Så blir du en tomte i värdsklass!

Ibland händer det att jag får rycka in och fotografera på jobbet, trots att det inte tillhör mina vanliga arbetsuppgifter. Jag har dessutom en ny Nikon D90 som jag ville testa. Min kollega Lou på Retail House behövde hjälp med en instruktionsfilm till hennes "Tomte" uppdrag i samarbete med Ica. Vi filmade i 4 minuter utanför hissen på kontoret.I vanliga fall skulle skrivit ihop en "pappers instruktion" och vi valde nu att testa ett nytt format, för att göra det hela lite roligare.Resultatet är ganska underhållande och fyller sin funktion, eller vad tycker du?

Sometimes I get to step in and photograph at work, despite it not being a part of my regular duties. My colleague Lou at Retail House needed help with an instructional video for her Santa-mission in collaboration with ICA. We filmed for four minutes at the office, next to the elevator. Normally, we would have written a paper manual and we now opted fo test a new format, to make things a bit more fun. The result is quite entertaining and perform its function, or what do you think?

Have you seen Mono the monkey?

Going to a fancy dress party an need some ideas?

"Fantastically funny Fish Hat" by Fairytrade, Funny fly hat found on Japanese site, "Lotus Flower Hat" by littlewingfaerieart, "Pinecone hat" found on Etsy

I love to host fancy dress parties, with one theme crazier than the other. My friends tend to be a bit to boring for my liking, so I have a magical treasure chest where they can pick out an outfit or a crazy hat.

The treasure chest usually come out after midnight, even if we have a theme party or not. I also have a couple of my granny´s glasses from the 60´s with thick glass, they usually do the trick! If you don´t have a theme for a party you should defenately give "Crazy hat party" a go, good luck!

Feeling elfish? Let´s go away with faeries!

Topleft: LADY COTTINGTON'S PRESSED FAIRY BOOK is illustrated by Brian Froud and written by Terry Jones. Bottomleft: Four Fairy Costumes for "A Midsummer Night's Dream", William John Charles Pitcher, 1896-1903 Bottom right: The Spiderwick Chronicles is a series of children's books illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi

The first memory I have of reading of faeries was a very treasured book a relative gave me when I was five. The book had beautiful illustrations of cute little houses in pretty colours, and even cuter little pixies and faeries.

Fifteen years later when I moved to England to study, I made friends with two girls the same age as me. They utterly adored these creatures and even wrote their dissertation on the subject. I slowly started to realise how popular faes are around the world!

If you are not feeling magical and Elfish, this is my toplist of pretty things and places that might get you into the right mood!

1. A visit to Cornwall and Three Wishes Faery Fest
2. You need a faery name, if you havn´t recieved one yet, try here
3. Sort out some fairylicious attire, for example Alienskin or on Etsy
4.To become a faery, you need a skill or talent of some sort! What is yours?
5. Read up on the mystery of the Cottingley Faires

Magical Pop-up book!

Surreal park with floating structures

Called Los Pozas Surreallist, it is found in the Mexican jungle at Xilitla, and was built by Edward James. An eccentric British millionaire and arts patron he spent over 25 years and millions of pounds turning the 80 acres into the incredible fantasy garden that stands today.

Las Pozas ("the Pools") is a sculpture garden built by James, more than 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level, in a tropical rain forest in the mountains of Mexico. It includes more than 80 acres (320,000 m²) of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete.

Between 1949 and 1984, James built thirty-six concrete follies - palaces, temples and pagodas, including the House on Three Floors Which Will in Fact Have Five or Four or Six, the House with a Roof like a Whale, and the Staircase to Heaven. There were also plantings and beds full of tropical plants, including orchids - there were, apparently, 29,000 at Las Pozas at one time ^[ and a variety of small casas (homes), niches, and pens that held exotic birds and wild animals from the world over. Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges and narrow, winding walkways that traverse the valley walls.

Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction.

"Atomic Spa- The spa that bring you into another dimension"

Photography by Jürgen Eheim

The arcitecht Simone Micheli was asked to create something that touched emotions and involved people of overwhelming consciousness, of stimulating mind and body perceptions, which is how the idea of Milan Exedra came along.

The architectural interior was composed with aims at bringing the visitor in a almost subliminal way to another dimension which is surreal, metaphysical, unlikely and capable of converting experience into active memory.

Although the traditional white pristine interiors of spas are naturally calming and exactly what is called for, sometimes it’s important to shake things up, just as the Atomic Spa Suisse does. It still feels incredibly serene and simplistic in a more futuristic way.

Designed by Simone Micheli, the Atomic Spa Suisse is based in the Exedra Milan Hotel in Milan. Known for her galactic tastes, I’m not surprised by her choice of neon colors and space-age decor.

Futurism into fashion- 1960´s space age

ANDRÉ COURRÈGES´s Moongirl collection, Emilio Pucci´s costumes for Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey and Pierre Cardin

Courrèges’s 1964 Space Age collection unveiled, among other pieces, architecturally-sculpted, double-breasted coats with contrasting trim, well-tailored, sleeveless or short-sleeved minidresses with dropped waistlines and detailed welt seaming, and tunics worn with hipster pants. Vivid shades of pink, orange, green, and navy complemented the designer’s bold repeated use of white and silver. Accessories for each ensemble included oversized, white, tennis-ball sunglasses or goggles with narrow eye slits, gloves, helmet-shaped hats and other hats recalling baby bonnets, and square-toed midcalf boots made of soft, white kid leather.

“It was a perfect time to think silver. Silver was the future. It was spacey. Astronauts wore silver suits. And their equipment was silver, too. And silver was also the past. The Silver Screen. Hollywood actresses photographed in silver sets. And maybe more than anything else, silver was narcissism. Mirrors were backed with silver.” –Andy Warhol

Contemporary Arcitechture in The Netherlands

“Villa Nefkens by Mecanoo Architects” is absolutely stunning, almost like a sophisticated teletubbies home. I can´t stop dreaming about my future home, as I´m living in an urban shoebox now.

My taste in general is often a crazy combination of low tech and high tech. Fluorecent colours mixed with natural hues or earthy combined with 70´s space age.

My future home will most defenately be in the countryside, might have a tepee or dome in the garden, maybe a treehouse, a sauna and speakers high up in the treetops!

Bucky and Boom inspired Projection

Ever since I visited Boom in 2000 or so, I have been amazed with Geodesic domes. I have even considered building one, trying to convice my mother-in-law that she needs one in her garden.

Allthough we didn´t go to Boom this year, and went to Ozora instead, I had to check out some pics from the dancefloor. To cut a long story short, I really want to give Vj´n a go. Notice the honeycomb screens, those would be ace to do some projections on.

Where Bucky comes into the picture? Can you imagine projecting on screens hanging inside the dome. That would be loooovely! Right, I need to learn how to edit film. And how to film. So much to do, places to go to, people to see. Thank god autumn is here!

Insane Arcitechture in Tokyo

Airspace in Tokyo is insane! This is an exterior building skin for a new four story multi-family dwelling unit with professional photography studios. Located in the Kitamagome Ota-ku district, the site was previously occupied by the owner's family with a residence uniquely wrapped by a layer of dense vegetation.

AirSpace is a zone where the artificial blends with nature: sunlight is refracted along its metallic surfaces; rainwater is channeled away from exterior walkways via capillary action; and interior views are shielded behind its variegated and foliage-like cover.

Low tech Ben & Jerry´s advertising

cred:
Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific Singapore
Executive Creative Directors: Tham Khai Meng, Eugene Cheong, Todd Mccracken
Copywriters: Mike Sutcliffe, Craig Love, Eugene Cheong
Art Directors: Adrian Chan, Maurice Lim, Stuart Mills
Photographer: Edward Loh, October Skies

Are you like me, a huge fan of Ben & Jerry´s? I had to wait for so long before the gorgeous ice cream arrived in Sweden. We even have a B&J ice cream parlour in "Gamla stan" now!. I love the the crafty idea for these ads made by Ogilvy

Such a clever yet low tech idea which proves that you don´t have to have large budgets and deep knowledge of complicated software. Maybe I´ll even try to make som stuff myself, inspired by the ads!

I just had to check out the B&J US site for nice flavours, as we only get a small selecetion over here. Please check out their web, it´s so cool! And don´t forget to crank up the volume!

Sacred Geometry

I wanted to write a post about Sacred Geometry partly because I saw this amazing cathedral, but unfortunately I forgot where, so now I have put together a few images that all have a part of fibonacci structure to them. "Leonardo de Pisa (circa 1180-1240 AD), better known as Fibonacci, explained the uniformity of the following geometric proportions. He found that this geometry and harmony in nature is equal to a number sequence of 1–1–2–3–5–8–13–21–34–55–89--144 and so on, found by adding each number to the previous one to get the next number. He also realized that the natural branching, flowering, and spiraling forms in nature follow the same uniform harmonic laws that can be found in musical scales.

The Fibonacci ratios were often used in cathedral architecture. Dufay's motet was also based in part on the above series of proportions, which were used in the creation of the Florence cathedral and the dome.

Windowshopping in Stockholm

All the pictures are taken by me

On sundays, I love to spend time with my friends and just enjoy getting up to nothing much at all. Stockholm is so beautiful now and I just had to take a quick peek in some of my favourite stores. Spiti is an amazing shop with furniture and details from the middle east. I´m thinking of getting some nice details from there, but first I have to repaint and build a new desk. My taste in interior changes quite often but I have a weakspot for retro 60´s and 70´s designs. Maybe a funky colourful rug from Spiti is a good idea, it would go with my huge painting that my sister refers to as "The psychedelic womit"

Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money

After a long and hectic week at work I just had to share a fantastic tune with you. Another tune to add to my "Guilty Pleasures" playlist.. Have a great weekend!

Photo from Simondale

You can find this cute little hobbit house in Wales and it´s built by Simon and his family. There are many similar building projects in and around Wales, and if you want to know more about permaculture, living off the grid and low impact houses I recommend you to check Simondale and sign up for their newsletter, and of course even better, get involved by helping out building similar houses.

Funky Art from "The Imaginary Foundation"

Have you come across the designs of The Imaginary Foundation? They combine digital art with old photographs, in a surreal style and mix it with clever motivational qoutes.

"The Imaginary Foundation is a think tank from Switzerland that does experimental research on new ways of thinking and the power of the imagination. They hold dear a belief in human potential and seek progress in all directions. The small clandestine team is headed up by the mysterious "Director," a 70-something Uber-intellectual whose father founded the Dadaist movement. Avoiding direct publicity, the team has sought clothing as an unlikely vehicle for bringing their ideas beyond the academic realm and into popular culture."
"Be diciplined in life so you can be violent and original in your art"

Do they really have a thinktank in Switzerland with a mysterious dadaist founder called "The Director" or is it just excellent storytelling, who knows??

3D Mandelbulb

This morning I read up on my usual blogs and websites and came across another digital artist, called Tom Beddard. After I uploaded the previous posts of Tatiana Plakhova art, I was told that she uses apophysis, which is good news for me as it is very similar to Ultra Fractal which I´m already famililar with. This guy though, Tom Beddard, 3D mandelbulbs, that is very impressive! I would love to see some animations of them. My project for this autumn is to get into projections and vj´ing, so I might just give him a ring and chat to him abouot his bulbs.

I had to post some more from Tatiana Plakhova, I´ve never seen anything like i
t! I myself work in Ultra Fractal, and I would seriously love to try this out! If
you would like to know more about the artist click here

I came across this amazing artist called Tatiana Plakhova, for sure she is using some digital program and I´m dying to find out which one :) Check out her website, its full of very wellproduced graphic design.