There are some designs: interior, furniture, art, etc., which make you stop and ask “how did they do that?” The Metrobench by Stephen Shaheen had that impact on me for a few reasons – how does it hold weight and where did he get all those Metrocards? The Metrobench is an art installation that was designed for an exhibit at Sloan Fine Art Gallery. Using 5,000 recycled MetroCards collected via a Craigslist ad, Shaheen created a innovative art piece in just over a month. His recount of the process of tracking down the MTA and collecting Metrocards can be found on his blog (and is very entertaining if you live in New York and know the perils of the MTA).

Metrocard Bench. Designed by Stephen Shaheen.

The Metrobench is not a simple decoupaged bench. Stephen Shaheen artfully designed the overlap and orientation of the sea of cards that creates a sculpture. A quote from his blog on the design: “It is essential, in my opinion, to create a design that integrates the colors, and in fact each unit, in a way that makes the whole something more than an appliqué of Metrocards on steel. The new pattern has to have its own identity and has to contribute to a sense of new content in the assemblage.”

Stephen Shaheen is an artist and designer based in Brooklyn, NY. Much of his work and training has been in Italy, where he received the Italian Cultural Institute/La Fortuna Foundation Fellowship, and a 2009-2010 Residency at the Digital Stone Project. Shaheen earned his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2005 and currently the director of Tuscany Study, an intensive art program in Italy. His work spans sculpture, design, art installations and drawings.

via Yanko Design