Days with My Father

Phillip Toledano has done some wonderful photographic collections. I think his recent series, entitled Days with My Father, is my favorite. It is a very candid collection of photographs and commentary about life with his 98 year old father. It is a very heartfelt and touching collection.

SF Zoo Critter Quest

The San Fransisco Zoo has a fun participatory ad campaign called Critter Quest. They use a series of 4 bus shelter poster depicting pieces of animals. Passersby are encouraged to take a picture of themselves as a peacock, giraffe, butterfly or kudu and send it to the San Fransisco Zoo website gallery. This is a great advertising idea. It's fun, it gets people interested and involved, and it gives people a reason to visit the website. (Found through Marketing Alternatif).

WALL-E

I went to see WALL-E today. It was fabulous. Like most Pixar movies, I was very inspired by the story, the characters, and most of all, the artwork. The story is about a robot (WALL-E) that is left on an abandon Earth to clean up the garbage. The movie has very little dialog but tons of story. The robots are all full of character and personality. I was also super amused and fascinated by their interpretation of the future. If you are inspired by Pixar's art, I recommend checking out the Art of Pixar books. I recently purchased The Art of WALL-E.

Shit Happens

I never thought I'd say these words but... check out these super cute Dog Poo Bags! Not only are they funny, they are also super functional. They have a smart folding scoop feature, a useful handle (opposite to the business end of the bag), and they are biodegradable. (Found through Notcot.com).

FontStruct

And speaking of fonts... I just came across this great font building software called FontStruct. It allows you to build, share and download fonts for free. The gallery of designed fonts is very inspiring. (Discovered through Springwise).

Font Conference

If you are someone who works with fonts on a daily basis, you will definitely appreciate this Font Conference video from CollegeHumor. It is a brilliant comedic video that personifies fonts. It's full of fantastic typography jokes. My favorite character is Wingding... "Mailbox! Open Mailbox!". (Found through ComputerLove).

The Human Race

Nike has come up with an interesting concept for a worldwide 10K run that they are calling The Human Race. The race is scheduled to take place on August 31 2008. In 25 cities, such as Vancouver or Madrid, there will be organize race routes. But participation is not limited to these cities. Nike is encouraging anyone with the Nike Plus software and hardware to also take part. Their website offers training routines where you can track your progress.

Stopener

Great student design by Bum Joon Lee and Seung Hwan Shin. Winner of an IDEA Bronze award, this concept aims to improve pop cans by turning the tab into a twisting lid. The closing top reduces spilling on the carpet and more importantly... swallowing bees.

Wilton Rolling Pin

Rolling pins have looked and worked the same for decades. Wilton has finally successfully redesigned the rolling pin by addressing their one major flaw - they are hard to clean. The Wilton Rolling Pin has detachable handles, allowing it to be fully submersible in water and dishwasher safe. This is a major design victory on behalf of us lazy bakers. Design work by A2 Inc. Winner of an IDEA Bronze award.

PT3

This fabulous PT3 table tennis packaging was created for Puma by the brilliant Aruliden design and branding consultancy. The design is made up of two plastic halves held together by magnets, housing the paddle and ball sets. The design is simple and elegant. I've used this image in most of the image boards that I've done this year. This design recently won two prestigious design awards: an IDEA Bronze award in the Leisure & Recreation category and a I.D. Annual Review Best in Category award for Packaging.

Zune Branding Animations

Nervo Design and Animation has created these great animations for Zune. There are 5 unique animations. The short videos are meant as a branding accompaniment for Zune events and presentations. They are slightly random but in a interestingly captivating way. (Found through one of my favorites, Computerlove).

Destroy Today Calendar Screensaver

I've been using Dropclock as my screensaver for the past few months but I think it's time to move on. I'm considering this calender screensaver by Destroy Today as a replacement. It's subtle, clean, informative and interesting.

2008 IDEA Awards

This year's IDEA awards (International Design Excellence Awards) were announced on Friday. I'll try and cover a few of my favorites over the next few days. In the mean time check out the winner galleries on the IDSA or the Business Week websites.

Music Animation Machine

I attended Edward Tufte's class today. The class itself wasn't as inspiring as I had hoped for. I was inspired by the class's opening example - this Music Animation Machine by Stephen Malinowski. The Music Animation Machines visualizes music by animating the notes one on top of the other. The effect is very beautiful and allows you to see the complexity of the compositions. The Music Animation Machine is not new, it was first animated in the mid 80's, which is part of what I like about it.

SenseSurface

I'm always looking for great examples of hardware and software coming together. SenseSurface got me very excited. It is real physical turn dials being applied to laptop screens to control software. The knobs are magnetic and promise to be gentle on your screens. The sensing knobs have a custom designed movement sensor to determine position within approx 180 degrees with a 10 bit digital output, linearity typically 1%. Designed by Lyndsay Williams.

Flee Digital Camera

Flee is a digital camera with an areal twist. The camera is built into a badminton birdie style housing with a Bluetooth transmitter. When Flee is thrown, it starts taking pictures and transmitting them to your mobile phone. Designed by Hakan Bogazpinar. (Found through Cool Hunting).

Lost Cat

I saw this humorous poster in downtown Seattle.

Touched Echo

I'm immediately adding this one to my Personal Favorites. Touch Echo is a stunningly simple and effective outdoor exhibit in Dresden, Germany. It uses bone conduction technology (sound transfered through the bones to vibrate the ear drum, allowing you to hear sounds that have no noise) to listen to the sounds of the 13th February 1945 air raid that happened at that location. Visitors to the site put their elbows on the railing and cup their hands over their ears to hear the raid. I think this is a brilliant use of bone conduction. I particularly like the respectful, meditative pose that it forces listeners to adopt which adds to the experience and the message it has to others watching. This concept also has a sense of magic to it which I really like. The idea of a specific pose transporting you to another place and time, while others around you are unaware, is quite amazing.

People Collector

I'm a fan of wacky photography projects and collections, so People Collector is right up my alley. It's a gallery of themed sets of photos that show off "humanity in all its splendor". Some of the collections are super fabulous because you know you have a picture of yourself that would fit right in. Collections include: Blind In A Car (shown above), Air Guitar, Blue Face, Falling Off A Bike, Green Sweater... amongst others. The photos themselves are very regular, but put together in a group, the regularity is what makes them special. Photo Collector is the idea of Julien Pacaud and Mathilde Aubier.

Pulse

Pulse is a live visualization of recent emotional expressions written on blogger.com. Blogged emotional expressions are parsed using a list of synonyms which are translated into physical changes on a rubbery heart. This project has a fascinating mix of human emotions and computer data data. Feelings are coded as data in blogs, and the data is turned back into Pulse, an object with its own sense of life. I appreciate that the end result seems very alive, but very robotic at the same time. It appropriately represents the mix of warm emotions and cold data that are feeding it. Pulse is the thesis project of University of the Arts Berlin student, Markus Kison. (Found through Computerlove).

Barcode Plantage

German design student, Daniel A Becker, had created this great interpretation of a barcode reader. Barcode Plantage is a barcode visualizer, programmed using Processing. The program turns barcodes into coloured Bezier curves, complete with an auditory interpretation and definition of some of the number's meanings. Prints of the barcodes are available for $7 each.

Matchstick Garden

This is my kind of gardening!

Flower Shop on Google Maps

I found this image on Flickr, of a flower shop with a sign in the window reading "We're famous, find us on Google Maps". This is cheeky and brilliant marketing on the part of Google.co.uk. It's simple, comical, and works for any store.

DIY Google Images

Fun with photos. Create you own low tech Google Images sheet. Just print out a Google Images results page (with appropriate titles), cut out the images, and take a photo (of the appropriate subject) though the paper. (Found through Fubiz).

Cuisipro Ice Cream Scoop & Stack

I know this might make you ice cream traditionalists twitch a little, but I like this ice cream scoop from Cuisipro. The scoop creates cylinders of ice cream, perfect for stacking.

Daylesford Organic

I've newly discovered Great Britain's Daylesford Organic. It's an organic store that specializes in food and home products. Their website is drool-worthy gorgeous. It's branding at its best. Plus, they have some refreshing approaches to products, like this fresh organic milk packaged in environmentally friendly, biodegradable, fold-flat milk jugs (slash bags).

The Souvenir Shop

Happy Canada Day! Celebrate by obtaining some designer Canadian souvenirs, care of the fabulous Souvenir Shop. They have lots of great glimpses into the Canadian mind. My favorite is the Tent Peg Bottle Opener. Awesome Eh?