A French Restaurant Covered In Japanese Tattoo Art

A new restaurant in Aix-en-Provence, France called Koï is transforming the criminal notions of Yakuza tattoos through beautiful design. Major portions of the restaurant are decorated wall-to-wall with the intricate, black-and-white tattoos that are typically affiliated with underground Japanese gang. Architect Vincent Coste tapped surface pattern designer Claire Leina to draw up the bold illustrations, which are featured prominently throughout the entryway and bathrooms, with …

Interview: David Shrigley

Ahead of another humorous joint project with Third Drawer Down, the artist talks about adulthood and "proper" jobs

When he was inspired as a child to make cover art for Adam and The Ants, Brighton-based artist David Shrigley could have never predicted that he would go on to create everything from larger-than-life-sized sculptures to music videos, flags, a mascot (for Scottish Premiership football team Partick Thistle), animated shorts, to 12 different album covers for Deerhoof. In 2007 the album Worried Noodles was released, …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Inventing transparent wood, saving a language, how emoji is changing the way we communicate and more in this week's look at the web

1. How Empowerment Became a Purchasable Product Originally used by social workers to encourage marginalized communities to rise up from poverty and oppression, the term “empowerment” has taken on completely different definitions in recent years. It’s been transformed into a mass-marketing tactic—especially when pertaining to women—flaunted by corporations (like the #StrengthHasNoGender campaign from Brawny paper towels, a company owned by Koch Brothers who have spent …