By now, we’re all familiar with the glamorous evening gown worn by Michelle Obama at their first White House State dinner. In celebration of the guests of honor, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, Obama chose a piece by Naeem Khan, an Indian born designer who’s best known for outfitting royalty and celebrities across the globe. Khan is truly a renaissance man when it comes to embellishment. Fusing traditional beading techniques with modern sensibility, each collection bears dynastic influences, most evident by the exaggerated neck adornments and sari-like draping. Using intricate mirrors, beads, crystals, sequins, paillettes, rhinestones and chains, Khan’s stain glass effects, geometric mosaics and graphic adornments, make his collection one to watch.

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Imagine a world without the delete button. As humans, we’re programmed to color within the lines and erase when necessary. Rarely are we applauded for revealing mistakes along the way.  Today we’re showcasing two works that defy this train of thought and prove true beauty is a never ending stream of consciousness. In a recent collaboration with the home decor company, Maharam, Hella Jongerius of the Netherlands, has stitched this intricate and unpredictable pillow cover.  Using a similar technique, Jessica Rankin, of Sydney, Australia incorporates obscured language into her creative studies.  Be it pattern, dialect or unconventional theory, we’re excited to see future works from both Jongerius and Rankin, as their experimental formulas are a breath of fresh air when considering the pace of today’s production lines.

This Holiday season marks the debut of Trey Speegle’s exclusive line of home products for Anthropologie. The collection spans everything from pillows and plates to wallpaper and puzzles. This paint-by-number reproduction recently caught our eye, as it’s complexity is masked by clean lines and familiar shapes.  While more expensive than your average lock and key table challenge, it’s worth every penny if you’re in the market for a nature inspired challenge. Innovation’s not cheap when executed artfully and Speegle’s new line adds a refreshing spin to familiar family fun.

This morning’s tweet by Deanne Cheuk brought us to the homepage of creative wunderkind, Micah Lidberg.  Lidberg’s portfolio looks as if he’s been working at industry standards for over a decade, an impressive feat, considering he’s only 24. Nearly every drawing looks like it’s out of the playbook of Where the Wild Things Are, only infused with colorful, random twists that push the genre 10 leaps forward. When asked by Jessica Goldfond, of The Shiny Squirrel, what inspires him, Lidberg’s answer reminds us why you should trust your creative gut, “I’ve only had one memorable epiphany. A professor I had in England, Japser Goodall, told a bunch of us students to draw whatever we wanted to draw. It sounds silly that that sparked my epiphany, but it did the trick. I’ve been [...]

There has always been a thin line between art and commerce, but in the past year the line has grown ever thinner as artists freely appropriate commercial concepts.  The results have sparked controversial murmurs, as typically classical masterpieces have been infused with political spin. Whereas historically, it was not uncommon to hire artists to create advertising campaigns, this movement is turning that notion upside down.  Jean-Charles de Castelbajac of Casablanca has gained notoriety by hijacking popular imagery and adding a cultural twist.  His latest exhibition entitled Triumph of the Sign, showcases a series of western reproductions infused with recognizable branding.  Interestingly, these works were painted in China, complementing the idea of mass market demand.

Last year, 26 year old art student Nadia Plesner caused a stir and triggered a lawsuit when she created [...]