Alex Konahin is an illustrator from Latvia. An illustrator with a fine eye for detail, a steady hand and a lot of patience. He specialises in hand-done highly detailed pen and ink drawings. In this series, he focuses on insects, bringing his signature detailed style to the fore.
For more of his astounding work, check out his Behance profile here.
We love these African-inspired patterns by Yaw Tony, working out of Canada. Drawing inspiration from West African prints, these patterns show a bright future for great design coming from Africa.
To see more of Yaw Tony’s amazing work, check out his Behance profile here.
Coke’s new summer campaign in South Africa has so far been a great success – not only because they’ve printed cans and bottles with people’s names (encouraging people to find their name, buy the product and share it on social media) but also because of this beautiful ad, shot in Johannesburg.
It features some of Jozi’s hippest and most happening creatives, including the guys from I See A Different You, who you may remember we featured a while back, over here.
The art direction is on point and it shows our South Africa. It may be a bit dirty and grimy at times, but we’ve got hope and inspiration to burn. We love this ad.
Have you found your name yet?
We’ve loved sourcing African design work over the past few days and these illustrations from Egypt are another great example. Produced by Haitham Raafat for his studio Twins Cartoon – these images provide a subjective look into contemporary Egyptian society, viewed from a creative’s vantagepoint. We love how expressive they are and how much they reveal, so simply.
Great work!
For more of Raafat’s work, check out his profile here.
This series of photographs by Marco Ambrosi uses photography as a social tool. By photographing African immigrants in Italy, he aims to give them the respect they deserve. As a group of people rendered largely invisible by the Italian public, he feels that photographing people like this brings them to the fore and humanises them – highlighting similarities between cultures.
They’re beautiful images and are art-directed beautifully too, with muted brown and cream tones. Great images for a great cause, what more could you want?
For more of Ambrosi’s work, have a look at his website here.
Fieldwork is a design and digital agency based in Manchester. As a collection of artists, designers and developers they feel that both internal work and client work is important and their recently redesigned corporate identity shows that keeping yourself busy with internal work is a great way to produce something great with a little less pressure than working for clients.
We love the simplicity and versatility of the design. Perfect.
When we saw this project we knew we had to share it. There’s nothing better than a brilliant, simple idea, beautifully executed. The artist Phillip Smith designed this cabin in California’s Joshua Tree national park, adding mirrored strips to a 70 year old cabin. These reflect the surrounding area in the day and at night are lit by solar-powered LEDs.
We love this type of design-thinking; making something ‘part’ of a place rather than just designing for the sake of designing. This thinking began with the likes of Hundertwasser and his roof gardens, which aimed to minimise the amount of land that was ‘used up’ by buildings. If you are interested, we do suggest you investigate him further.
For now though, take a look at these amazing photos.
Ballantine’s Scotch Whisky is a high quality product that requires dedication and an insistence on nothing but the best to produce. This is why they teamed up with Killian Martin, freestyle skateboarder extraordinaire, to produce a beautiful film and a great piece of online content.
As we move more into the digital age, we are seeing this more and more. Brands have to provide people with something interesting and engaging, something they can share and something that makes them say wow – no longer are we in the age of the 30 second or 1 minute TV ad. These days, consumers are media-savvy and can see right through advertising’s tricks. It’s a scary time for advertisers, as things are constantly changing, but we believe this is really the greatest opportunity advertising has ever had. No longer are we bound by short formats or unnecessary rules. These days, the sky is the limit. If you can produce something interesting and exciting and a brand can make that happen – everyone wins. Creatives feel like they are truly flexing their muscles and brands can ride the wave.
This ad for Ballantine’s Whisky does exactly that. By telling the story of Killian Martin, it gives us a great video that is exactly on brand (sharing the message of dedication and craft) and at the same time is just beautiful to watch.
More advertising like this please!
India, like South Africa, faces a serious problem with TB infections. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 1.8 million people are diagnosed with TB in India every year. However, one of the largest problems is diagnosis. People can carry TB and spread it around without knowing that they are infected and infecting others.
The good news though, is that there is an easy way to self-diagnose or at least get yourself to a doctor to be diagnosed and treated. If you’ve had a persistent cough for more than two weeks, you could have TB. Bearing this in mind, India’s Project Axshya came up with Bulgam Bhai (translated as Mr Sputum), a superhero of sorts who reminds you to be checked out if you’ve been coughing for more than two weeks.
It’s fun, it’s funny and it’s engaging – we love it. To take a serious problem like TB and bring lightheartedness to it is a great move and honestly – we’d love to see something similar here in SA!
Check out the ad below.
Mark Wagner is an artist who works in a very interesting material – American currency. Painstakingly cutting, designing and glueing – creates collages from dollar bills and quite honestly – they are incredible.
Check out this video of his process below.
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