Cool Hunting
| 24 November 2006view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Troika
by m ss ng p eces
The techno-subversiveness of Troika's mobile phone-controlled Tool for Armchair Activists and SMS Guerilla Projector initially caught CH's attention a couple years back. Episode 56 of Cool Hunting Video visits the now three year-old, multi-disciplinary art and design studio in Brixton, London to meet the founding trio of international designers behind Troika, Eva Rucki, Sebastian Noel and Conny Freyer, and to see their conceptual work in action. You'll hear the Tool for Armchair Activists narrate, see the SMS Guerilla Projector's text on the wall and in the street and get an electromagnetic tour of Troika's office with the Electroprobe, a tool that translates sounds made by electronics.
Five Gift Wraps
by Ami Kealoha
Giving gifts is almost as much about the presentation as it is about the gift inside. As the holiday shopping rush escalates, wrapping paper is a detail that's crucial not to overlook. These five gift wraps leave the creativity to someone else and look great alone without any fussy ribbons or decoration.
(w)rapping paper
Though not quite in production yet,
Si Hill Design has been getting a lot of praise for his clever (w)rapping paper that features the instantly recognizable lyrics to popular rap songs. The pun of the gift wrap itself is as funny as it is to read the familiar words in print. The UK-based designer's prototypes include the old school, Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (pictured left, click for detail), NWA's classic "Straight Outta Compton," the embarrassment of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and House of Pain's "Jump Around," all in different two-hue colorways.
eBoy Christmas Gift Wrap
Featuring a snow scape populated with the pixel characters that the Berlin design collective eBoy's known for, this eBoy Christmas Gift Wrap paper (pictured left, click for detail) pares down the holiday to the element of snow. It's available, along with other eBoy patterns and equally unique graphics by other designers, from Nineteen Seventy Three for £1.80 per sheet.
Dude Wrap
Whimsy Press has a selection of Dude Wrap, like the ironic name might imply, is the perfect antidote to saccharine Santas and snowmen. The Paper Invaders set (pictured above left) features vintage video game graphics, the Sticks and Stones set is adorned with skulls and crossbones and the Bugz set has creepy bugs with the words "I love to squish bugs." Each sheet costs $4.50 and is available online.
Paporganics Holiday Hemp Wrap
Printed with 100% vegetable ink on hemp blend (10% hemp/flax, 90% recycled post-consumer fiber
processed chlorine-free) paper Paporganics wrapping paper adds eco-chic to traditional (yet un-cheesy) patterns. Available in four nondenominational designs, our favorites are the Peace Doves print (pictured below left) and Pointsettias. $5 will get you two 24"x36" Sheets.
Happy Fucking Whatever
Crass is it may be,
Happy Fucking Whatever (pictured below right) wrap adds a little humor—not to mention practicality—to holiday excess. Four 26"x 19" sheets cost $7.
