Friday 18 July 2014

“We Are Flower” By Galeria Melissa



American design studio SoftLab attached 20,000 translucent flowers to a flexible plastic mesh to make this installation for the Brazilian jelly shoe brand's New York flagship store to reflect the shoe brand's 2014 design and marketing campaign called “We are Flowers”. With a shower of colorful petals suspended from the ceiling, Galeria Melissa unveils the “We Are Flower” installation by SOFTlab. The “we’re Flowers” fully covered with flowers of all colors illuminate structures and brighten spaces sales. The flowers of the season have invaded the shops and fully covered with flowers of all colors illuminate structures and brighten spaces sales.

The flexible structure made of 5,000 mylar panels that is suspended from the shop's ceiling to form a canopy and funnels that spread down in different lengths and widths. The canopy is beautifully covered with 20,000 flower shapes, related to those used by Melissa for its new collection of footwear and accessories, which have been recreated in a translucent polyester film that is typically used to apply color to glass surfaces. The softlab Fonder Michael Szivos said; the only criteria were to use the flower shape from that campaign and for it to be very colorful and of course marvelous, which also asked us to do something special that would take over the whole store. The structure was designed by using computer modeling program Rhino, which created drawings that were then used to program a laser cutter.

Every pieces of mylar were riveted composed by hand and the final piece took place 5 days to install, with the team only able to work in the space at night after the shop had closed. If whatever came up regarding the size or complication of the installation they always thought go for it, we want this to look spectacular. That attitude really helped us a lot and I think made the project a real collaboration. We had to do material tests and prototypes, make the geometry through form finding tools, create the tools that would let us to automate all of the drawings for laser cutting, design the details for hanging and then laser cut entirety.

It was a lot of entertaining, but had a lot of parts that all had to come together in the end. SoftLab were asked to give to the shop space after working with Melissa on a project designed by the Campana brothers. We helped out and produce & fabricate that project since the brothers are in Brazil. The project went really well and Melissa was fascinated in our design work so they’ve asked us to design the next installation. There was some talk in the beginning about whether it was really feasible to have a surface cover the entire ceiling of the store, I am glad we did," said Szivos. "I think that is what really changed the store and creates a whole new environment. Some people come in off the street just to see it.


We Are Flowers

Wednesday 16 July 2014

Attractive Colorful Canopy of Umbrellas Charms the Streets of Portugal



Portugal is a European country officially named as the Portuguese Republic is a developed country with an advanced economy and high living standards. But around a special time of the year the Portuguese city filled with an outburst of rainbow colors? The beautiful multi colors umbrellas like Orange, Red, yellow, green, blue, pink, and different hues of umbrellas suspended in mid-air is an exclusive thing to observe in Agueda which makes for a splendid site for the tourists visiting Portugal along the local people here.

It's that time of year again! A new canopy of attractive colorful umbrellas has been formed over the streets of Portugal. It’s been two years ago, photographer Patrícia Almeida introduced the novel idea of whimsical installation put on by production company Sextafeira Producoes for the annual arts festival Agitagueda. The festival is held every July in the city of Agueda, the festival draws thousands of tourists who come to the city to relish art exhibits and concerts.

Though last year's umbrellas appeared darker in color than the previous, with more main colors, this year we grasp a softer palette with sprinkles of purples and pinks. However Europe has a plenty of natural beauty in all its countries and their cities but Portugal’s Umbrella sky has a distinctive charm working for it. In some selected areas of Agueda the streets can be seen covered by these lovely umbrellas. If one is travelling adjacent than this is a must visit place to see the beautiful canopy of umbrellas and if you are not travelling anywhere near Portugal then why not to plan it now. . We can't get plenty of this joyful installation. It is something to look forward to every July!

Friday 11 July 2014

An Abandoned Shopping Mall in Bangkok Hides a Fishy Secret



In the post-apocalyptic films when the camera pans down the abandoned streets of Tokyo or New York long after people have disappeared and the buildings have fallen into shabbiness, we see nature thriving. Like trees and plants take hold in the sidewalks and wild animals like deer, bears, and lions stalk the ruins left behind by humans. But after descending the staircase at a vacant shopping mall in Bangkok, professional cook and photographer Jesse Rockwell discovered a wholly different take on beasts inheriting the Earth, specifically exotic koi and catfish teeming by the thousands in a secret subterranean aquarium.

A former 4 storey shopping mall, originally constructed as an 11 storey building found to be in breach of old town Bangkok’s 4 storey limits on building heights. The top 7 floors were smashed to adhere to building codes in 1997. However in 1999 the mall burned due to suspected arson committed by a competitor in the area. The disaster resulted in numerous casualties, and the building has remained abandoned ever since. Amazingly not having a roof, the basement floor remains under quite a lot of feet of water year round.  In the early of year 2000s an unidentified person starts introducing a small population of exotic Koi and Catfish species. The small population of fish starts to thrive and the result is now a self-sustained and astonishingly populated urban aquarium. What a remarkable discovery it makes you surprise what else lurks in abandoned places around the world? You can see more of Rockwell’s photography over on 500px and on his website, Taste of the Road.
Jesse Rockwell Website & Jesse Rockwell on 500px.com

Incredible Triple Lightning Strike on Three of Chicago's Tallest Buildings



Despite the fact that filming a time-lapse of a stormy derecho from his Chicago home, the talented videographer and Thread less creative director Craig Shimala able to capture magnificent and rare occurrence of a triple lightning strike on three of the city's tallest buildings. In the below video and stills images, three bolts of lightning can be seen remarkably striking Willis Tower, Trump Tower, and the John Hancock Building at the same time, illuminating the Chicago skyline in an amazingly dynamic way. Incredibly, this isn't the first time Craig Shimala has captured this unusual phenomenon. He filmed the same thing almost exactly four years ago back in 2010, and he says lightning never strikes the same place twice?