This is how a map should look like! The ability to be in a city and to see through it, is a superpower. London-based graphic design firm BERG London created these 3D, inception-like, maps of Manhattan, NY by curling up the landscape and eliminating the horizon. The posters, part of a set entitled Here & There, looking uptown from 3rd and 7th, and downtown from 3rd and 35th, are created using a combination of city manipulations in modeling software.

The prints have made their way into MOMA’s permanent collection, they are both three feet tall and two feet wide (90cm x 60cm), and are available to purchase at BERG London for roughly $150.

Looking at the outlines of the buildings in these paintings, one can relate to its European architecture style, specifically French. That’s exactly where France-based artist Thomas Lamadieu of Avignon dreamed up whimsical figures squeezed in the pockets of the sky. Lamadieu makes his Sky Art images from his photographs of cities, where he captures geometric expanses of blue sky framed by buildings. Then he fills in empty spaces with imaginative illustration of funny creations that interact with the space.

[Via The Huff]

The giant inflatable Rubber Duck is a floating sculpture by Dutch conceptual artist Florentijn Hofman, that traveled the world’s waterways for several years for the sole purpose of bringing smiles to people. The duck arrived yesterday, May 2nd at Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor and will remain there until June 9th.

it’s been causing quite a stir as curious locals have watched it inflate in a shipyard in Tsing Yi. Hofman’s famous duck has already been to the waters of Sydney, Osaka, and Sao Paolo. At 16.5 meters high, it’s pictured being pulled by a tug boat only a fraction of its size.

 [Via Colossal]

Sometimes motivation is all we need. This last push off the cliff is to some the hardest step to take towards achieving ones dream. Starting up a new business can be a great challenge,depending solely on dedication, and determination. Success requires a lot of smart plans, successful drive, and tons of hard work.

In light of this, Startup Quote launched a website that provides daily wisdom and inspiration from some of the best and most successful entrepreneurs around. The insight from experts in business is meant to motivate the best of us to reach our own great potential.

The quotes are presented through cute cartoon-like illustrations, making them more appealing to the eye. Here are some of the greatest quotes posted: 

For more, you follow Startup Quotes‘ feeds on instagram too.

[Spotted at MyModernMet]

Cathryn Lavery also mentions this 2008 video from Rodrigo Alejandro Rojas Sandoval as being the first one that attempted to document this evolution:

Thanks to DC Comics for creating this cultural icon that we can all obsess over, all Batman logos belong to them.

When a talent is spotted, it speaks out loud for itself. In our featured post today, we present to you the mind-bending artwork of Italian artist Diego Fazio aka DiegoKoi. Born in 1989, the self-taught illustrator, first started as a tattoo artist and turned to drawing portraits only in 2007.

At only 23-years of age, his hyper-realistic pencil drawings on paper and wood have garnered him international acclaim. Each portrait can take up to 200 hours but the results are just magnificent.

[Via Twisted Sifter]

British painter Nathan Walsh elaborate drawings and architectural blueprints before laying a drop of paint on his canvas. His deep study to pin down exact geometry and perspective gives each work a sense of life that might otherwise not be present in something created with the mechanical aid of a camera or software.

Walsh’s primary source materials are not photographs but pencil sketches drawn on-site, for example the Chicago pieces above began from over 100 drawings he then references in his studio. In this way he can easily alter the position and size of any particular element, a process he likens to “building a world from scratch”.

From his website:

I deal exclusively with the urban landscape and aim to present a painted world which in some ways resembles the world we live in. I am fascinated by the city, it’s visual complexity and constant state of flux. The act of painting is an attempt fix this information and give vision to our experience of living within it. [...] The work aims to create credible and convincing space which whilst making reference to our world displays it’s own distinct logic. This space is created through drawing, which I see as fundamental in establishing a world the viewer can engage with. Drawing allows me to make human pictorial decisions instead of relying on the mechanical eye of a camera or software package. This process is open ended and changes from one painting to the next. Whilst I employ a variety of perspectival strategies, these methods are not fixed or rigid in their application. Working with a box of pencils and an eraser I will start by establishing an horizon line on which I will place vanishing points to construct simple linear shapes which become subdivided into more complex arrangements.

Check out his website for numerous final works at a much higher resolution, as well as initial drawings. Walsh will have work at the Changing Perspectives technology conference in Paris later this month, and is working on a solo show at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery in November.

[Via Colossal]

A 31 day mission Malaysian artist & architect Hong Yi -aka Red- took upon her self to create a daily fun illustration with her food. Her parameters were simple: the image had to be comprised entirely of food and the only backdrop could be a white plate.

The project has been documented heavily around the web, but if you haven’t seen it all head over to her Facebook and read an interview on designboom. Photos will also be appearing on her Instagram at @redhongyi. Red was previously featured on this blog for her Coffee Ring Stains Portrait.

Michael Grab, the land artist from Canada,  found his great joy and peace of mind in using the power of gravity. The process of creating his art of balance is not that easy as it might seam. It involves not only Grab’s physical but psychological abilities along with learning his inner self and nature around him. It’s very hard to believe that his work is done with his bare hands, no tools, no wire, no magic, only gravity. That is how his project got its name – Gravity glue, the only secret of his creations. Most of his installations were done in Boulder, Colorado since he moved there in 2002.

Micheal says about his work: “Stone balance teaches the practitioner lessons through silence. The inner silence that one cultivates through balancing (or other meditative practice) is a foundation to realizing that each of us are as much one another as we ARE our entire universe. One gigantic symphony. and to apply a framework of “balance” to the earth-organism will be infinitely beneficial for the well-being of our children, as well as the diversity of life we co-exist with..”

Grab’s art won’t stay timeless in galleries and private collections, it won’t be sold on auctions, yet it will remain in photos and videos of the lucky ones who got to see his life performance of peace.

Graphic designer Alex Asfour has created a set of travel posters that have a cool vintage style to them and make us even more eager for sunnier shores. Asfour has used a simple approach with these posters, and evoked a vintage vibe with bold colors, typography and a grainy texture.

Given the sorry state of our weather at the moment, you’d be forgiven for craving a holiday so bad you’re finding it hard to concentrate on anything else. Well for now you can enjoy these artistic graphics.

Imagine if one day capitalism reaches the point, where the big brands starts to sponsor the superheroes. How would this influence their images? Based on this hypothesis, Milan-based art director Roberto Vergati Santos decided to experiment with some characters, and see what would be the results of such idea.

Make sure to check out the full gallery on the artist’s Behance page.

[Via Behance]

Love sometimes makes us say or do some very weird things. Australian art collective, HubbaWelcome, mocks the head-over-heels in love sort of fluffiness by presenting an almost stalker-ish series of Valentine’s day postcards. Chris Mundy and Greg Lockhart, currently based in East London, say their inspiration comes from the online culture and the loneliness and isolation that the information age evokes.

[Via HubbaWelcome]

Post-Apocalyptic Cover Illustration Time-lapse by San Francisco-based artist Deisign

Here’s the latest stop motion music video from animation duo Katarzyna Kijek and Przemysław Adamski  for Japanese singer-songwriter Shugo Tokumaru. The video was launched just this morning courtesy of Pitchfork and shared by Colossal, it features a highly-precise parade of thousands of cut paper and foam silhouettes.

Now sit back, turn up the volume and set this video to full-screen:

Ontario-based graphic designer Andrew Knapp invites everyone to find Momo, his strange 4.5-year-old border collie, who, unlike other dogs, would always hide when fetching sticks instead of returning them.

Andrew initially started making the pictures as a gift to his nephews and nieces, but after uploading them online, the response was greatly appreciative. Andrew even started a special Find Momo blog, where the fans soon started demanding a book. This is now among Andrew’s plans, and the adorable photo shoots continue.

You’d think a black and white dog must hide best when there’s snow, but it’s just as hard to spot him in any other surroundings. Think it’s no challenge for you? See how fast you can find him in the photos below!

[Via Colossal and Instagram]

The challenge: “Create an image out of a word, using only the letters in the word itself.”

The only rule: “Use only the graphic elements of the letters without adding outside parts.”

The result: This cool video by Ji Lee. Enjoy!

 [Vimeo]

Alexey Menschikov is a Russian artist who uses different means to exercise his creativity. His works are in photography, street art and video. His work is based on simplicity that’s mostly hard to achieve yet delivers a clear message.  Check out some of his expressive artwork on the streets.

The artist usually draw the design on a piece of paper before starting and as soon as he ready the only thing he is using outside is the  handheld orienteering compass and pace counting or measuring tape, so he can determine the distance and set out the work. Beck usually gets inspired by world of geometry or “crop circles”, which he developed gradually through years of performing the snow art.

Simon’s work reminded us of the work of Jim Deneven who creates large scale sand drawings along the coasts of California, on the Dry Lake Beds of Nevada, even drawing on frozen water surfaces in Siberia.

This intriguing set of retouched photos entitled L’ Enfant Extérieur (The Outer Child) by Paris-based photo editor  Cristian Girotto with photography by Quentin Curtat attempts to impersonate the inner, young, instinctive, naïve child inside everyone of us.

The artist describes:

Without bothering Jung and its “Puer aeternus” or Pascoli with its “Little Boy”, we can certainly agree that, somewhere inside each of us, there’s a young core, instinctive, creative but also innocent and naïve. What would happen if this intimate essence would be completely revealed?
L’ Enfant Extérieur (The Outer Child) takes into analysis this possibility, showing us a world of men in the shape of children, as if the body could slip on the ugliness of life, less expected to imagine big fawn’s eyes winking in the night clubs or little chubby hands shaking in the offices.
An examination that begins from the classical dichotomy shape-substance and that questions itself about the nature of purity and the unavoidability of the corruption, without taking itself too seriously, because in the end, you know, children like to play.

[Via KoiKoiKoi] [L'Enfant Exterier on Behance]

The park of sculptures is situated on the northern island of New Zealand and has a land area of 4 square km. It belongs to one of the richest businessman of New Zealand, Alan Gibbs, where the private park of art gets its name as Gibbs Farm. This open sky museum welcomes visitors, artists, educational institutions, charities and the public, by prior appointment only.

The park posses modern art of world-known sculptors such as Graham Bennett, Chris Booth, Daniel Buren, Bill Culbert, Neil Dawson, Marijke de Goey, Andy Goldsworthy, Ralph Hotere, Anish Kapoor, Sol LeWitt, Len Lye, Russell Moses, Peter Nicholls, Eric Orr, Tony Oursler, George Rickey, Peter Roche, Richard Serra, Kenneth Snelson, Richard Thompson, Leon van den Eijkel and Zhan Wang, who had a great challenge to conquer the scale of the landscape. Everything in the property flows towards and eventually into the sea; and every work contends in some way with the slide seaward. The flow of the land, the immense body of water, the wide harbour flats and the assertive variety of the elements have all imposed themselves on the artists.

Gibbs acknowledges

“the challenge for the artists is the scale of the landscape; it scares them initially” and demands something more from them. Walking the land visitors can appreciate how each artist has come to terms in their own way with the gravitational pull that is exerted on everything as the mountains roll into hills and slide into gullies and slope down towards the wide flat expanse of the Kaipara harbour.

(Hover on images for caption)

Source [Gibbs Farm]

Digitally manipulated images by artist Robert Rickhoff, graduate of Crossmedia Design at ArtEZ Enschede in Netherlands, will definitely make you look twice at them. The series of his work called “Out of Place” is provocative and fun at the same time. The artist tried to joke around our daily routine and familiar places and his ideas resulted into very fresh and realistic pictures.

“I think without a concept, there’s nothing. Having found the concept, it´s a question of communicating this in the clearest and shortest way. Nothing superfluous or that can´t be justified, everything for a reason and everything with a function. There´s no room here for I like that or I don´t like that, there is only room for it´s effective or not. I am interested in finding ideas that will be remembered effectively and draw attention”, Rickhoff says.

Source [Robert Rockhoff, Robert Rickhoff Crossmedia Design]

Poland-based architecture student Maja Wrońska attending Warsaw University of Technology, has been drawing buildings and castles since she was a little girl. Poland’s skill requirements for architectural school prompted Maja to attend drawing classes, which changed her attitude towards drawing and gave her inspiration as a developing artist.  She has captured some lovely scenes from Paris, Venice, New York, Prague, Istanbul, Krakow and elsewhere. Her level of talent and detailing are beyond outstanding. Check out more of her paintings here.

[Via Deviant Art]

Ran Ortner, 52 year old New York-based artist, found his vocation in implementing his love to surfing and sea through Canvas Oil Paintings. He started to surf on beaches of California when he was 18, he kept his hobby throughout his life, and the emotions from the sea kept appearing in his work.

“In my art, I contemplate the collision of opposites, from tender brutalities to the devastating sensitivities. Every day I enter my studio, prepare my materials and, as James Joyce said, “go for the millionth time to encounter the reality of the experience.” I attempt through painting to sustain my encounter with life’s biting reality.” – says Ran.

One of Ortner’s most successful paintings is “Open Water No 24″. In 2009 in the ArtPrize Competition 19-foot-long rendering of the swelling sea won him $250,000.

 Till now Ran Ortner is inspired by his muse – the sea and keeps on implementing his passion in his art. His work simply overwhelms with it’s scale and realistic feeling of waves coming right down to your hand.

 [Source: Ran Ortner]

When you glimpse at any of the paintings by Rob Gonsalves, the second of scrolling turns into a deep look instead. His work produces not only pleasant art, yet carries great meaning behind it, where each small detail matters. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Gonsalves was influenced by paintings of  Magritte and Escher and started his creations as a hobby aside from his architecture career. After an enthusiastic response in the 1990 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition the artist totally devoted himself to his art. In his work Rob Gonsalves is trying to capture human’s desire to believe in the impossible and magical, and he is totally capable of it.

[Source: Rob Gonsalves]

Deenesh Ghyczy, the artist from Diepholz, Germany, has an exceptional technique of expressing himself through his paintings. His art looks as if Ghyczy was drawing while looking over the patterned glass resulting into amazing fragmented portraits. It’s not only the kaleidoscopic feeling you get from these bizarre work, it also determines an emotional component. As Ghyczy says: ”For a long time now, we ceased having a core identity, as such. We are many people, with different identities and different personalities”.

 [Deenesh Ghyczy]