Cool Hunting
| 24 January 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
SEEE: I Love Magic Shows and Other Ways To Fight Evil
by Letizia Rossi
The newest collection from CH favorites Star Electric Eighty Eight (SEEE), called "I Love Magic Shows and Other Ways To Fight Evil" features designs inspired by the concept of self-made magic and revolutionary spirit. Harlem-based designer Jennifer Garcia researched the occult elements from a variety of sources including European tarot cards, Native American dream-catchers, Rangoli designs from India and Pennsylvanian Dutch barn hexes, all of which she sampled and remixed to create the designs.
Armour D'Amour (pictured right) features a Native American motif which can be interpreted as armor either of or from love.
After reading Jane Fonda's biography, Garcia was also inspired to create The Jane Fonda shirt (pictured below) which features a simple repeat pattern of Fonda's famous 1970s fist-raised mug shot. As Garcia says "Her life story seemed to fit in perfectly with the idea of self-made magic. Anyone who uses themselves like that is an inspiration."
The Star Electric Eighty Eight designs are all printed on American Apparel T-Shirts and are available in both men and women's sizes in several color ways.
SEEE's designs are also featured in Street T. Camisetas, a book about t-shirt designs put out by Barcelona-based publisher Monsa and will be featured in a forthcoming book from Rebellion Books in the U.K. Up next is a new line of T-Shirts featuring designs by Datrumpf a French illustrator and designer living in New York.
Also on Cool Hunting Star Electric Eighty Eight: 2004 Collection and Star Electric Eighty Eight: 2006 Collection
Kent Rogowski: Love=Love
by Letizia Rossi
Kent Rogowski's Love=Love series combines pieces from over 40 store-bought puzzles to create dramatically surreal collages of skies and flowers. Apparently, though puzzle pieces typically only fit into one unique spot, thanks to cost-cutting manufacturers, they can be interchanged with other puzzles of the same brand. Click image for detail, more images after the jump.
via Swissmiss
Also on Cool Hunting Bears by Kent Rogowski
Kazuumi Takahashi: High Tide Wane Moon
by Jonah Samson
Japanese artist Kazuumi Takahashi's beautiful first monograph, "High Tide Wane Moon", explores the relationship between the moon and the ocean. Having grown up near the sea as the son of a fisherman, the schedule of the tides influenced his daily activities, just as the moon influenced the tides.
In this large-format book, Takahashi presents 25 double-page spreads, each with a photograph of the moon on the left side, and a corresponding photograph of the ocean on the right. The diptychs envelop us with water and sky and pays homage to the forces of nature that have inspired and influenced us since the beginning of time.
High Tide Wane Moon is printed in an edition of 1,000 and is available through Nazraeli Press or online from Photoeye.
Ian Stevenson
by Lost At E Minor
London-based illustrator Ian Stevenson claims that he's got "ideas crammed into his head like toys in a popular middle-class boy's bedroom." I don't suggest you try to get though the wordy biography on his website, but I do encourage you to take a look at the work and watch the documentary. Stevenson uses humor in his naive linework to create an eco-statement. If that's not enough, his work has been exhibited alongside the likes of Banksy, David Shrigley and Jamie Hewlett.
