Set within the beds of small white Japanese pickup trucks known as ‘kei,’ these gardens are so lush and complex, they look like they’ve been established for many years. In reality, each one had been in place for just a few hours before these photographs were taken. The miniature gardens were created for the annual Kei Truck Garden Contest held by the Japan Federation of Landscape Contractors, held at the Nagai Botanical Garden in Osaka on April 29th and 30th. Thirteen companies participated, each one creating their own interpretation of the theme.

Other than the simple instructions to build a living garden within the truck beds using standard landscaping materials, the contest has very few rules and directives, and the participants are free to design whatever kind of garden strikes their fancy. As this year’s entries show, the results range from formal Japanese tea houses to more American-style gardens complete with decorative wagon wheels. Some integrated furniture, fencing or water features, and one even boasted its own glass-walled pond.

The judging criteria looked for “planning ability, expression power, design, enforcement and consideration of the environment.” First place went to a lush mossy garden entitled “Clear Flow Drifting in Autumn” by Landscaping Co., LTD, which features a dry creek bed and a softly hilly topography (top image), while the indoor/outdoor space with shoji screens called “Nishiki of Autumn Leaves” nabbed second prize and the mysterious “Secret Base of Green Tea” with its cave-like roof structure won third.

The contest is a fun twist on the “portable park” concept sometimes seen in cities like San Francisco, which reclaims parking spots as green space for urban residents. To see more, check out this PDF from the Hanshin branch.

Massive deep sea monsters, jungle predators and swamp creatures lurk in the grimey shadows on the backs of trucks, thanks to interventions by illustrator Nikita Golubev. Most of the featured critters are of the potentially creepy variety, including a deep-sea angler fish, octopus, shark, alligator, lion, owl and orangutan.

Based in Russia, the artist works on cars sometimes as well, but finds the broad doors and long sides on larger vehicles particularly inviting as blank canvasses for light-on-dark works of art.

As a subtractive strategy, there is less risk associated with these impermanent pieces as well — at worst, some truck driver may be less than amused to find their dirty vehicle highlighted in such a way.

Reverse graffiti is nothing new, but most artists who work in that vein operate at smaller scales, cleaning up sections of door and rear windows rather than tall trucks. Naturally, these pieces are all temporary, destined to come off in the wash or rinse out in the rain (but live on in photographs).

Shipping containers pass by us daily on trucks, trains and ships, carrying 90% of the world’s non-bulk cargo with them, but if you have ever wondered what the mysterious colors and brands really mean, you will want to keep a copy of The Container Guide by your side. A publication of the Infrastructure Observatory, this volume contains a wealth of information on virtually all of the major companies that together own and ship the planet’s 20 million containers back and forth across the globe.

Produced by Tim Hwang and Craig Cannon of the American Container Society, this waterproof, pocket-sized book contains maps, photos, logos, guides and tips to spotting cargo containers on (or off) ships around the world, handily searchable by region, color and brand. Part of the inspiration for this publication was the relative anonymity with which so many of these semi-mysterious companies seem to operate despite their size (a mere 100 companies control 9 out of 10 containers).

Like Networks of New York, a recently-published field guide to internet infrastructure, this guide draws both conceptual and design “inspiration from classic Audubon birding guides, is a practical field guide to identifying containers and the corporations that own them. Inside you’ll find virtually every major shipping concern brought to life in full-color on durable, tear- and water-resistant paper.” More than just a resource or reference, the guide taps into our deeper shared urge to understand everyday systems and those unnoticed elements of daily life in a globalizing world.

The book also features introductions covering the history of containerized shipping, the rise of refrigerated modules and an introduction to using cargo containers as homes. The first of these three contributors recalls the instigator of this shipping revolution, Malcolm McLean “a trucker by trade, who saw that a multimodal unit that could be seamlessly shifted from ship to truck to train would do to shipping what Henry T. Ford’s production line did for the automobile manufacturer.” Indeed, the use of standard modules has revolutionized the way we ship and helped ships become the dominant form of transportation for goods around the world.

Author and researcher Tim Hwang has more than a passing interest in large systems. A initial failed attempt to gain visitor access to a power plant led him to create the Infrastructure Observatory, a more official outfit to allow him and his fellows to check out everything from factories and roadways to global ports and waste water treatment plants. Last year, the group’s efforts culminated in a fantastic event (hopefully to be soon repeated) called MacroCity. This conference featured a series of panel discussions, presentations and a set of field trips around the Bay Area, including all kinds of professionals from landscape architects and dam engineers to topical authors and niche academics.

Born in San Francisco, the BAIO has now expanded to include a New York chapter that recently took a trip to the Global Containers Terminal in New Jersey. Upcoming plans include a series of tours surrounding the birthday of Victor Gruen, founder of the modern shopping mall. Longer term, Hwang hopes to see Infrastructure Observatory chapters grow in cities around the world. Meanwhile, he wears many other hats as well,  as co-founder of the Awesome Society, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Imgur and Director of the Intelligence & Autonomy Project at the Data & Society Research Institute among other past and ongoing pursuits.

If ice cream trucks are rolling symbols of childhood happiness, abandoned ice cream trucks are sadder than a dropped double-scoop cone on a hot summer day.

This forlorn former ice cream truck has found an odd sort of peace, marooned amongst fellow relics of good times (not to mention Good Humor) past at the Pearsonville Junkyard in California’s High Desert. Kudos to Flickr users cins_city (top) and codywbratt (above) for capturing this one-eyed metal monster basking in the eerie twilight glow. Curiously, the decrepit van appears to have moved to a different location on the lot during the year between the two photographers’ visits.

Colorado Low

“Is there anything sadder than a junked ice cream truck?,” asks The Truth About Cars’ Murilee Martin, to which the answer is none… none more sad. This unusual minivan-style ice cream truck is destined to count down the days before it’s fed to the crusher in a Denver-area pull-your-own-parts salvage yard.

The clapped-out 1998 Ford Windstar van’s dayglo paint job and copious stickers haven’t faded much and from all indications it sold Blue Bunny brand ice cream, frozen treats and cold drinks – you’re a long way from Iowa, old friend. Sadly, it seems they’re sold out of Rice Pudding Bars… make that “gladly”.

Desert Desserts

You can get your kicks on Route 66 but don’t expect to enjoy a cool, refreshing frozen treat afterwards… at least not from these abandoned ice cream trucks beached amidst the tumblin’ tumbleweeds somewhere in the Great Southwest. Doubtless these old blue Dodge ice cream trucks were once a welcome sight for tourists, travelers, cowboys and ind, er, Native Americans. Now they’ve been relegated to the modern equivalent of a bleached buffalo skull.

Forest Dumped

From baking deserts to baked Alaska, abandoned ice cream trucks are everywhere it seems. “This is what happens to ice cream trucks in Alaska when they play the same annoying tune too much!,” notes Flickr user Van Vickle Photography after posting the above image taken in early August of 2013. One wonders, though, if an abandoned ice cream truck plays an annoying tune in an Alaskan forest, does anybody hear?

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Meltdown 12 Dripped Dropped Abandoned Ice Cream Trucks

Chris LaBrooy loves vintage vehicles, but with a twist: the digital artist’s far-out 3D illustrations are an automotive acid trip into the 4th dimension.

Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Chris LaBrooy graduated from the Royal College of Art in London and embarked on a prolific career in the graphic arts medium. His expansive and growing body of work has brought him international recognition; chiefly for his automotive-themed folios titled “Tales Of Auto Elasticity” and “Auto Aerobics”.

LaBrooy pays homage to the singular style expressed by vintage vehicles such as the red Ford F1 “Woody” pickup above. While the comparatively primitive paint technology employed by automakers over a half century ago had its drawbacks, LaBrooy’s digital graphic illustrations bring out the best in these vehicles’ rich, deep, non-metallic hues.

One wonders whether LaBrooy was influenced by Mike Ross’s Big Rig Jig, an interactive construction made from two actual 18-wheelers displayed at the 2007 Burning Man festival – check out this video. Not that it matters; while Big Rig Jig explored one facet of modern society’s fascination with the automobile, works such as LaBrooy’s Auto Aerobics series shake, rattle & roll our perceptions in a way only made possible through creative 3D modeling and state-of-the-art digital graphics techniques.

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Automotive Acid Trip The Graphic 3d Art Of Chris Labrooy