Artology: Valentino x Liu Bolin Art Installation

I have been a big fan of Valentino's menswear in recent years and camouflage is one of the major elements for this S/S 2013 season. In order to celebrate the release of this collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli hosted a party and invited Liu Bolin to be part of an art installation. If you have heard about Bolin, you should be very familiar with his invisible art.

I will leave you with this video to see what he did at the event.

Courtesy of Valentino 

Artology: The Ropero by Hierve

Matthew Zorpas is one of the best dressed men I have seen in the fashion blogging world and I have been reading his The Gentleman Blogger religiously. Recently he has done a very nice collaboration with Alejandro Villarreal, the mastermind behind Hierve and I am delighted to introduce this project to you.

Alejandro Villarreal & Matthew Zorpas

In Spanish, ropero means wardrobe and here, Hierve has created a very nice piece which is modern and unique. First of all, I am completely in love with the colour combination - simply refreshing. Because of the glass, I love how spacious this wardrobe looks like, which you can showcase your best pieces without letting people touch them. Of course, how can I not like the light inside the wardrobe?

Overall, I think this is a very nice wardrobe. Honestly, if I have the money and space for it, I would have invested one. Ultimately, I think a fancy wardrobe is one of the best fashion accessories that will make people jealous. Hopefully one day Hierve will have an exhibition in Toronto so I can take a look at this ropero in real life!

If you happen to be in London, please go to Designjunction from September 20-23 and check out the Ropero project!

P.S. Check out Matthew Zorpas' blog entry about this wardrobe here. 

Artology: Lanvin presents "Splash" Windows

The Lanvin F/W 2012 collection is stunning and I am so glad the Lanvin stores have also decided to create special window displays for it. Every display is decorated with paint splash to create a mood. As in what kind of mood, it will depend on how you interpret it. To me, the overall theme is quite haunting. What do you think?

You can see more images on Lanvin's facebook fanpage.

Artology: Louis Vuitton – Invitation Origami

What a fantastic invitation!

Happycentro is commissioned by Louis Vuitton to produce this invitation for the Osaka store opening night. If you know a little bit about Japanese culture, origami is an art form created by papers. I am fascinated by the process of producing this invite and you can click here to read more about this project.

If someone is going to send me this invite, I for sure will keep it forever!

Louis Vuitton Origami — Printing Process (source: Happycentro@Vimeo)

Artology: A Superhero in Every Aisle

People are just so creative all the time and I am so fascinated by this campaign.

This campaign is designed for Target from Wieden + Kennedy agency (based in Portland). The team has transformed your everyday products into Super Heros iconic elements. Below you can see the shield from Captain America, the fists from the Hulk and the hammer from Thor. What do you think? Creative enough for your taste? 

Art Director: Drew Dayberry
Copywriter: Casey Hall
Creative Directors: Guy Seese, Chris Mitton
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman
Photographer: Adam Levy
Retoucher: Greg Radich, SGS
Art Buyer: Amy Carleton
Models made by LAIKA
LAIKA Art Director: Nicholas Weigel
Model Fabrication Lead: Rob Melchoir
Production Coordinator: Alix Iverson
Character Fabrication: Katie Mello, Margaret Meyer, Sara Neiman, Joe Schmidt, Sarah Hall
Producer: Rebecca Bowen
Executive Producer: Lourri Hammack

Artology: Hermès ‘Petit H’ Creative Lab

What will you do when you have leftover Hermès goods? Well, you create art with them!

Since 2009, Hermès has started a project called Hermès ‘Petit H’ Creative Lab which the team turns leftovers into some practical arts. Some of the cool items include a Kelly Bag clock, a cabinet made out of scarves and the cool leather bear sculpture.

What will you do if you have leftover goodies from Hermès? (besides selling them)

Courtesy of Hermès (source:highsnobiety)

Artology: Pyrography Works by Scott Marr

My jaw just dropped when I first saw Scott Marr's pyrography works. If you have no idea what does pyrography mean, here is a brief definition I found on Marr's website: it is the practice of burning an image onto a surface, using specially designed tools. As you can see below, his works also involves natural materials such as flowers and woods. I am going to leave you with the following images and if you want to learn more about Marr, please click here (trust me, you will not regret visiting this site).

Artology: LEGO Campaign by Jung von Matt Agency

Just how awesome is this campaign?

These images are created by Germany based advertising company Jung von Matt Agency. By using simple Lego blocks, some iconic cartoon characters are created in minimalism form. I find this idea to be totally brilliant and I would like to see if they can work on more characters for this campaign.

Can you guess who they are? Click here to find out!

Artology: Starry Night (Interactive Animation)

Raise your hand if you are a fan of Vincent Van Gogh works.

If you have studied art history before, you should be very familiar with Van Gogh's Starry Night. This has always been one of my favourite paintings of all time and now, what if it can turn into animation? Petros Vrellis has turned this wild dream into reality and this attempt is very refreshing. I am going to leave you to discover the magic of this painting.

Starry Night (interactive animation) (source: Petros Vrellis @ Vimeo)

Artology: Greg Peltz's Star Wars Portraits

I am always fascinated by the artistic skills Star Wars fans have and this series is really beautiful!

These Victorian Star Wars portraits are created by Greg Peltz and my favourites are C-3PO and R2-D2. These are all limited prints so I have a feeling they will be very valuable if they are all sold out. You can now purchase them at Kult Studio and ACME Archives Direct. Get them fast!

Artology: Maroquinaris Zoologicae by Billie Achilleos for Louis Vuitton

It looks like this series will be continue this year...

Billie Achilleos continues to create some interesting animal characters using the Louis Vuitton products and I have to say, I am very impressed with all of them. Below are just some of my favourites and you can click here to see more (like Louis Vuitton facebook fanpage to get more updates!)

Artology: Louis Vuitton Australian Animals

Sydney, Australia is going to have a new Louis Vuitton Maison at George Street and in order to celebrate this grand opening, artist Billie Achilleos has created 3 animals using the monogram pattern. I personally really like the kangaroo and I would not mind to have it in my room. What do you think?

Courtesy of Louis Vuitton

Artology: Gaga's Workshop at Barney's New York

Every year, I am all excited to see what Barneys New York will have in store for the holiday display and this year the store has teamed up with Lady Gaga to create the Gaga Workshop. I am sure everyone is familiar with Lady Gaga so you can imagine how crazy the window displays look like this year. Sadly I will not be able to travel down this Christmas but at least I can look at the online store to see the monster inspired products. Below are some photos and the video of the opening night. I must say Lady Gaga is looking so good in Chanel!

Welcome to the world of Lady Gaga!

Courtesy of Barneys New York The Window

Barneys New York - Gagas Workshop Launch Event Sizzle (Stellarhead @Vimeo)

Artology: Perrier-Jouët Ft. Jo Lynn Alcorn Paper Works

You can never underestimate what paper art can do to ads...

This ad series is a collaboration between Perrier-Jouët and paper art artist Jo Lynn Alcorn. I really like the combination as the paper flowers are very beautiful and at the same time, they help to make the bottle of champagne stands out. It's such an amazing series which makes your eyes happy when looking at the images. What do you think?

Artology: 7FT Gundam - Ultimate Papercraft

Since I lived in Asia when I was a child, Gundam is one of the animations that has influenced me since my childhood. Recently, I have been madly in love with papercraft and when you combine these 2 things together, something amazing jsut magically shows up right in front of my computer screen.

This 7 feet tall Gundam is created by a graphic designer named Taras Lesko. It took him roughly 360 hours to complete this paper figure and the result is beautiful and stunning! I seriously have no idea how this person can think of this idea but thanks to him, now I actually want to have one in my living room. Watch the video below to see how this Gundam is created!

Courtesy of Taras Lesko

"7FT Gundam" - Ultimate Papercraft (Taras Lesko @ Vimeo)

Artology: Louis Vuitton - The Magic of The Holidays

You know it's almost Christmas when you see stores' window displays are all about holiday celebration and today this particularly high end brand has caught me totally off guard, in a very positive way!

Louis Vuitton has decided to bring us to the circus this holiday season and the fashion house has decided to collaborate with illustrator Frank Laws for the magical window displays. I have basically lost my mind when I look at the photos as the whole concept is very whimsical, warm and fun!

I wish one day, I could create a project like this with the illustrators I know for Louis Vuitton. I hope one day this wish would be granted.

Artology: "Interiors" Series by Ana Elisa Egreja

Wow, this is just wonderful!

The following art works are painted by Ana Elisa Egreja, an artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. To me, every piece has 2 parts: the interior and the animal. Surprisingly, Ana can put these 2 elements together and create some stunning paintings which I would really want to hang them in my room. Which one is your favourite?

Click here to see more of Ana's works!

Artology: Nuit Blanche 2011

It was my fourth year to participate the annual Nuit Blanche event in Toronto and just like the previous years, my goal was to capture some cool images from the night.

The weather was very cold yesterday night and a lot of the cool installations were unfortunately, not inside any buildings. You may not agree on this, but I did enjoy that fake TTC streetcar ride a lot! OCAD, as usual, had one of the most amazing installations (that deer is still haunting me...) and also on top of my list was Design Exchange which I felt like I was in a Daft Punk world!

Here are some photos I took during the night and this may help you to recreate your memory.

Pretty cool light installation outside Eaton Center

Let's play some glowing sticks!

Artology: Obselete - Floppy Disk Artwork by Nick Gentry

The 3.5 inches floppy disks seemed to be no longer in use since the emergence of usb, but London based designer Nick Gentry made used of the long disappeared storage disk in his artwork.  Gentry used the thin magnetic disk as a canvas and painted on it.  The tiled floppy disks on the wall made an unique texture and pattern for the paintings.

OBSOLETE - Nick Gentry from Nick Gentry on Vimeo.

Artology: Hair Glasses

This is genius!

This series of sunglasses are made by Studio Swine. The frames are made of human hair "with bioresin as a binding agent". I think the concept is very cool and the frames actually look very nice! I don't know about you, but if these glasses are going be in production in the future, I probably will want to pick up a pair. What do you think?

Click here for more information.