Harold Apples – Playing Cards

Design nerds – pay alert! It doesn’t get much better than this! This set of playing cards was designed by Harold Apples, an art director for Lonely Planet by day and a freelance illustrator by night.

With attention to detail like you’ve never seen before, these letterpress cards feature foiling, embossing and spot colours galore. Drawing inspiration from the symbology of older playing card decks, with a modern twist, these cards are a design object you’ve got to have in your life.

You can see more of Apples’ work here.

And if you want to buy yourself a set of these cars, they can be bought here for under ten dollars!

Try not to drool on your keyboard as you check out some highlights of the design below.

Elsa Bleda – Photography

Elsa Bleda was originally born in France but now makes Jo’burg her home. After a childhood of moving from country to country with her parents, a chance trip to South Africa when she was 18 somehow made her want to put down roots.

Inspired by Jo’burg and the emptiness of it at night, the juxtaposition between the harsh, bustling daytimes and the quiet, eerie nighttimes; Bleda’s work is at once architectural and stark but also quite touching and meaningful. The sprays of colour across these forlorn cityscapes offer a softness and warmth to these buildings that you may not notice in the day time.

What a great new way to look at one of our cities too. It really makes you reassess the way you think about a place, when you see it in such a different light (literally in this case!).

Please do follow Bleda here for more examples of her inspiring work!

 

Vincent Mahé – Illustration

What a body of work! This selection of illustrations by Vincent Maheé, a French illustrator, are great examples of the ‘Ligne Claire’ illustration style, which was pioneered by Hergé in the 1950s. Don’t be worried if you’re unsure what ‘Ligne Claire’ means – it translates as ‘clear line’ – something we can see here in Mahé’s work, but also of course in Hergé’s work on Tintin.

By keeping his colour palette limited, Mahé allows for even more focus in his work – creating vibrant scenes that through their nostalgic illustration style somehow make you long for a forgotten time. Incredible!

Check out more of Mahé’s work here.

PPC Imaginarium Workshop

We recently held a PPC Imaginarium Workshop on 4 and 5 May where our students were taught how to work with cement as a creative medium, thanks to the incredibly talented Damien Grivas and Daniel van der Merwe.

This was all in service of the PPC Imaginarium competition, which is all about using cement as a medium for artistic expression. The Awards are currently held across six categories: Industrial Design, Jewellery Design, Film, Sculpture, Architecture and Fashion.

To learn more about the PPC Imaginarium competition, have a look at their Facebook page here.

Alchimia de los Andes – Packaging

What a fun design and illustration for this wine from Argentina by Zarate Insa. With a label inspired by a story of how the head winemaker fell into a trance and was driven to create a red blend like no other, this awesome illustration calls on old-school horror movie posters. From the illustration style through to the typography and the layout of the design itself – this is just spot on.

Send us a bottle!

Max Siedentopf – Photography

Max Siedentopf is a photographer we feel a bit of kinship with – he was born in Windhoek, Namibia; even though he can currently be found working in Amsterdam after stints in LA and Berlin. We love his flair for the dramatic and sense of humour. Here, we’ve shared a project of his called Fifteen Fantastic Fountains, which he created in order to bring the wonder of fountains (which are usually enormous and expensive) to every day objects. Here teacups, pickle jars and yes, even urinals can be turned into fountains.

Check out Max’s website here for more of his awesome work.

Campbells Soup – Well Yes! Design

The humble soup can has been a design icon for decades. Let us not forget how Andy Warhol immortalised an original Campbell’s Soup can all those years ago. But over time, even icons can become forgotten.

In an age where canned goods are perhaps being looked down on and judged – when we’re trying to get everything as fresh as possible – how can the can compete? This was a problem that was facing Bulldog Drummond, when they set out to make an appealing, exciting can with true shelf impact. And we can argue, quite rightly, that they updated the soup can with this Campbell’s Well Yes! range, with great photography, good use of colour and fun typography.

Check them out below!

Google – Autodraw

This AI experiment from Google is mindblowing. Much like the project we shared a few months ago, this project uses machine learning to guess what you’re drawing and offer better examples of your doodles.

It has to be seen to be believed!

Check out the video below, then spend some time on the site – you won’t regret it!

Visit the site here.

Jana Pellissier – Internship Work

Jana Pellissier, one of our 3rd year students, recently helped create this beautiful wallpaper for The Foodbarn restaurant while interning at Room 13. It is quite aptly called ‘Ambrosia’ after the food of the gods. If you’ve ever eaten at The Foodbarn, you’ll know exactly why this makes sense!

To see more of Room 13’s beautiful design and illustration, check out their website here.

And to see more of Jana’s work, check out her Behance profile here.

HBO – Fire and Ice

We love this PR / Facebook live video stunt that Unit9 created to reveal the release date for the new season of Game of Thrones. The concept was really simple, but so much fun – using Facebook’s live video feature, users could activate flamethrowers that would melt the original block of ice, resulting in the date of the new season being revealed.

To date, this has been the biggest Facebook live event recorded, with over 600 000 votes, 3.5 million views and 19 000 shares. That’s the power of a good idea!

Check out the video below.