017 SMITH JOURNALFULL CIRCLE
Our species is prone to worry. Case in point:
the moment we fi nally fi gured out our planet’s
place in the solar system, we began fretting
about something big crashing into us. Really,
though, it should be the moon that’s worried:
as the art card on page 80 shows, asteroids
slam into it with startling regularity. The
card was designed by Archie Archambault,
who makes all sorts of infographics out of
concentric circles, from city maps to taco
charts. To see more of his circle-centric
prints, visit archiespress.com SJ
TIME AND PLACE
As any vintage-era motorsport
enthusiast will be able to tell you,
the swirly design at the centre
of this stately-looking watch – a
collaboration between the folk at
Todd Snyder Beekman and Timex- is what’s known as a tachymeter.
Back in the days when a watch was
a watch and a phone was a phone,
the tachymeter functioned to gauge
the speed of a moving object, such
as an automotive around a racetrack.
There’s probably an app for that
now, but where’s the novelty value
in that? toddsnyder.com TL
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CRIMINAL CARDS
The Russian underworld is bursting with mystique and arcane
symbology. (The country’s prison tattoos are probably the
number-one export in that regard.) Those looking to add a
dusting of Slavic penal intrigue to their whist nights will fi nd
themselves well served by these playing cards. Each one is taken
from an individual deck made illicitly from handmade stencils
some time in the 1980s, inked with soot and blood. You’ll be
a kartyozhnik (card sharp) in no time. fuel-design.com KD
AN ACT OF GOURD
The cluey have been railing against the excesses of the co ee trade for years now. More
than one billion disposable co ee cups are said to pass over Australian café counters
per annum, less than 10 per cent of which end up being recycled. The plastic lids take
centuries to biodegrade, fragmenting into microplastics that get ingested by sea life.
Paper cups, meanwhile, are coated in a thin layer of unrecyclable plastic, and are often
produced using virgin paper pulp, meaning trees are being chopped down to make items
that will generally be used only once. It’s a shoddy set-up, all in all, and one that would
be a greatly improved if co ee cups grew on trees – which is exactly what design fi rm
Crème is trying to do. Their vision is to create co ee cups by cultivating gourds (a type
of fast-growing fruit with a hard shell) in co ee cup-shaped moulds. Trials so far have
proven promising: these cups are lightweight, watertight, and completely compostable.
Just the kind of brainwave a ca eine hit should inspire. cremedesign.com TL •