Chris Ware's The New Yorker Cover

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Chris Ware has created this thought provoking piece of artwork for the cover of The New Yorker's November issue. It is beautiful to look at, with a season appropriate theme, and some strong underlying messages about modern society. This panel is part of a larger comic called Unmasked. The whole thing can be seen here (although I think it is more effective as a stand alone piece).

(Found through Design Milk).

Bank Notes

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Ken Habarta has just written a book about the notes that people use to rob banks. He has been posting daily examples of the notes on the blog Bank Notes. Each note is accompanied by a picture of the robber and an icon indicating if the robbery was successful or not. The website is searchable, in case you are only interested in robberies involving polite notes (search for the word "thanks" and "please"). From what I can gather, there is not much of an art to writing a robbery note. The website even has a random bank note generator... in case you are in a hurry.

The GOOD 100

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I've been thoroughly enjoying The GOOD 100, this month. It is GOOD Magazine's list of the most important, exciting and innovative people, ideas and products making our world better. The 100 cover a wide range of scope and subject from smarter trash cans to same sex marriage advocates. The list is made up of of projects, people and ideas nominated by a combination of the extended GOOD team, and its readers. You can check out the whole list online here.

Beehaus

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Omlet, the designers behind the Eglu, are now taking on the world of bees. The Beehaus is a product designed to raise bees in your back yard or rooftop. Because as they say, bees in your garden, honey on your toast! The Beehaus holds 24 frames, enough for two colonies. It is designed to keep both you and your bees comfortable. It provides solid insulation to keep the bees warm, and a raised design for a suitable working height for you.

Looks like a great learning experience. Let's just hope your neighbours also love honey more then they hate bees.

Chocolate Mail

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I'm constantly horrified at the idea of having to lick stamps or envelopes. They taste terrible. There is no need for this (as this week I discovered you can buy mint flavored fake blood - if they can make fake blood taste good, surely they can make stamps taste good). Enter the brilliant design mind of Toby Ng. Toby has created Chocolate Mail. It is a conceptual project about redesigning stamps to taste like chocolate. The chocolate stamps would come in 3 different flavors, dark, milk or white, and would be sold in sets of 24 resembling a chocolate bar.

Design makes me happy.

Incredibox

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Incredibox is a interactive website that allows users to mix their own beatboxes using the skilled sounds of The Incredible Polo. The website is fun and super simple to use. You just drag and drop the types of sounds on the the beatboxer's t-shirt to add to the mix. Click on any of the beatboxers to remove their sound. The end effect is really enjoyable to experience.

Found Functions

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The thing about math is that, beyond the basics, I always found it hard to see real, everyday applications. Nikki Graziano's Found Functions has broadened my perspective on the natural beauty of math. She superimposes math functions on top of photos of nature.

Note to self: get to know more photographer/mathematicians. They have a uniquely beautifully calculated view of the world.