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Made of Us & Line 26: two styles about the crowd of everyday life
We built two custom Recraft V4 Styles from public-domain works in museum and archive collections. Both look at modern life through the people in it: one builds objects out of tiny people, the other lays our daily...
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The Future, as They Imagined It 💻
The Future, as They Imagined It
I used this historical furniture illustration because I loved how people and animals became the furniture itself, supporting tables or shaping entire pieces. I paired it with this image , whose visual style caught my eye. Both references come from...
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
[ 🕰️ 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for this project, i explored historical references from the met museum collection, including antique jewellery, pocket watches and decorative objects.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
