Japanese label Griffin Hartland teamed up with the guerilla gardeners of Vallicans to create a capsule collection centered around concrete farming. Check out the awesome short they made to highlight the gear and urban beautifying process. Real tight!
Photographer, Martin Rietze, is known for his extraordinary work covering Earth-based terrain that look out of this world. One of his specialties in particular is live volcanoes. Check out what the shutterbug caught of a recent Japanese eruption of Sakurajima. There's thunder, there's lava--truly remarkable stuff! Check out the entire sequence here.
Action Sports shoe company, Etnies, continues to promote its buy-a-shoe-plant-a-tree program which, according to them, has successfully restored over 200,000 trees in Brazil and Costa Rica. Now we're not going to nitpick at the thought of a shoe company caring for the planet on one end and ruining it with mass production on the other. So let's just say that we're going to take Etnies up on their word and scout's honor. If so it's a fruitful, planet-conscious idea that we can stand behind!
Music mogul and super-producer Pharrell Williams is never too shy of the new and cutting-edge. This is why in 2009 the affluent creative decided to invest in Bionic Yarn, a fabric that recycles plastic bottles and transforms them into functional, durable yarn. Since his attachment to the brand labels like The Gap, Moncler, Timberland, Levis and more have collaborated with the revolutionary and sustainable material. The following is an interview featuring Mr. Williams and Bionic Yarn co-owner, Tyson Toussant, about how it all works and why it's relevant in today's industry.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil recently played host to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Giant fish sculptures made out of repurposed plastic bottles were created and placed onto Botafogo beach to commemorate the summit. Although beautiful, the larger-than-life figures served as a reminder to locals and visitors about the planetary dangers of plastic waste. Please recycle. Or better, don't USE plastic bottles at all!
In case you weren't aware, this past Tuesday hosted a rare celestial occurence that happens only every one hundred years or so. The Transit Of Venus--when the planet visibly crosses the face of the sun--took place on June 5th 2012. Those of us not fortunate enough to witness it for ourselves won't have to fret as NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory telescope caught all of the action for us in gawdy detail. Somebody hand us a napkin for all this space drool we're dripping. Amazing!
If Google and National Geographic had a baby, surely The Map of Life project would be it. The online platform project allows users to research animal species and their locations on the globe. While not exactly complete (more species are continuously being added) the interactive map will serve a very crucial role in helping researchers work together says Yale researcher, Walter Jetz:
[It's] something to help us all collaborate, improve, share, and understand the still extremely limited geographic knowledge about biodiversity.
Vice and Heineken team up to bring us a series dedicated to the architecture of nightlife. Discotecture: Episode 1 focuses on five young designers from different disciplines that converge to create their vision of an ideal venue. Peep the project as Mark Van Iterson (Heineken Design & Concept Manager), the team and different venue owners breakdown the values of conceptualizing and manifesting good design.
Australian eyewear company, Holloway Sunglasses, really cares about the environment. So much that they're always trying to devise ways to use less and produce more. Hence their latest special edition of SK8 Sunglasses--frames made from wrecked skateboards. Implementing a vintage Wayfarer look with the unique quirks of a board's plywood, each pair is a fashion statement on its own!
Peter Curet is a Media Technology student at Leiden University. The Age Of Depletion is his visual information project that depicts the extinction of earth's resources in accordance to a guest's age. It works by having visitors input their age, then a timeline of photos appears with a description of said material, what it is currently being used for and what year it is predicted to finish. We found some interesting stuff! Like that oil reserves are scheduled to run out in 2046 and that Indium, the material used to make LCD screen on gadgets like iPads, will deplete by 2025! Oh yea, and Gold will be gone by 2032. Sorry in advance to all the ballers and high-rollers.
