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Nature is what drives David Wiseman. His collection of interior items is certainly something to marvel at. Although he works with a variety of mediums, I find his work in porcelain to be particularly attractive as its really porcelain like you've never seen it. Check out his Rock Vase with Moss, (top two pics) and the lovely detail. Its an aesthetic that comes across as something new because its really sort of like Chinese watercolor painting in 3-D, an appropriation of an old art form.

That's not all Mr. Wiseman (sounds like a sage already) has up his sleeve. As you can see above, that profile of a Bambi head is really a hat hanger, also made out of porcelain.

Also, do take a look at his ceiling and wall decoration pieces as he applies scenes stolen from the forest onto various surfaces. 

Ah... Where will the world of graffitti and illustration not invade? Check this set of two tables by Kinkyform. The top one is together with Chuck Anderson/No Pattern and the other one is with Zach Johnsen/Zenviroments. The premise was simple, to put ink and wood together where the furniture becomes the canvas for the artist. I like the use of cut out flat surfaces to form the table. Its simple and fits the concept perfectly plus you can sneak in some trendiness with the legs.

Whilst I don't think B&B Italia will be making furniture this way any time soon, its a nice little concept altogether and in my opinion much better executed than the Fifty24SF/Upper Playground furniture.

Via FeedMeCoolShit. 

Tech hip-hop folk troubadour Beck is Beck with his latest LP, The Information and a new album cover concept. The cover art has got a Beck logo on the top left made outta Lego bricks on top of what looks like graph paper. Inside the packaging, you get some stickers which you can use to make your own album cover. Cool huh? The two variations above were stolen from Amazon. Hehe.

Musically, The Information sounds more like a return to his older work, like Odelay. Its not as melancholic, sad guy like Sea Change or hectic techtric like Guero. A lot of people reviewing it have chosen to focus on stuff that's not really relevant to the music itself and haven't quite raved over it. I find it's still miles more refresing than a lot of stuff that's out there plus I love that cover art DIY concept.

Not drawings of trees but drawings by trees. By? Yes. By trees. Tim Knowles and Catherine Morland have got together to force a few trees to draw pictures for them, sticking pencils onto leaves and letting nothing but wind motivate them. These actions have raised the ire of several prominent PETP members who are currently lobbying for the artists to stop. Also, a minority of designers who draw like crap (DWDLC) have also begun to discuss whether they will press charges against the pair for making the DWDLC look like fools.

On a side note, the same artists have also commisioned another set of artworks by a robot driven by a rat brain. PETA have refused comment.

Via Drawn!
 

This literally rather sick pair of Vans are customized for CAMOUFLAGE of Portugal by Six Letter Word / Diogo Potes.

Via Core77.

Markus Hofer likes to imagine liquids pouring out of power sockets and various other household stuff amongst other strangeness. His work is like a cross between graffiti, installation and graphic arts. Every piece seems to have a life of its own, assuming its position wherever its placed like it wanted to be there in the first place. Like a tree covered at its base by a square block (also happened to become a piece of useful seating) or a lion head adorning the facade to a door chewing on a bone. Its hilarious, surreal and mildly subversive altogether at once. His use of stark colors only tends to enhance this.

Via Josh Spear.

Wow no sooner than after I posted about Penguin's Great Ideas series comes a post on more covers of vintage Penguin books by Cool Hunting via Neatorama. Strange bit of serendipity perhaps. In any case, all this means is more book cover porn for the graphic enthusiast and proof that Penguin knows how to dress its books up ever since whenever. Check it.

The link goes to a flickr set by Joe Kral, who painstakingly got book after book and he's up to 77 as I type. And from there, I learn of this book, Penguin By Design.

They aren't blowing their own trumpet when they say Great Ideas. That's really just the name of their latest collection of essays by people as varied as Freud, Nietszche, Plato, Confucius, Marco Polo and Voltaire to name a few. So what they're really talking about are the great ideas all these guys put into writing. What's cool about it all are the very nicely designed covers for each book. Shown above are Where I Lived, And What I Lived For by Henry David Thoreau and Conspicuous Consumption by Thorstein Veblen. The graphic styles of each cover are just as varied as the writings and are certainly a treat to look at if not read. In fact, they looked good enough to tempt me, a barbarian when it comes to books, to buy a couple. You know what, I think I will.

Penguin Great Ideas is edited by Simon Winder and now into its second series. The first collection had red highlights instead of cyan in the second but they're all very lovely. If ever you wanted to be a poseur and just had to wallpaper your shelf with books you'll never read, this is one cool way to do it. Otherwise, its also a terrific way to introduce some of these writings to people who would never have picked up any of these anyway. So for that, I'd give a thumbs up and say that is a great idea by Penguin.

Pingmag has this brilliant interview on Japa's modern day Leonardo, Dr. Nakamats! The floppy disc, sampling, PyonPyon flying shoes (shown above as worn by Dr. Nakamats himself), the Nostradmvs Engine II which runs on water and even a sex aid spray, Love Jet, are all the inventions of the brilliant and incredibly eccentric Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats.

His inventions are altogether wild and wonderful, some incredibly funny but a lot of amazingly useful ones you never knew were invented by this man. He dabbles in everything from food nutrition to non pollutive future engines and music. His current invention count runs past the 3000 mark, which is 3 times more prolific than Edison! He even has his own cute little song which Pingmag has linked to as well! (Essentially, it repeats his name over a sort of Euro vibe)

Dr. Nakamats also really believes in sharing how he gets his creative juices. His theories include the 5 tiered pagoda of creativity, which puts spirit, body, study, experience and trigger from bottom to top, each one leading to the next step. Fundamentally, he breaks invention down into 3 parts; theory (strong spirit, body, study, experience) , flash (trigger) and production. His own triggers (DON'T try this at home kids!) involve inducing a lack of oxygen by submerging himself underwater. At about 0.5 secs before he drowns to death, he experiences a flash which will trigger his creative juices. His other, much safer method of getting his juices flowing involves using calm rooms. His golden toilet apparently shuts out all manner of waves and stuff so he can think clearly. He also has a dynamic room to stimulate his mind once his ideas have started rolling.

But beneath all the weirdness, there is the core basis of why he does what he does and according to him, its called love. He basically started inventing because he wanted to make his mother's life easier. This belies the spirit that is his firm foundation. He makes inventions because he believes he will make people's lives better or at the very least, a lot more interesting.

This guy is just too cool.