In early 2025, designer Svea Tisell founded Kryss, a studio that takes an expansive approach to a single material and experimental processes. From lengths of rope sometimes measuring thousands of meters, she creates unique furniture objects in which craft traditions and contemporary design converge.
Kryss is named after a sailboat that belonged to Tisell’s great-grandfather, intertwining notions of tradition, function, and innovation. The artist is currently focused on creating furniture objects using a technique called MultiWeave, developed by Estonian textile artist and teacher Kadi Pajupuu. Using reclaimed climbing ropes or surplus from the production of shoelaces, Tisell incorporates a rigid framework of warp supports around which weft threads—or sturdy rope—are guided.
The grid, consisting of conduits for threading the material, offers structure and support during the weaving process but is removed once the piece is finished, allowing it to be reused. Whether a seat or small table, the knotted rope then adjusts to weight and movement and subtly adapts to use over time.
For Kryss, Tisell is fascinated by the possibilities of translating textiles into three-dimensional forms that interact and provide different functions. She tells Colossal that the project concentrates on the fundamental characteristics of the material, “where textile is the main character, keeping its soft and receiving qualities,” while also supporting itself independently.
Although recycling paper uses less water than manufacturing the material from wood pulp, the process still requires significant energy and resources. The team behind Resketch has found a way to skip that step altogether.
Founded by Chicago-based artist Shawn Smith and now helmed by Skaaren Design, the company makes notebooks and sketchpads of unused architectural diagrams, maps, logs, sheet music, and more. The resulting designs offer users the opportunity to creatively engage with the original markings and add their own additions to the printed pages. Flipping through a notebook also becomes an act of discovery as old calendars or bureaucratic forms are tucked between graphs and lines.
“Through partnerships with the creative community and local and national businesses, we rescue 8 to 10 tons of high-quality, unused paper every year that would otherwise prematurely enter the waste stream,” Resketch says. The company currently collaborates with schools, businesses, architectural firms, and creatives across the U.S. to source materials with just enough blank space for a doodle or to-do list.
For 16 days this spring, an international kite festival will soar above the beaches of Cervia. Artenvento returns to northern Italy from April 19 to May 4 with more than 200 participants from 50 countries and five continents.
In its 45th year, the 2025 festival welcomes artist Kadek Armika, who’s known for incorporating Balinese kite-making traditions into his modern, flying sculptures. This iteration also marks the 80th anniversary of the city’s liberation in WWII and revolves around a theme of solidarity and peace.
Find more about the festival and its broad programming, including workshops, music, and acrobatic performances, on its website.
In Nahuatl, an Aztec language indigenous to Mesoamerica still spoken by more than a million people throughout Mexico, kauani means “to flourish.” Inés Llasera, co-founder of Tornasol Studio, and textile designer Inés Quezada conceived of a series of luminaires inspired by native flora in celebration of the region’s rich botanic diversity.
The ongoing series, KAUANI, emulates details of endemic species, drawing on textures found on cacti, geometric agaves, and the rhythmic patterns of corn. The duo also find inspiration in the unique seeds of mamey and guanabana fruits or the pigmentation of cacao and chili peppers.
“Cacti symbolize resilience,” Quezada and Llasera say in a statement, sharing how the plants’ adaptations to extreme environments mean they can endure long droughts and high temperatures. The pair adds:
For instance, their spines not only serve as a defense mechanism but also condense water and create a protective layer. Their pale pigmentation, resulting from waxes that insulate their tissues and their water-retention capabilities grant them unique volumetric forms. Unlike most plants, cacti perform photosynthesis at night, closing their stomata during the day to conserve water and nutrients. It is in darkness that they truly “breathe.”
Merging natural forms of fruit and botanicals with textiles, the lanterns incorporate knitted skins with delicate spikes, ruffles, or tentacles that tread the line between representation and abstraction. Melon-like orbs and oblong shapes reminiscent of seed pods are suspended from the ceiling or propped up on surfaces with spindly feet.
If you’re in Mexico City, you can see KAUANI in Noches Árides through May 15 at AGO Projects. Explore more on the designers’ website, and follow updates on Instagram.
Within southwest Arkansas’s Garvan Woodland Gardens, a four-story communal treehouse welcomes visitors to the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden. Designed by modus studio and constructed in 2018, the whimsical yet contemporary structure is embraced by pine and oak trees, connecting visitors to the surrounding woods via elevated walkways and lookouts.
“This unique structure is a defining small project for modus,” the team says, sharing that the work draws on their own childhood experiences in the region. They add that “it is easy to take for granted our strong connection to the creeks, forests, insects, and animals of Arkansas. However, many children in the modern world are unfortunately disconnected from this type of play.”
The studio took dendrology, the study of trees and wooded plants, as a starting point for the overall form and the way people interact with the space as they move along its passageways and stairwells.
The curving screen encasing the structure is composed of 113 fins made from locally sourced Southern yellow pine. Airy slats and metal screens redolent of branches let the light and breeze filter through, maintaining visitors’ connection to the surrounding Ouachita Forest from numerous vantage points.
Designers conceived of a space that would refocus people’s attention on the natural wonders of the canopy and allow visitors to climb higher and see farther. “The tree house uses a rich visual and tactile environment to stimulate the mind and body and strengthen connections back to the natural world while accommodating the needs of all users,” the firm says.
modus studio was recently selected to exhibit in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. If you’re in Arkansas, you can also see Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, where the team designed a series of pavilions and dynamic bridges. Find more on the studio’s website. (via Plain Magazine)
As AI infiltrates every part of the creative process, those committed to human expression have found innovative ways to make craft and artistry endlessly appealing. Creative director Jason Pattinson is one such person. He’s behind Fleckled, a new online shop of hand-printed letterpress typefaces that have been digitized and are available as high-resolution downloads.
Currently, Fleckled contains more than 150 fonts printed on an 1860s-era Columbian press, with more on the way. All are available in either uppercase, lowercase, or numeral sets with additional ornaments and borders across myriad styles. Retaining the signature graininess and warmth of the wood, each also comes in two versions: one with a thicker, more saturated ink and another with a lighter, more distressed feel.
“The small flaws in the hand-carved wooden blocks are what give letterpress its distinctive character and enduring appeal,” Pattinson says. “Visible defects, woodgrain, planing patterns, and wear effects have been balanced through various levels of inking and pressure to achieve the optimal dense and distressed versions.”
Pattinson and his team have been working on digitizing letterpress for more than two decades. He’s collaborated with printers and dealers across Italy, Sweden, Germany, Argentina, the U.S., and the U.K., where he’s based.
“We’re in discussions with a few retired printers who own some truly remarkable private collections, exploring opportunities to digitise and sublicense their fonts and various assets to expand our online resource,” Pattinson told Design Week.
As Fleckled grows, it makes the medium more widely available and offers an alternative to AI generation for those who might be interested in the letterpress aesthetic without access to a press.
Pattison launched the shop because he wanted “to make these timeless assets available to a new generation of creatives.” He shares with Colossal, “It fills me with a great confidence that in a world being overwhelmed with AI, the design community is resolute in authenticity!”
Given the emphasis on functionality and design for industrial production, the Bauhaus movement is rarely associated with disciplines like dance. But for Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943), translating its principles into movement and performance was as compelling as a well-conceived chair or building.
In the last century, the Bauhaus has indelibly shaped our modern built environments and the ways we think of the relationship between form and function (it even inspired conceptual cookbooks). German architect Walter Gropius founded the school in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, with the intention of uniting architecture, fine arts, and crafts. The school focused on minimalism and creating for the social good and involved artists and designers like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Anni and Josef Albers.
The Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, Schlemmer was a painter, sculptor, and choreographer responsible for the under-known Triadic Ballet, a striking, playful dance structured around groups of three. Debuted in 1922, the avant-garde production comprises three colors—yellow, pink or white, and black—and three costume shapes—the square, circle, and triangle.
“Building on multiples of three,” says an explanation from MoMA, “transcended the egotism of the individual and dualism of the couple, emphasizing the collective.”
In true Bauhaus form, the idea was to eliminate the decorative frills associated with ballet, including tutus that allow bodies to bend, twist, and explore a full range of mobility. Instead, Schlemmer’s costumes restrict movement and add a modern quality as dancers appear stifled and almost mechanical, a nod to the movement’s focus on accessibility through mass production and turning “art into industry.”
Several of Schlemmer’s illustrations for the ballet are available online, including his bizarre sculptural costume designs with wide, bubbly skirts and vibrantly striped sleeves. MoMA’s collections contain a print titled “Figures in Space,” which reveals one of the performance’s foremost preoccupations: how bodies move and interact in space.
As seen in a fully colorized film of the dance from the 1970s, the dancers are incredibly deliberate as they navigate sparse sets with clean lines. Open Culture notes that they appear almost like pantomimes or puppets “with figures in awkward costumes tracing various shapes around the stage and each other.”
A few years back, Great Big Story created a video visiting the Bavarian Junior Ballet as it prepared for a performance. The costumes are faithful to Schlemmer’s vision and retain the rigid geometries and bright palettes. As noted by director Ivan Liška, the strange attire combined with the jilted, robotic choreography often leaves the audience laughing. “It’s very successful because the audience can’t believe this is 100 years old,” he says. “There you see the visionary power of Oskar Schlemmer.”
Triadic Ballet is rarely reproduced, but Bavarian Junior Ballet will bring the work back to the stage this June to celebrate its 15th anniversary. And if you’re in New York, you can see one of Schlemmer’s studies in Living in the Age of the Machine at MoMA. It’s also worth exploring The Oskar Schlemmer Theatre Estate and Archives, which boasts a trove of archival imagery and drawings on its website.
On an abandoned pier on Chaishan Island’s shore, an elegant installation rocks in the wind. Completed in 2023 by GN Architects, “The Seaside Pavillion” rests on a coastal trail frequented by tourists and locals alike.
The dynamic construction features dozens of elastic-wrapped blades that, when caught by a breeze, flit and flutter, echoing both the movement of the tide and creating a semi-shaded space for respite. “During the day, the leaves are closed,” the designers say in a statement. “In the morning and evening, when the tide starts to rise, the wings open and dance under the drive of the buoy, forming a romantic and magical scene.”
Once a fishing community, Chaishan today is mainly a tourist destination. Only 100 elderly residents still live on the island as many have left for larger cities. “The Seaside Pavillion” was commissioned by the Zhoushan government’s “Hello, Island” initiative to attract more people to move to the sparsely populated area.
While appearing delicate, the blades are designed to be resilient and to withstand typhoons. Fishing ropes provide their structure, while a rubber and steel armature creates a strong, hardy base. When a tropical cyclone threatens the island, caretakers can tie the blades down to prevent damage.
You can find more from GN Architects, whose projects span installations, landscapes, interiors, and more, on its website. (via designboom)
Photo by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang Wenjun
A nine-meter-tall passageway made of eight individual arches enticed visitors into ENESS’s latest installation (previously). Last month at Quoz Arts Fest 2025 in Dubai, Forest Dancer comprised a monumental entry and an immersive exhibition of illuminated inflatable forms inside a contemporary building.
With mushroom-like proportions, pixellated patterns, and a slew of changing hues, ENESS’s work encompasses a central character surrounded by psychedelic trees, mountains, insects, and boulder-like bean bags.
“As artists, we work in many contexts—inside galleries and museums, in (the) public realm and even creating small art pieces for the home,” said ENESS founder Nimrod Weis. “This approach of ‘art is everywhere’ means that we responded to the inspiring architecture by creating an artwork that is at once a conversation with the built form and an installation in its own right.”
This year’s festival was curated around the theme of an Arabic proverb meaning “a hut holds a thousand friends,” inspiring creative responses that center on bringing people of all ages together and promoting interactivity.
A statement says, “The entire exhibition, spanning over 600 square meters, is an ode to the power and importance of creativity in the face of online obsession, geopolitical upheaval, and the rise of dark forces taking us far from the soulfulness of art, human connection, and gentle contemplation,” says a statement.
Vibrant contrasts, eye-opening patterns, and mischievous creatures are just a few of the characteristics of Brazilian artist Amanda Lobos’ beguiling scenes. Based in Vila Velha, about an eight-hour drive up the coast from Rio de Janeiro, Lobos works extensively across a range of mediums, from graphic and product design to murals and public installations.
A large-scale inflatable work titled “Ventura” was installed last year on the top of a building in the city of Belo Horizonte. Lobos calls upon the philosophy of Indigenous Brazilian environmentalist and philosopher Ailton Krenak, who posits that humankind should live in harmony with nature rather than trying to control it.
Mural for Festival Nalata (2023), 5 x 8 meters. Av. Faria Lima nº822, São Paulo, Brazil
Lobos’ all-seeing “Ventura,” which translates to “fortune,” perches on a corner of a tall building and oversees its domain, double-faced with two eyes on each side and one of its legs curled up casually on the ledge.
This work “is about the agony and dilemma of returning a star to the sky,” Lobos says in a statement, describing “Ventura” as “condemned to the duality of the fantastic and the real.”
Much of the artist’s work is intentionally left open to interpretation. “I believe that what I want to communicate to viewers is already embedded in my work visually, allowing them to interpret it however they wish—that’s the beauty of it!” Lobos tells Colossal. “I don’t like to be too literal or overly serious with my concepts; I enjoy the creative process and the freedom it gives me.”
In vivid murals, Lobos applies a similar juxtaposition of mystery and play, as coy characters dance within colorful panels or long walls illuminate the joys of learning. An expansive mural at a school in the Jardim Limoeiro neighborhood of Serra celebrates science, art, curiosity, and play.
MC.Arte mural for the Penélope Municipal Early Childhood Education Center in Jardim Limoeiro, Serra, Espírito Santo, Brazil (2023). Photo by Ana Luzes
“My favorite thing about painting murals—besides seeing them come to life on a large scale from an initial sketch on paper or a 30-centimeter canvas—is the process itself,” Lobos tells Colossal. She adds:
Executing the piece and watching it unfold is truly special. The feeling of applying paint with no “Ctrl+Z” is humbling, and working on such a large surface teaches you to embrace mistakes and adapt in new ways. Every wall is a fresh learning experience.
Lobos is soon heading to Mexico to paint her first mural outside of Brazil looking forward to collaborating with two other artists on a pair of murals for the Movimento Cidade festival in August.
We’ve shared a handful of public art projects here, but you can head over to Behance or Instagram to see a wide range of the designer’s vibrant product collaborations and commissions.
Three illustrated tarot cards created for the publishing company TAG Livros, referencing iconic authors“Ventura”“Tropical Transformation” mural for brand activation of Devassa beer at the Casa7 event venue, Vitória, Espirito Santo, BrazilSix illustrated tarot cards created for the publishing company TAG Livros, referencing iconic authorsInterior mural for CASACOR Espírito SantoMC.Arte mural in progress for the Penélope Municipal Early Childhood Education Center
