Clouds inside create silver-lining for artist

Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde controls the weather and creates beautiful indoor clouds with the help of a smoke machine and dramatic lighting.

The fog machine emits dense vapour / smoke that makes contact with sprayed water and forms a small white cloud.

Smilde, who lives in Amsterdam, said he wanted to make the image of a typical Dutch rain cloud but inside. ‘I imagined walking into a classical museum hall with just empty walls,’ he said. 'There was nothing to see except for a rain cloud hanging around in the room. I wanted to make a very clear image, an almost cliché and cartoon-like visualization of having bad luck. Indeed there's nothing here and bxxxxcks, it's starting to rain!"  

The few people who have seen the clouds in person should consider themselves very lucky; each cloud only exists for a moment before dissipating.  

To document the clouds Smilde photographs them; the only proof of their existence if a viewer misses them.  

The first exhibit, called Nimbus, was created by Smilde in 2010.  

Watch videos of the creation of the clouds below.

Fiat's 'The Fatherhood' follow-up is new romantic music video

In a follow-up to their 'The Motherhood' video, Fiat has released 'The Fatherhood'.

Similar to it's predecessor, The Fatherhood focuses on a father in a musical fashion, singing about the trials and tribulations involved with being a new dad.

This time around though, the concept is that the father is taking his young twins out in the car to try and get them to sleep, whilst doing this he reminisces about his youth and being "a new romantic" cue the Human League style music, and video, complete with outdoor settings, smoke and a unicorn.

One of the best lines would definitely be about him dancing at their wedding as way of revenge.

Once again the idea of the video is to promote the family friendly nature of Fiat's 500L series.

Watch the video and let us know what you think, but be warned it is rather long.

Planters resemble miniature sustainable buildings

Who wouldn't want to get their hands on this planter series called ienami.

Designed by Japan-based studio Metaphys, these fun planters are made to look like miniature buildings (ienami refers to a row of houses in Japanese).

Inspired by minimalist style buildings with roof gardens, these contemporary micro homes look good with delicate plants like soft mosses and small succulents.

Alley, Plaza, Tunnel and Zig Zag are the four designs included in the collection.

Bus stop with a window seat

We've all been stood waiting for a train or a bus wishing we could be somewhere else; perhaps a beach in Spain, visiting the vineyards of France or even taking a gondola ride in Venice. Scandinavian Airlines has played on this idea and created an amazing experiential bus stop ad.

The campaign was designed to promote the 16 new destinations that the airline has started to fly to.

A bus stop in Oslo was fitted with a digital screen and a mock airplane window. When the shutter on the window was closed and re-opened a new scene was displayed, with the view being of one of the 16 new destinations.

A clever way to advertise and encourage people to book that next holiday. Watch a video highlighting the campaign below.

Long live paper

In a clever add by French toilet paper company Le Trèfle, the fight between paper and digital reaches a pivotal point.

In the spot a married couple are depicted with the husband constantly trying to prove that his tablet is better than traditional paper, for drawing, doing sudoku and reading books. However his wife gains the upper hand at the end of the segment when the poor man is left on the loo without any paper.

Clever and funny from Leo Burnett Paris, have a watch below.

ME Hotel has Theatreland glamour at it's heart

Foster + Partners has designed their first flagship hotel, where everything from the shell to the interiors has been designed by the practice. 

The ME Hotel, which opened earlier this year, is a brand new luxury hotel built occupying a triangular site in the Aldwych Crescent area of London.  The 157-bed hotel seamlessly integrates with the restoration of the adjacent 1904 Marconi House, whose interior has been completely restructured to provide 87 apartments.  

Clad in Portland stone, the hotel was built to the same height and scale as its neighbour, and despite having a modern feel, is still in keeping with the surrounding area. An elliptical tower on the corner of the building, which defines the end point for the Aldwych Crescent, is topped by a glass cupola – a contemporary reinterpretation of the Edwardian-style domed roof across the street. The glass cupola houses the penthouse suite for the hotel, with an impressive 360-degree panorama of the city, including views of the river.  

Guests arriving at the hotel pass through a ground floor lounge with accompanying public restaurants and bar before ascending to a dedicated hotel lobby with a champagne bar on the first floor, all housed within a nine-storey high pyramidal space, encased entirely in white marble.  

On the tenth floor is the hotel’s rooftop terraces, which are an urban oasis, with the Radio Rooftop Bar offering views of the river and Westminster skyline. The 5-star hotel also boasts versatile conference suites, a gym and a luxury 25-seat screening room.

Find out more on the project page.

Make your drawings come to life

3 Doodler is a new kind of pen that will draw in 3D. It will allow users to create sculptures or designs in 3D, either by drawing free hand, or by tracing sketches on paper then 'welding' the pieces together.

Currently only available by backing the project on Kickstarter for $75 or more, the pen uses 3mm ABS or PLA plastic as its "ink", which is heated and cools quickly to build solid structures and shapes.

Although there is not a date for general release, nor a suggested price, from the Kickstarter page we can see that the lowest price they ask is $75 and the upper is $99, with plans to dispatch the finished product in February of next year.

To showcase the capabilities of the pen, the makers, Pete & Max from Wobble Works, worked with some wire artists on Etsy to create some special pieces and templates for backers.

The 3Doodler has seen a lot of press since it was made public and the project has received almost $2.1M in funding, 70 times more than the $30,000 goal.

Find out more on their Kickstarter page or watch the video below.

A 'lickable' bit of advertising

Fanta has produced the world's first tastable advert. The concept developed for the drinks market in the United Arab Emirates, features a printed ad promoting their new recipe for Orange Fanta, which people could pop into their mouth and experience firsthand.

The campaign featured a full page ad, which is kept in a plastic sleeve within a publication, and encouraged the consumer to tear off a piece to try the flavour and share the experience with their friends as 100% of the ad is coated in the flavouring.

A clever concept to but we expect many would be reluctant to start eating paper supplied in a magazine?

Watch the campaign video below and let us know if you would be willing to taste a printed ad.

Heineken takes interviews to the extreme

Interviews can be stressful at best, but preparation is everything. That is however unless you were interviewing for Heineken's internship.

The company decided that they didn't just want someone who answered the right questions, they wanted someone up to the challenges that would lie ahead so they put the interviewees to the test.

During the course of the interviews the candidates were subjected to hand holding, fake heart attacks and fire alarms.

The one who kept their cool was voted for by the Heineken Internet community and the winner was taken to a Champions League game to represent the brand, having their success broadcast at the Juventus v Chelsea game on the 20th November 2012.

A great strategy for weeding out the chaff in the interview process or a very clever viral marketing campaign?

Watch the video below and choose for yourself.

A desk system for collaboration

Designer Seth Moczydlowski was thinking of educations establishments when designing the Synthesis Collaborative Desk, but we feel that there is serious potential for a wide range of applications. 

Each desk stands alone or fits snugly in a group of five for collaboration. The blend of wood and vibrant colors creates an interesting visual contrast that defines individual space when working together. Stackable, durable, and lightweight, they’re a great solution in any creative environment.

They were designed as part of an open-ended assignment that was themed around nature and the concepts of isolation vs. togetherness. Fulfilling this brief Seth states "In the classroom, students are required to work individually, as well as collaboratively at different times of the day. My desk design allows both functions, while providing an aesthetically pleasing environment for learning."

Let us know what you think of them; would you like to use them in your office?

UK's first BREEAM 'Outstanding' regional office building

One Angel Square opened its doors at the beginning of the year to become the new headquarters for the Co-operative Group.

Designed by 3D Reid, the building comprises the first BREEAM 'Outstanding' regional office building in the UK, offering a total of 327,643 sq ft over 17 floors.

The design incorporates a recycling system for used water as well as a rainwater harvesting system to decrease water consumption by the building. It is also designed to consume 50% less energy compared to the previous Manchester headquarters of the Co-operative Group, as well as a reduction of 80% in carbon emissions. This will lead to an overall reduction of 30% in operating costs.

The building will get it's power from rape seeds from the Co-operative farms, acting as fuel for the building's CHP (Combined heat and power) plant, with the remaining husks of the crop recycled into animal feed.

It has been designed to be future-proof allowing for a general temperature increase of 3-5 degrees and with the possibility of a 30% increase in rainfall by 2050. 

Other ground breaking engineering features include a double skinned facade, to minimise heating and cooling throughout the year, and underground concrete earth tubes that provide free heating and cooling for incoming fresh air. There are also electrical pool car charging points and an 'App' is in development to relay real time information on how the building is performing.

What happens when 15,000 Volts travels through wood

New York City's Pratt Institute sculpture student Melanie Hoff wanted to find out so she connected cables carrying 15,000 volts of electricity to a large plank of wood and then documented the results.

Surprisingly the areas around each contact point don’t simply catch on fire or burn in a circle, but rather traverse outward in a fractal-like pattern called a "Lichtenberg figure", similar to what happens when lightening hits an object. 

The amazing patterns created were captured in a video shown below.

Tattoo studio's clever job ad

In the current global economy the job market is fiercely competitive, for every job there seems to be hundreds of applicants. With that in mind Berrge Tattoo studio in Turkey decided to thin the herd from the start.

They invited wannabe tattoo artists to fill in a barely visible QR code which, once scanned, gave them access to the application form.

It was a clever ploy as filling in the code takes a steady hand, a vital skill for the job being advertised, and was a clever use of the under valued QR code.

Guardian asks US readers to look at things differently

The Guardian has started a new campaign with the folks from BBH New York in an attempt to increase their online readership in the US.

The poster campaign works along the same lines as their "Three little pigs" advert, which asks readers to look at both sides of an argument, be it surveillance and security, or women in the military or even gun control.

The posters have both sides made from the same image, turn the poster around and you get another side of the story.

A clever campaign, that is a great use of perception in both the visual sense and in the sense of the topics themselves.