geometric pieces that look like miniature greenhouses. Some of the terrariums appear as tipped prisms, off-balance quartz forms, or hanging geometric spheres; all of them display the plants inside beautifully by literally adding new facets and angles for you to gaze into.

These are wonderful as stand-alone pieces, but I ‘d also love to see a wall of these hanging at different lengths, or a set of the terrariums congregating together as a table centerpiece. From the Old Faithful Shop’s description of Cleland’s work:

A traveling gypsy, Matthew Cleland of Score + Solder, crafts each beautiful handmade glass and lead free soldered terrarium by hand. Skilled by the knowledge of generations before him and armed with a flask in one hand and a soldering iron in the other, he brings you these one of a kind pieces of art.

Apparently you can’t leave these babies in direct sunlight, since its greenhouse tendencies will make the interior of the terrarium hot enough to kill your plants. I think this is a perfect way to display succulents and cacti, which can and should be admired from all angles. [Via Old Faithful Shop.]

Rajasthan, the largest state in India, is mostly made of up desert, and the largest city in that desert, Bikaner, hosts a yearly Camel Festival every January which features the familiar desert beast. There is camel racing, camel parades, and even camel contests, and the best part of all this is the way the native Rajputs have decked out their camels with elaborate draping, buckles, saddles, and more.

The Rajputs are so serious about their camel decor that contests for camel design are held– this doesn’t mean just judging the mirrored trappings on the camels, but the actual patterns that have been carefully shaved, trimmed, dyed, and styled in the camel’s coat. I’ve sourced the photos below from two different Flickr accounts, and they each do a great job succinctly describing the festival and its camels. From Flickr user Osakabe Yasuo:

The job takes about 3 years to make an engraved tatoo for an individual camels. First 2 years, there is just growing the hair and starts trimming. Inhabitant of desert does not use the iron engraved for the camels. They just cut and dye the camel hair. I have never seen such a beautiful works in the world.

From Flickr user Steve Hoge:

Though co-sponsored by the tourist authorities, this is very much a traditional local festival, and we were privileged to be among the few foreigners attending.

The first day of the festival consisted of a parade and other activities held in the city stadium; the 2nd day’s festivities took place near the desert town of Ladera, where a camel racing track was laid out and stages set up for music and dance performances. The images here are from both days of the festival.

The camels don’t look the least nonplussed about their fancy, bright trappings– if anything, they have rather dignified looks on their faces, despite their awkward gait and extravagant clothes. Bikaner is now on my wishlist of places to go! [Via Neatorama.]

These shapes and lines that appear to be floating actually ARE suspended in mid air, because they are made of nothing but a single beam of light. Artist James Nizam drilled holes into his studio wall, and with some clever mirror manipulation, he bounces the light in precise angles to create these images.

What’s even more amazing is the fact that these photos use the sun as the light source, rather than a manmade one. I half-assumed that this effect was achieved with a well-placed flashlight, but Nizam apparently calculated exactly when the sun would come up at the correct time for the correct angle to project the light beam to the mirrors.

That last photo is simply the effect of drilling these holes in an enormous cluster, rather than the intentional shape-making of the previous photos. I’d like to see a photoshoot with a model or different objects placed between the light beams– I could imagine this being a fascinating play on depth perception, etc. [Via Illusion.]

In the States, we don’t give a second thought to the plain-jane, utilitarian manhole covers that appear on our streets, but apparently nearly 95% of the 1,780 municipalities in Japan have their very own manhole covers that bear designs unique to the location! In a tradition that started in the 1980s, each manhole cover is a brand of civic pride and ownership, a small badge that represents the community’s flora, fauna, traditions, or cultural identity.

I’ve included some of my favorite colored manhole covers from this amazing Flickr set by MRSY, but click through his gallery to see some ornate manhole covers in the familiar iron-wrought sheen that also appear on Japanese streets.

When you realize how design permeates every aspect of Japanese culture, even in the most mundane objects, it reveals so much about how their meticulous approach to design has evolved into a natural expression. To us, the diligence, cost, and creativity you must invest in beautifying something like manhole covers is very superfluous and bizarre. To them, however, it must be absolutely normal, if not necessary, for their manhole covers to be well-designed. [Via Buzzfeed.]

This is one of those designs where I’m astonished that no one came up with it sooner. Designed by the Barcelona-based Company & Company design studio, the Corner Ladder is a beautifully constructed wooden ladder that easily folds into itself for slim storage. I love the rounded corners and smooth surface of the ladder sides that make it much easier to hold without hurting yourself. From the Company & Company website:

Our homes are getting smaller and we have less storing space. This project comes from the need to simplify an everyday object to a minimum.

A ladder is a domestic standard tool that is rarely used . The idea was to be able to fit it in any corner, so as to simplify and increase its use and basic operation.

You can see the ladder in action below. It looks so easy to use, and even in its unfolded state is a thing of beauty:

Shooting still life is no easy matter, especially when taking photos of typically overlooked everyday objects like office supplies. Swedish design trio Kontor Kontur are masters at arranging, styling, and shooting their studio office goods in artful compositions– their Color Chart print, which is the combination of all their styled supplies in a single shot, is something I’d love to hang on my own office/studio wall one day, as a colorful reminder to keep my space tidy.

Beyond the neat and color-coded set-up, take a closer look at the individual objects on the table. There are some really beautifully designed items there, whether its a compact little red stapler or a lovely sea-green bound book on freshwater fishes. From their interview with Co.Design:

We used things we found around us in our everyday life, a mishmash of ordinary but beautiful things that describe the craftsmanship behind graphic and office work.

Sometimes lining things up neatly is really all it takes to make a great visual impact. [Via Present & Correct.]

GIFs are great at capturing moments in film and video, but they often depend on repurposing an outside source (taking a clip from a TV show, for example, or layering movie stills.) Original GIFs are still a rarity, and Matthew Divito (aka Mr. Div in the Tumblrverse) has brought it to the next level by using his eye for design to create these amazing snippets of motion graphics work.

All of the GIFs from Mr. Div are absolutely mesmerizing to watch– there’s a sense of symmetry and balance to a lot of his work, with a heavy thematic emphasis on abstract objects transforming. The shapes gyrate, pulse, shatter, and morph, and they look almost alien and futuristic. From Matthew Divito’s email to Buzzfeed:

I’ve been doing motion graphics for a while now, but about a year ago I got into the habit of doing really short animations as a way to experiment with new styles and techniques. A few months ago, this practice sort of evolved (or devolved?) into making gifs simply because I thought it would be fun to try.

Like the animations themselves, making gifs was just an experiment – but one day, pretty much out of nowhere, a couple of my gifs started getting really popular on tumblr. Well, obviously this was a sign that I had found my true calling in life, so I’ve been doing a few gifs a week ever since.

Some of the GIFs are actually quite complex despite their short length– I could watch the expanding grid cube/sphere for hours. [Via Buzzfeed.]