Give you a clue:
It's not there... :)
A nice promotional poster for Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009. I'm giving you some little appetizers and then going for the hard sell in later posts...
Translation: "The world doesn't know about Vilnius. Tell them!"
Created: 2008-04-08 18:43, Tags: Capital of Culture, design, Lithuania, Comments: 0
I think the picture is pretty self explanatory. Take a picture, stick it in your computer, probably lose the camera down the back of the sofa...It's not out to buy yet (and not even in production) according to this site.
Created: 2008-01-28 18:53, Tags: design, stuff, technology, Comments: 0
Another wonderful creation from Art Lebedev. And look how cheap it is!
PS. Danger! Sticky tape! is what is actually printed on the tape.
Created: 2008-01-08 18:22, Tags: design, Russia, tape, Comments: 0
It's not going to be a neat and tidy post; it's going to be a jumble of random stuff that you may be interested in. Firstly, there's the news that I'm flying back to the UK on 3rd November. I expect balloons and banners waiting for me in arrivals in Liverpool. I'm getting a job and earning lots of money which I'll probably just put in the bank for a rainy day or possibly pay off my student loan...but it's a big possibly. I've also been learning a bit of Lithuanian. I was searching manically on the internet to find out how "mano" declines (it means "my") and I searched and searched, but nothing...and then Tomas told me that it doesn't decline at all!!! This is amazing news and means it makes learning Lithuanian about 1% easier.
I've also had plenty of time to surf the internet. I've found some pretty sweet blogs from Sweden and Finland:
happysilly
manteli
une petite fleur
smosch
fine little day
They make me want to live there so much. Everything seems so fresh and natural. All that crispbread, smoked salmon, dill and lingonberry jam.
On my travels I also found another cute Korean stationary site. Here's some of the nice things they produce:
I'm really thinking about investing in some stamps. They would add a little something to my letters.
Created: 2007-10-23 15:35, Tags: blogs, design, inspiration, life, links, randomness, stuff, Comments: 0
I'm absolutely in love with these tights. They are (as expected) overpriced, but so pretty and colourful. Not sure about the denier though...can't be having anything less than 40.
They are available from the Finnish Design Shop which also sells some other nice things and delivers worldwide!
Created: 2007-10-23 14:25, Tags: design, fashion, finland, shopping, stuff, Comments: 0
I'm in no way an expert on graphic design or even design in general. The closest I ever got to designing a product was making a chair back when I was 16. To be fair, it was a damn good chair with a damn good design, but I'm not going into details here. But when it comes to graphics, patterns, colour combinations I know what I like and I know what makes the level of electrical activity in my brain increase. I know what looks good, I know what looks bad. Basically, I would like to think I have a certain amount of taste. I browse around in magma...I have taste! :)
Yeah, so back to the actual point of this post and this is to let you know about an excellent blog all about patterns and print. There's everything you've ever wanted to know and you can scroll for literally hours through all the lovely colours and ideas.
For pages and pages of inspiration I highly recommend these books all about pattern. There's a whole series of books inspired by different themes from Scandinavia to dots and stripes. Each page is dedicated to one pattern and it's all just a big party of colour and wonderment. They are available in Magma or on Amazon, but unfortunately they are a little pricey as they come all the way from Japan.
Created: 2007-10-18 18:56, Tags: books, colour, design, graphic design, japan, patterns, Comments: 0
I wrote about the millimeter/milligram matryoshka cards in a previous post. I've now realised that the matryoshka doll motif seems to be popping up everywhere and seems to be bringing with it a new wave of Russian coolness. I guess we're all familiar with Russian retro Soviet coolness. Hammer and sickle T-shirts, Soviet era posters, Lenin posters etc. But the appearance of the matyoshka doll takes takes the coolness all the way back to folk art. This makes me so happy. When I was in Russia I took a folk art class and painted dolls and other wooden things in the traditional style. It got me through the dark winter and showed me that I wasn't all that bad at painting. The matryoshka doll makes a perfect motif for fabrics or stationary: it's bold, has a beautiful, curvaceous form and can be as colourful as you want it to be.
Look at this wonderful Japanese fabric I saw on this site. I love the way it has short Russian words such as "happiness" and "friendship" alongside the matryoshkas. I also love these bold wall decals which are sold on etsy. The matryoshka motif is just as impressive in one bright colour.
Also I've noticed something cool that the Korean stationary designer millimeter/milligram are doing. You probably know how Japanese and Korean stationary designers use cute English or French phrases on their work. Now they are even using Russian text in their designs! Well, we always knew that the Russian alphabet had certain aesthetic qualities...
Created: 2007-10-18 17:42, Tags: design, japan, korea, print, russia, stationary, Comments: 0
Today I'm in the mood for doing things, like writing posts. I've been frantically surfing around recently and I've come across some great things, which I will be feeding to you in small doses. Also there's a great idea in the pipeline, which is making me a bit more optimistic...but more about that later perhaps.
I've seen a lot of stuff to buy recently on sites such as etsy. I've seen some fantastic bento boxes and other Japanese cute stuff that is so adorable. I've seen books and magazines. I've seen clothes and shoes and bags. It's nice to browse and see what to spend my hard earned money on. But do I really need this stuff? Why do I need this book - it's only going to sit on my bookshelf for the next 20 years looking pretty. Why do people feel the need to surround themselves with beautiful things? Why is something vintage better than something new and why should I pay more for it? A couple of websites have caught my attention in this respect: cherry blossom girl's blog and Väärä dikotomia blog. Both blogs are slightly worrying to me. Don't get me wrong, they both are visually pleasing and give sound fashion ideas. However, there's just something disturbing about putting on your own clothes and modelling them on your own blog in a variety of whimsical poses. I still enjoy looking at pretty photos...
So I come on to my next point. Why do we pay so much for things that are worth literally pennies? I came across OK Versand through Zitty's Berlin shopping guide. Basically what they do is import everyday items such as egg holders or envelopes either from developing countries or from former Eastern Bloc countries and sell them at German prices. Their justification for this is that they are supporting fair trade and buying products that otherwise wouldn't be imported into Germany. At the same time they are giving consumers something unique, something beautiful in form, something fascinating. True, they may be sustaining production in countries such as Russia, Indonesia and India, but this is on a tiny scale. It's also true that they are selling aesthetically pleasing objects, but my main question is how much profit are they making from all this?
Created: 2007-10-17 17:33, Tags: consumerism, design, germany, life, products, shopping, Comments: 2
I get a bit angry when people think that a quick link and maybe a photo constitute as a good post, but I'm rather guilty of this crime today. However, there's a link that I really have to share with you. It's rare to stumble upon such a treasure of a blog amongst the mass of trash on that's out there. The blog's called Crust Station (bit of an unfortunate name) and it will fill all your eye candy/inspiration/design/shopping needs. Basically, it's just a collection of great links to other great websites/photos on topics such as Japanese cuteness, photography, books, illustration.... So enjoy!
Created: 2007-10-17 13:50, Tags: design, inspiration, links, Comments: 0
Just a quick post for today.
I came across an interesting post on a Finnish blog about Finnish fashion, which you may or may not be interested in. Finnish fashion is not all about IVANAhelsinki, you know :) I've been reading La Primavera's blog for a while now. She writes mainly about the world of fashion and the scene in Finland, but is not afraid to add a little cynicism and sarcasm into the mix. All in all it's very refreshing and insightful.
I promise to post something more profound soon.
Created: 2007-10-17 12:29, Tags: design, fashion, finland, ideas, links, stuff, Comments: 0
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