Fish in the Sky by Nothing Design Group

Look up, and you might find a shoal of herring swimming above Amsterdam. For Fish in the Sky, Nothing Design Group placed transparent fish-shaped wind vanes on tall poles along the IJ waterfront. The poles resembled fishing rods, while the fish twisted in the breeze as if the sky had suddenly become their ocean.

Created for Urban Play at ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam in 2008, the installation did not stay in one place. Visitors received miniature fish to attach to bicycles, balconies, and car antennas, allowing the project to spread naturally through the city.

Nothing Design Group is a young Korean collective led by Koo Jin-Woog. Inspired by Eastern philosophy, its designers enjoyed turning quiet, almost invisible ideas into playful objects that changed how people experienced their surroundings.

The same gentle humour appears in their other work. In The Origin, Washstand (2007), lifting a small pebble releases water that winds towards the basin like a river flowing into a lake. The stone then becomes the sink’s plug. Cloud Mug brings another small surprise: light passes through tiny cloud shapes in the white porcelain, making it feel as though you are drinking from a piece of the sky.