Re-Shirt

I appreciate the idea of buying used clothes but I also find it hard to get past the fact that they once belonged to someone else. My overactive imagination gets caught up in thinking about who owned the clothes before me, what kind of life they lived in them and what sort of mischief they got up to. Re-Shirt has taken advantage of this fact and turned the story behind a used t-shirt into a selling feature. People donate their used t-shirt along with some insight into its existence so far. An orange label with a registration number is added to the shirt. From then on, all owners of the shirt can document their experiences with/in it, giving the shirt a life and history of its own.

I really enjoyed the story behind the t-shirt shown above. Here it is as told from its previous owner's perspective: "I was wearing this t-shirt on a Sunday picnic with friends, kids and dogs. It was a nice autumn day and we enjoyed our sandwiches and a really very nice homemade chocolate cake while sitting on our blankets in the grass on a sunny hill north of Vienna, Austria overlooking the skyline of the city."

Wants for Sale

Artists Christine Santora and Justin Gignac have come up with an uber creatively practical approach to art - they simply paint what they want. The project is called Wants for Sale. Each oil painting that they do is of an object or concept that they desire (i.e. an iPhone or some buffalo wings) and then they sell the painting for the cost of that object. For example their painting of a Slice of Pepperoni costs $3 while the Financial Security painting cost $1000000. They are also willing to trade if you have the exact item they want. There is something really refreshing about the honesty and directness of this approach.

Christine and Justin also have an even more brilliant sister site called Needs for Sale where they use the same approach to raise money for charity. You can buy paintings of a Toilet ($100 for Habitat for Humanity) or a Can of Peas ($250 for City Harvest). Not only do you get to donate to charity, you also get a piece of art with a great story behind it.

Puma Glow Rider

The Puma Glow Rider is the next rev of the Puma Bike, available this spring. The bike is part of Puma's Urban Mobility collection, focusing on products for young city dwellers. Similar to previous versions of the bike, the Glow Rider has several urban-centric features such as a built in auto-destruct lock and a semi-fold frame for transporting on buses or subways. The Glow Rider's main new feature is it's glow-in-the-dark frame to increase the bikes visibility at night. The frame will be available in two colors (Buttermilk which glows green, and Orange which glows more orange). The new bike will also come with a matching currier bag, riding jacket and t-shirt. This is a very well thought out city bike. All the features you need, and nothing you don't.

I'm Ventureing Outside for a Couple Days

I'm going to be stepping away from the computer for a few days to enjoy some fun in the sun. While I'm gone, please feel free to browse my archives or venture to some of these suggested links.

Who Knows What's Next

I've been researching videos with environmental messages lately. This is my favorite video that I've come across so far. It's called Who Knows What's Next by Three Legged Legs. What I like about it is that it is done from the perspective of the Earth, who has a 'case of the humans'. The short film entertainingly illustrates how humans slaughter all other forms of life, guzzle natural resources and poison the atmosphere - throwing off Earth's equilibrium. That all sounds very daunting, but the movie is done in such a way that it is funny and effective. I wouldn't want a case of the humans!

Lakai Recycled Shoes

Lakai has a refreshing approach to environmentally friendly shoes. They call it The Recycling Program. To eliminate waste, material offcuts that would otherwise be thrown out are used on the panels of The Recycling Program shoes. The shoe's sole is created from a mix of regrind rubber waste and new rubber, reducing the use of new material by 50%. No two shoes are exactly alike. In being honest to the recycling approach, designers only specify which of the shoe pannels are to be make out of recycled material. It is up to the manufacturers to determine what materials they have excess offcuts of to apply. Two of Lakai's shoe styles are available in The Recycling Program, the Kost-One (shown here) and the Coda. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

Baggu

The other day, my coworker Jessie was telling me that her New Year's resolution this year is to not use plastic bags. This struck me as a very smart and sensible resolution. It's a positive change, it's a bit of a challenge and it's realistically achievable. Anyway... this reminded me that I've been meaning to purchase these Baggu reusable shopping bags. I know there are a lot of reusable bags out there right now, but these are the ones I chose to go with. I like them because they are large (as in they hold a lot of stuff), but fold down to a small wallet size package. They come in all sorts of wonderful colours and cost $8 each (or $22 for 3 or $38 for 6, if you are really committed).

Glashaus

Online portfolios are a really hard thing to create. I'm always thinking of the next revision of mine and looking for good examples to take inspiration from. I came across this gorgeous one today. It's called Glashaus (Glasshouse) and it's the online portfolio of German graphic designer/illustrator Peter Hoffmann. It's elegant and minimal, allowing the work to be the main focus. Peter has some excellent content as well, including packaging design, logos, sketches and illustrations.

Quick Order

I stumbled across this Starbucks Quick Order application for the iPhone or iPod Touch. I believe the application is just a concept, but I hope it becomes a reality. Quick Order allows you to select your desired beverage using your phone, with detailed information such as size, type of milk, and any desired extras. The application then produces a 2D barcode for you to scan yourself in the store to avoid the line. You can save your favorite drinks for an even faster order process next time. Quick Order also includes a Quick Pay feature, with a predefined amount of credit, to complete the process. This application is well though out with great graphics and a nice overall Starbucks feel to it. This concept was created by multimedia designer Phil Lu.

Cinema Redux

Cinema Redux explores the idea of viewing an entire movie in one image. The above picture is a section of images taken from the movie Taxi Driver at one second intervals. The larger resulting picture shows some interesting poetic editing elements and insight into the overall tone and flow of the movie. I'd love to see one for a really color intensive movie such as Hero. This project was created by Brandan Dawes using the ever more popular open source programing language, Processing. (Found through Andre Brocatus was here...)

Free Air Guitars

This is a pretty rockn' marketing idea. To advertise 96.3 Rock Radio, posters reading 'Free Air Guitars - Please take one' were hung over seemingly empty guitar stands around Glasgow, Scotland. This is my kind of marketing. It's simple, amusing, and grabs your attention. (Found through Antisanti)

Your Husband Called

I saw this sign in a 3rd Avenue jewelry store yesterday. It says, 'Your husband called and said you can buy anything you want'. Ha! They clearly understand and embrace their customer base. I almost missed this sign because I was too distracted by the two pugs inside the store sitting on pink silk cushions. I'm filing this one under: Reasons why I love New York.

Big Dipper

I just finished watching this mesmerizing video of Sarah Van Gameren's recent Big Dipper exhibit at London's Design Museum. The project is a large machine that creates candle-dipped chandeliers. Two rows of strung wicks circle each other, periodically being dipped into wax. The process takes 12 hours to create 24 finished chandeliers. It's really beautiful to watch. (Found through Hip.Young.Thing).

Mark lives in IKEA

Comedian and filmmaker, Mark Malkoff, somehow convinced a New York area IKEA to let him live in their store this week while his apartment was being fumigated. He is filming his experiences and posting them on his website for your viewing pleasure. I had a nightmare about living in IKEA once, so this idea totally fascinates me. As Mark says, 80% of his house is IKEA anyway so what's the difference. Mark will be living at Paramus New Jersey IKEA until Saturday if you are inspired to go visit him. (Found on the ).http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

ClothTAG

Laundry instruction icons seem to be from a time before it was important to make icons easily understandable. I can never remember what the triangle means vs the circle. I always have to look them up - and I consider laundry one of my more developed domestic skills. One solution to this problem would be to just make better icons. Or... go the high tech route, like designer Samgmin Bae, and break out the RFIDs. Samgmin's ClothTAG concept uses the idea that laundry labels could have an RFID element that would be readable by washing machines and driers. Young domestic goddesses like myself (ha!) wouldn't have to know anything about laundry, the machines would be able to make appropriate adjustments. This isn't a completely new idea, but it's a more well executed concept then some of the others I've seen. (Found through Yanko Design).

MOO

MOO is a modern approach to a printing company that focuses on making virtual content into something interesting and tangible. They have a range of great products, all that are printed using your images or artwork from online sites such as Flickr, Bebo, Facebook, and more. I really like their MiniCards. You get 100 70mm x 28mm cards, each with an image on one side and a personalized message on the other side for $19.99. They also make greeting cards, sticker books and postcards. The best part is that each print can have a different image on it, so you get 100 unique MiniCards, 20 unique postcards, etc. I'm definitely going to order some. Oh, and they have global shipping so don't write this off as a US only experience.

Naming Names

Naming Names is an awesome interactive visualization created by Jonathan Corum and Farhana Hossain of The New York Times. The graphic examines how long the presidential candidates spoke at each debate leading up to the Iowa caucuses and who mentioned the other candidates by name during those debates. The bands around the outside represent each of the debates in order. The width of the ban shows the amount of words spoken in that debate. Scrolling over the politician's names isolates the arrows indicating who mentioned them during the debates. Clearly Mrs. Clinton was viewed as the biggest threat, as her name has by far the most arrows coming from both parties. (Found through the GOOD Magazine Blog).

Sony's ODO Twirl N' Take

Earlier this year, Sony introduced a line of green concept gadgets, called ODO, which get their power from alternative sources such as solar panels and mechanical cranks. The newest addition to the ODO line is this Twirl N' Take digital camera. Fifteen seconds or rolling provides enough juice for one photo. I like that they chose to go with rolling over a hand crank. It seems much less tedious. The rolling approach also lead to an interesting form which also creates a natural view finder and handle. Very cool concept. (Found through Apartment Therapy Re-Nest).

Constructive Eating Utensils

I'm filing this one under: Things that make me wish I was a two year old boy. It's a super cute construction utensil set for children, designed by a husband and wife team. I love that the set consists of a fork, spoon, and PUSHER! Can you tell that I got in trouble for playing with my food? Newly available on The Spoon Sisters website.

Claudia Schulz Hats

Check out these gorgeous hat designs by Vancouver based designer Claudia Schulz. Her style is a modern take on hats from the 20s and 30s. They have elegant clean lines offset by funky stitching, accessories and colours. I want one of each... this could get expensive. (Found through the always inspiring swissmiss ).

Positive

Positive is a conceptual project created by Stephen Woowat, a British graphic designer. The concept is a Negativity Refuse Bag to throw out physical items that have emotional baggage attached to them. The bags encourage you to "Throw away that photo of the ex, or that poor performance report and forget about it". This is a smart, well executed, idea with a lot of thinking behind it. My favorite part of the bag is the instructions for use which include: Dispose of bag in nearest trash receptacle; Close eyes; Take a deep breath; Think positive thoughts.

Borders

Borders is an interesting approach to a world map. It features countries represented by blocks, sized and arranged to show bordering land or water masses. Although it's technically still a map, what it shows almost more of a political statement then a geographical one. This map was created by the inspiring young graphic artist and thinker Robin Howie.

Robotlab's Bios [Bible]

Robotlab is a future thinking group of Germans who create social interaction experiments between people and robots in public spaces. One of their more recent projects is entitled Bios [Bible]. It is a museum exhibit where an industrial robot is writing out the Bible on scrolls in a calligraphic style as monks have traditionally done. If the idea of this makes you gasp a little, that's a good thing. The project is meant to make people question their thoughts on faith and technical progress.