Now That’s Clever (9 Photos)

October 8, 2026

By Vidar

Good design earns a second look

A utility box becomes a toaster with just a few painted additions. Elsewhere, the thinking goes into how a bench dries after rain or how a wall is built. These nine ideas reward a closer look at the ordinary things around us.

More: Design Doesn’t Stop Indoors

🌀 Spiral Wall — By John Bainbridge

John Bainbridge turns the courses of a stone wall into a tight spiral. The small opening at its center makes the whole wall look as though it is curling inward.

More: Street Art You Can’t Ignore When You Walk By

🍞 Street-Side Toaster — By Tom Bob

Two black slots and a painted cord turn this green utility box into an oversized toaster. Tom Bob barely changes its shape; the box was already doing most of the work.

More: Tom Bob’s Street Art — Collection 2

🔗 Follow Tom Bob on Instagram

🎵 21 Balançoires — By Daily tous les jours in Montréal, Canada 🇨🇦

The swings in Montréal’s 21 Balançoires play musical notes as people move. Daily tous les jours gives a row of seats a second job: making music with whoever happens to sit next to you.

💡 Music Fact: Swinging higher raises the pitch. Moving in sync with other people unlocks more complex melodies, according to the studio’s project notes.

🌧️ The Rolling Bench

Sung Woo Park and his team’s Rolling Bench has a simple answer to a wet seat. Turn the handle to rotate the wooden slats and bring the dry underside up where you can sit.

💡 Design Fact: The bench was a 2007 Samsung Design Membership project. Park’s original proposal also suggests turning the handle for the next person, even if you do not need a seat yourself.

More: Creative Benches

🧩 A Corner Worth Keeping — By Ememem

A chipped corner becomes a narrow strip of blue and patterned tiles. Ememem follows the irregular edges of the damage, making the repair the part you want to look at.

More: Ememem’s Mosaic Repairs

🔗 Follow Ememem on Instagram

👀 A Face in the Letters — By Kone in Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪

Kone fits a face inside the loops and sharp edges of his lettering. The eyes hold the portrait together while the black gaps keep breaking it apart; a puddle below catches the whole puzzle again.

🔗 Follow Kone on Instagram

🪑 “Double Doily” — By Jennifer Cecere in New York, USA 🇺🇸

Jennifer Cecere’s Double Doily turns an intricate lace pattern into an aluminum bench at Whitehall and Water Streets. The photos by NYC ♥ NYC include the useful final check: someone actually sitting on it.

🧵 Thread Across the Sidewalk — By CHEONE

The woman bends over her sewing, but the red thread refuses to stay inside the picture. CHEONE carries it onto the pavement, joining the painted scene to the space at your feet.

More: CHEONE’s 3D Murals

🔗 Follow CHEONE on Instagram

🐟 Croydon Fishpond Mosaic — By Gary Drostle in Croydon, England 🇬🇧

The fish cast dark blue shadows, and the rings seem to spread across the water. Then the little tile edges pull the surface flat again. Gary Drostle makes the same hard material describe the fish, the depth below them and the moving surface above.

Drostle dates the two-metre Croydon commission to 1996. It became the starting point for a much longer series of mosaic fishponds.

🔗 Visit Gary Drostle’s website