Chiharu Shiota: Sculptured Emotion

Welcome to our current obsession – Japanese-born, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota. As you know we love being inspired by artists who take something ordinary and transform it into something extraordinary. Using simple objects – string, shoes, beds, chairs, fabric – Chiharu Shiota creates sculptural installations that are the physical embodiments of emotion. This is her latest work. Wonderful and full of wonder.

Discovered via YellowTrace Images via the Chiharu Shiota website

The power of good

Another election nearly over. And the arts barely rated a mention yet again. So here’s an inspiring reminder of how important the work of artists is, not just to create beauty and to express ideas, but to transform communities. How we wish that the pollies got it!

The artists Haas&Hahn had a dream to paint a hillside favela in Rio de Janiero. That’s a slum area, usually rife with young people who have few options beyond drugs and crime. Using an ingenious concept of expanding rays,

they were able to fill this normally depressing area with fabulous colour.

Best of all, they got the young people of the community involved, teaching them new skills, paying them a wage and providing hope of a better pathway through life.

Above: Before

It’s a huge project, with about 7000 m2 of hillside to cover, but these guys won’t stop until they’re finished. Right now they’re asking for donations to help them make it all the way up the hill. If you’ve been inspired, like us, even by a project so far away, here’s the details.

Discovered via OhJoy Images via the Favela Painting website

A post about farting

That got your attention. This week, a lesson in how great design can successfully elevate even difficult products to something fun and serious at the same time. And most importantly, they’re memorable. The Graceful Taylor is partial to the Indian gourd player, but the opera singer does feel closer to home!

discovered via OK Great - campaign by Siddhi Yadav and Denzil Machado

Colour me clever

When workers in a blue office complained that it was always cold, the walls were repainted a warm peach. Guess what? Without changing the ambient temperature everyone was suddenly warmer. True story.

At Taylor & Grace we’re big fans of colour and it’s for a good reason. As well as changing our perception of the temperature, colours can excite us, tranquilise us, stimulate our appetites (that’s why Maccas uses oranges and reds) and lots more – it’s called chromo dynamics. If you want to know more check out this great article on the Pantone website.

We pay a lot of attention to colour in the design development process because of the big role it plays in the way consumers perceive and react to your brand. Notwithstanding cultural differences, some reactions to colour are universal. For example, the human eye sees warm colours before cool ones.

Look at these examples from the Jamie Oliver range “Jme” and think about this:

—Red, yellow and orange generally stimulate; blue, green and violet generally calm

—We associate certain colours with certain experiences, eg. orange with fire, turquoise with the sea.

—Red makes us take more risks; blue helps us to be more considered in our choices (not for nothing is Las Vegas the city of red neon!)

Being clever with colour is an essential contributor to design success.

Thanks to Lovely package and Pearlfisher for the images.