Once again Moss, NYC's highly revered design destination, opened one of the most important openings during ICFF, called "Poetic License," to much frenzied fanfare this weekend. Despite considerable downsizing over the past two years—the company shuttered both of its West Coast operations and its joint-venture restaurant, and gave over...

Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi released his debut solo album, "Go," earlier this month to near universal acclaim, since embarking on a world tour of theatrical stage performances to rival the epic grandeur of his album. A collaborative effort between Jónsi's team in Reykjavik and the London-based stage production company...

While hauntingly beautiful landscapes, elusive fairies and mind-blowing music usually come to mind when thinking of Iceland, DesignMarch, the second annual weekend festival organized by the Iceland Design Center, aims to add design to that list. Following an economic collapse of epic proportions, the nation is now looking for...

NYC-based artist Christopher Chiappa's first solo show in eight years, "High Fructose Corn Syrup," boldly explores themes of cultural degradation, anxiety and industrialized sweeteners. Now on view at NYC's Kate Werble Gallery through 10 April 2010, the show includes a variety of media, including photography, sculpture and video to...

Playing to the mounting excitement of South Africa's upcoming World Cup, last month's Design Indaba conference in Cape Town was billed as something of a major sports event in its own right with colorful banners, stadium cheer-worthy introductions and even trading cards for the visiting speakers. Talks covered dozens...

Launched at last month's Design Indaba expo, the Inception Collection from Snapp was one of the more attention-grabbing product collections there. With its use of brilliant hues and bold forms, the group of five objects stood out from much of the more craft-based wares on view. Founded by industrial...

Launched at the recent Design Indaba, Haldane Martin's Baba Papa Lounger (above) was one of the highlights of this year's exposition. The undulating, meshed structure, manufactured from roughly 80% recycled stainless steel wire, was inspired by the worn surface of beach pebbles. Sun bathers not to worry, the lounger...

Nestled in a small display cube within the Cape Craft and Design Institute's exhibition at the recent Design Indaba expo, Heartworks Stitching Club's hand-embroidered teddy bears immediately caught our attention with their bold colors and one-of-a-kind appliqué. Founded by Margaret Woermann, owner of the Cape Town crafts boutique Heartworks,...

At the close of last week's Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, we had the opportunity to meander through the expo of over 260 impassioned exhibitors from around South Africa. While much of the work on view skewed toward accessories and jewelry, we found a handful of tremendous products...

Given the state of the world, we could all do with some levity. That's where You and Me, The Royal We comes in. Conceived by Brooklyn studio mates Oliver Jeffers, Mac Premo and Aaron Ruff of Digby and Iona (which we featured here), the recently-launched collective's cheeky sense of...

A curious collection of improbable objects, "Cut & Paste" is the brainchild of the incredibly talented Kiki van Eijk. The project, currently on view at Secondome Design Gallery in Rome, marries disparate elements of material, color, finish and form as a celebration of "designing by making." Working with Secondome...

Founded in 1995, the now-annual Design Indaba conference and expo in Cape Town has evolved into one of the leading platforms for creative industries in the southern hemisphere. Cool Hunting is delighted to join a list of killer publications as a media partner for this year's events. The conference...

While the disheveled stacking of boxes seems to be a rampant gesture in today's architecture, the new Vitra Haus by architects Herzog & de Meuron proves that, if done correctly, the conceit can create a thrilling, dynamic structure both inside and out. The new building (the first addition to...

Young London designer and architect Asif Khan recently unveiled his visually arresting Harvest Project, a small collection of chairs and a table created during his participation in the Designers in Residence program at the Design Museum London. Following a brief to develop "context-specific" projects, Khan sought to highlight the...

Earlier today infographic designer Nicholas Felton released his fifth annual report, the culmination of yet another year's worth of data accretion and (according to his Facebook status) well over 200 hours of labor. With The 2009 Feltron Annual Report, Felton stepped up his game a sizable notch by creating...

Cargo, a web publishing platform designed specifically for the creative fields, appeals to art directors, photographers, graphic designers, visual artists and more. Created by Folkert Gorter, Josh Pangell and Rene Daalder, the service enables users to publish a wide variety of visual content with ease, effectively dispensing with the...

Like most years, 2009 saw a plethora of design and culture books. But in this case, the abundance persisted in spite of a crippling recession and a publishing industry fighting to adapt to an increasingly digital society. Whether the trend has to do with the ongoing tendency to conceive and...

The relentless pace of innovation constantly inspires us, both with form and function, in this still new century. While the pace isn't without its hazards, as we step lightly into the new decade, we see plenty of room for optimism. Below, we selected the designs covered on Cool Hunting this...

If you're coming down to the wire for holiday gifting but don't want to send the standard e-gift certificate, we've pulled together a few digital options that'll show you've put some thought into your giving this year—or at least show you read Cool Hunting. Subscription to Marvel Digital Comics For...

Luca Nichetto designed Essence, a collection of household vessels and interior objects, to evoke the tools most commonly used in artisinal production. Each object in the line—vases, bowls, candle holders, tables—represents a moment in the production process, acting as a ghostly signifier of an object's genesis. For example, the...

Now popular enough to warrant a a book on the subject, there's no end in sight for the "dark nostalgia" movement that's taken hold of restaurants, hotels and boutiques the world over. New York's East Village just got it's latest injection in the form of Old Village Hall, a...

In a timely if sobering reminder of the ever changing retail landscape around us, The Morning News recently posted "The Ghosts of Shopping Past," an online gallery of photographs by Chicago-based lensman Brian Ulrich, whose Copia project we covered in 2008. A collection of exterior and interior retail wastelands,...

Ever on the lookout for a clean, no-nonsense watch, the inaugural collection by London-based design and manufacturing company Uniform Wares gets our vote of design distinction. The style, inspired by the form and graphic detailing of British industry wall clocks, achieves its look from meticulous tailoring, with every nuance...

New York-based imaginative consultancy Hugo & Marie recently launched an online boutique offering apparel accessories, jewelry and artwork from its stable of visual artists and designers. The firm, founded almost two years ago, provides services to a broad client list that includes Nike, W Magazine, Warp Records and Microsoft....

The Brooklyn food renaissance recently welcomed another local producer to its ranks with the addition of Brooklyn Brine, a pickling operation based in the burgeoning neighborhood of Greenpoint. Founded in August by Josh Egnew and Shamus Jones, with the recent addition of vegan blogger Joya Carlton, critics are already...

An ingenious example of multifunctional design, Kai Malte Röver's Puyl (for pump up your light) combines a bicycle pump and LED headlamp. The Royal College of Art graduate won the 2009 Eurobike Award in the student category for the design that takes the form of the common mini-pump while...

For those drowning in the digital age's information glut, "Visual Miscellaneum," the new eye-popping book of infographics by London-based visual and data journalist David McCandless, makes the perfect antidote. Forget about pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs and histograms; the book showcases McCandless' dexterity when it comes to the...

Spotted at this year's Habitat Valencia, the Galaxy Reclining Armchair by Spanish manufacturer CasaDesús blends space age style with suburban functionality. The sleek chair, designed by company founder Jaime Casadesús, puts to shame every La-Z-Boy in existence with minimal lines, luxurious upholstery options and automated articulations. Just now making...

Rapha Performance Roadware is proving itself equally adept in fashioning urban cycling gear as it does the most desirable racing apparel on the market. With each new collection, the company improves upon previous releases by honing details and getting ever closer to a perfect balance of on-the-bike functionality and...

Not quite satisfied with his first homage to the deck, "Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art" (which we covered Amazon.) At a whopping 368 full-color pages, the hardcover indeed makes for something of a biblical account, cataloging an astonishing breadth of 20th Century skateboard graphics. Peppered with quotes from...

Striking a deft balance between sports mag, arts journal and lovingly-crafted 'zine, Embrocation Cycling Journal addresses the world of bicycling like never before. Founded in January 2008 by avid racer Jeremy Dunn, the bi-annual journal covers road racing, touring, cyclocross and urban riding through surprising layout and typography, well-crafted...

Bravely introducing retail projects to economically-challenged downtown Detroit, Joe Posch does it with style, most recently adding Hugh to his roster of successful ventures. The eastern Michigan native started with his design store Mezzanine and Hugh, conceptualized as a "retail happening" rather than a pop-up, marks his latest. Offering...

The Front frame collection by the Valencia-based odosdesign makes a colorful splash into an otherwise tepid market of decorative frames for the home. The current collection consists of four unique designs—Quick, Legs, Meccano and Layer—each characterized by vibrant hues and a unique shape that marries function with ornament. Inspired...

Next week, Brooklyn artist Stephen Floyd's first solo show in New York, "I Love America and America Loves Me," opens at Heist Gallery in Manhattan's Lower East Side. The exhibition includes sixty-four works, curated by the artist's friends Valentina Angeloni and Daniel Basiletti, which span an increasingly broad range...

Gandia Blasco, the Valencian design company now widely recognized for its mainly white, outdoor furniture, began over sixty years ago as a textile manufacturer. In recent years, the company returned to its woven roots with a diverse collection of rugs for the home. Produced under the brand moniker Gan,...

While skateboarding's history has been well-documented, we've yet to see a published dedication to the sport's most essential piece of apparel, the skate shoe. "Made for Skate," a hefty archive of skateboard footwear, changes that with nearly 400 lavishly illustrated pages. The joint product of Fauxami and The Skateboard...

Active Furniture, a project by Spanish designers Virginia Pol, Ferran Lajara and Cristina Guardiola, uses counter-intuitive design as an antidote to our increasingly sedentary lives. The three objects—a floor lamp, a desk and a wall hanger—each require a level of exertion on the user's part to function. The floor...

Adding a touch of playfulness to interiors, Myvinilo specializes in vinyl wall decals. The Barcelona-based company, which recently showed at the Feria Valencia during the Ideas y Pasión tradeshow, produces a wide array of wall treatments ranging from the purely ornamental to the cleverly conceived. The silhouetted skyline series...

During this year's Ideas y Pasión trade fair at the Feria Valencia, a new commercial show dedicated to kitchen design featured a wonderfully experimental exhibition entitled "Papila," curated by the Spanish designer Alberto Arza. A cultural initiative by the International Kitchen Design show, "Papila" featured two projects, "Food Design"...

"The Map as Art," a new book edited by Katharine Harmon from Princeton Architectural Press, richly surveys today's artistic landscape and its relation to the map. Perhaps it's no surprise that the map has inspired artists throughout history. Today though, in spite of an interdepent globalized economy and hyperconnectivity...

"No Echo, No Shadow," Anton Ginzburg's first solo show at Moscow's Galerie Iragui, straddles the boundaries of cultural and political epochs with its collection of objets d'art. The works—a mask, bronzes, works on paper, neon text—make implicit reference to the transition from early 20th century European art to the...

Let the mass media say what it will, Newwork Magazine, a large-format biannual publication dedicated to art, design, fashion, culture and politics, proves the ongoing relevance of print yet. The product of Fashion Institute of Design students Ryotatsu Tanaka, Ryo Kumazaki, Hitomi Ishigaki and Aswin Sadha, the magazine's latest...

Specializing in art, thought and literature, Valencia's Libreria Valdeska is a bibliophile's dream find. Tucked away on the narrow Calle del Mar, just west of the Jardín del Turia, Valdeska embraces the bookstore as boutique approach, offering a tightly-curated collection of small presses, vintage titles and classic publications (all...

Would you like to own a record of the most successful grassroots campaign in presidential election history? A sprawling collection of art from the historic campaign, "Designing Obama" features over one hundred artists whose works contributed to a nationwide branding effort that helped inspire a nation. With collaboration from...

Andrea, a natural air purification system, looks like a futuristic prop in Steven Spielberg's A.I., not something you'll soon be able to purchase online for the cost of an iPod Touch. Created by industrial designer Mathieu Lehanneur and Harvard professor David Edwards in 2007, Andrea was one of several...

An intelligent riff on kitchen textiles, Gry Fager's Mormor collection of tableware for Normann Copenhagen combines modern form and traditional pattern with the most gratifying results. Mormor's distinct patterns—a graphic interpretation of the typical blue and white tea towel and a textural nod to the classic dish cloth—grace a...

The indispensable design blog Core77 just launched an exhaustive help section called Hack2Work: Essential Tips for the Design Professional. Divided into five sections—Clients, Office, Staff, Process and Promotion—each contains dozens of tips, tricks and lifehacks for people who work in design fields. Some interesting highlights from seasoned insiders include:...

A delightful collection of paper airplane designs and their accompanying stories, "The New Millennium Paper Airplane Book" by Klara Hobza documents her art happening at the New York Hall of Science in Queens last fall. The New Millennium Paper Airplane Contest, an homage to a similar event that took...

Jennifer Anderson's "Mud Series" collection translates iconic chairs into steel and mud. The studies of classics—an Eames LCW, a Thonet Café Chair, a Wegner Wishbone Chair—resemble the artifacts of an architectural dig, their once flawless surfaces marred by the cracked earth. (Click images for an expanded view.) The series...

During last week's New York International Gift Fair Alessi debuted roughly 200 new products and expanded families across the company's three brand divisions. Choosing favorites isn't easy, but check out a few selects below. Gabriele Chiave's "Apostrophe" orange peeler (above) reminds us of what Alessi does best. Designed as...