Although the backyard camping season has long passed in most parts of the country, I couldn’t resist featuring the eye-popping creations of FieldCandy, an ethical n’ artsy U.K.-based tentmaker that aims to "inject colour, creativity and fun into the camping space." The tents have been blowing up all over the design blogosphere the past couple of days (hat tip to swissmiss) and if you scroll down the page, you’ll understand why.

 

Geared towards campers who don’t gives a toss about blending into their natural surroundings (a jellybean-patterned tent will guarantee that) the folks at FieldCandy wrangled up a talented stable of artists and designers to create the tent’s waterproof, anti-fungal/bacterial flysheets which come in 40 different designs ranging from Fully Booked (pictured up top), Get a Room, Men Only, Snug as a Bug, Home Sweet Home, and Perfect Picnic, a delicious-looking design you’d probably not want to take into an area with frequent bear sightings; same goes with Animal Farm in wolf-prone areas. And then there’s the Big Top design which is fun although this photo used to promote it is the stuff of nightmares.

FieldCandy tents may prove to be prohibitively spendy — aside from the plain black FieldCandy tent for $415 that’s geared towards those “feeling a bit shy,” the spacious 2-person tents start at $620 and climb upwards with a couple of showstoppers ringing in at over $1,000 — but they're also high-quality and made from top-notch, responsibly sourced materials. The company itself boasts some pretty stringent social and environmental standards.

 

The flysheets are printed in the U.K using domestically sourced fabrics while the breathable, 100 percent cotton inner tents are made in China by a manufacturer that meets the company’s stringent quality standards. The aluminum pegs and poles are manufactured in an acid-free process that’s less damaging to the environment and the heavy-duty zippers come from YKK, the world’s leading zipper manufacturer.