When Los Angeles-based Wick Architecture & Design was approached to creatively outfit a small L-shaped café on the bottom floor of an office building in Newport Beach, California, principle architect David Wick knew he’d need to find a creative way to make the relatively unremarkable space pop for visitors. What he came up with may not rival the Sistine Chapel, but it’s a beautiful way to bring some freshness and modernity to the classic ceiling fresco.

Teaming up with landscape design firm LAND, which handled the exterior portions facing a shared courtyard, Wick produced a pretty incredible space. The bottom half of the fittingly named Stereoscope Café looks like a fairly ordinary coffee shop, but when you look up, you get quite a treat. Not only is the ceiling covered in Renaissance imagery, but it’s in 3D, giving it a fun look even if you aren’t wearing special glasses (but honestly, why not bring some if you plan on visiting?).

Wick explains that “Granite Properties approached us to create a ‘statement’ coffee shop for Stereoscope Coffee in Newport Beach, CA. The 672-square-foot L-shaped space is located on the ground floor of their six-story office building. The tall and narrow space allowed for a unique design opportunity. Referencing Italian masterpieces like Correggio’s Assumption of the Virgin in Parma or Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel in Rome, Nashville based artist / photographer Christy Lee Rogers, purveyor of modern baroque underwater photography, was selected to cover the ceiling and walls.”

“Her piece, The Reunion of Cathryn Carrie and Jean was translated by Wick A+D into a 3D art piece placed on the ceiling and gradating to the white as it flows down the walls. The art is viewed by donning retro 3D glasses that line the white oak shelves. The baroque, minimalist aesthetic is completed with white oak bench seating, white matte tile, and Blue Orca marble.”

The result is cool enough to make it worth a stop in Newport Beach, even if you’re not a coffee drinker. The way the imagery fades down the walls of the café to join the understated, gallery-like feel of the rest of the space gives it a little something extra.

Rogers’ underwater works are truly spectacular, and worth a look for their own sake. The Hawaii-born artist creates her effects using refraction of light “through a fragile process of experimentation,” building “elaborate scenes of coalesced colors and entangled bodies that exalt the human character as one of vigor and warmth, while also capturing the beauty and vulnerability of the tragic experience that is the human condition.” You can check out her behind-the-scenes process of creation and buy her pieces in the form of oversized art scarves at her website.

The post Stereoscope: Part Café, Part 3D Viewing Experience first appeared on Dornob.

Smith’s latest piece is called “Pure CSS Lace,” and it’s inspired by Flemish Baroque oil portraits. There’s definitely something suggestive of Vermeer to it, though of course, it’s lacking the rich textures of paint and brushstrokes found in the real thing, especially if we’re talking Flemish Baroque a la Rembrandt.

Smith didn’t invent CSS art, but she certainly elevated it. Using CSS is a fun way for coders to get creative, with results that are usually a lot simpler in detail. Smith says she enjoys the process and doesn’t mind that her methods are so time-consuming. She even sets certain rules for herself as she works, like the fact that all elements must be typed out by hand and only Atom text editor and Chrome Developer Tools are allowed.

The unconventional artist did a video interview with VICE providing a little more detail about how and why she works with this unusual medium. In it, she explains: “When I start out trying to create an image with CSS, what I’m ultimately trying to do is create something that does not look like it was created with CSS. The Francine image was originally inspired by a scene from the TV show American Dad. The 18th-century outfit just made me think of 18th-century art, and I just decided that would be an excellent concept to marry together. The cartoon influence and the old school influence.”

“Normally, when people might think of CSS art, they might think of something that’s kind of cartoonish, and I just wanted to see if it was possible to create something that you would look at and and not guess that it was created with CSS. You might just assume it was created with normal paint methods. I just wanted to see if it was possible to achieve that level of detail.”

In the video, Smith demonstrates how the code turns into these visual elements. As you can see, it literally requires coding every visible strand. Because you can fiddle with it in such fine detail, she says she often finds herself going back and adjusting past works continuously, never quite considering them complete.

One cool thing to note is that depending on what browser you use, CSS art can look drastically different. Details might be rendered in a way that looks warped in one browser, or strangely blocky and abstracted in another. It almost becomes its own sort of digital cubism. Smith jokes that it looks “interestingly awful.” The live preview is only meant to be viewed in Chrome, but you can also check it out at Github to see how different it looks from the image files if you’re using another browser (particularly an older one).

If you’re familiar with CSS and interested in trying out some art of your own, you can find an overview of the process over at Creative Bloq.

The post Baroque Portraits “Painted” Using Hand-Typed CSS Code first appeared on Dornob.

New bookcases are almost always built with straight sides and simple shelves for a reason beyond simplicity of construction. Like standard shelving, these fit neatly into rectilinear interior spaces — but on the inside, they are shaped to surprise.

From design studio Munkii comes a fun spin on vintage bookcases that maintains a clean-line modern sensibility on the outside, yet conveys a different message entirely thanks to its cut-out facade.

Munkii describes their design as “flamboyantly baroque” as it clearly draws on ornate custom-cut curves of classic wood-worked dressers and cases. The velvety red-brown interior is also a reference to this materiality, while the white frame serves as a blank canvas backdrop for the core decor.

Right angles make it easy to put this piece in a corner or against a wall – functional for small and contemporary rooms – while also making a bold design statement. Why can’t you have both?

It might be tempting to classify this kind of vintage-style revivalism as ‘postmodern’ but … somehow the results seem to be classier (though kitsch may be in the eye of the beholder.

If you are looking for simple white shelves to blend into the background, this may not be for you … if you want an ornately-curved centerpiece that stands out, however, Vintage provides an alternative to purely abstract modern art furniture.

“Munkii is a modern furniture studio co-founded in 2006 with designer Jaren Goh at the helm of our creative team. It gives us the opportunity to inject our own flavor and perspective in the contemporary living space. Our design summarizes the brand and we are fanatical in creating furniture pieces that refuse to be ignored and crave your attention yet agreeing with basic human impressions and expectations. They are great additions that flaunt both beauty and individuality. Designs that are just keen to rouse your space.”

The post Modern Vintage: Carved Baroque Bookcase first appeared on Dornob.