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What would Moriz Jung make of today’s space race? In 1911, with everyone obsessed with flight, the Wiener Werkstätte designer drew six postcards making fun of it. In one, a lover flies flowers up to the 968th floor. In another, there’s a “bloodless giraffe hunt” by aeroplane. In a third, a pilot crashes into a rainbow.
So I sent his series into orbit. There’s a Martian safari where the tourists film the giraffe on their phones, and first-class passengers ignore the view for their tablets. The 968th-floor romance now comes with an iced matcha. On Saturn’s rings, the traffic is held up by an alien filming a vlog.
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Kalighat 2026: The Machines Are the New Babus
Kalighat paintings were cheap bazaar watercolours sold in 1880s Calcutta, and they were satire: they mocked the city's new rich, dandies who aped their British masters and lounged while servants fanned them.
I trained a Recraft V4 Style on five anonymous Kalighat sheets from the Cleveland Museum of Art and Wellcome Collection, keeping the bold single outline, flat colour and empty paper ground.
Then I turned the satire on 2026: the machines are the new babus. Phones smoke hookahs on velvet chairs, robot vacuums ride in palanquins, and humans fan, carry and groom their devices. Same masters, new hardware.
Social post: https://lnkd.in/p/gXJn_FQQ
THE INTERNET, MECHANICALLY EXPLAINED
An Imaginary Catalogue, 1890
The Internet, Mechanically Explained imagines digital life as a lost catalogue of inventions from 1890. I built a custom Recraft Style from John Emslie’s public-domain, hand-coloured scientific engravings, published in 1850 and preserved by Wellcome Collection. Eight invented mechanisms turn notifications, endless scrolling, cloud storage, search, recommendations, read receipts and passwords into physical cause-and-effect diagrams. The sequence ends with an offline lever: one small movement that gives the viewer their afternoon back.
Archive originals: John Emslie (1813–1875), Motion and Machinery and Mechanical Powers, published by James Reynolds on 10 December 1850. Both source plates are marked Public Domain by Wellcome Collection.
The custom V4 Style and core illustrations were created in Recraft Studio during the challenge. Selected before-and-afters are attached; the full eight-image series and both archive originals are in the public project.
[ 🕰️ Relics Of Time ] - bringing the past into the present
before wristwatches became a part of everyday life, pocket watches were one of the most popular ways people carried time with them. but what always fascinated me was that they were more than just timekeeping objects. their beautifully crafted cases, intricate engravings, ornamental patterns and little details made each piece feel like a work of art.
i've always been drawn to objects that carry a sense of history and craftsmanship, so i wanted to explore what would happen if those details found their way into the watches we wear today.
for this project, i explored historical references from the met museum collection, including antique jewellery, pocket watches and decorative objects. i was particularly inspired by their rich textures, colourful patterns, gold detailing and handcrafted elements. instead of simply recreating historical pocket watches, i wanted to take the essence of their design and reinterpret it through contemporary wristwatches.
using these references, i created a custom style in recraft and experimented with bringing antique textures, engraved surfaces, ornamental patterns and vintage colour palettes into modern watch cases, dials and straps.
the collection explores different interpretations of this idea, from rectangular dials with colourful beaded straps to ornate gold cases, detailed engravings, roman numerals and decorative metalwork. each design has its own character, but they all share the same inspiration: the beauty of old-world craftsmanship.
the thought behind this project was simple: what if the artistry of antique pocket watches had evolved alongside modern watchmaking? i wanted to create something that feels nostalgic yet contemporary, as if a little piece of history had found its way into the present.
references: the metropolitan museum of art
#recraftstyleschallenge #recraftai #productdesign #vintageinspired #designexploration #horology #18thcenturydesign
