Cool Hunting

Illustrator Andrea Innocent
Melbourne artist Andrea Innocent's illustrations are beautiful, stylized and surreal. Borrowing from the Ukiyo-e tradition of woodblock printing that became popular in Japan in the seventeenth century, Innocent uses crisp lines and monochromatic color to create poster-style works. Ukiyo-e, meaning "pictures of the floating world," were often images of otherworldly scenes and people. Like those of her forebears, Innocent's works are ethereal, populated by...

Lost at E Minor x Shepard Fairey
by Derrick AblemanContemporary artist Shepard Fairey is hijacking our favorite weekly email publication, Lost at E Minor, by plotting a kamikaze course through a posse of his favorite street artists, photographers and left-of-center bands next Tuesday, 20 January 2009. First achieving international exposure with his ubiquitous Andre the Giant sticker, Shepard Fairey's clever and iconic stencil work has quickly become entrenched in our physical and...

Illustrator Amy Sol
We checked in with illustrator Amy Sol and asked her about the impact her workspace has on her unique interpretative style.It's pretty minimal and not necessarily clean all the time. If you visit me you can tell immediately how busy I am by how messy my place is. I like my work environment to be comfy but clear of too many visual distractions. I...

Switchgrass-Derived Bioplastics
Environmental tech company Metabolix recently announced that they have discovered a way to derive large amounts of bioplastic (plastics made from renewable biomass resources) by growing it in switchgrass, a common prairie grass. Their efforts are part of an increasing movement to manufacture alternatives to petroleum-based plastics by making biodegradable plastics out of renewable resources. The company uses the plant to create its own...