James Hopkins, Decor as Art

British artist James Hopkins constructs his installations from mundane everyday objects, turning them into artwork with hidden messages. I think the first few are more than appropriate for today. 

:: Photos via Apartment Therapy

The Cutest Creatures Ever

How can you resist these big huge googly eyes? Bony Bunz's colors are bold and the stitching adds detail to balance out the blocky shapes. Check out the rest of the unnamed creatures here.

Happy Halloween

Happy halloween everyone, I hope you eat plenty of candy, and don't worry, New Year will be here before you know it where we all make the same resolution to lose weight and diet like maniacs in January : ) For now, just enjoy some treats.

:: Photo via Design Crush
:: Photo via AdGoodness

My My, What Beautiful Typography You Have

Hyperakt is an independent Brooklyn design company built around a shared belief that great design can make good ideas extraordinary. They are a dedicated group who revel in the intellectual challenge of composing the visual language of brands. Instead of trying to build a design army, Hyperakt's principals, Deroy Peraza and Julia Vakser focused on developing a small, tight-knit team of passionate people with varied expertise. This approach provides flexibility to rely on best-of-breed partners to fulfill additional services and encourages all team members to take ownership of their work, empowers them to lead and promotes excellent communication.

Black, White, and Bunny

You can never go wrong with black and and white, but Bunny Maxwell does it particularly well and her store is the perfect place to find an interesting mix of fresh and modern home decorating accessories balanced with a touch of vintage. 

Fellow Monster Lover

Emmanuel Hourquet. He likes monsters too – although not as much as me.

REEL 07/08 from ILILT on Vimeo.

While Watching The Longest Commercial Ever...

A little bit of humor for my fellow bloggers as I fight back tears and simultaneous giggles while listening to Barack Obama's ridiculously long commercial prior to the elections. Wallpaper created by Flywheel and made available by OKgreat, click on the following links to download the full size wallpaper. 1680 x 1050. 1280 x 1024.

Obama's voice is simply beautiful, or is it his words – it certainly isn't the words above, although they speak the truth. His tone comforts me and makes me feel all fuzzy inside, no matter what he's talking about. Watch his commercial and tell me it doesn't make you want to cry!

Topos Graphics

Topos Graphics, based in New York City, specializes in ideas for print, and interested in projects that both raise questions and point toward answers. Small or large in scale and intimate or public in sentiment, their designs are propelled by a desire to see words and images actively participate across multiple platforms. Led by Seth Labenz and Roy Rub, their work spans the gamut between conceiving promotional items to designing catalogues and books, visual identities, signage systems, packaging, and typography to constructing objects and gifts. Regardless of the client's profile, Topos Graphics' objective is to take each and every project from concept to finished piece with the same focus and utmost attention to detail.

Creatures & Such

Yay! More monsters and creatures, and best of all, they're applied to stuff! This bunch is brought to you by RINZEN, an australian design and art collective that is best known for the collaborative approach of its five members – Steve Alexander, Rilla Alexander, Adrian Clifford, Karl Maier, and Craig Redman. RINZEN's work, created both individually and as a collective, covers a wide-range of styles and techniques, often featuring utopian alternate realities, bold geometric designs or intricate, hand drawn studies.  

Daily Monster Intake – A Buff Dose

Yes, I'm taking advantage of this month to continue bombarding you with monsters : ) Meet Buff Monster, who lives in Hollywood and cites heavy metal music, ice cream and Japanese culture as major influences. The color pink, as a symbol of confidence, individuality and happiness, is present in everything he creates. He became known by putting up thousands of hand-silkscreened posters across Los Angeles (and some far-away places). He now works exclusively on fine art paintings, collective toys and select design projects. His work has been featured in numerous galleries, usually displaying large installations to accompany the paintings, and BM has released loads of signature vinyl toys through MINDstyle. Check out his work and store at the following site.

Paper + Presidential Candidate = Good Clean Fun

Very newsworthy, build your own Barack Obama out of paper, brought to you by Build-O-Bama, a blog created by Matt Hawkins that is dedicated to showing off a paper version of the popular candidate. To download the template, visit his blog or click here. Make sure to check out Matt's website, Custom Paper Toys, it's full of wonderful paper goods he creates.

I Wish I Could...

But I can't do what Bombo! (AKA Marizio Santucci) does, I simply cannot. As we all know, collages are hot, but his style is different from what I've seen, less reliant on textures and more dependent on the actual form, which means that Marizio must be one heck of an illustrator. Marizio was born in Barga, outside of Lucca, Italy, where he lives and works. He attended ISIA design school in Florence, Italy from 2000 to 2004. After two years of working in advertising agencies, he became a freelance illustrator, although he continues to write and illustrate short comic books. His clients include Rolling Stone, Vodafone, Giunti, and many more.

Speaking on cut paper and theater like effects, this is my favorite animation ever! The end credits of "A Series of Unfortunate Events." It is simply spectacular. The color palette is exquisite, the animation is flawless, the illustrations full of personality and loveable "flaws," and the music is beautiful. I've watched these probably a hundred times, yet I'm surprised at the number of designers who have never even heard of it! Please watch these careful, I promise you will not be disappointed and will find yourself – like I often do – referring to them.