Boom! Only a few more weeks to go till the World Cup 2014 begins in Brazil and to celebrate this ESPN hired Brazilian-based illustrator and designer Cristiano Siqueira to create posters for each of the 32 participating teams. I think in the past week, I’ve had over 100 press releases with World Cup related garbage from collaborations and adverts from official sponsors etc - it’s an endless tide of awful content. So it’s nice to stumble of a real gem like this. His style of vectors have a real comic book feel to it, each piece shows the unique story of the heroes that’ll lead their countries onto the pitch in June. View the rest after the cut.

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Unknown to many, North Korea is a mystery to this planet. Published on CNN recently, we got the chance to see North Korea through the lens of Google Glass thanks to reporter Kenny Zhu. The photos give a more personal look in to the mysterious country through a first person view. Zhu was told that so long as the photos “reflect the positive side of North Korea” he was fine to take photos with the wearable tech and upload (although there is no internet access for temporary visitors to the country). The pictures are fascinating. It’s clear how military minded the country is from the war statues and the political photos and messages displayed everywhere, to the uniform clothing people wear. It’s also brilliant to see wearable tech being used like this - a discreet camera that is far from obvious within Google Glass. Take a look at some photos after the cut.

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What is reality? There are many complex ways to define what is real but modernity continues to disrupt previous notions of the concept. Benoit Paille uses the medium of photography to disturb reality further, in the projects description he writes that his aim was ‘to overlay a material reality with a virtual one.’ The stunning result makes it difficult to tell where the virtual reality ends and the material one begins. It’s hard to believe that the landscapes are taken from Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V. The in-game screenshots are followed up by some complicated processes that go over my head but can be read about here. Would love to see someone use the idea in a game like Assassins Creed and shoot some rooftop action, endless possibilities. More after the break.

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Incredible. So intimate, such beautiful composition in each and every one of 22 year old Melanie Brescia‘s self portraits. Each one is deeply expressive, filled with emotion and energy. It almost feels like each portrait gives us a different look into the personality through the intimacy of the shot. From moments of vulnerability, loneliness, longing and heartbreak. I can’t even bring myself to take a self portrait but she’s made me want to explore my new camera’s wifi feature to see what I can create. It’ll probably be a silhouette shot though, would I get as much Instagram likes as a beautiful young woman? Probably not haha.

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“Moon Games” is a photography series by a French photographer Laurent Laveder; she knocks together a collection of quirky photographs where the Moon is the focal point of imaginative landscapes. Each crisp photo features the silhouette of a person interacting with the moon (or a setting sun in some shots) in its various forms. Some of my favourite shots from the series include the moon sitting in a wheelbarrow and the rising moon resembling a balloon. I remember trying to hold the moon in my palm all the time when I was a kid… true story! Check out the rest of Lavender’s Moon Games after the break.

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No joke but this kinda blew me and my housemates mind. Being able to pick up a pen and draw a 3D object seemed like a far fetched idea a few years ago however technology moves so quickly now days that nothing surprises me anymore. Although I don’t get surprised I still get excited by a piece of kit which is simply genus. Art director Ismail Baran and creative director Anton Suvorov have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their new invention and have almost quadrupled their original goal already. The pen which is being advertised as “the smallest 3D printing pen in the world” is not much bigger than a regular pen but allows you to draw in the air and create sculptures wherever you please. It heats up the plastic filament within 60-seconds (having been powered by USB) and cools down rapidly allowing the plastic to set. Check out the short vid explaining Lix’s capabilities when you read on. For those wanting to get their hands on a Lix then you can pre-order a pen when you pledge £82 or more to the Kickstarter.

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I wonder how many of us considered how lucky we were growing up to have that cosy bedroom with the Jurassic Park bed sheets, a book shelf full of Biff and Chip classics and a box of toys that had about as much meaning and relevance to our lives as the decisions made by those sitting in the seats of Parliament. Nothing mattered except our happiness and development. And that was because things were made easy for us. James Mollison is a heavily-awarded, Kenyan-born, England-raised, Venice-based photographer who has a passion for showing cultural diversity through his work. In 2011, he released a book called Where Children Sleep showcasing the material and cultural differences of children around the world, focusing on class, poverty and the diversity of the children. A portrait of a child is paired with a photo of his/her bedroom. This will open your eyes. Read on.

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There’s only so many industry talks you can go to. Nowadays it’s always regurgitated information with the same old buzz words - content, influencer, data is power, collaboration is the future…shut up. I’m definitely a few years late with this one, just stumbled across Stefan Sagmeister‘s TED talks from 2009 where he discusses why he shuts down his agency every 7 years for a whole year to go on a sabbatical. The purpose? to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook as they started to produce work that was fairly similar. Stefan explains the overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects that are a result of his extended period of time off.

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London is such a vibrant city, it’s quite simply a photographer’s dream and even more so by night whether it’s a hidden spot or the more widely celebrated sights. Well in light of this, Mr Hyde (London’s daily email for the modern man) have launched a competition giving all aspiring photographers a chance to win a Nikon D5300 camera kit with 18-55mm lens, a 55-300mm F/4.5-5.6G VR AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor lens, a CF-EU05 SLR system bag for Nikon D-SLR and a 35mm F/1.8G AF-S DX Nikkor lens. They’ve even thrown in a photography course voucher and 12 month membership toADOBE Photoshop Creative Cloud. Basically everything you need to get started! More after the break

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I remember learning about the genocide in Rwanda in school. It’s one of those things that stands out as a moment of emotional pain as a kid. Learning about what happened, why it happened, and the effects it had on the world, it definitely was a tough pill to swallow. 20 years on, a collection of photos have been floating around the web depicting the continuous effort of reconciliation that has been occurring in Rwanda. Photographer Pieter Hugo took some incredible portraits of a Hutu perpetrator who has been granted pardon by the Tutsi survivor of his crime. In one photo, a woman poses with her hand on the shoulder of the man who slaughtered her father and brothers. Hugo has done an incredible job of showing how in Rwanda reconciliation happens one encounter at a time. Read on to see these touching portraits.

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