Shutterbug » Sign Language(less)

Yes, typography is all that and a bag of chips, and we have a long-standing love affair with signage old and new—but what happens when you wipe the slate (or in this case the photo) clean of the ABCs?
Art

Yes, typography is all that and a bag of chips, and we have a long-standing love affair with signage old and new—but what happens when you wipe the slate (or in this case the photo) clean of the ABCs?
I’ve always been a lover of quilts – watching my mother create exquisite ones as a child, starting my own collection once I moved to New York City and discovered the East Village Flea and the wonders of eBay, standing awestruck before each Gee’s Bend quilt during the Guggenheim exhibition a few years back…
How does an artist move forward without forsaking his past? Take something he’s already made and give it new meaning? Over the course of one year, filmmaker Jim Helton documented New York-based artist Chris Rubino as he explored these paradigms and new direction in his work…

Although Karolin Schnoor’s roots are in Berlin and her home base is London, we can’t help but notice (and love) the very Slavic vibe behind her illustrations, paintings, and sketches…
Etsy has to be one of the coolest places for gift giving — simply because most of the offerings on the site are handcrafted and one-of-a-kind. But, with this endless trove of offerings, a bushy-eyed shopper can quickly get dissuaded by too much good stuff…
While the Americans are still cranking out duct-tape wallets, the Slovenians have gone above and beyond. (Tape wallets? That’s sooo ’90s Janeane Garofolo at a Pavement show.) En lieu of spray-paint, the ten-person ORTO collective relies on neon-toned industrial tape — the material best known for fixing disasters — taping over the city’s dull streets with scream-worthy graphics…
On a jaunt to the Far East this summer, Lo’s List discovered Line’s Lab. Based in Macau, China, Line’s Lab is a multi-disciplinary design hub innovating fashion, products, furniture and events. Founders Clara Brito and Manuel CS arrived from their native Portugal in 2006. With its Portuguese heritage and access to textiles and production houses in mainland China, Macau seemed like the perfect place to establish their biz. “China is evolving so quickly and creatively,” Brito gushed at her studio. “To witness that and be a part of it is really inspiring.”

These new works by Sebastiaan Bremer are a tinted and tender reflection of the artist’s personal history, full of the vague layered euphorium that tends to surround family holidays of years gone by…
Dutch author and illustrator Dick Bruna is probably best known as the creator of Miffy — Nijntje in Dutch — the cute but inscrutable rabbit dressed like a toddler and pictured, in bold lines and primary colors, at the zoo, in the snow, at the seaside, etc…

One of our hands-down favorite crews bombing the walls of Tel Aviv is the Haifa-based Broken Fingaz Crew. The 10-year-strong foursome (Tant, Unga, Dezo, and Kip) have a hypnotizing and intricate style which recalls 1960’s psychedelic posters, old school American comics, and B-rated horror flick poster typography…

Well, it’s old news that we’re killing the planet and along with it, many of these adorable fuzzy creatures! Need some crappy stats to scare you into action? The Nonlife Zoo’s mission statement is chock full of them. How about this doozy: “more than one kind of species vanishes from earth daily”…
This year’s official World Cup South Africa poster — conceived by Switch Design’s Johannesburg office — is a stunner, but the Cup is never just about a single team. Why have one when you can have 17…

At this stage of the tournament, with so many favored teams crashing out (see yesterday’s Brazil v. Holland shock) and with the hopes of entire continents dashed by the sporting fates (poor Ghana! perfidious Suárez!) it may be time for a reminder that the World Cup is, after all, about football. At the heart of the carefully managed fanfare of this four-yearly feast is a simple game, played with no more than a ball and a set of posts. A new book by photographer Thomas Hoeffgen, African Arenas, captures just that pared-down beauty of the game…

The generation of Cracked Magazine readers and skateboarder rats has found its mark in the comic world. Traipsing across a macabre scene of sand fleas, shadows, and black widows — this is the world which cartoonist Travis Millard imparts upon the viewer. His comics are indicative of an innate need for humor to more easily swallow the grotesqueness of the human psyche and social landscape…

“What animal has inspired as much dread, as many legends, indeed, as much revulsion and terror as the snake? Demon, divinity, sacred animal protector, ancestor – the nature and importance of this creature’s role has changed throughout history. Among the 2,700 known species, few are dangerous, let alone lethal, to humans, but prejudices run deep. These images look at this family of animals with a mysterious biology, and of which new species are still being discovered.” — Steidl Publishing