PAPYRUS ROCK

holy exacto knife. meet artist - and, i think, scientist at heart - rogan brown.

brown takes inspiration from biology and creates beautiful representations of the intricate and incredible patterns and prints that happen organically in nature. also, this is all made out of paper. completely incredible.

from rogan: "My work plays with the architecture of nature and organic growth. By identifying patterns and motifs that occur in the natural world in different contexts and at different scales, both macroscopic and microscopic, I have developed a formal, aesthetic vocabulary that I use to construct hybrid sculptural forms, half real, half surreal."

more here.

via the jealous curator

PAPEL POR FAVOR

paper art is really becoming a thing over here. and here is yet another truly amazing study in paper art.

say hello to canadian paper master, myriam dion.

these are newspapers. made into lace. holy moly.

more here.

via the jealous curator

PAPER CUT COOL

holy moly. take a piece of white paper, an x-acto knife, tweezers and a WHOLE lot of talents and here you go. korean artist too hyun has created a truly unbelievable series of hyperrealistic portraits of famous icons. take a look at a few of her amazing pieces below.

more here.

via creative boom

KODAK MOMENT

more awesome work from french paper artists zim&zou. 

lucie thomas and thibault zimmerman are both based in paris, trained as graphic designers and just generally crazy talented. they create all of the elements of their installations completely by hand - from paper cutting to molding and sculpture. i love seeing someone work in paper in a more crafted way and relying on more delicate techniques than the digital tools most people are moving to.

they have a ton of beautiful work but this series is one of my favorites.

via creative boom

more here.

TYPE OF SCRAP

take a look at this cool typography project from marianne beck. the danish-born, paris-based designer creates a typeface out of very neatly cut and placed pieces of scrap paper. scrap paper!

it's a very simple, but beautifully cohesive and clever series of letters. from trash to treasure indeed.

the letter A

the letter B

the letter C

more here.

via it's nice that

PAPER TOWN POR FAVOR

remember these paper birds? well, now i've got some equally cool paper cityscapes for you. these pieces by artist hattie newman are seriously amazing. clever, complex, colorful and kinda stylish, right?

more here.

via creative boom

DESIGNCRUSH: BOOKS ON THE BRAIN

sharing a couple of examples of smart design that have caught my eye recently. this week i'm crushing on a couple of beautiful, minimalistic book covers that use graphic fonts and strategic touches of color to make a big and beautiful impact.

more here: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

PASS THE PRETTY PAPER

i wanted to share a project that kind of combines all the things i love: design, small business, female entrepreneurship, the dc creative community, and well, just pretty things in general.

appointed is an american-made brand of beautifully designed desktop goods.

from them: "we believe a beautiful work environment fosters creativity, productivity and overall well-being. and we believe that each new notebook represents untapped potential and endless possibility. our goal is to add beauty to the workday and to outfit workspaces everywhere with tools that energize and inspire."

i've written here before about how important i think it is to bring design and beauty into everyday spaces that are typically beige and boring. so, i love the idea of having polished, thoughtfully designed office products that can go in and out of all the spaces of life - from the 9-5 stuff to the creative stuff to the to-do lists and the big dream brainstorming. if it's something you're interacting with multiple times a day it should be beautifully designed!

pretty right?

added bonus? appointed was started by dc-based graphic designer and creative powerhouse suann song. i've been following suann for years and she's consistently made beautiful things and supported dc small business.

they launched on kickstarter a couple of days ago so go and get em!

as they say on their kickstarter, "beautiful tools to inspire beautiful work." indeed!