Because fragments vary in size, shape, and color, the final design is nearly impossible to replicate. The second is quality. Many fragments, especially those sourced from demolition sites, come with flaws. Rather than see these issues as limitations, van Dievoet embraces them, allowing constraints to shape the work. "Creating from materials that have already been used forces me to take into account their shape, thickness, and any breaks," she explains.
Positioned on either side of the main lobby entrance, the walls measure six meters in height and nine meters in length, creating a sculptural threshold between the exterior and interior. The project draws from the movement of the nearby Gulf, translating the dynamics of water into a series of fluid, wave-like forms. Each surface is composed of thousands of flowing lines that shift in density and depth, producing a tactile gradient that interacts with natural and artificial light throughout the day.
Format is a specialized online portfolio platform for creatives. With more than 50,000 industry leading illustrators, artists and designers having chosen Format as the place for their work, it's easy to find inspiration looking through their international roster. As part of our partnership for the 2025 Illustration Awards, Booooooom worked with our friends at Format to choose some of the best, most renowned illustrators we feel are leading the industry.
At this month's event, you can expect talks from Mouthwash Studio, an LA based design agency influencing culture at-large from within, as well as talks from Clay Hickson, the small press legend behind publishing house Tan & Loose Books as well as the monthly Risograph printed newspaper The Smudge. You'll also get to hear from James Junk, the popular designer and content creator who, when he isn't actively being "the only graphic designer in Los Angeles", is creating intelligent and thought provoking visual essays.
Design concepts live in that fascinating space between "what if" and "why not," where the constraints of manufacturing budgets and market research haven't yet trimmed away the boldest ideas. While finished products get the spotlight and the sales figures, concepts represent design thinking at its most uninhibited, tackling problems we didn't even know we had and proposing solutions that make us wonder why nobody thought of this sooner.
When we consider the subway, it's often for reasons that have to do with decay and deterioration. The switches are outdated. The elevators are broken. The train is late (again). Of course it could be better, but rarely do we pause to take in what the system does right. Its 25 lines, 472 stations, and 665 miles of track traverse the city and offer a tremendous amount of mobility.
For more than two decades, French street artist Invader-born Franck Slama-has turned city streets into digital landscapes, reimagining the urban environment as a living arcade. His iconic 8-bit mosaics have quietly infiltrated skylines and alleyways in over 79 cities across 20 countries, transforming the familiar into something playful, subversive, and undeniably his. Now, in an unexpected yet fitting next move, Invader is bringing his unmistakable pixel art to the heart of Music City with his first-ever Nashville "invasion."
In anticipation of the inevitable robot invasion, I always make sure to remember my Ps and Qs when consulting AI chatbots, but according to KitKat, I could be doing more harm than good. In a playful new campaign, the chocolate connoisseurs tell us to 'Take a Break' from being so polite, all in the name of environmental good. With its ingenious billboard ads and clever copy, KitKat expertly evolves its iconic slogan for a contemporary audience, proving the timelessness of its brand.
Nordic noir. Wasn't that a genre that had people abuzz back in the 00s? Its revival by the British Museum's prints and drawings department as a title for an exhibition of modern and contemporary Scandinavian graphic art seems desperate. Forget our oldies like Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Durer, Leonardo da Vinci we're all about new stuff by hot young Scandi artists! Maybe it's understandable;
13 years later, we have two issues of Pencil Magazine, a hybrid text-image publication that includes drawings, comics, essays, poems, diagrams, and other experiments - all created with graphite pencils. Inspired by her teenage phase of drawing still lifes in graphite, the first issue of the mag took form of a tribute to that younger self. "Over time, the project has come to represent more than just graphite; it's a kind of resistance to the fragmented attention of digital media."
The Paint Mirror brings this well-known (to a certain generation) interface to life as a functional wall piece, blending vintage digital charm with modern interior design. Handcrafted by Etsy seller RaffySculptures, the mirror features bold, pixel‑style borders in vivid color blocks that echo the classic MS Paint palette . Available in three sizes (30 × 40 cm, 60 × 90 cm, and 80 × 120 cm) it fits a range of spaces, from compact home offices to larger living‑room walls.
Optical illusions come in many different forms, from the perplexing to the mind-melting, but op art doesn't always have to be headache-inducing. Representing the serene side of op art, Larry June's Life is Beautiful LP is a mesmerising visual treat with a delightfully smooth soundtrack to match. From the cognitive to the physiological, optical illusions are typically caused by our brain misinterpreting information, leading to visual displays that amaze and confuse.
Scotland-based law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn has recently been hit with accusations of logo plagiarism, with claims its design is strikingly similar to Serena Williams' jewellery brand. While the Tennis star has yet to comment on the controversy, the law firm has defended the design, citing the contrast of the brands in question. While logo design disputes are nothing new, rarely are they sparked by public attention. While the controversy appears entirely coincidental, it has raised questions about how the allegedly identical logo design wasn't flagged. However, with no legal action currently served, it seems the law firm is standing strong with its rebranded identity.
Also: This new Photoshop feature can boost image resolution in just one click, thanks to AI Normally, you might save that image as a PNG or JPG file. But that's a problem since those formats won't retain the layers. That means you can't make any additional adjustments to them should the image require further editing.
My wife and I bought this house back in 2020, but it wasn't until the start of 2025 that I finally decided to make some moves towards fitting out my dream office. Prior to this, my workspace had been practically the same setup for eight years. I tend to get tunnel vision and not bother with updating my studio. I believe I had an office with no prints, posters, or any decoration for the first three years of owning our home.
Financial brands have developed a reputation for being corporate and oftentimes, a little dull, but that doesn't have to be the case. Switching up the stereotype is Tilt, a fintech company focused on empowering people without dwelling on their financial past. The best rebrands strengthen a brand by digging into its heritage and values, creating a new identity that's succinct and strong.
One of those minor league teams is the Las Vegas Aviators, the AAA (the highest level of minor league baseball and basically their "AHL") affiliate of the Oakland A's. The Aviators are paying tribute to the city's NHL team, the Golden Knights, with a giveaway on their September 18th game. The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a Golden Knights and Aviators crossover baseball jersey.
My wife and I walked past this house often and then saw it up for sale. We'd always admired it, partly because of its size, privacy and history, but for me I always loved the look of the outside studio, which had a twisty staircase on the exterior of the house leading up to it. At the time it was being rented as a studio apartment, before that it was an Airbnb, and even earlier was used as a full-size snooker room.
This is a collection of plugins by the same developer that can truly add cool graphical effects to your designs. You can easily create splines, pixel art, add custom gradients, create metallic shaders and much more. These plugins allow you to do a lot mostly for free, and come with some cool paid features as well, in case you're interested.
Chelsea Mills is an Advanced Prop Artist at ArenaNet, working on long-running MMO Guild Wars 2, though her role stretches far beyond what that title might suggest. 'Prop' can cover a lot of ground at the studio, from environmental set dressing and architecture to character-focused items like weapons, gliders, chairs, and fashion-based back items. Chelsea also regularly handles simple rigging, animation, physics setups for cloth and bones, and minor effects, giving her projects a level of polish that goes far beyond static props.
As I reviewed all of the vector executions I had done for these designs, I began noticing a common trend in the stronger works. The most accurate vectors are ones where anchors are plotted in such a way that the bezier handles only need to be pulled at either a 0º or 90º angle. If you're able to catch a peek as other professional hand lettering artists vectorize, you'll see that they too utilize this technique.
September is just around the corner, and that means it's time for some new wallpapers! For more than 14 years already, our monthly wallpapers series has been the perfect occasion for artists and designers to challenge their creative skills and take on a little just-for-fun project - telling the stories they want to tell, using their favorite tools. This always makes for a unique and inspiring collection of wallpapers month after month, and, of course, this September is no exception.
My day job is a design educator, so for me, this time of year is filled with writing syllabi, planning new classes, and thinking about what the next generation of designers might need to know as they enter an ever-changing field. To do this, I look for the designers, the writers, and the thinkers who challenge my understanding of design and force me to think about what we do in new ways.
I asked her to tell me about her favorite project. She shared her screen and for a few seconds, I was staring at a perfect world: a spotless desktop, neatly structured folders, and file names (seriously, not a single new or final_v2 in sight). And in the design files, every layer, every component had a proper name, following a thoughtful naming scheme. At first, I could barely focus on what she was saying. I was so impressed by her orderliness.
Harriet’s approach to layering hydration is thoughtful, but the persistent redness suggests her skin barrier is under some stress, likely from a combination of environmental changes and dry indoor conditions.
