Pencil Shelf

Last month Core77 mentioned that London-based Dominic Wilcox began his Speed Creating project where he would create something every day for 30 days as part of the Anti-Design Festival Mestakes and Manifestos events.

Now 30+ plus days later he has a retrospective of this work and all 30 creations can be seen on his nonstop blog, Variations on Normal. There are some great examples of material explorations and the documentation for each idea is a real insight into what goes through Dominic's mind as he puts his ideas into practice.

Balloon Lights made from socks

There are some great examples of on-the-spot idea generating and I love his Wrap Grapes. Grapes wrapped in thread and dipped in wax, turning a perishable item into a treasured jewel.

Wrap Grapes

On his final day of creating Dominic attempted to create a man from crisps (chips) and let him fly away in this own crisp packet filled with helium.

The best part of this idea exploration were his conversations with shopowners and how he explained why he wanted to fill his crisp packet with helium. Just brilliant!

As Dominic explains, one conversation goes something like this :

Dominic: Hello do you sell helium? Shop keeper: yes, what balloon do you want? Dominic: Well actually I want to inflate a crisp packet. Shop keeper: a what? Dominic: Crisp packet Shop Keeper: Not possible ( This is a regular answer to my questions by people) Dominic: Why? Shop keeper: The helium will just pass through the packet. (Helium is thinner than air and can just go through certain materials) Dominic What even the metallic ones? Shop keeper: hmm don't know. Dominic Can I try? Shop keeper: Hmm yes.

See all of his creations on his Variations on Normal blog