All birds
Come to think of it....all birds are pretty in one or another. Even a vulture.
It would be impossible to take a decision, but the Parrots, Peacocks and Cockatoos would have to be way up on the list.
Those Toikka glass birds have been around for years and they are consistently beautiful, albiet a bit expensive. But they are all hand made.
whitespike...
fascinating topic. i'm wondering by "design" if you have in mind pure aesthetics, or if your interest extends to functional design as well. i think most of us would find intrigue in both. i am always blown away by the overall design of the created order, especially when watching nature shows on pbs and the like. our planet is an amazing place indeed.
like yourself--along with those in the "birding" community--birds hold an aesthetic fascination for me [and the cardinal is high on my list as well!]. i think a big part of it is the variety of color, and the symmetry and precision of their individual markings. i've also been drawn lately to the artwork of charley harper. i think he has singlehandedly captured the graphic essence of many of our flying friends.
charley's self-proclaimed "minimal realism" is refreshing for those of us who appreciate the distilled, refined design of modernism. maybe a study of his work will help in your quest to identify the most admirable, desirous winged creatures occupying our airspace.
http://www.contemporaryartscenter.org/harper
I see both the cardinal and the nuthatch
in the garden and I am with Olive on the nuthack, fast and always challenging gravity, both in orientation and in the air. But the main point for me is that most comments ignored the accomplishements of evolution and or failed to consider them in favour of the Toikka birds...should we conclude that even almost two centuries after the birth of Charles Darwin, designers and design loving people are still "creationists" rather than "evolutionist"?
It certainly looks like that. Some years ago, (in "Thoughts on Originality")I pleaded for letting products evolve rather than jump from one creative gesture to the other. Somehow we do not seem to believe the evidence, that evolving products serve the consumer better than creative jumps in a multitude of directions.
....by the way I am looking for people that have a Dyson cyclon vacuum cleaner and would confidently buy a new one if the old one breaks down...
Never realized how much we like birds.....
Who could forget this familiar friend:
http://www.homebug.net/2007/08/eames-house-bird.html
I wondered if someone would bring up Charlie Harper
I love his stuff. the graphically captured essence of the images amaze me. Such simple lines and yet, the true aspect of the little beastie is perfectly captured.
And Koen...oh no..I was not forgetting Darwin or Mother Nature for that matter. She is the first and best designer. Evolution is what we poor humans attempt to mimic when we iteratively try to improve our designs. While we may do it consciously, versus the lucky randomness of Nature; Nature is still better at editing her work than we are. Only the strong and truly suited advance to the next challenge.
Birds are a particularly apt metaphor for that as they are generally accepted by science now a days as being the evolved children of the dinosaurs! Truly amazing that a Hummingbird could be the decendent of the T-Rex!
And birds do have a lovely economy of form that we modernist can appreciate. yet they still give us delightful color in cafeully controlled bursts, again just as we modernists adore!
Right now I am working from home during a small ice storm here in the Northeast and I am watching a plethora of feathered friends on the feeder outside my windows. How can something so small brave the cold, wet, icy ugliness of new England winters and still hop and peep and generally seem so delighted over a stack of dry corn and seeds?
Yep, birds are the moderists perfect living design object!
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