reprodepot

Some delightful kitchen appropriate fabrics from reprodepot. The lemons are my favorite.

Blossa Glögg

Lovely packaging from Swedish design firm BVD for Blossa Glögg, a vintage mulled wine. The shape for this annual edition remains consistent, but the color and typography change to reflect the flavor of each year.

Learn how to make your own Glögg here.

Flavor Paper: Scratch and Sniff Wallpaper

Flavor Paper, the masters of delicious wallpaper design, have introduced tropical fruit scented scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. The Fruit Cocktail Collection is hand silk screened and includes varietals: B-A-N-A-N-A-S!, Cherry Forever, and Tutti Frutti. The project was kickstarted when Michael Angelo asked Flavor Paper if they could really make a scented wallpaper. I wonder if Flavor Paper will introduce a true flavored paper, a la Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), employing taste marketing strip technology. I imagine this novelty paper having a shelf life, which would make it a good choice for wrapping paper or drawer liners. $150 USD per roll and a percentage of sales goes to the Human Rights Campaign.

Links via Outblush.

More Watercolor Work

My friend Shiho Nakaza just recommended the lovely watercolor work of Chitose Yogi.


Shiho is also a watercolor illustrator. She has a blog where she posts an illustration each Friday. Prints of her work are available through Thumbtack Press.

Holiday Gift Guide 2007: Part 3: Stocking Stuffers

I need this iPod Lego mini speaker for my cubicle at work. I just wish there were other colors available. $19.75 USD from Delight. (Update 03/29/08: More colors available from Fred Flare).



Yummy Hostess cupcake coin purse from Fred Flare for $14 USD.



Magnetic picture frames for a refrigerator gallery or magnetic cubicle wall. £14.95 for a set of 3.



Garden in a Bag from Sprout Home, $7.50 USD and Amazon for $5.19 USD.



These Pins from Barrel of Monkeys are great and they are only $1 USD.
*pimp pin
*ho pin
*hey cupcake pin
*SLR pin
*holga pin



These punctuation page markers are available on Amazon for $7.95 USD or on Fred Flare for $9 USD.



This Napoleon Dynamite Sleep Mask makes a funny stocking stuffer. Make it a his and hers gift with the Holly Golightly sleep mask I previously posted about. Available on Amazon for $9 USD here and on Fred Flare.


More stocking stuffers from:
*Fred Flare
*Delight

A Bakers Dozen: 13 Links #5

*patient with multiple personalities sketches her 17 alter egos
*87 great photography blogs and feeds
*annual report that must to be cooked before read

*a bunch of videos that will make you laugh your ass off
*don't play with your food plates
*crit buns
*craft a paper pinhole camera
*Unbelieveable! This Is Not Butter!

*subversive cross stitch:

*Bread and Butter: Letterpress Cards
*Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities
*How to load large format film holders (video tutorial)
*nail polish with magnetic particles

Holiday Gift Guide 2007: Part 2: White Elephant

This electronic yodelling pickle may be the perfect White Elephant Gift. It will surely evoke an "um…, thanks…" response. You can hear a sample of the yodelling here.

Other items from Archie McFee:
*World's Largest Underpants
*Jesus Pencil Toppers
*Sushi Bandages
*Corn Dog Air Freshener
*Fiber Optic Mullet Wig
*Cherry Flavored Marie Antoinette Head Lollipops
*Nun Punching Puppet
*Stuffed Latex Armadillo

I feel like I have hit the White Elephant Gift jackpot.

Pickle link via Delicious Manifesto.

Linzie Hunter Prints Now Available

Linzie Hunter just emailed me to announce that prints of her spam one-liners are now on sale through Thumbtack Press. Yay!

Update:
*12/05/07: Linzie posted a new (limited edition) print for purchase on 20 x 200.

Amy Stevens: Confections

Amy Stevens photographs overly decorated desserts against analogous backdrops. The cakes are wonderfully mangled and evoke the mood of 1950's cookbook photography. I'm in love.

Link via Fly.

Joey Roth's Sorapot

I love when all aspects of a design's form and function seem considered. The handle of this incredibly well designed, sleek and sexy teapot acts as a heat sink to prevent tea from oversteeping. Preorder for $129 USD plus $50 deposit.

Update:
*12/22/07: Video of the sorapot in use.

2007 Holiday Gift Guide: Part 1

Tomorrow is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. If you are looking for black Friday deals, but don't want to wait in a line in a dark parking lot at 4:00 AM, some retailers are hosting Black Friday events online. Amazon is offering hourly deals from 6 am to 6 pm PST along with thousands of products that are only on sale for a limited time. Wrapping is also only $.99 USD per product and they have a $10,000 USD shopping spree to sign up for. Since almost everything is available on Amazon these days, I am excited to cross a few people off my list tomorrow.

Here are some great giftable items to kick start my 2007 Holiday Gift Guide.

Flip and Tumble

If someone on your list is inclined to bring their own bag to the market, consider upgrading their ugly branded nature sac. The 24-7 bag from flip and tumble is an understated, unbranded, not too feminine, compact way to bring your own bag. 4 Colors available, $15 USD each. Some other alternatives to paper or plastic here.


Crumble, Crackle, Burn: Book & DVD

120 royalty-free textures to use in your design work. Available for $23.10 USD from Amazon here.


"Come in" / "Go Away" Mat

Available here for $25 USD and here for £15.00.


Harry and David Royal Riviera Pears

I always thought sending fruit in the mail was lame until I tasted a Harry and David Pear. It is like no other and I look forward to eating one each year. Send a package to some of the families on your list. 12 gigantic pears for $64.95 USD available here.


Baby Foot Print Kit

A modern update to a classic tradition. If somebody on your list is expecting, this baby foot imprint set may be a good choice. $35 USD from MoMA.


Cupcakes! Deck

Delicious photographs, fun typography and cupcake recipes. $14.95 USD on Amazon.

Stay tuned! A few more installments of the 2007 Holiday Gift Guide are on its way. In the meantime, peruse my archives for other giftable items here.

Heide Honey Packaging

Some beautiful and simple honey packaging designed by David Pidgeon.

From David's website:

Heide Museum of Modern Art produces and sells its own honey. The packaging and point-of-sale poster are both based on the Hex typeface developed by the studio.

Art of the Business Card

Some great business card inspiration here.

Above (Top to Bottom):

*Ellen Jackson Portraiture by Eric Kass.
*Unknown
*Hammerpress Letterpress

Frankenfowl

Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. I usually don't like turkey and casseroles gross me out. I always find myself eating 4 bread rolls and a slice of pie, turning away grandma's famed onion and grey green bean conglom. Last year I read about two Thanksgiving foods that take it to the next level of gross for me: the turducken and the chuckney.

From Wikipedia:

Turducken: partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken

Chuckney: turkey stuffed with a chicken which is then stuffed with a duckling

Now that's Foul.

Update:
*12/18/07: Anne Petch has created a 48 bird frankenfowl.
*02/10/08: Another frankenmeat, the bacon pig, is a pork hot dog encased in ground pork, wrapped it in bacon, and formed into the likeness of a pig.

Feel Script

It has been a while since I have been excited about a newly released typeface, but as the campaign suggests, I am finding myself so seduced by Feel Script that I will probably break down and buy it. Feel Script is a delightful, delicious, and confident calligraphic typeface designed by Alejandro Paul that comes complete with sexy swashes, alternates, and ligatures. I cannot wait to use it on a project. Buy it on Veer.

Friday Flickr Favorites: Bathtub Portraits

I have noticed a trend of creative bathtub portraits on Flickr lately. Here are a few.

From top to bottom:

1. Red Water by Pequena Suricata.
2. sarah by Brea Souders.
3. drownEd ... #3 by constantX.

Suck UK

More fun giftable items from Suck UK, the distributors of the My Cuppa Tea mug.

*Genie Wine Bottle Stopper
*Splat Stan Coaster

Vasava: Tasty Hamburger Lettering

I love this burger lettering for HP. This artist and Robert Bolesta should make a family of fonts called hamburgefons.

Technical Question: Something weird happens with blogger where it resizes long images, so I have little control of how my posts look. I would like the above image (and all others) to appear the same width. If anyone out there can help me, it would be much appreciated.

Meg Werner: The Morning Sun

Prints of this lovely photo are available for purchase on etsy.

Laser Skate Decks

Check out these fantastically intricate lasercut skate decks from Refill Seven. That texture on the tongue trips me out. I'd love to see bags made with something like this at the end of their life cycle, but these decks are too beautiful to use in the first place.

A Bakers Dozen: 13 Links #4

*pantone flight stool
*paper mojo
*custom wallpaper
*the typographic work of Greg Lamarche
*book: cereal killers
*music graphics blog

*clever hearing aid package
*have a bit of fun while washing dishes
*Target's Bioplastic Gift Cards

*for all you clockwatchers out there
*mom spit
*stop receiving all of those catalogs

*smart drink tray

Watercolor Fashion Portraits

Some beautiful work from artists Leesa Leva and Stina Persson and Coco Pit. I love watercolor.

The Glitchbrowser

Above is my work glitched using The Glitchbrowser, which distorts all of the images in a website.

Another Cool Mug Concept

This mug could help take the guesswork out of pouring coffee for someone else.

For those that don't drink drip coffee, here is an infographic to help understand a few of the fancy coffee drinks.

Browse for tons o' other mugs here.

Links via the wonderful swissmiss.

Marian Bantjes

A beautifully visualized map of artistic influences from artist Marian Bantjes.

Brainbow: Brain Mapping

If these were for commercial sale, this would be ego art. Researchers have found a way to label each neuron in the brain with a different color and the result is stunning. Some of the images remind me of Gustav Klimt's work. I want to know what my brain looks like when visualized this way. If it were easy to coordinate and possible to do (they have only mapped mice this way), I would love to run an experiment—map 10 people's brains, print the maps very large and hang them in a gallery space—see which ones the 10 people gravitate towards. Would they gravitate to their own vibration? Would they gravitate to their lovers or best friends? People they hate? Maybe there is a fine artist in me afterall.

Magenta™?

I really doubt T-Mobile is going to get away with this, but they are trying to own the color magenta—at least in the tele-communications sector. They have already trademarked the color, sued Dutch company Compello, and are urging Slam FM and 100% NL to quit using magenta. There is an article about this, an interesting stream of comments on Colourlovers, and a petition to reclaim the pink hue.

I am not an expert, but I think trademarking "magenta" is too broad and wouldn't hold up in court. I have heard of other companies, such as Tiffany and Company, reserving specially formulated Pantone colors so that no other company can use that spot color. But trademarking one of the members of CMYK? That's not right. Also, are they trademarking tints of magenta? How about 100% magenta mixed with 5% of cyan? Are a few pages of my Pantone book now reserved for T-Mobile? What about brands that were already using magenta? What if T-Mobile expanded their business into other business sectors. Would they own the color magenta for those, too? Can they trademark the hyphen? What if other brands get on the color trademarking bandwagon. Will I have no other colors to work with? Can I trademark the use of a a common typeface, too. I would like to own Minion. That's mine. You can't use it. In fact, I also own black.

So many ridiculous questions.

Similar news:
*Cadbury does not own the color purple

Nik Ainley: Shinybinary

Drop by Shinybinary for some inspirational eye candy. I like this moody yet colorful cloud illustration.



If you like the work, you can buy prints here.

To Do Lists

My to-do lists are about as schizophrenic as my sketchbooks. I write things down, misplace my lists and then consolidate/rewrite when I find them. It is a mess and a vicious circle, really. I never enjoy the cathartic experience of crossing something off my lists because I loose them before I can cross an item off. I am not sure how I ever get things done. Maybe this 3-way pad from Knock-Knock will help me. The notepad has three lists: home, work, play. Now if I can just stick with it and not get bored. How do you manage to keep track of everything?

Andy Smith

More playful typography from Andy Smith. ou can buy some of Andy's prints and books here.

Via Fly.

Typography and Ceramics

Pottery marks and other typography in ceramics.

Via swissmiss.

Linzie Hunter: Spam One-Liners

Linzie Hunter letters one-liners from junk mail she receives. What a great concept. Linzie recently made moo cards of her spam illustrations, but they are not currently for sale. Darn.

UPDATE:
*11/25/07: Prints of these are now available through Thumbtack Press.
*12/05/07: Linzie posted a new (limited edition) print for purchase on 20 x 200.

Tim Lahan

The design of Tim Lahan's portfolio site is as solid as his work. Featured above is a fun pattern created for Tazo and an interesting experiment with common advertising words.