I stumbled upon Marta Bakowski’s work after she randomly tweeted at me, so of course, in my true Internet stalker style, I checked out her work and found a beautiful gem. She started this amazing self-initiated project to create toys with emotion. These toys are simple, made of simple materials and basic colors, but they’re absolutely charming and I’d love to own an entire set of these. Here’s what she had to say about the project:

Employing inherently playful materials such as springs, feathers, motors and gears, I created a series of small abstract, often geometrical constructions that I animated with a distinct rhythm and endearing characteristics, almost bringing each ‘creature’ to life.

This series of experiments resulted in a collection of colorful mechanical wooden toys, desirable to children and adults alike, which prove that fantasy is not necessarily a “stage one grows out of”.

You can check out some of her early prototypes in the video below, which gives you a great idea of exactly how fun these would be.

Although it’s not officially winter yet (December 22, for those who are curious), we can all agree that it gets dark too early in the winter (apologies to any nocturnal species reading.) The sun doesn’t rise as high in the sky durring the winter months, and as low as the sun rises, it doesn’t stay around as long. Maybe this starts to explain why our cities redress themselves for the winter holidays using electric accessories?

Take for instance Madrid, which might have some of the most interesting holiday lighting projects I’ve come across. All of the photos above are taken from the website of Ilmex, which recently released a design edition of holiday lighting featuring designers like Luis Urculo (you might remember him). If you had giant, illuminated eyeballs with eyelashes floating over your streets, would you complain about the extra hours of darkness?

Alex