“If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence”

How cool are these! 

If you've ever come across work by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat then you'll recognise the work on these fabulous dr martins shoes (they do boots too:) 

“If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence,” he said of his process. “It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind.” Born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, 

Basquiat never finished high school but developed an appreciation for art as a youth, from his many visits to the Brooklyn Museum of Art with his mother. 

His early work consisted of spray painting buildings and trains in downtown New York alongside his friend Al Diaz. 

The artist’s tag was the now infamous pseudonym SAMO. After quickly rising to fame in the early 1980s, Basquiat was befriended by many celebrities and artists, including Andy Warhol, with whom he made several collaborative works. At only 27, his troubles with fame and drug addiction led to his tragic death from a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988 in New York, NY. 

What a great way to bring back to life his work! Check em out at drmartens.com/uk

http://www.artnet.com/artists/jean-michel-basquiat/ 

Evelyn Bracklow

Picture Chekhov's cherry orchard after the aristocratic Gayev family have been forced out of their beloved estate, where the remains of their farewell picnic have been left behind, porcelain plates, teacups and sugar bowls now crawling with ants. This is the sensation that you get when you encounter German artist Evelyn Bracklow's hand-painted antique-style china pieces, a jarring yet playful impression of decayed grandeur.

Titled “Chitins Gloss” and produced under Bracklow’s artistic pseudonym “La Philie”, the series consists of old porcelain crockery that she meticulously adorns with ants. Using a fine brush to hand-paint the life-size ants in great detail, it takes Bracklow at the minimum three hours to finish each unique piece after which they are baked at 160 degrees. Taking great care to make the ants as naturalistic as possible, both in their shape but also in their bustling formations, the finished plates, bowls, cups and other tableware are products of exquisite craftsmanship that display a mastery in trompe l'oeil.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/09/ant-covered-ceramics-evelyn-bracklow/

Pernille Snedker Hansen

Pernille Snedker Hansen is the creator of Snedker Studio, she is a designer and artist who challenges how we look at the surfaces around us. Created one drop at the time and resembling a tree growth rings, Pernilles technique responds to naturally occurring patterns. A culmination of years of experimentation and development, Pernille has re-purposed the traditional craft of marbling. She has among others received a Wallpaper Design Award in 2012 and exhibits her work in conjunction with the Danish Crafts Council.

Find out more about her work here: snedkerstudio.dk

Hanna Werning

Hanna Werning work as an independent designer across disciplines such as communication design, product design, visual arts and illustration, self-initiated and commissioned work. Since 2004, she has been running her own company Spring Street Studio in Stockholm, Sweden. The name comes from her time living in London where she was educated a graphic designer at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.

Hanna has a strong fascination for patterns and colours and has been designing prints, wallpapers, textile, porcelain etc for Boråstapeter, Rörstrand, IKEA, Sagaform, Eastpak, Anna Sui and House of Dagmar. She is also the designer and manufacture of her own product AnimalFlowers wallpaper-posters. 

http://www.byhanna.com/index.html 

http://www.byhanna.com/apparat1.html

Ella Doran

Ella Doran transforms everyday objects into design-conscious pieces through the clever manipulation of the photographic image, either on its own, in repeat or combined with striking hand-coloured backgrounds. Ella takes her cue from the everyday world, from the close-up of a flower petal to abstract US road signage, the hustle and bustle of a Moroccan souk to simple kitchen utensils. She has transferred her vision into a wide range of products that have breathed modern life into many interiors, from London to Tokyo and even film heroine Bridget Jones's kitchen and Buckingham Palace!

People will always need plates

People will always need plates

People Will Always Need Plates is the creation of Hannah Dipper and Robin Farquhar.

Launched in 2004, they aim to use high quality, low volume batch production to create witty, thoughtful and stylish products as a direct antithesis to the current proliferation of cheap, throwaway design. In keeping with their credo that good design should be used and enjoyed, treasured and shared, Hannah and Robin try to develop products that, while diverse in style and application, always retain the fundamental values of functionality and beauty.

Digitile

Digitile

Design and manufacture of digitally printed wall and floor tiles and wallpapers. Suitable for interior and exterior use.

I AM CHEAPSKATE

I am cheapskate

Enthusiastic tea drinker, musician, writer

and illustrator.

Lubna Chowdhary

Lubna Chowdhary

Ceramic tiles & products.

Design and Emotions

A teacup that shivers in response to its tea going cold. A chair that warms when you sit in it, revealing its aspirations to be soft and comfortable. A pan whose handle becomes impossible to grasp when it becomes hot to the touch. The animate characteristics of these everyday objects allow them to facilitate meaningful interactions with their users by actively responding to their environment and evolving through their conditions of use. Tara Mullaney

Emotions guide, enrich and ennoble life – they provide meaning to everyday existence and render the valuation placed on life and property. Moreover, with the power to entice us to select one particular item from a row of similar products, emotions have a considerable influence on our purchase decisions. Not only are emotions involved in our reasoning about what product to buy, but they also have a significant effect on post-purchase satisfaction and product attachment. In addition, the emotions we experience daily, including those we experience in response to the designed objects that surround us, have been shown to be main determinants of our general well-being. (Marco van Hout)

Through interviews with designers and experts Design and Emotions discuss the emotional content and effect that products, brands and design have.

Keep Calm Gallery

Keep Calm Gallery is an online gallery with prints available from a selection of artists, designers and printmakers from around the world.

In addition to the prints they have a growing collection of unique pieces of original art, postcards and screenprinted cards and a selection of screen printed cotton tea towels.

Gallery Blog Spot

All Tea Towels

All Tea Towels

Online company selling a wide range of cotton

and linen tea towels.

To Dry For

Todryfor

ToDryFor.com is an online boutique specialising in designer tea towels - a husband and wife team based in Oxford, England, sourcing over 100 tea towels from numerous designers.

In addition to acting as a retailer, they also produce their own ToDryFor range of artist-commissioned tea towels, promoting work by both prominent and up-and-coming artists and illustrators.

Teresa Green

Teresa Green a unique range of printed textiles designed and hand printed by Teresa Cole. The company was set up in 2000 after graduating in printed textiles from Loughborough University school of art and design. Fabrics are sourced from within the UK. Linen used comes from Ireland and inks used for printing are all water based.

The importance of the range having a function is also key- the utilitarian, functionality and the design play equal roles.

The items are a canvas for the prints, and are designed around the shape and layout of each object.

Teresa confesses to having a passion for antique kitchenallia- especially kitchen scales and ladle shaped spoons. Her grandparents have also fed her imagination with crammed sheds full of old garden objects and treasures.

List of Eco-related websites

A list of websites with a specific interest in eco-related trends and themes:

Inhabitat is a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future. It was started by NYC designer Jill Fehrenbacher as a forum for investigating emerging trends in product, interior, and architectural design.

Treehugger is a media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, they strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. They publish a blog hosting weekly and daily newsletters, weekly radio interviews and regularly updated Twitter and Facebook pages.

Ecouterre is a website devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design. They are dedicated to showcasing and supporting designers who not only contemplate cut, form, and drape, but also a garment’s social and environmental impact, from the cultivation of its fibers to its use and disposal. Their ethos: To follow the evolution of the apparel industry toward a more environmentally sound future, as well as facilitate a conversation about why sustainable fashion matters.

Thread is a BBC online ethical fashion guide dedicated to eco style.

Centre for Sustainable Fashion Set up in 2008, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion challenges the way in which the fashion industry thinks, designs, practices and learns.

itunube

itunube design studio works in projects of product design, window campaigns, research, events, design concept and accessories. Recent projects includes flowers made out of paper in 32 different variations. The studio also offers 10 second video clips which explore different themes for all to use as design inspiration.