#culturetheme

Values determine culture, culture determines behaviour, and behaviour determines the outcome. Make your home looks more cultural with our intrinsic designs by Rifurb.

A favorite resource: Colours In Cultures. Pink=Healthy, in Japan.

via informationisbeautiful.net

Not only is this fascinating for how different colors suggest different things in different cultures, but note, for example, how some cultures have additional considerations over others. Case in point: Japan and China have two colors, pink and orange, for suggesting Health (see number 40). There is no such color for Westerners. Hmm....

Image 1: Europe according to the U.S. Image 2: Europe according to Germany Image 3: Europe according to Britain Image 4: The Word according to the U.S. Image 5: Italy according to Italians 

These colorful, appealing maps can easily be construed as either funny or offensive, or both—depending, naturally, on one's own geographic point of view. The World according to the USA, Europe according to Great Britain, Italy according to Italians, and many other maps show funny yet accurate stereotypical thinking of "the others." Wearable as T-shirts, they invite humorous provocation and an acknowledgement of the costs and foolishness of the ever-present contests and strifes between humans—or the like.

These are a great reminder that beautiful visuals can be created for any purpose, and that graphic design and other visual works are created in the context of cultural environment, political motivation, or economic purpose... be it a religion, a social movement, a hedonistic appeal, nationalistic pride, etc.—especially good reminders during election cycles or when evaluating infographics.

Inspired by Salemi, a Sicilian event where flour-based objects are created for decoration, Italian designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma created these baked objects for Dutch Design Week 09 in Eidenhoven. The collection includes objects made from flour, spinach, coffee, and other food. While they may not be practical or durable like conventional objects, these bowls and bottles, formed simply and from simple means, seem to quietly make a profound statement about the beauty of natural material and the needless divergence from it in the production of many ordinary objects. 

Joseph Morell Macías was born in San Esteve d'en Bas (province of Girona), Spain, in 1899. After his art studies in Seville, and travels abroad to Belgium and France, he returned to Spain to become the greatest influencer of tourist-based posters from the 1920's up until the Spanish Civil War, with work marked by simple compositions, painterly style, and strong diagonal lines.