Check in at the Illville Hotel

Looking for a creative online space to rest and get some inspired rejuvenation? Or are you looking for an illustrator but have no idea where to start looking? Then check in at the Illville Hotel. You might not get bed and breakfast, but you will surely get a free pass to visit all the various rooms.

Illville Hotel is a site by Am I Collective, that invites illustrators from around the world to virtually occupy room space. It becomes a database for illustrators. You can visit the various rooms to view the illustrators' creative interpretations of their rooms as a showcase of their skill and style, and gather further information and contact details.

Go and take a tour of the Illville Hotel here.

Here are some of our favourite room interpretations.

Christiaan Venter

Mike Hirshon

Anastacia Sholik

Chuee Rock

Clement de Bruin

Gerhard Human

Hylton Warburton

Jordan Metcalf

Luiza Kwiatkowska

Marchand

Rikus Ferreira

Type Delight : Niessen & De Vries

We've been introduced to the masterful work of Richard Niessen and Esther de Vries a few years ago at a typography workshop in Cape Town presented by Richard Niessen, on invitation by the design studio The President; an unforgettable experience to learn from the master.

The duo from the Netherlands' projects are harmonious compositions of typography, colour and playfulness to generate new reference, beautiful patterns and tactile environments. They provoke one to interact and explore with the printed page.

Here are some of our favorite projects. To learn and view more of the magic, explore their website here.

Type Delight : Darren Booth

We're pretty sure that most typography fanatics out there know the work of illustrator and letterer Darren Booth. His work is a combination of painting, illustration and collage to create beautiful typographical designs that are tactile, decorative and beautifully colored. Darren's unique style is well recognized in the design and illustration industry with much acclaim and awards.

Below are a few of our favorite illustration / lettering pieces. To explore more of his work, you can browse through Darren Booth's portfolio.

Eco Art: Edina Tokodi / Mosstika

Graffiti has always been a controversial art form, but recently more and more art emerges on the streets that literally livens up the urban environment with eco friendly and living materials. One such artist is Edina Tokodi.  Her growing moss installations invites the passerby to interact, touch and follow its growth with time. They become little self sustaining community owned gardens in barren concrete deserts, and subtly conveys a message of environmental responsibility and awareness.


Have a look at more of Edina Tokodi's work on her website here, or have a peek at her work on the Behance Network.

Illustration Inspiration: Victo Ngai

Victo Ngai's illustrations of gigantic creatures wonderfully composed and coloured in beautiful hues and textures immediately caught our eye! They transfer you to a world of wonder and adventure, surely more intriguing and magical than Alice's Wonderland. We love the way she works in human interaction with these colossal living things.

Victo is an illustrator from Hong Kong, but she's currently based in New York. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. She spends a lot of her time doing editorial illustration work, and her client base includes The New Yorker, The New York Times, Leo Burnett, McDonald's, Adidas Hong Kong, Bank Simple, Tor Books, The Progressive, International Herald Tribune, Utne Reader, ComputerWorld to name but a few.

Go and have a look at her work on her website here.

Or follow her on the Behance Network here.

Photography: Vintage American signage

Browsing through Instagram (an App for iPhone users to take photos and share them with the world) we discovered these wonderful photographs of mid-1900s, Googie-inspired signage by Bill Rose. Under the pseudo-name Recapturist, Bill documents these fantastic architectural monuments' combination of colour, typography and geometric and sometimes space-themed shapes to build up signage that, with the help of flashing lights, just popped out to lure in passing travellers. Sadly, many of these signs are falling into disrepair, but with the help of Recapturist, their existence and once-adored beauty will be preserved.

To see more of Bill's photographs or to purchase some of them as prints, go to Recapturist's website. 
You can also browse through his Webstagram account here.