With our last Wood Style story about the surrealistic forest we are finally finishing our thematic blog.

Max Ernst (1891 - 1976) is one of the most important artists in the history. His brutal vision of the surrealism is seen in his 1920s and 1930s series of dramatic forests very well. These highly structured and almost abstract paintings in which he used his experimental methods such as frottage or grattage, are symbols of the darkness and recall his feelings of the enchantment and terror of the woods near his childhood home.

This painting comes from 1927 and show us that motif of the forest can not be poetic only how we present it here at OKOLO.

Under the tag Wood Style you can enjoy our completed blog all about wood, forest and living in the nature.

Forest still provides a lot of food for contemporary society too. One of the best treasures of the nature is honey. In our Wood Style blog we were looking around the world for some interesting honey producers and their products. In this small survey we are not interesting in the honey itself, but in the quality and style of the packaging and graphic design of the products.

According to our research we present here two groups with two different approaches for graphic design and packaging.

The first row above presents some more traditional, as well as newer producers whose approach to packaging and design is more intuitive and ordinary. Despite this we find these products relatively nice with the ordinary but clever visual and functional results based on the honey character.

In the second row you can see three examples of the more progressive contemporary approach to design of the packaging. For example Heide honey was made for Heide Museum of Modern Art in Australia by design agency Pidgeon. The design is based on the use of Hex typeface, which was inspired by the honeycombs. The another, more minimalist result we can see in the elegant packaging design of Beeline honey produced in Chicago, USA.

We have selected seasonal outfit for light forest spring/summer walking. With our outdoor inspired fashion from classic brands such as Levi's Vintage and Fjällräven to Penfield and Engineered Garments, you enjoy wood very well.

In the work of famous Norwegian painter and illustrator Theodor Severin Kittelsen (1857 – 1914) we can find great atmosphere of the deep Scandinavian nature and folklore.

Trained as a watchmaker in the coastal town of Kragerø in Telemark county, Norway, Kittelsen`s big talent discovered Diderich Maria Aall and after that he became pupil at Wilhelm von Hanno’s drawing school in Oslo. Then he traveled to Paris and in 1887 he returned back to Norway. In this time he found nature as his biggest inspiration and began to paint lyrical visions of the Norwegian nature with a lot of sense for mysticism and traditional Norwegian folklore of the spirits and forest legends. During this period, Kittelsen was hired to illustrate Norwegian Folktales by the folklore collectors Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe.

We show here two of Kittelsen`s artworks. One showing deep forest comes from 1900 and another called Forest Troll from 1906. Both illustrate his passion for the Norwegian nature and his interest in traditional folklore. His style between neo-romanticism and symbolism is very similar to the Czech artist and mystic Josef Váchal (1884 - 1969) and his graphic series "Šumava umírající a romantická". Both artists see the nature as an organic environment full of mysticism, dinginess and forest legends and spirits.

The similar approach we can see in one of the works very clearly. His Forest Troll (traditional Scandinavian myth) is a spectral forest creature that changes its form into the forest itself. Troll becomes woody hill and tells legendary stories about Norwegian nature, people and habits.

It is quite out of date, but these pictures fit exactly into our Wood Style blog. Super Natural was a project by London-based interior stylist and designer Faye Toogood presenting it at the London design week in September last year.

Toogood is interested in very specific design works very much. She composes, curates and creates whole environments with really various themes. "Super Natural in London was dedicated to foraging, collecting and observing in the English countryside.", as she says.

In her pop-up space in west London she was presenting her first collection of furniture called Assemblage 1, as well as Brambles café and this spectacular installation of mushrooms picked by New Forest forager Mrs. Tee.

Widely acknowledged as the world’s foremost authority on edible wild mushrooms, Brigitte Tee has been supplying wild and cultivated fungi to the country’s leading chefs from her base in Lymington, Hampshire, for more than 35 years. Backed by unrivalled knowledge and expertise, Mrs Tee is the only licence holder entitled to pick and sell the many diverse wild mushrooms that grow in the New Forest where she is based, offering chefs a selection of unique, quality, seasonal produce, including the highly regarded and sought-after New Forest Cep.

In collaboration with the designer, Mrs. Tee presented some wild mushrooms species in the natural installation with magnifying glasses for the best discovering all the details of the forest treasures. Whole installation was the fascinated introduction into the world of English forest as well as art of the mushrooms and fascinated atmosphere of the work of Faye Toogood who achieves to create very emotional spaces.

Synonymous to our Wood Style can be lifestyle of some bmx riders, who rides dirt jumps only. Located mainly in the deep forests of USA, England or New Zealand (the most famous ones), the bmx trails are fascinated environmental creations similar to the classic land art in their forms. Jumping between the trees of the forest is the ultimate experience, as well as look on it only.

Dirt jumping or racing the trails is one of the most classic bmx freestyle discipline. Adrenaline of the racing itself with escaping from the civilization into the wood, create from dirt jump specific freestyle cycling lifestyle.

Photo Courtesy of Keith Mulligan

Last year we have commissioned Dutch design duo Daphna Isaacs and Laurens Manders from Eindhoven to design any simple object from our OKOLO splinters.

Project which was created in the context of our Wood Style editorial in OKOLO Next Step magazine started with the sending of 15 splinters to Eindhoven and continued with the receiving of the completed swing which was the great result of dutch designers`s invention.

Daphna Isaacs and Laurens Manders presented our taste very much and with their swing called Back to the Woods created from splinters and rope only, completed our vision of Wood Style with the best.

Here you can check photo editorial we have made with the Back to the Woods swing in our homeland of north Bohemian. We took it into the deepest forests with the best outdoor equipment and had a big fan.

Enjoy too!

What about Wood Style airplane? Cessna 208 Caravan Amphibian is the candidate number one for us. Amphibian which is used mostly in the hidden corners of the world such as wilderness of Canada and Alaska, is the classic plane for all hunters and explorers and the icon of the adventure and North America traveling. The best description of it directly from Cessna company bellow.

"Every day, Caravan Amphibians bring civilization to corners of the earth that have never even thought of having a traditional runway. And, every day, hunters, anglers and other outdoorsmen use the Caravan to escape civilization entirely. So, go ahead. Load it up with a generous amount of baggage and passengers. Stuff even more gear into the enormous, sturdy floats. Lift off and fly at speeds up to 165 knots (306 km/h) for a range of up to 820 nautical miles (1,519 km). Your Caravan can take it."

Architectural photographer Dean Kaufmann has discovered really wonderful architectural piece in the Japanese Chichibu mountain range and shot it for the Special Photo Issue of Dwell magazine. It is really our taste and we can not forget to mention it in our Wood Style blog.

Built by Shin Ohori of General Design Co.,LTD. this camping facility is the ultimate outdoor architecture for the biggest camping and adventurous enthusiasts. The structure commissioned by Setsumasa and Mami Kobayashi as their weekend retreat includes everything from bathroom with hot water, storage room with the best outdoor equipment as well as two North Face tents for sleeping. With this architecture you are really in the nature.

Much more pictures at Dwell.

Photo Courtesy of Dean Kaufmann and Dwell magazine