Do you ever need a little reminder of what life was like when you had no money? If so, consider investing in this money clip by LeeAnn Herreid.The engraved message, THINK OF WHEN YOU HAD NONE, may help you think twice as you reach for that twenty. Just for good measure, the clip comes packaged on a pile of shredded US bills. You can buy it on Elsewares.
>If you are not familiar with Banksy's work, check it out at www.banksy.co.uk. Banksy is a British graffiti artist known for his controversial work that often pokes fun at political issues and modern society. His works can be seen on the streets of London and in other cities around the world. Some of his most well known works are the 9 images he painted on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier depicting children playing in front of large holes in the wall.
The Banksy website has a good collection of his work and now includes a Shop where you can download large format images of his work for free. While you are there also check out the Mail section. There are some pretty entertaining emails from fans and critics. (Thanks Q)
This is an interesting look at the relationship between language and politics. It's an interface that maps prominent words in American State of the Union addresses from 1790-2007. The keywords from each speech are mapped based on their position within the speech and their frequency of use. Using the timeline you can scroll back and forth between the addresses. This creates a pretty interesting glimpse of US history. The words range from Colonies to Globalization, from Indians to Iraqis, and from Freedom to Terror. Explore it for yourself here.
Ever been in a conversation where someone will just not shut up? How about overhearing a friend tell a story that is spiraling quickly towards disaster and embarrassment? Well here is the solution. Just dig into your pocket or bag, grab one of these cards and hand it over. You can buy a set of 25 for $8 at Set Editions.
I'm fascinated by Jessica Hagy's blog called Indexed. She creates charts and graphs to, as she says, make fun of some things and sense of others. Each graph tells a story, much the same way an editorial cartoon in a newspaper does. This are making me rethink my negative attitudes towards graphs and charts! (Thanks Katy)
If you know me then you have probably been sent this link at some time or another. I never get tired of it. It's the music video for the Evil Nine song Crooked. Awesome Flash animation. Shhhhh, the baby's sleeping...
The Darfur Wall is a unique approach to raising money and awareness for a noteworthy cause. It is a virtual wall made up of the numbers 1 to 400 000, each number representing a person killed in Darfur. By donating one dollar you light up a number of your choice. As the numbers turn from gray to white, the panels of the wall start to glow. You can zoom out and animate the donations over time so watch the wall being built. Simple and very effective! Check it out at www.darfurwall.org
Knock Knock is a design and manufacturing company that creates brilliantly witty stationary and gifts. Their check pads are humorously useful. My favorite is the Mood Alert pad that lets the writer indicate how their day was (Stellar, Mind-numbing, Horrendous...), what they need tonight (Drink, Punching bag, Miracle...), and if you know what's good for you (Make Dinner, Run Interference, Shut up...). Also check out their Corporate or Slang Flashcards and the their great line of greeting cards like the one seen above. Their products are all very affordable and can be purchased at www.knockknock.biz
The Ikea Dream Kitchens site is great example of why I love Flash sites. This sites features the kitchens in a freeze framed action shot that you can turn. One kitchen flows into the next. Very nicely done. Turn up the volume for full effect.
This advertising campaign for Denver Water is pretty effective. It grabs your attention and its simple message is reinforced by the visuals. The fact that is about water is a little lost in the print material, but I still like it. The water aspect comes across in the commercials.On a side note, the Sukle site is awesome. Glad to see someone still has a sense of humor when it comes to websites.
These snow globes designed by Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz are somewhat eerie but totally gorgeous. Check out the more of the collection here.
Adobe Labs has just launched a new site called Kuler.Kuler is a tool to help create color schemes.You can browse through schemes created by other users or create your own.Start with a specified color (using RGB, CMYK, etc.) and Kuler will show you Analgous colors, complementary colors, or different shades of the same color amongst other options.I always find choosing color schemes really difficult.This is a great tool.
This is a pretty cool site put together by Motorola to highlight the fact that you can buy their phones in any color that makes you happy. You can use the colored, uh... paintbrushes to create collages of colored shapes. Check it out here. (Thanks Green!)
The design of child friendly medical instruments and dispensers is such a good use of a designer's skills. It is adding that little bit of fun or comfort to a negative situation. I saw this UFO inhaler on the Reset Design site which features a lot of student work. This project was designed by Pjotr Goessen of the Design Academy Eindhoven. Click here to read the full description.
Design Sponge had a posting yesterday about Cinq Cinq Designers. I really like these sugar cube cup handles but what I think is even more brilliant is the mouth shaped chocolates! There is a range of shapes to melt in your mouth just the way you like it... flat on the tongue, roof of the mouth, between tongue and cheek. Why didn't I think of this!
Check out Aaron Koblin's animations of flight pattern over the US. I like how you can tell the passing of time by the patterns.
The ladies from FRONT design in Sweden have developed a method to turn free hand sketches into real objects. They use Motion Capture to record their pen strokes in the air. The data is turned into 3D files and sent to a rapid prototyping machine. The result is not exactly pretty but I like the interesting mixture of processes.
Watch the process on this You Tube video.
I realize that this site is kind of just a big advertisement for BSD Medical, but what brilliant advertising. This is such a lovely idea. Basically it is a big virtual garden where anyone can go and plant a flower for someone with a message attached. You can look through the garden at other people's messages and "add water too them" by choosing to add comments such as "You brightened my day" or "I with you the best". The original intention of the site was to positively influence people dealing with cancer but the garden has flowers that have been planted for many different reasons.
Visit the garden at www.flowersforhope.com
I'm a big fan of vector based artwork, and David Lanham's is some of the most enjoyable that I have seen in a long time. You can tell that he has a lot of fun creating these pieces. David is generous enough to allow you to download high-res images of is work as wallpaper, but give they guy some props and order an 8.5" x 11" print for $30.
WorldChanging.com has released a book that is a collection of the site's contents from the past 3 years. World Changing refers to the book as a "groundbreaking compendium of the most innovative solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future".
