Nike 'Ballman' Made of 3000 Soccer Balls For World Cup

Nike continues to impress with more of their interesting and artful projects for the 2010 World Cup. In addition to the fabulous carved crayons, a giant sculpture comprised of almost 3,000 footballs (that's soccer balls for those of us in the US) designed by Leeds-based Ratcliffe Fowler Design hangs in the atrium of the Carlton Centre shopping mall in downtown Johannesburg.



'Ballman' as he has become dubbed, is a World Cup project for the leading sportswear brand.



Prior to being sea freighted to South Africa, a complete Ballman test build took place at Magna, the Science Adventure Centre and steel visitor attraction in Rotherham, UK. This was one of the few places in the UK with enough room to host the operation, which was co-ordinated by the Magna technical team, Transmitta.




Summit's project manager Jay Call studied the Carlton Centre's structural plans and discovered that the atrium of the building has a 12 x 12m steel grid, complete with 5 beams, 3m apart. Summit then designed an aluminum mother grid to fly below this, which is picked up on 4 x 5 ton hoists.



Once the sub-structure was flown at its 15m trim height, the bottom was filled in with flat panels and clad with moulded polystyrene - all with 537 holes drilled exactly in the right places for the 2x steel wire drops. This completely conceals all the metalwork and rigging, giving the appearance of a solid ceiling with the Ballman 'floating' in the air.



Ballman will stay in place for the whole World Cup tournament period, and when dismantled, the intention is that the balls will be given away. Jay Call commented: "It was a great pleasure to be involved in this project, which was different, challenging and extremely rewarding, both as a feat of engineering and a creative work for public enjoyment."

images and information courtesy of World Architecture News

Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studio's Look Book

I'm a big fan of Red Nose Studio. And have been for several years, since I first saw their work in the Sunday NY Times magazine editorials. I'm so enamored of the look and genre, that I have attempted to sell their work to several of my clients who, for whatever reason- some stated it was too dark--, have opted to decline.

Their loss.

Because Red Nose Studio, which is really just one super talented man named Chris Sickels, is about to become a household name, well...at least a design studio name. His work is a combination of puppetry, stop motion animation, art and soul. His stories are full of whimsy and tenderness and his characters are sweet, silly and a little strange.

Just last September, Chris released a beautiful new book for both adults and children alike,that makes use of his 3D characters that Red Nose Studio is known for.

The Look Book by Chris Sickels:


As siblings Ian and Ann try to keep themselves entertained during a long and boring summer day, they learn that the world around them is more exciting than it first appears. After they leave the house on a quest for amusement, they come across an unusual array of characters and scenarios that make them see the world in surprising new ways. From exercising priest to priests exorcising, and kitchen sinks to sinking kitchens, everything depends on how you look at it. Creative word plays grace every spread and teach the duo that there’s plenty to see if you open your eyes to the world around you.

The book measures 8"x 8″and has 64 color illustrations. The cover is die-cut so you can see through the spectacle ‘lenses’ to Ian and Ann on the inside.




Below are two spreads from the interior (click on them to enlarge and see them as you should):





$17.99 (Can $21.99)
ISBN 978-1-58180-940-4
You can buy the book at F+W Bookstore here.
Or buy it for less at Amazon here.
or for even less at Buy.com here.

Chris' own blog shares some wonderful background and sketches for the book.

In his own words:
"here are two sketches that were in the first group of roughs that started it all taken from a sketch book while flying out to NY to meet with a publisher. the idea got some laughs but nothing serious came from it. the sketches got filed away back in the studio and from time to time i would sit down and make myself laugh coming up with sketches and word pairs. several months later i get a call from Megan Patrick an editor with HOW books that asked about any ideas i might have for ‘fun’ books. after a phone conversation where i run through several ideas and getting not much of a response, the one idea about a twin sister and brother that see the same thing in their own way written with homonyms, was the one that she liked and asked that i work on some more. after going through hundreds of homonyms we weeded it down to a resonable (sic) list that i started doing sketches from. out of those about 10% made the cut and that was how the book started."

And as of recently, these 2 characters, Ian and Ann are making a big appearance, literally, in Indiana's Mass Avenue Cultural District . This past summer The Arts Council Indianapolis asked Chris to submit concepts and sketches for a 26×9 foot outdoor lightbox as part of the Public Art Indianapolis project. The piece they chose is titled See Saw.

Chris describes it as :
"In this scenario Ian sees what Ann saw, hence the title See Saw. You, the viewer, can't exactly see what they see, but my intention is that you will be encouraged to take the time to look at things differently and also enjoy the varying viewpoints of others."

The piece was installed on October 2nd and will be up for 12 months.
Below are shots of the installation.

Check out the work of Chris Sickels here.
And sometimes his art and actual puppets are for sale.

His animation is amazing and he has produced several sort films, like the Red Thread Project below, so please be sure to check out the quicktime movies on his site.

Above left: A poster for his short film "The Red Thread Project"

Above right: A framed print of "Temptation"

You can inquire about these and more by contacting him at chris@rednosestudio.com

He is represented in LA by Magnet Reps.