"Age Before Beauty - Not?" - Part Freakin' Two

Once again, nullifying that little thing called ‘age’ (really, what’s the deal with it already?) is the fabulously talented painter Matt Godwin from Florida. This young and talented painter is definitely one to watch (seriously, check out what the world has to say about him, or make up your own mind), channeling subtle yet witty hidden social commentary through kook, and ending up with vibrant pieces unique with his own character styling and technique. Many artists look to their surroundings for inspiration, and there’s definitely a lot of that in Godwin’s work - he definitely has an interesting point of view in that ‘light surrealist’ kind of way - What do you think?

On a very weird side note, and this is very much my own opinion, I really see him kind of like a contemporary Lewis Caroll, but a painter instead of a writer. There’s actually a really long explanation for this seemingly strange notion ☺, but for now –and if you haven’t already- enjoy some of my favorite picks from his work (title are kind of a big deal here, so I've been a good blogger and actually paste/labeled the work for once):

"Meet the Meat: Introduction", 18" x 24", paint and ink on paper

"Would-be hero falls prey to distraction", 19" x 24", paint and ink on paper

"Hootenanny hipsters spread HPV like marmalade on a crumpet", 24 x 48", paint and ink on panel

"The Smokers Section 2", 23 x 35", paint and ink on panel

"The American Solution", 24 x 48", paint and ink on panel

"Uncle McNana's Rose-Tinted Monocle", 23 x 35", paint and ink on panel

"Wealthy breeder exacerbates human greed", 24 x 48", paint and ink on panel

**images via mattgodwin.net

This Blog's First Industrial Design Post Is An Anti-Theft Lunch Bag... What Are *You* Thinking?

Sherwood Forlee is another scientist –turned-designer among apparently well camouflaged other closet-scientists out there (check this post on Ainley to see what I meant). He’s one of my favorite finds in industrial design, and has both his professional and independent work displayed at his website, skforlee.com

When I call out favorites it’s usually a combination of more than just talent and ‘good work’, there’s a dime a dozen of talented and hardworking designers out there, the ‘favorite’ factor also comes from character and being able to not compromise one’s true self creatively. On a an interesting topic, here’s a little on the designer quoted from his about part.

“Sherwood Forlee is a designer with no design or art education. Instead, he studied fluid dynamics and partial differential equations, and then barely managed to graduate. But graduate he did, and with a high-falutin' sounding title to boot: "Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer". Despite this, Sherwood calls himself a designer because it sounds hip and no one likes hanging around a nerd at a party.

Following graduation, Sherwood went to work as a product design engineer. After cutting his teeth at a few firms, Sherwood decided to see more of the world and set out on adventures that would lead him to Tokyo (where he was accosted by the yakuza for trying to sell homemade T-shirts on their territory), the Azores (where inclement weather stranded him for a few days without food in the wild), Zurich (where he was forced to climb a perilous mountain with two massive rental bikes atop his shoulders), and many other places. Today, Sherwood enjoys a more peaceful life in New York City working once again as a product designer.”

Also, this is the clever and humorous anti-theft lunchbag from his independent work. Forlee has a lot more impressive work you can check out, but this has gotten the most brownie points with peeps around me that I’ve shared his work with, so I’ve chosen it as the main pick from his work… Let’s just hope he never reads this. ☺
















































**photos via skforlee.com

And You Thought Hand Modeling Was Ridiculous…

Well no, he’s not the model behind the hand but he’s certainly behind the artistic touch (pun intended) . Italian artist Guido Daniel, born in Soverato and now working in Milan, is a hyper realistic illustrator whose work you’re probably familiar with from billboards and various ads. He’s certainly found his niche, even with body painting being extremely regulated in many parts of the world, Guido has been able to establish a career with global brands as well as branching to fashion events and exhibits. Trompe L’Oeil techniques are nothing new, but his work has had both private and public patronage for buildings and other similar artwork.

In 2007, Animal Planet awarded Guido the Animal Planet Hero of the Year Award. You can check him out on his website, as always here are some picks:





**photos via yoke.cc

Physicist Turned.. Digital Artist?

Even I didn't see that coming, as I always assumed the right-brained (a.k.a physics challenged.. am I off base here?) would be the ones ending up in that category. But yeah, who knew!

I’ve been looking at UK based design/illustrator Nik Ainley’s work and there is really sooo much to look at. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with it and would shamelessly link to every single image on his portfolio (Shiny Binary v2.1, go dig in) because I just happen to like all of them, except that whoring off his work might not be such a great idea no?

Ainley taught himself Photoshop during his spare time studying for his degree in physics, and has since then shifted to designing full time after his major success. Goes to show that with determination you can do anything, After Effects here I come. ☺

Enjoy some of my picks… If you like what you see (and I’m sure you do), don’t deny yourself the opportunity to check his full portfolio at Shiny Binary v2.1.

Dirty White Trash

I've always been iffy with installations, especially when they force a lot on the viewer that's open to interpretation. Maybe that's just the designer in me versus the 'artist' ... Which is why I really appreciated Tim Noble and Sue Webster fantastic shadow-play self portrait installations.

Noble and Webster use light in a creative way to put piles of rubbish into context fit with the title of each piece. Random fact- each pile of rubbish is really six months of the artists' rubbish. (not that means anything more than a possible aha moment.)

Dirty White Trash (With Gulls), 1998

HE/SHE, 2003

Real Life Is Rubbish, 2002

Some of their other work..

**photos via boredstop.com

Hard Candy (Not By Madonna)

This fun find of the day is from Maison & Objet OXYGENE magazine, featuring a spectacular editorial piece by Vincent Poinas (stylist) and Arnaud Gouallec (photographer). Poinas and Gouallec took the conceptual task of turning regular and precious raw material into decor that's deliciously different for display in the magazine's Fall exhibition in Paris.

**photos via yatzer.com, sourced from Maison & Objet OXYGENE magazine

Wit Caught On Camera

One of my current Professors once mentioned that the difference between graduate work and student work is that graduate work communicates clearly and narrows down to a single point; while students tend to prove their 'out of the box' thought process by tending to go all over the place - Sigh!

I don't know if Robert Gligorov was ever a student, in fact I don't really know much about him at all since most of what I've found on him is in a foreign language (probably Macedonian or some slavic dialect, -do you know?). All I do know is that he hails from Macedonia and was born in 1960.. And that his work pretty much rocks, and does an outstanding feat of being communicative and focused on the single idea behind each piece - Truly great stuff to look up to :)

Here are my picks, or you can click here for the rest


** photos via http://dar-jan.livejournal.com/267001.html

Age before beauty - Or not?

Being young and still-a-student in the design world, I always associated brilliant work with years of experience. That’s not to say that I don’t see a lot of great work from relatively up and coming designers and school work, but ever since being the freshman that I was, if we were to research designers we’d always go for the greats. Carson, Rand, Glaser, etc.. And they’re all pretty seasoned in what they do. Maybe it’s a school thing?
I think to an extent, I spent a long time thinking that the only way to be absolutely brilliant is to spend a lot of time doing whatever it is that you do.. There’s truth to that, but it can also be twisted into an easy scapegoat out of holding personal work to a higher standard-because guess what! I’m only and still a small fish compared to all those out there, etc…etc…etc.. You see my point.

So with all that being said, here’s to youth and inspirational work (and no I’m not going to obnoxiously put my own work with that claim, not yet anyhow ☺ ), and here’s to this post’s star – 20 year old Phillip Schilling from Plauen, Germany. His brilliant image making skills and mixed media approach definitely puts him as one to watch, I'm showing some of my favorites of his work in this post, but you can check out the rest of his work on his website colorbunch.com or click on the print thumbnail below

(his work's also been displayed in Advanced Photoshop magazine)

**all images in the post are courtesy of colorbunch.com and are Schilling's personal work. I'm in no way affiliated with the designer, but only paying tribute to great talent with inclusion of these images.