alain vonck.

Parisian graphic designer Alain Vonck seems puzzled by the internet (then again, who isn't). But like any good thinker, he knows that the path to most answers usually begins with a question.

"What remains from the early days of the World Wide Web?" he ponders with his project Ruins.

On the revival of GIF culture, he probes: "Why this sudden interest in designing, posting and sharing these files on internet and social networks?" (spoiler - connections are drawn between GIFs and silent films in his project Fat Boy Get Down)
 
And later, on the topic of the virtual pile-up of personal data, he solicits: "Personal data are omnipresent on the web, but at the same time invisible... How come these data have such an impact, such perennial value for our physical and virtual identities?

Lofty queries indeed, but his worthy excavations of the internet's geo(il)logical strata may help to unscramble thing a bit. Or at least make complex thought look a little more scrumptious.
 

Peruse more from Alain Vonck here.

wearable planter.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based Wearable Planter crew use 3-D printing to make these obscenely likeable portable perennials for your lapel, decolletage or bicycle frame. So you'll never be caught out without a herbal nibble!

So stupid-cute, I can't even handle it. Enjoy their website here.

just a thought. [crazy bicycle]

Bloody brilliant. Designed by Van Hulsteijn in the Netherlands. (of course.)

Remind anyone of these? That's right! Multidimensional trend alert!!

shiro studio.

There's an OCD part of me that really flares up when I see this kind of high-functioning house ware. The part that rear's its head whilst walking through the "home decor" section of Selfridges: part-scoffing, part-salivating. Who needs it, I say. A wooden spoon will do the trick.

But will it?

Arrgg!

So guilty conscience aside it's time to celebrate the those designers who make the superfluous seem like necessity. Shiro Studio is definitely getting it right. They make "dream kitchen" fantasies eject out of my brain like steam from a hot kettle. Plus, apparently, pretty things work better! Turn my friend Don Norman for proof.

Shiro Studio - website here

sarah may.

Sarah May is a brilliant set designer. She's also the first I've covered for It's Nice That. Thank you for all your views, keep up with the site and check back here for some of my continued musings.

view the INT article here.

Sarah May's Blog: http://www.sarahmaystudio.blogspot.com/


all images © Sarah May

vanessa conyers.

So we're back from Christmas shenanigans, i.e.sleeping-in late, drinking too much wine, dancing after multiple course meals, and ripping open DVD's that were intended gifts for your mother but which you've actually purchased so that you could spend six nights on the couch "borrowing" them...

Ah yes, Christmastime. It's a time when most people spend endless hours shopping, sifting through potential presents with a voracity unmatched by any other purchase-based occasion. That is unless we count Black Friday... but that's another story.

Anyway, I looked through a lot of lovely things over the holidays, but I'd have to say that amongst all of those beautiful bits and bobs there was something that really stuck out, and that was the work of Vanessa Conyers. You see, not only does Miss. Conyers possess my childhood fantasy-name (at age eight I compromised by asking my parents if I could at least change my middle name to said "Vanessa"), she's also got a knack for hand-crafting delicate, witty and confoundedly lovely ceramic pieces. Knack would actually be a bit of an understatement, considering this is some of the most cray-cray pottery I've ever seen, and I mean "cray" in a really good way. I imagine Wonderland's Mad Hatter would cast a lusty eye over one or two of these tea sets...

Innovative and with exquisite attention to detail, this Dorset based artist is really worth a look. She even runs a pottery studio and workshops to help introduce people to "the magical world of ceramics". Sweet! Check out her beautiful website here.

 

all images © Vanessa Conyers