Garden Poems

It's great when design makes you feel hopeful.

Garden poems to promote creative writing for kids by Burgess Studio.

Found at DesignTaxi

Playground

One of the most impressive responsive sites with HTML animation (!) that I've seen lately - Toronto based agency Playground Inc. They have some great case studies too including Canada Goose. 

Escape Flight

I don't know how long this site has been up, but I would like to think that this was designed especially for me. Escape Flight is PERFECT. This is truly a great idea. Right now for me, I'm just happy to go anywhere within a certain budget.

AND it has great photography, big friendly type and enough yellow to tap into the Expedia aesthetic but also be supercool. I also like the running mail ants hover. (I don't know how else to describe it)

A celebration of life and death.

This is an ad by I&S BBDO for Japanese funeral home Nishinihon Tenrei. It's not often that you see ads for this industry and especially one that is so beautifully crafted. I love the way the layers build upon each other and the translucency reminds us of how fragile life is. There are elements in this that are just very Japanese.

I don't know if this diminshes the work, but it reminds me of the album cover of Ben Lee's Awake is the New Sleep, which is one of the most positive albums I've ever listened to. He did write those songs after a spiritual trip to India.

Images taken from Colossal

Seijero Niwa

Upon finishing a day of work, I (you know, just casually) waltzed into the opening of the Seijero Niwa exhibition in East London. There were several sets of freakish dolls with perspex tubes coming out of their eyes. This would give me nightmares if they were in my house but are so cool when they sit on a shiny surface.

Pick Me Up Festival

Last weekend, I went to the Pick Me Up festival. With every exhibtion that I've seen in London, I'm always blown away with the scale of it and I don't know why considering I am in one of the biggest creative cities in the world. I think there is an understated-ness that comes with being English. 

My phone died that weekend, so I couldn't take any photos of the event. There are so many talented people but my favourite artist of the day was Sarah Vanbelle. I love the unusual red/green combination of her prints (how did she manage to make it look non-Chistmassy) and the retro graphical quality of her work.  

Wayne Levin

I miss the ocean.

Underwater photographs by Wayne Levin. We so often associate the ocean with expanses of blue, but photographing in black and white gives it a majestic and other-worldly quality.