From digital painting to cut-paper stop-motion animation, this award-winning Chinese artist is passionate about creating visual narratives with energy, positivity, and a sense of life.

The pandemic was awful, let's make no bones about it, but just how many talented creatives discovered their true calling during lockdown? Count Fangfang Han among them. In 2020, she was a fashion buyer working in a busy industry where there just wasn't time to explore other creative avenues. Fast forward to 2024, and she's recently won a World Illustration Award for New Talent in Animation.

Plenty of learning, exploring new mediums and conceptualisation has gone on between then and now. "My style has been shaped through years of experimentation – printmaking, collage, hand-drawing, stop-motion, digital painting – I've tried it all. While most of my work is now digital, my style is still evolving. To me, storytelling and emotional connection matter more than just aesthetics. It's about the message I'm conveying and how it makes people feel," says Fangfang.

Originally from Hefei in eastern China, Fangfang relocated to London, studied illustration at the Kingston College of Art, and graduated this year. She has already worked on projects with various clients, covering travel and lifestyle topics for UK publications such as Teen Breathe and creating children's book illustrations for Ximalaya in China.

Perhaps her most eye-catching piece is The Tube, a wonderfully quirky animation that pulls out dozens of the little aspects of riding the London Underground in Fangfang's whimsical creative style. What began as a university project was taken on by Transport for London, which used the piece to help celebrate the 160th anniversary of the Underground in 2023.

"The idea came after a late-night London Tube ride on the Victoria Line, listening to station announcements and the hum of conversations," she explains. "That moment sparked the idea to create a project about the Underground. I spent over a month riding different lines, researching the Tube's unique atmosphere and its role in daily life."

Fangfang aimed to humanise and beautify the experience by depicting the interiors of the stations and the trains, as well as some of the people who use the service. The piece combines her drawings and digital artwork with Chinese-inspired cut-paper animation and plenty of sounds you'll hear on any Tube journey.

It led Fangfang to win a World Illustration Award in Animation this year. Part of her prize was an opportunity to choose one of the illustration agencies sponsoring the awards, and she selected IllustrationX because of the company's history and global reach.

Today, Fangfang splits her time between London and Hefei. The former inspires her creativity, with its galleries, museums, and variety on offer. The latter is where she connects with family, friends, and her pet budgies. And just like her lifestyle, her work bridges Eastern and Western cultures.

"Growing up, I was surrounded by traditional arts and crafts – calligraphy, embroidery, paper cutting, and ceramics. My family also played a big role. My mom and grandpa loved Beijing opera, and I even learned to sing and play the jinghu, a traditional Beijing opera instrument," says Fangfang. "Summers were spent learning traditional Chinese painting. At the same time, I was influenced by global culture – Disney animations, Miyazaki films, French comics, and English literature. That blend of traditional Chinese roots and international exposure has shaped how I see the world and tell stories through my work."

Next, Fangfang wants to combine her illustration and animation skills to create brand campaigns for clients in travel and culture, illustrate non-fiction books and collaborate with fashion designers to create patterns and prints.

This spacious tiny home is called the Mobi Individual Baobab. It includes two bedrooms and a sofa bed for guests. The exterior is equipped with a staircase that offers access to a rooftop deck area. The home is designed by Poland’s Mobi House, and it is based on a triple-axle trailer. It features a length of 8.4 meters, and the exterior showcases a finishing in sheet metal. The sheet metal is paired with spruce accenting and a metal roof. The exterior staircase offers easy access to the rooftop terrace, which can be collapsed when not being used.

Designer: Mobi House

The entrance leads into the center of the home, with the living room on one side. The living room features a large L-shaped sofa bed with integrated storage and a TV that is mounted to the ceiling. The kitchen is next to the living room, and it seems quite roomy with cabinetry and an oven with an induction cooktop, microwave, sink, dishwasher, fridge/freezer, and dishwasher.

The kitchen and bathroom are connected via a mirrored sliding door. The bathroom seems compact but is equipped with the basics – storage, a flushing toilet, a vanity sink, and a shower. The tiny home features two bedrooms – both are loft-style with low ceilings. You can access them via a double staircase that includes integrated storage on the kitchen side. The bedrooms host double beds and some storage, but one bedroom includes a second single bed too.

The rooftop deck is a bonus to the house, expanding the living space. It offers residents an additional section that is useful and functional. The rooftop deck can be utilized in a variety of ways. It could be a great space to host guests during summer!

The tiny home is also equipped with an underfloor heating system, and a mini-split air-con unit to keep residents warm during the cold Polish winters. The house was built to order for a client in Poland, and currently, we have no word on the pricing yet.

The post This Build-to-Order Tiny Home Offers Additional Living Space With A Handy Rooftop Deck first appeared on Yanko Design.

"TIDAL GLITCH" is an aerial photography series by visual artist and fine art photographer Jan Erik Waider. The images capture tidal sand patterns in Iceland, formed as water recedes during low tide.

“I moved to the Upper West Side in August, 1978, and immediately loved it with all my heart,” writes Stephen Harmon, a retired lawyer who first lived on New York City’s West End Avenue and 73rd street. “I am a photographer and set out to preserve it on film because I knew the look of the people and streetscape would change over time forever.”

Stephen’s love of photography began when in the 1960s he saw Walker Evan’s 1931 photograph of Saratoga Springs’ Main Street and said to himself, “Nothing will ever look like this again and thank God that guy took that photo and I’m going to be that guy who takes those photos.”

After this album of photos, we hear from Stephen in a great video from 2018.

 

 

Off-Track Betting was on 72nd St, just off Broadway. Upstairs was Off-Price Clothing. In the 1980s, you could eat at Mrs. J’s Sacred Cow (established 1947) and Cherry restaurant, and grab some cheese blintzes at the Royale Bakery on 72nd Street…

Stephen Harmon took hundreds of pictures of the Upper West Side in the 70s and 80s and thankfully he still has many of them. We’ll be posing more of his fantastic archive here.

His work is displayed in many of the city’s museums, including The Museum of the City of New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The New-York Historical Society, and The New York Public Library.

 

 

“When I was photographing the streets, the people, and the businesses in those bygone days, I was trying to capture on film and preserve forever, I hoped, the look, the feel, the very essence of the time and place. Nostalgia was not foremost on my mind; I was photographing the current day. Today, it seems the results are triggering happy memories and people are enjoying them, and I am very glad.”

– Stephen Harmon, via West Side Rag

 

 

“Before the advent of OTB, betting on a horserace was illegal, except for bets placed at the racetrack. Not everyone could get to a racetrack, so every neighborhood had a bookie, or several, who worked the illegal operation usually from a legal neighborhood business, such as a candy store, or a grocery, or a diner. Sometimes they used violence to collect on a wager.

“TB was started for two primary laudable purposes. First, to provide a government-authorized venue for placing non-racetrack bets on horse races, and, second, to raise revenue for NYS, which took a percentage of the wagering. Why OTB failed in NYC is too complicated for me to discuss… By the early to mid 1980s, OTB parlors were considered by many to be unsightly and unpleasant (many did not have toilets in order to dissuade customers from staying at the OTB for hours), and the clientele was considered by non-bettors to be unattractive, lazy or just unsavory. I, however, did not see it that way.”

– Stephen Harmon

 

 

 

“The streets of the Upper West Side that I walked in the late 1970s and 80s were a delight to behold, awash with color and character attributable in great measure to the people who lived by them.

There were shopkeepers who sold flowers and fruit in front of their stores. There were shoeshine men who set up buckets of flowers on the sidewalk. There were jewelry and hat sellers hawking their wares in different places and ways. There were hot dog carts, ice cream sellers, and other food vendors. And there were the sounds of the buskers, singing and playing instruments, all on the street. What a wonderful time to live!”

– Stephen Harmon, via Upper West Side Rag

 

Stephen Harmon: An Appreciation

The post Disappearing NYC: 1980s Store Fronts on New York’s Upper West Side appeared first on Flashbak.