Paper Plates

This is a fabulous graphic idea for paper plates. Actually it's a great idea for proper plates as well. These Paper Plates were created by Joshua Gajownik for Lilly Stein.

Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers has all sorts of fabulous work on his website. It ranges from loose sketches to realistic paintings and book illustrations. I like his style a lot. It is very sophisticated but very relaxed.

The Best Things

I saw this on Ffffound yesterday. It made me smile and temporarily cleared the industrial design haze of my day.

Altered Objects

I'm temporarily preoccupied thinking about these pieces of musical artwork by Celia Richards. It is part of her Altered Objects series. I'm particularly partial to the music sheets because I enjoy the thought of trying to collect or free the notes from of the page. There is something really lovely about the notes of a song all mixed up in a zip lock bag. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog)

King of Kong

I just finished watching the movie King of Kong. I highly recommend it. It is extreme neediness overlaid with crazy madness. The movie is a documentary about a guy trying to beat the Donkey Kong high score. I know, I know, that could be a potentially terrible documentary, but it's totally not. I had no idea that the world of classic gaming was so much like a high school drama.

Flocks

I just discovered the company Flocks today. It's a dutch knitwear company that creates clothing, rugs and furniture. The company was started by designer Christien Meindertsma. All of their products come with fabulous graphic tags that give praise to the animal that supplied the raw materials for the product. My favorites are these angora gloves and the rug with looks like a scaled up version of a sweater (it was the giant knitting needle photo that sold me).

Country Codes

This map of the internet country codes is really nice to look at. I wouldn't use it as an information resource (I mean, who uses .US anyway?) but it's a great graphic. Available as a poster from Byte Level.

Bjork's Wanderlust Video in 3D

Bjork is know for taking creative liberties with her music, her fashion and her videos. She puts the art back in artist. The newest version of her Wanderlust video is no exception. The video is able to be viewed in 3D, using old school blue-red 3D glasses. The release of this video caused a You Tube worthy, wanna-be-MacGyver, 3D glass making episode at my house. Let me just say that bags of Kool Aid are not adequate substitutes for red acetate. You can view the 3D video on the Wired website, along with their (proper) instructions on how to make your own 3D glasses.

Vita

I enjoyed looking through this newly posted Flickr photo set called Vita, by user Zeissizm. It is a series of gorgeous black and white animal photos. This polar bear shot is one of my favorites.

The Footprint Chronicles

There are a lot of companies that are making an effort to be more environmentally friendly, but few companies are taking it as seriously as Patagonia. They state that their 'reason for being is to make the best product and cause no unnecessary harm'. Patagonia's new Footprint Chronicles is an indication of their commitment to being green. It is a website that depicts a refreshingly honest view of the manufacturings impact of a few select Patagonia products. It maps and calculates the distance the product traveled, the carbon dioxide emissions, waste generated, and energy consumed during the manufacturing of the products. (Found through Cool Hunting).

Get Clean Stay Green

If you are trying to think of ways to make your life more green this lovely Earth Day, why not try cutting down your shower time. This $3 shower timer from Envirosax can help keep you on track. It sticks to your shower wall and keeps your cleaning routine down to 4 minutes. You can save water and make the people you share your bathroom with happy all at the same time. (Found through Ecofriend).

Bilingual Sign

Ha! I love Canadian humour.

Re-Set

Re-Set is a great combination of two products, the Re-baby cradle and the Re-tire rocking chair. The two can be attached together using leather straps to create one super rocker. The cradle can also be repurposed later as a rocking horse (using the provided saddle replacement) allowing it to grow with your child. This lovely furniture was designed by the design collective e27.

One Day Poem Pavilion

I'm totally in love with this project. It is called the One Day Poem Pavilion. It's the thesis project of Art Center student Jiyeon Song. The pavilion is an experiment in typography. Sun shinning through the dome creates a poem in light on the ground. The poem is reveled, line by line, throughout the day as the sun passes over the pavilion. The content of the poem naturally changes through out the year as the sun shifts it's position in the sky. The poem's message is sensitive to the time of the year, with a 'new life' theme during the summer and a 'reflective' theme in the winter. I appreciate that this project is so simple and yet so complex at the same time. Check out more of Jiyeon's very well written explanation of the pavilion, including sketches and a time lapse video, on the project's website.

Dropclock

I have been enjoying this Dropclock screensaver for the past couple weeks. It shows the time in Helvetica numbers dropping super slow-mo into water. You can choose between white on black, or black on white. Unlike most clocks, this is very calming to watch the minutes slip by.

Twinkie Bake Set

So... continuing on with the old school theme that is emerging this week, check out this Twinkie Bake Set. If you have ever driven past the old Hostess factory store in Brooklyn with me, you will have probably heard about my over-stuffed Twinkie fantasy. If you too dream about discount Twinkies with too much filling, stop dreaming and start baking.

Kiss FM Ad

Ha! I'm loving the combination of retro references in this ad for Last FM. It's a bit misquoted, but making me giggle none the less.

Where's Waldo, Google Earth Style

I was a huge Where's Waldo nerd in the late 80s, so I'm loving this idea. Canadian artist, Melanie Coles, has created a Web 2.0 version of Where's Waldo by painting an image of Waldo on a secret rooftop. The challenge is to be able to find Waldo on Google Earth. Google's secret and sporadic updates of its satellite images mean that it's unpredictable not only where Waldo will show up, but when. Melanie's Where On Earth is Waldo website encourages other people to hide Waldos by providing complete how-to instructions.

Ten Thousand Cents

I'm not sure why, but I'm totally enthralled by Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I just can't get enough information about it. I'm particularly fascinated by Aaron Koblin's artistic take on the the Turk (see previous post - The Sheep Market). His latest project is Ten Thousand Cents, created in collaboration with Takashi Kawashima. Thousands of Mechanical Turk workers were asked to paint a small section of a $100 bill using a custom drawing tool. They were paid one cent for their work. None of the workers were aware of the final image they were contributing to. You can click on any image in the bill to watch how it was drawn. Very cool.

11 - The Beautiful Game

11-The Beautiful Game is a stunning foosball table created by GRO design and Tim modelmakers. This one-off prototype will be showing next week at the Milan Design Week 2008. It's combination of fluid lines, lighting effects, and chromed players make this a truly elegant and modern take on a classic design. Let's hope they choose to put it into production.

Do The Test

Check out this awareness test advertisement created by Transport for London. I won't say too much about it. You have to just watch it for yourself.

10mg Interactive Bunny Surgery

The 10mg Interactive site is such a great little advertisement for a web design company. It requires you to preform emergency surgery on a teddy rabbit against the clock. You can't help but keep playing!

Start Here Notebooks

I like the simple but innovative idea behind the Start Here notebooks. The notebooks link together to form larger notebooks. This idea appeals to me because when you get to the end of a notebook it's not always a smooth transition to next one. Linking them together, allows you to keep all your recent information together. Then you are ready to fully commit to the new notebook, you can detach and cut down again. Notebooks come in lined, blank, planner, or mixed formats. Pocket or tab accessories are also available.

Pigeon Ring Necklaces

I was attracted to these Pigeon Ring Necklaces from Chinny Chin Chin. It's an interesting concept of creating necklaces out of racing pigeon's tags. I think it was the packaging that really sold it on me. Each necklace comes with a stylin' portrait of the athlete, accompanied by some information about their likes and dislikes. I like Mr. T who enjoys mice and malted milk biscuits but dislikes vegetables. I'm going to get one of these for my friend Katy who adores pigeons. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).