July 27, 2007

Get Outta Here: Moleskine.

Lengendary notebook maker, Moleskine, has just introduced an incredible new line of City Notebooks. So far they exist for Boston, NYC, San Francisco, DC, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Prague, Rome and Vienna. They cover all possible information you could need in a city you’re only visiting or already live in. The Key Map summarizes the overal layout, showing the metro system and listing stations. That’s followed up by Zone Maps that show large-scale maps of the city’s center and an alphabetical street index. Up to 76 blank pages give you space to write notes, while there’s also a 96-page tabbed section to organize information and thoughts. As if that’s not enough, there are 32 removable sheets and 12 translucent sticky sheets to overlay maps and route as you go. Oh, and did I mention they’re only hardbacked, 3.5 x 5.5″ and $16.95?

Posted In paper goods, read up, travel
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July 27, 2007

Kate Quinby.


Kate Quinby is an amazing little illustrator out of Seattle/Providence, RI that I came across in Communication Arts. (Seriously, a great issue.) By day she’s working for the Man at Starbucks Global Creative (their in-house ad/design department) and by night for herself under the name Croak and Hum.

Her philosophy is as fresh as her illustrations, “Don’t get caught. I feel as though I’ve tricked the universe into letting me draw pictures for a living, and I don’t have to make any secret deals or sell my soul…I’m hoping that if I keep busy and work hard, no one will notice that I’m actually doing what I wanted to do as a child.”

Posted In create, illustration
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July 27, 2007

Naked & Angry.

No, not me. Them.

Naked & Angry exists to create products from patterns submitted and chosen by the brand’s audience. Anyone can come and submit a pattern design to be voted on by other N&A users. The design will be scored for 7 days at which time it will be given a final score. The highest scoring designs will be manufactured and products will be created inspired by the patterns. The winners will receive a $500 cash prize and 5 free Naked & Angry items. Pretty awesome. N&A was created by a team of web designers and developers called skinnyCorp who also created the Threadless community of t-shirts.

Posted In collaboration/project, him, wear it
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July 27, 2007

Naked & Angry.

No, not me. Them.

Naked & Angry exists to create products from patterns submitted and chosen by the brand’s audience. Anyone can come and submit a pattern design to be voted on by other N&A users. The design will be scored for 7 days at which time it will be given a final score. The highest scoring designs will be manufactured and products will be created inspired by the patterns. The winners will receive a $500 cash prize and 5 free Naked & Angry items. Pretty awesome. N&A was created by a team of web designers and developers called skinnyCorp who also created the Threadless community of t-shirts.

Posted In collaboration/project, him, wear it
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July 27, 2007

Seventy-nine.

I’d love to get my hands of a copy of this book – Seventy-nine Short Essays in Design by Michael Bierut. Apparently each of the essays is printed in a different typeface. You can pick it up here at Amazon.

Posted In graphic design, read up
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July 27, 2007

My Portfolio is Me.

I got the latest Communication Arts the other day (Photography Annual 48) and found quite a few things of interest. I’ll post about a few others later, but one of the things that really stood out was actually an ad for the Academy of Art University. The copy, which was a tad bit cheesy but believable in a Hell yeah! kind of way, was interesting.

“My portfolio is me, everything I am and it’s everything I’m not. It’s my weakness and my strengths. My self-confidence and -esteem. My past, my present, and most definitely my future. My portfolio is where I’m going, where I’ve been, places I shouldn’t have been, gone and shouldn’t go. It’s everything and just a book. It’s my inspiration. My generation and it’s never finished, never done, always a work in progress. It’s everything I’ve ever seen, heard, touched, smelled, sensed and believed, and my worst fears and all my hopes at the same time. It’s the beginning of the beginning and the end of an era. And so much more than a phase. It’s my portfolio, and describing it is describing me.”

Posted In ads
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July 26, 2007

Food Design.

Marti Guixe is crazy in the very best possible way. He’s an artist who’s been creating food design for the past ten years. And by food design I don’t mean packaging or designing with food. He’s actually been designing food with a practical purpose. Take for example, the following Guixe creations.


The Seven Step Cookie
A cookie with decoration that indicates how to bite it.


Flavored Stamps
Stamps with food images on one side and with the flavor of the imaged food on the other.


Hands Free Lollipop


Oranienbaum Lollipop
An orange candy lollipop with a seed inside. It is a way to activate sporadic and spontaneous reforestation just by splitting the seed once the candy is finished.

Thanks for the heads up J. May!

Posted In food, grand design
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July 25, 2007

Popoutz Birdfeeder.


And this isn’t even related to my recent bird obsession. I love the modern-simplistic look and feel of these Popoutz birdfeeders. And get this: you can buy them here for only $1.80 each. Ridiculous. They’re made out of 100% recyclable polypropylene plastic and come in six vibrant, bird-attracting colors.

Posted In grand design, outdoors
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July 25, 2007

The Little Know-It-All.


It’s a book, not a person. Not me (unforturnately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it and who you are). more specifically, it’s a book for designers. It might as well be the new Design Bible actually.

The Little Know-It-All: Common Sense for Designers by Silja Bilz is divided into sections explaining unique vocabulary used in design, printing, typography and photography and includes helpful tips and concise analysis in areas such as advertising, mulimedia, business, copyright and project management. It is structured thematically and equipped with a resourceful index that references numerous sources and links. It’s complete with graphics that illustrate and supplement the texts, making it a reference book for students and newcomers while serving as a trusty companion for professional designers and media professionals alike in their everyday work.

Posted In graphic design, read up
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July 24, 2007

WhippetGrey.



I want to live inside one of these pop-ups on WhippetGrey’s website. If you want to see, quite possibly, the most clever website design ever check it out asap. The online shop is filled with a lovely selection, but the website is really truly original, with each section illustrated by a 3-D pop-up book that represents each room of a house.

Posted In web design
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