Not Your Grandmother’s Embroidery

When one thinks of hand embroidery, a little old lady in her rocker with a wooden hoop on her lap sewing “Home Sweet Home” may immediately come to mind. Young Malaysian artist Sheena Liam turns that notion of traditional hand embroidery on its head with her simple yet smart creations. Using little more than black…

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Palette Knife Precision

For most artists, the palette knife is used for mixing paint, and in conjunction with brushes for applying paint. Tehran-based artist Salman Khoshroo eliminates brushes altogether. He applies thick layers of oil paint to his (massive) canvases with an arsenal of palette knives with such deliberate precision. Not only does Khoshroo have a deep visual…

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More Masterful Mashups by Stephen McMennamy

A lot has happened in the world since we last visited the quirky and thought-provoking work of Atlanta-based BBDO Creative Director Stephen McMennamy. Yet his steadfast #ComboPhotos project continues to churn out clever mashups and engage people around the globe. In fact, as cited in our previous post (here) back in September 2015, he had…

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Ridiculously Clever Lego Riddles

Believe it or not, for being such a simple, uncomplicated product, Lego has some particularly clever and thought-provoking advertisements (here and here). Already three years old, this campaign celebrating 55 years of the Lego brand is basically a series of 55 visual riddles, fittingly featuring little more than the iconic bricks. The great minds at…

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Lego Masters

Legos and art have been crossing paths for years now (here and here and here). These colorful bricks that come in a vast spectrum of colors inspire not only young children, but also creative-thinking adults the world over. We are in awe of this brilliant ad campaign for Lego from a few years back, featuring highly…

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Animeyed: Self-Portraits with a Twist

It wasn’t long ago we featured the work of Hungarian photographer/artist Flora Borsi. Once again, Borsi brings a certain edginess to the art of digital manipulation. While retouching can sometimes be seen as gratuitous, Borsi elevates photo-manipulation to an art form. Her work is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. In her latest series of self-portraits she…

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Positively Terrific Use of Negative Space

Negative space as a design device may look simple to the average person, but it’s actually quite complicated to effectively pull off. Few present-day artists know this better than illustrator/designer/artist Tang Yau Hoong. Malaysia-based Hoong has an awesome body of work (see previous post here), a good portion of which explores the interplay of positive…

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Everyday Objects That Are Anything but Ordinary

We love an element of surprise in art, and the work of Spanish photographer García de Marina has plenty of if. In fact, much of de Marina’s work centers on the unexpected. His compositions are witty reinterpretations of everyday objects, seen through his unique lens. de Marina doesn’t just document objects, but distorts their meaning…

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Turning Fear on its Head

Design really is all about communication and education, whether its purpose is to sell, explain, or simply draw attention. In the case of this brilliantly clever self-initiated poster, the visuals do all the work to raise awareness of an often ignored issue facing sharks in their, well, house (more about that here). A collaborative effort between…

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Sunday Sketches by Christoph Niemann

Creativity manifests itself in different ways. We certainly appreciate well-planned, laborious works of art. But we also love seemingly effortless, spontaneous pieces that sort of continuously flow. German-born, New York-based Christoph Niemann is a prolific illustrator/artist, who bills himself as a visual story teller. And that moniker could not be more fitting. You may be…

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