And look! So cute!

Let me tell you what you’re seeing here. This is the work of one Roya Hamburger, an artist / designer whose name is just amazing and perfect. Roya Hamburger. What an amazing name, and with the skills to back it up. The skills are digital illustration skills. The images you see above and below are a set of 3 that go by the name “The Elbow Room” 1 2 and 3. They’re indicative of the amazing fantastic wonderful work Roya Hamburger does on the daily. All done in Adobe-product applications.

We live in an age where a lot of illustration sucks. It shouldn’t even be called illustration is sucks so much. But this work by Roya Hamburger is amazing. She’s got amazing work and she’s got a lot of it. These pictures you see in this post are my favorite, and they’re not even the most elaborate. She’s doin it. And she’s doin it in a way I’ve never quite seen before. Digital illustration runs down lines that often times look very very similar. Roya Hamburger is not down those lines. She’s wild.

For more work by Roya Hamburger, take a look at http://www.royahamburger.net/

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies unnatural nature category.

The most excellent sculpture I ever built in art school was one I made out of free wood glue and wood scraps from the scrap wood bin. All free, all A+. That’s sort of, in a way, what’s going on here with these newest works of wood and paint magic by Shawn Smith. Plywood, acrylic paint, and sometimes ink. That’s what these masterworks are made of. The heads of animals is what they replicate. The eyeballs of the elite are what they attract.

Your dollars is what they HOPE to attract. Buy them, gallery owners. I must see more! The only way for an artist to have the amount of time it takes to construct these things is if they’ve got the cash to eat dinner! So gallery owners, I say again, support Shawn Smith! This whole wood chippies glued together idea is fantastic!

The gallery below is in chronological order by year. Each year, starting in 2005, there are several works which were produced throughout the year. The gallery is ordered top to bottom, the newest ones at the bottom. Then after the gallery of individual projects, you’re going to see a set of images that all look alike, all of them with buzzards attacking an office. This is the bigger project of Smith’s dealing with these woodies. It’s called Vicious Venue and it’s a total bird attack!

Take a look at some words from Smith on the project:

Vicious Venue My recent work explores my interest in birds of prey as a source of conceptual inspiration and analogy. I am fascinated by vultures and the visceral way most people react to them. For my exhibition at Lawndale Art Center, I asked the question, “What would a digital vulture eat if it was somehow trapped inside this reality?” Vicious Venue is a sculptural installation consisting of a group of life-size pixelated vultures devouring an analog office full of obsolete technologies (like a typewriter, rolodex, and a rotary phone). The viewer becomes an intruder into the space, as if they are stumbling into the middle of the ongoing carnage as the vultures pick the office’s carcass clean. The title of the exhibition, Vicious Venue, refers to the double meaning of “venue” as both a place, and a group of vultures.

Scary. Again Vicious Venue is at the bottom of the gallery in it’s entirety.

To follow the further artworks and designworks of mister Shawn Smith, find him at his portfolio page, the gallery that represents him in Dallas: Craighead Green, or the gallery that represents him in Austin: DBerman Gallery.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies bits category.

So graphic design and poster printing team Aesthetic Apparatus is ten years old. …wait a second, weren’t they ten years old LAST YEAR? Yes, yes they were. That’s why there’s an exhibition at the MCAD gallery here in Minneapolis that’s going by the name “AAXI: A DECADE OF AESTHETIC APPARATUS, ONE YEAR LATE.” View MCAD-approved photos of the opening night below.

Words from AA/MCAD about what’s going on here:

The distinctive, hand-printed concert posters of Aesthetic Apparatus duo Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski have garnered international acclaim since 1998. In 2002, Aesthetic Apparatus became a full-fledged, award-winning studio, completing a spectrum of design projects in addition to the posters they loved to produce. “Aesthetic Apparatus: 10 Years, 1 Year Late” showcases their many treasured “artifacts” from the past 10 years as well as a collection of their acclaimed work.

Ibarra and Byzewsk have created for such clients as Blue Q, Stella Artois, Harper Collins, The Economist, and Criterion Collection and for such bands as Cake, Frank Black, Spoon, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, Dinosaur Jr., and Grizzly Bear. Their work has been featured in Print, Step Into Design, Communication Arts, Creative Review, HOW, Rolling Stone, Swindle, Jane, and ReadyMade Magazine, along with heavy handfuls of design book publications and the rock poster bible The Art of Modern Rock.

Start Time: Friday, May 28, 2010 at 6:00pm
End Time: Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 6:00pm
Location: Minneapolis College of Art And Design – Main Gallery
Street: 2501 Stevens Avenue
City/Town: Minneapolis, MN

Ohh and there’s an audio guide! I wish there were an audio guide for every big (and tiny) event I attend in my life. Think of the possibilities!

AAXI: Ten Years of Aesthetic Apparatus audio tour available for download here: www.aestheticapparatus.com/AAXI.zip

Slap it onto yer MP3 player and bring it to the event!

OR

Call 612.435.3316 to listen to the audio at the event!

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY MAY 28TH 2010 • 6PM • MCAD MAIN GALLERY

Below you’ll find a small collection of photos taken by MCAD photographer Amalia Nicholson on the night of the opening. Highlights: the big moosey, original hand-written business plan (not pictured), and the big huge GIANT wall of prints – one that goes up several stories into the school.

Go cheque it out!

BONUS: Also included below (first in the gallery) is the postcard used to call the city in to have a nice opening party. It uses a nice photo of the fellows also shown in the show.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebration category.

It is the ever-so-slight to ever-so-giant simplification of images, ideas, and the like that is the main tenant of the design hotel. The design hotel is the place were we all live, here, in modern times. The dude whose name is Max Capacity is a designer who works with his crew at Analog Medium. What Max Capacity has done here is to transmit fabulous and excellent images through what any motherloving normal person would call an 8-Bit process: using utilities that employ the ZX Spectrum to turn regular images into true pixelations.

Lookin good. When you’ve got a lot of colors, don’t worry about it. Take all those colors and reduce them down to a few with a pixel process. It makes everything appear another level of fantastic as it shines in some sort of a campy way as “computerized” color blocks.

Above and below you’ll see a collection of images processed by Max Capacity, each of them carefully changed into perfectly color proportioned pics. If you’d like to get in contact with MC to commission some works by him or just to peek at additional works in his portfolio, take a peek at his Max Capacity flickr collection, an ongoing collection of course.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies deconstruction category.

Holy crap! The generosity of the dude behind Exploding Rabbit is endless. Simply endless! Exploding rabbit is a new production… guy… who makes online video games and the like. And his first one is utterly fantastic! It’s called “Super Mario Brothers Crossover” and you won’t believe the joy you’ll get outta playing it. Crossover is a re-do of the original Mario Brothers video game (I should say, the non-Donky-Kong one), with one large difference – your choice of character. You can be the original Mario, Mega Man from Mega Man, Samus from Metroid, Link from Zelda, Bill R. from Contra, or Simon from Castlevania! Each of them has their own moves, power ups, and reactions to gameplay. A MUST PLAY.

Play it below, right now, today!

Anyone who’s played Mario will flip out over this. Anyone who’s played Mario AND one or all of these other games will flip out 6 times as hard. Each mushroom, fire flower, and power up does something basically unique for each character. Some of them based on their character play in their original game, some of them completely new! You will not be able to stop. Ever.

And lucky you! Here it is! The reason I said in the first place that this game’s designer was generous is because he’s given it away for free! World Famous Design Junkies is one of the places where the game is hosted. Play it here now!

Arrow keys to move, jump is Z and attack is X.
Then on some characters, special is S.
Check out holding your whole keyboard or laptop as a controller. lols.

Then if and when you love it, go visit him at his blog to see if there’s any new games. If you’re reading this on April 28th, then you’d better wait a little longer because that day, today that is, is when this game was released!

Hooray explosion!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies arcade category.

Hey I bet you know about some landmarks, right? How about this one? The ATOMIUM! The illustration you see above and below is done by the pixel super group eBoy, a group we’re very much into covering. One pixel, one square, one detail. Check out the image above and below (with greater detail), and read a little bit about the Atomium too!

This fabulous landmark was built for the World Fair in 1958. Nine spheres, each of them with room for walking around in. According to the Atomium website, 5 of the 9 are open for people to walk around in, 1 of them is a permanent show about the ’58 expo, 1 is for temporary exhibitions with scientific themes, the top sphere is a restaurant with the best view in the whole world, and I don’t know what the last sphere is for, but I bet it’s totally amazing.

And I have NO IDEA why eBoy did an illustration of it, but they just leaked this image, so that means probably they’re in the act of making a poster of the whole Brussles area. Maybe one on landmarks. We gotta wait and see!

Designer: eBoy, Paris
Client: Bergerat Monnoyeur, France

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies layout category.

DHL robot come to crush more than that! DHL robot come to crush all of human life! Never will any human escape the clutches of DHL robot, lest reprogrammed he is! To make pixel pictures will be his mission. First task, create two places of worship. To worship him! This post contains three items. Two of them are pixel illustrations, the third is what you see above you – an unofficial masterpiece. All of this fresh off the presses from eBoy pixel group.

The images you see below are unmarked but for their filename, which is often the way eBoy press-releases their images. Previews of larger things. These ones will more than likely become pieces of larger cities. Can you figure out which ones?

And that robot, man, that’s just lovely. That DHL robot is just itching to start a series of robots just like him. (That will eventually become smarter than their creator, deciding then to eliminate him!)

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies Pizza Party category.

The ever-churning pixel design and arrangement group eBoy have done it agin and again, here they’ve done it again. Today they released to the interwebs this fun and fantastic little large pattern for if you’d like to put it anywhere on your desktop or personal page or probably basically anything you’re not making any money on.

Have a bit of the ol’ fun with it!

Lovely sea monsters, I encourage you to look through our whole limited collection of eBoy news and projects coverage. Incase you are unaware of the squares of the world, I must tell you that eBoy is a group of individuals founded in 1997 by designers Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies pixels category.

ALSO! This is a rare opportunity where I’m going to encourage you to download the full-sized image for your enjoyment, usually I don’t touch this because of the DANGER of people placing the image on their site with this address, but the full size of this image is importante’!

[CLICK AND DOWNLOAD!]

Oh joy! This is one of those things I just love. And this guy right here, Juice Foozle, has made it a total fun project to turn characters upon characters into tiny representations of themselves. He even puts himself up for hire, turning the act of converting characters to their most rudimentary elements into a craft. Pixel Remix aka PXL RMX takes not only the characters Foozle’s created to convert, but also colleagues, associates, and random dudes. Turn your life to squares of light!

Peek at all these combos – I think you’ll see pretty quickly which ones are the ones that are the pixelated versions. Kna’m sayin? Above: Bloodbot – dethbot converted to simplistic lovliness by Juice Foozle.

Words from JF:

Hey there, and welcome to the introduction of the pixel remix project.

what is the pixel remix project?

a pixel remix is a pixel by pixel redone version of an allready existing characterdesign. the target is to get the design into a minimum of space without loosing the visual message and style of the original character.
i made the first pixel remix in june 2007, it was a remix of one of my own characters. so i thought it could be interesting to do the same with characterdesigns by other designers or artists. and so it all began on flickr, i made the first remix of blooboys dethbot, and it came out pretty nice, i got a lot of response and requests from other mates to do a pixel version of their characters too. after a long break from creating

pixels i want to continue this project now.

so stay tuned

FAQ:

Q: we are doing flash games, and like your work, do you do commissioned pixel work too
A: fosho. just drop me a line at contact(at)juicefoozle(dot)com

Q: could you do a remix of one of my characters?
A: yeah sure, but there is allready a long list waiting.
but if you got some nice design going on the chance to get on the list is pretty good.
just get in contact via the comment function on this post.

Q: when you do a pixel remix what does the original creator benefit from
A: of course his name and link to his homepage will always be dropped when the pixelremix is blogged here. and he has free rights to use the pixel remix in a non commercial way wherever he or she wants.

Q: can i download these pixel remixes and use them as avatar or icon?
A: i can’t decide that, the copyrights are all on the original creator of the characterdesign. so please dont simply steal it from here, at least you could give contacting the original creator a try.

Q: how are you doing these pixelthingies?
A: magic dust! thats all you need.
no, pixel by pixel in programs like photoshop or paint.
if you are interested just google for some pixel tutorials, there are heaps of good ones on the web.

Above: JuiceFoozle‘s own “Foozle the Viking.” Below: Cherrycore‘s character “Hello.”

Cute cute cute!

Above: Formatbrain‘s “Cabeza” Below: 14bolt bot by 14bolt!

Weee!

Above: Hellobard by Skullmonkey Below: el gato chimney by Captivity

Characters!

Above: Yaiaknuckle by Yaiagift Below: S-A-T by Sneak-O-Smuggle

Wooie!

Above: Riot Nerd by Juice Foozle Below: Petit Breadfarm by Petit Breadfarm

Bread!

Above: The Killer Gerbil by Killer Gerbil Below: last of all, Chicken Boy by Juice Foozle

What cool stuff! Rockin’ and rollin docta Juice! Keep on clickin!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies tiny category.

Let us now devour the poster works of Minneapolis design team LandLand. They’ve made it their mission to toss out the traditions of rock postermaking and act on instinct. The use the Force. But tossing out that tradition doesn’t mean tossing out the tenants of design and good artmaking. These skills are high and present up on this collection of masterpieces. Look for yourself at a few of em, then take a trip to Minneapolis, rock capitol of the world!

Below you’ll find the following:

The Swell Season (w/ Rachael Yamagata) at the Pageant in St. Louis, Missouri.
Info: 5-color screenprint on 100# French cover stock • 19″ x 25″ • Signed & numbered edition of 225
Illustration/Design: Dan Black
Watercolor: Jessica Seamans

Built to Spill at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minn.
Info: 4-color screenprint on 100# French cover stock • 25″ x 19″ • Signed & numbered edition of 100
Illustration/Design: Dan Black (PICTURED ABOVE)

Cursive w/ the Berg Sans Nipple at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN
Info: 3-color screenprint on 80# cover stock • 19″ x 25″ • Signed & numbered edition of 80
Illustration/Design: Dan Black

France Has the Bomb 7″ Record release show at the Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis, MN
Info: 3-color screenprint on 80# French cover stock • 18″ x 24″ • Signed & numbered edition of xx
Illustration/Design: Dan Black

Check out the green Cursive poster – I and my gal went to that show and stole one of these posters off the wall. It was at First Avenue in Minneapolis. It’s been MONTHS since that show, and I just figured out who did the poster now. Wild stuff, yes?

These peeps are located at their site at http://landland.net/ If and when you go there, you can check out some older posters (the ones in this post are amongst the newest). I recommend them highly on especial account of their great inks application.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies music category.

You love pixels, right? You like helping people live nicely in the whole wide world maybe too, perhaps? Amnesty International’s teaming up with one of the most awesomest pixel teams in the universe eBoy! What they’ve come up with is this fantastic poster! It’s totally large and totally colorful and it can be totally yours! More excellent details below.

Around $32 and a half dollars for a fabulous poster. Looove it.

47″ x 33″ large, giant, huge.

Co-op for Amnesty International’s Poverty is Modern campaign.
4 Euros of each sold poster will be donated to Amnesty International.
Size: 1189×841 mm, 46.8×33.1 inch | Printing: CMYK offset, 1st Edition
Browse for Amnesty Poster at Flickr

All details below, all the same poster as seen above. Hugeness.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies pixels category.

These things right here in this post are all illustrated by Paul Robertson. Welcome to his fantasy. This is tiny video game wonderland. Robertson is an animator, more specifically, he works almost exclusively with Japanese-manufactured video games. In this post you’ll get to see a LOT of his new sprites (tiny characters that in this case move) and stills. All of them were made in the past few months and a LOT of them are from the new unreleased video game “Drawn to Life: the Next Chapter!”

Oh how I love things that move. These remind me, us, you, how much we love arcade games and casino digital slot machines. Look at everything move! These are super pixels at their most super cute! The word is Kawaii – spread the word!

I can’t talk about it yet so here’s a few animations from the last game I worked on: Drawn to Life the Next Chapter by 5th Cell

-Paul Robertson

Paul Robertson is a video game animator and a graphic designer. I wonder how much he really enjoys his work? You can see the joy very plainly. When brought down to their most rudimentary aesthetic keypoints, pictures of items are basically so simple that they’re perfect. Your brain thinks so, just ask it! You cannot deny the cuteness! Don’t even try! Feel free to get lost in ecstasy in this pixelated wonderland!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies arcade category!

BONUS here’s the commercial from the FIRST “Drawn to Life” video game:

This post is a collection of hundreds of Star Wars photos from the set, of the movies, and from the promotional shots of the 70′s and 80′s. Doesn’t matter how you feel about Star Wars, it’s affected the way you work. The world you live in today is the world you live in today because of Star Wars. You’d better believe that. Its basically like this: Luke Skywalker: New York, Princess Leia: Los Angeles, Han Solo and Darth Vader: Minneapolis.

These have been scrounged from all over the internets. If you are one of the photographers of these phantastic photos, shoot me an email or a comment here. If you’d like to take credit for bringing an image here to the internet, I give you a hearty thank you and internet hand shake. If you’ve got photos you’d like to add to the collection, feel free to also contact!

This post is composed of photos from the movies, (the original trilogy,) making-of photos, a few posters, products, and advertisements. MOSTLY it’s photos from cut scenes and promotional photos. Everything is super amazing and very wild.

Star Wars: one of, if not the greatest non-Jesus brands in history.

UPDATE: There is now another Rare Star Wars Photos post by the name of More Star Wars Rarities. More on-set, behind the scenes, during shots, and good time havin by the crew.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies outer space category.

Mail, mail, slow, wonderful mail. Every once in a while you’ve got to utilize our socialized mailbox and delivery person system. And when that happens, you’ve got to go crazy! It’s important to bring the heat with heck-a creative energy. The one you see before you’s made by architect Nick Doermann and it’s got amazing folds and letters and symbols.

Yes, architect, yes. Even you benefit from the magic of typography. Witness as it unfolds into different compositions and composes itself into different additional fabulousnesses. It’s a card, its a banner, it’s a poster!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies gridwork category.

So it seems that there’s going to be a book coming out soon that’s a photo recounting of the Glow In The Dark tour that happened a year and a few months ago. The tour featured Kanye West as the headliner, Rihanna, Lupe Fiasco, and N.E.R.D.. It was pretty neat. People at the concert were told basically that if they took photos they’d be shot with lazers and chopped into bits. But we did it anyway. Here’s a bunch of lovely colors for you.

Some of the more flashy pictures you’ll see are actually of the crowd (because it was fabulous to see a sold-out arena all making the same hand movements) and of N.E.R.D. who just had one giant long LCD screen with lightening, water, disco balls, fire, everything going across it in flashing lights.

A couple of Rihanna, a couple of Lupe Fiasco, and a bunch of Kanye’s spaceship adventures.

Kanye, if you’re reading this: If you’d like these pictures to be taken down, just click and shout, otherwise take note of how medium-quality they are and see how it’ll more than likely sell some more books rather than hurt the movement of the pages.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies Outer Space

Brand flippin new works from the design / art collective FAILE. The works contained in this post are dubbed (by Faile) to be the Wood Paintings set and will be formally introduced next week at FIAC art fair in Paris with Perry Rubenstein Gallery. Faile’s going to be represented by Perry Rubenstein in the United States from now on, their first show to be some time mid-2010. This set of fine art pieces is the first bunch to be produced and shown in corroboration with PRG. And they’re HUGE.

As you can see, these pieces are made out of blocks. The insane amount of work that’s gone into each little tiny big of these constructions is staggering from a craftsman’s point of view, then there’s the lovely look of it all. Absolutely museum-grade. These are so giant and so fantastic I’d feel terrible owning them outside of a gallery situation. These amalgamations need to be seen by as many eyes as there are type-loving minds in the world.

First things first, we are proud to announce Perry Rubenstein Gallery will be representing Faile here in the US. We have plans to do a solo show with the gallery in mid-2010. We will be debuting new works with Perry Rubenstein at FIAC in Paris next week. The fair opens on the 22nd of October and runs through the 25th of October. They can be found at booth D01 in the Cour Carree.

Size and medium of each piece is as follows – Match the name of the piece up with the title of the image in the gallery. If you don’t know, ask! One of our friendly associates will help you out if you have any questions!

Giant Jackpot Dreams
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
48.25in x 42.25in (122cm x 107cm)

Fantasy Within Me
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
20in x 24in (50cm x 70cm)

Choose Your Pleasure
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
20in x 24in (50cm x 70cm)

The Supreme Ultimate Fantasy
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
48.25in x 42.25in (122cm x 107cm)

Genuine Gold Caps
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
40.5in x 24.5in (102cm x 62cm)

Burning Brave
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
40.5in x 24.5in (102cm x 62cm)

Wicked Faile
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
64.5in x 40.5in (163cm x 102cm)

Beyond the World of Faile
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
24in x 36in (70cm x 91cm)

Sacred Fantasy
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
24in x 36in (70cm x 91cm)

Select Hardcore Faile
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
24in x 36in (70cm x 91cm)

Forever Brooklyn
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
48.25in x 42.25in (122cm x 107cm)

Faile Wonderland
Acrylic & Silkscreen Ink on Wood, Steel Frame
64.5in x 40.5in (163cm x 102cm)

Or you could probably contact Sean Anderson for more information.

Luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton is more than just a clothing line. It is a social manifestation whose tendrils twist and turn into our mind-grapes. Louis Vuitton is an oddity whose effects on the world are uncontrollable mark-mutants: guns, tattoos, paintings, wild things! The LV brand is not just a bag, not just a brand, nay! It is a very real metaphor for the desire of the western world to become a class it is not, a class lost, classless.

On the other hand, the products made in the process are priceless. Behold the World Famous Design Junkies Louis Vuitton Obsession Collection.

The LV Bullet by 21-19 is part of a campaign kit for director Bita Hairdarian’s autobiographical documentary Finding Bibi; which explores her unique identity as an American born Iranian. This bullet is one of probably less than 5 prototypes made specifically for the photo shoot for the press release material for the film. P.s. can’t wait!

Designer Gas Masks by Diddo Velema (only the LV mask is shown, it is part of a set of three designer masks). This project is known especially for its high rate of misconception. AKA lots and lots of people believed these were “real.”

LV Electric Chair and Chainsaw, part of an exhibition of such objects by the name of “The Revolution Will Be Fabulous: A Weapons of Mass Designer Show.” This show was made entirely by artist Peter Gronquist – this exhibition was photographed by Jean Aw of Notcot fame for, what else, Notcot.

The Louis Vuitton skateboard case and skateboard. Seems pretty amazing, and hot, right? That’s because it’s real. It cost $8250 and was sold at the SOHO, New York location official LV store early 2009. The difference between most art pieces working with the LV and the real deal LV is the quality. A lot of the ideas on both the real and unreal side are good and terrible, but almost all the time, the quality is exclusively real.

LOUIS VUITTON graffiti in big orange letters on a real Louis Vuitton store. Like writing a name on a nametag that was already labeled, right? Real. 116 Greene St. (between Prince St & Spring St) New York, NY 10012 An actual official LV facade early September, 2009, photographed by Sang Bleu. The painting was part of preparations for a Stephen Sprouse Collection released early 2009. Stephen Sprouse “was a fashion designer and artist credited with pioneering the 1980s mix of “uptown sophistication in clothing with a downtown punk and pop sensibility.”

Then there’s this painting by graffiti artist SKAM for Louis Vuitton Toronto. This one’s photographed by Think Contra.

Then there’s this extremely unofficial painting on the other hand. Spanish fashion site Hazme el Chingado Favor stole the pics from a Facebook profile they aren’t giving up the name of. But the house is somewhere in Mexico. It’s the real deal, as in it exists, painted by the owners in a show of brand power.

Whoa shei if I didn’t know the location of both I’d think this car belonged to the custom-LV house owner. This is a car sitting in Echo Park, Los Angeles, photographed by Victoria Bernal, who at the time was basically just rollin on a stroll.

In a slightly more “LV Acceptable” manner, tricked out car shop Detroit Customs was contracted to do this 1962 Cadillac Louis Vuitton’ Custom Convertible. It sold for 5k less than the starting price at a recent auction, going for 35k instead. Find out more at ICollector.

“Recently constructed by Detroit Customs, this 1962 Cadillac convertible is unlike any other. The most outstanding feature is the liberal use of Louis Vuitton fabric design throughout the car; including the folding top, upholstery, soft boot and dash insert.”

One of Prince Marcus von Anhalt‘s 26 luxury cars und autos. He is rich on account of he was adopted by Zsa Zsa Gabor and her ninth husband Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, who is, incidentally, the owner of 20+ brothels and nightclubs in Germany. This car is driven to promote von Anhalt’s “Royal Race.” It’s a fact: you don’t have to be poor to want to make yourself look like a fool for want of an LV mark.

A simply super acrylic painting by photographer designer painter Danny Schissler. This guy usually does photography, primarily. He takes pics of all the lovely wonderful things in the world and suddenly he makes these guns in a painting. Fun!

This terrifying amalgamation is called “LV Child.” It’s a screenprint (one of several different versions, plus a couple sculptures, all pictured below) designed by graffiti artist Beejoir. He explains on his now-defunct blog that he was inspired by real beggars sitting in front of the LV store just down the street from where he lives.

This is what inspired the LV, its just up the road from where we live, I’d just got back from the UK and was walking home from the supermarket with bags of shopping, when I passed these two beggars, guilt stuck I gave them a few coins and carried on, that night I remembered seeing Mantas’s iNeed stencil in Shorditch, and being struck by the same feeling of utter guilt.

The next day the stencil was cut, and sprayed across the city.

This print was sold (out) at Souled Out Studios.

Oh the dirtiness of the culture! These are piggies. These little piggies (and one more, pictured below) are tattooed with the LV, the whole flower pattern, and a few embellishments by Belgian tattoo artist Wim Delvoye (if you click that link, find the tattoo shop sort of in the middle if you’d like to see more of his tattoo art.) These pigs were supposed to be shown at the 2009 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, but were not allowed because they were considered “outside the categories of display.” BONUS check that link for more info on a tattoo Delvoye sold right off a man’s back!

Another gun for those in the luxury death business. “LOUIS VUITTON AK-47 7.62x39mm” from the entirely lovely armory of the “ARM•ME” project.

Justin Melnicks “ARM•ME” Project “Justin Melnick is an avid photographer, digital artist, and has spent time oversees in the Middle East. All of these influences have come together in his latest project, titled ARM•ME Melnick imagines — quite vividly — what Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Pucci, and Chanel would add to standard ammunition. The exhibition starts September 2nd at Gallery 385 in New York City. The outcome is a compelling statement that questions how we — individually and as a nation — spend our money, contrasting the abundance of weaponry with the scarcity of high-end luxury goods and some pretty amazing imagery.”

Made by Justin Melnick. In the gallery you’ll find several weapons from this project, including the TIFFANY & CO. M-67 HAND GRENADE, the LOUIS VUITTON RPD 7.62x39mm, the YVES SAINT LAURENT .380ACP, and of course, the MARC by MARC JACOBS MORTAR (all these are sitting there below.)

From the wild piggy heart and hands of artist Meryl Smith, who specializes in paper mache animal creations. More pics below.

Materials: metal screen, paper mache, leather, gold paint, zipper I made “excessory baggage” for a group exhibition at The Honey Space, where 5 curators asked artists to create sculptures that fit the measurement requirements for international carry-on luggage. – Meryl Smith

Supreme is a skateboard / streetwear brand that’s got a history of big time hype. This particular “collaboration” is a parody of the LV pattern used on several “box” t-shirts and the stickers you see above.

Tasty! Artist photographer Massimo Gammucurta makes “Sweet Fashion – lick your way to success” set of candy pops, lollypops, luxurypops I’d call em. Gammucurta‘s got amazing eyeballs and a good clicking finger, too.

Artist Michael Levy takes a total left turn bringing the history of luxury brands into the light with this LV menorah. Concept for the sake of eye opening.

The worlds of haute couture and religion have a long history that too often gets ignored. The papal rings, sacramental wine chalices, torah yads, and a whole assortment of robes, sashes and head dressings have littered the landscape of western religion for as long as it has existed. This Louis Vuitton menorah brings that intersection to the forefront. Let’s not give a wink and a nod anymore, let’s put it all out in the open. We already have torah yads (the pointers used to touch the torah so as not to damage it) made of silver, why can’t they be Tiffany’s?

Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction had been rockin and rollin using a faux Louis Vuitton guitar strap up until June 18, 2008 when he received a cease-and-desist notification from the brand’s lawyer squad.

In probably the cutest and best-made counterfeit of them all, doggy-toy makers Huate Diggity Dog made this combo bag set for puppies… and was also thustly sued by LV. They were inside the law though, and are still producing!

Another LV Piggie! This one’s sprayed by OZI! Ozi is a Brazil-based street artist spraying a campaign called “Glamour for All”. – thanks Ozi!! I love this concept indeed!

This post is, of course, from the World Famous Design Junkies Bad Taste category.

How many times do we have to say East Meets West before we’re fully understanding of the fact, the FACT that we’re all in dis togetha? Well it isn’t true, is it? East continues to meet West, day in and out. Here we’ve got an example, no, a collection of examples of the most fantastically simple and lovely false connections made between Everywhere America and what appears to America to be a frightening, terrifying Iranian world. Made by designers “21-19″, these pictures are part of a campaign kit for American/Iranian filmmaker Bita Hairdarian’s brand new east/west documentary “Finding Bibi.”

21-19 designed the communications campaign kit for director Bita Hairdarian’s autobiographical documentary Finding Bibi; which explores her unique identity as an American born Iranian.

Lovely and fantastic! My favorite is Jihad Coca-Cola. Each of these is a fake item, but surely they’ve been rendered in real life, and thus, as it often stands: if anyone wants to pick one of these thangs up and send it to ME, that would be just fine and dandy.

This post is straight out of the World Famous Design Junkies Custom Culture category.

PS! The film looks amazing!

Welcome to Cross Stitch Hollywood. This is where all the faces go when they get all pixely and pixelated. This is a project by one Ruby Khan, a roller derby girl from Cambridge, MA. She’s into the sewing of the things and the rolling around on roller-skates knocking the things over and such. Above and below, she’s completed a feat that’s truly inspired magic. Pixel people turned stitched. A giant mural.

What you see here is the Minipop Sampler. As you’re about to find out, the inspiration for these pixel characters are none other than the originator of the gigantonormous Minipops pixel people collection Craig Robinson. But it took this super amazing woman on skates to bring those peepies to the next level. Or is it a level lower? Lower-brow maybe?

In any case, more powerful. More better, even.

45 groups; 99 individual people and one happy little tree. It’s one 15 x 18 piece of Aida canvas, I think 22 count, all DMC floss.

Inspired by and adapted from from Craig Robinson’s Minipop drawings on flipflopflyin.com

I’m so ridiculously happy this is finally done. It’s out being framed in something incongruously ornate.

Take a peek at the vastness of this project in the pictures below, don’t be shy about making the thumbnails bigger, and don’t forget your complimentary popcorn. Also, this post’s home is the World Famous Design Junkies pixels category. So you’d be hecka silly not to click on through there too.

Now don’t get confused when you’re down there, because it’s a confusing place to be. There’s more than just the one giant mural down there, there’s a bunch of different projects. They’re all basically from the same pot though, so just take it easy.

Ruby Khan’s a busy roller!

FIRST ROW ZZ Top, Wesley Willis, Joan Jett, Scully & Mulder (and bee), Neil Diamond, Village People, Teen Wolf, Abe Lincoln, Stevie Wonder, Idi Amin, Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks, Wonder Woman

SECOND ROW Royal Tenenbaums, Henry Rollins, Pele, Prince, Depeche Mode, Travis & Iris from Taxi Driver, Go-Gos, Barack Obama, Fight Club, Missy Elliot, Alfred Hitchcock

THIRD ROW Patty Hearst, Edward Scissorhands, Public Enemy, Amy Winehouse, Indiana Jones, Glenn Danzig, Hef & the bunnies, Eurythmics, Boba Fett, Andre the Giant, The Clash

BOTTOM ROW The Supremes, Sun Ra, Diff’rent Strokes, Adam and the Ants, Bob Ross with a happy little tree, LLCoolJ, Torvill and Dean, Joseph Stalin, Henry the VIII, George Lucas, Ruby and her Jeff.

Neil Diamond and Glenn Danzig are designed solely by Ruby Khan.

Creatures of the Night! This lovely fashion photo set was arranged and shot by Alexandra Zaharova & Ilya Plotnikov. They’ve got the eyes. This shoot was done for portfolio ammo only, not for a specific fashion brand in particular (though I bet you recognize more than one item here.) Just imagine a brand being assimilated onto the person holding it, yes! Yes! My brand is best! These bags and shoes, they are me!

It is shopping paradise!

It is fashion paradise!

Fashion Assimilation is the alternate title for this post, but I was feeling for the Rocky Horrorocity of that golden shoe there. The project’s title itself goes by the name “Magic Touch.” Lovely, isn’t it?! I must mention that although these are primarily photography and paints, aka analog features, there is a tiny bit of “photographic retouching” done. I’m sure your intarnets super-trained eye can pick out the pixels.

But for now, bask in the lavishness!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies fashion industry.

Have you been on these internets the past few days? I bet you have been. I wonder if you’ve seen this lovely cartoon conglomeration rolling around? I sure did. It’s been places like ffffound, ffffacebook, and Dropular! All over the place, bringing on hecka smiles and nods “yes, that is excellent,” except there was one thing missing!

The artist!

Who designed and drew this perfect combo breaker?

Here’s how it went down, basically: first and foremost, Felickey was designed and executed.* Soon after that, Brazillian artist and publisher De Proposito made it pop unto the great internet machine. Next, someone picked it up with ffffound, then of course it went on over to the eyes of Sticker Robot, who posted it in the Sticker Robot facebook. It was on vi.sualize.us, it was on imgfav, Friend Feed, und more than likely a ton of a bunch of more sites that didn’t label our cartoon friend at all!

But don’t worry! He’s been tracked down by the World Famous Design Junkies Super Internet Adventure Crew and Sleuthing Department!

*Edward Lenzi. He’s a graphic designer! He tells us he’s working on getting another portfolio together but for now, feel free to peek out at his flickr conglomeration.

Hi, Chris

I’m glad u contacted me.
Yeah, I made Felickey. Then a friend of mine, also a brazilian graphic artist, posted it on her blog and after a while they ffffound it. Never had some of my works published there.I liked it very much.
I hope soon I can make posters or some Felickey tee shirts.

Edward

UPDATE Also props to my stumbleupon pal Tabby1471 for the tips that lead to the find!

Social media powers activate!

During the search and beyond, the World Famous Design Junkies icon on facebook and on twitter is the “Felickey D!”

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies Unnatural Nature category!

Get wild!

Oh ja! I love eBoy so much! They (eBoy group) have made my favorite conglomeration of pixel-made world scenes and vehicles and people and everything ever! Their pixels are absolutely lovely. This week, they’ve been commissioned to do the cover of DER SPIEGEL magazine. The commission includes a giant stop sign being constructed amidst internet signs of the most popular and wild sites for the headline “warum das internet neue regeln braucht” aka “why the internet needs new rules.”

Look at that thing! It’s very similar in content to another quite-recent work from eBoy for the Maker Faire. Internets signs galore! In this new one, see if you can find the following: flickr, skype, Google, YouTube, The Pirate Bay (exploding), Sex.com (retro!), del.icio.us, YouPorn, Yahoo, and look right below the S on the STOP sign, that’s the Spiegel bird, so cute!

Also watch out for nude pixel people!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies pixels category.

Designer Victor van Gaasbeek is a reducer. He’s all up on the thang where you take the most basic elements, the pixels, the colors, of the object, and use those to describe it. The difference between him and say, Pedro Biz, is that Victor van Gaasbeek’s pixels go fully triangular. The result? It gets all diamondy-like.

The effect is all shiny and splendiferous!

Yes, these are all made “with the computer” indeed. The next step is of course to now cut them out of construction paper and paste them to walls. Any reasonable person would come to the same conclusion. Furthermore, this post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies Unnatural Nature category.

We’ve got two projects here, both done by the same guy. They’re very similar, very similar. What they are is two photographs combined. The combination is family members. In one case, it’s family members in that it’s father and son, mother and daughter. In the other case, it’s kid and adult. The same person! It’s a person as a kid, torn paper, the person as an adult. All analog, if you know what I mean. No editings outside the hand.

This guy I just did another feature on, photographer Bobby Neel Adams, and this and that were so good I just had to do this one right on toppa that one. So check that one out too, it’s as good as watchin tree bark grow.

But now first or next take a look at these two projects here:

Age-Maps

Two photographs of the same person, from different periods of time (child and adult) are spliced together. In this fusion a jump-of-time is established at the tear.

Those you’ll be able to identify by the kid-faces, the rest are mostly/all adults. And lemme be clear here, clear as the photographer Bobby Neel Adams is about to make it with all caps, that these are photographed and ripped, no tricks!

Family Tree

Family Tree is a series of portraits of immediate family members i.e. Father/Son, Mother/Daughter and even Father/Daughter, Mother/Son. Families are photographed individually and then sized and printed at the same preportions. The two photographs are manually torn and glued together to make one portrait investigating and visual DNA passed from generation to generation. NO PHOTOSHOP.

These I find surprisingly not-terrifying. Each picture is essentially the same concept, but they’re all fabulously interesting. The human face is a playground of elegantly laid information, and I for one am a staring sort of person. View them all. Do it.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies photography section, you betcha.

Oh my goodness look at the terrifying monsters of the corporate world. The weirdness and the wildness of these bits of graphic pleasure come from a restaurant. A bar. A multi-talented house of amazement! It’s called The Goodfoot and it’s in Portland. And you know who else is in portland? The artist of this gruesome candy-coated fun — Ripper1331, the artist who is definitely on display up in the house. Portland and Ripper together forever. With ink.

Ripper is definitely on display at The Goodfoot. That’s what I found out. And right before that, I found out about this insanely fantastically perfect grotesque artwork about the state of the economy. These works are made primarily of recycled images from the back pages of comic books and Sears Roebuck catalogues – I’m sure you’ve seen them.

The majority of these works are on metal or on wood, and they’re made with hand-painted embellishments and screenprint ink. And if you’d like to take a peek at the way to get your hands on these, ask yourself an invite over to the The Goodfoot for a drink, some music, and nicely tinted artworks.

From the darkened halls of the World Famous Design Junkies Screenprinting category.