Circut Snacks

"Two of our favorite things in the world are playing with electronics and playing with food, and so it is about time that someone finally got around to combining the two. We begin by gathering up appropriate snack-food building blocks and making food-based models of electronic components. From these components, you can assemble “circuitry snacks”– edible models of functioning electronic circuits. You can make these for fun, for dessert, for your geek friends, for kids, and for teaching and learning electronics."

Mmmmm...electronics...

Ryan McGinley

New York based photographer Ryan McGinley takes some really haunting photographs.

Jonathan Calugi

I'm not really sure where he is from, but Jonathan Calugi had some all around great work on his site that is currently under construction. Everything his does has a sense of childhood fun and fancy. He bases his work around basic shapes and light colors. You can download some of the fonts he has made, just send him an email!

Banana Over Texas

No, this time I'm not trying to be witty with my title. Really imagine a banana over the Texas skyline both day and night. Hilarious and hopefully someday true. Why do they want to do this? I'm not really sure yet, but then again, why did scientists want to give elephants LSD...twice.
The website states, "Geostationary banana over Texas is an art intervention that places a giant banana over the Texas sky. The object will float between the high atmosphere and Earth's low orbit, being visible only from the state of Texas and its surroundings. From the ground the banana will be clearly recognizable day and night and will be up for one month."
So pretty much it's a giant (300 meters in length) banana blimp.
Launch date is expected to be around August 2008...anyone want to roadtrip?

Knock Knock

So I just found this design company based in California that creates witty and sarcastic books and stationary. As well as sleek magnets and clips that encourage you TO DO, TO FILE in a Rosewoody typeface... the checklist pads and sticky notes with snarky themes ("Things You Do That Really Piss Me Off", "Fashion Citation")... the Choose-Your-Relgion and Dial-an-Excuse wheels.
All designed for a good laugh in the workplace. Not that I have to experience that just yet, but at least I can have something to look foreword to.

Did Someone Get Told?

Yeah, I know this doesn't have anything to do with design, but it reminded me of my friend Jenn [who IS an amazing designer] who says that all the time, and I thought it was funny.

Doritos, Snickers, Bottled Water, + Bikes

Working at a bike shop really makes you appriciate having bikes around. There's something immensely pleasing about sailing past scores of traffic with little more than a push of a pedal. And at the same time, you're burning the calories, and doing your bit to stay green. But there's one thing we hate about this simple mode of transport. People like nothing more than stealing them, damaging them, or driving buses into them. While your safe at work crunching the numbers, who's looking after your ride home?

Cue the bike dispensing machine. Brought to you courtesy of bikedispenser.com, a small firm from Amsterdam, the idea is to help facilitate bike rentals in urban areas. Cyclists pay a small fee to hire a bike, and then they can take it where they please. Once they’ve finished, they can return it either to that machine, or another one across town. And because they’ve been fitted with RFID tags, they won’t all have been nicked before you can get one.

Now if they could just do something about the damned GR drivers...

Antique Furniture With A Twist

Neo Neon is furniture created by Lee Broom. He describes his work as 'art that is ultimatly functional.'

"Neon lighting haloes the deslicate lines of the traditional furniture whilst casting deep reflections in their richly lacquered surfaces. Each piece is created in three stages- they are hand carved in Mahogany, lacquered to a high gloss finish nd the adorned in neon."

You can actually purchase the furniture, but there is a limited release of 50 worldwide. Pretty cool looking, but I dont think I would want my dog lounging on it.

Apple Meets Old School

Yeah, I had to take a double-take too. This 15lb ghetto blaster made by lasonic should be on the market sometime soon. Oh yeah, did I fail to mention it holds your iPod? Hilarious.

Futura In 'Royal Tenenbaums"

This is kind of old, but a friend of mine just recently did a research project on a movie director I love and I happened upon this.Mark Simonson Studio takes a look at the use of Futura and other typefaces in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. I've seen this movie many times, and never noticed the continuity of Futura use—am feeling like a chump. Futura is used for all direct Tenenbaum family associations, while typefaces like Helvetica are used for outsiders, as on the cover of Raleigh St. Clair's book Dudley's World.

New From Taschen: Logo Design

New from Taschen: Logo Design, an "exhaustive guide" that assembles logos from over 30 countries and presents a case study of each. Categories include media, retailers, events, regions, service and agencies, and info about the designer and company is provided. My favorite part of the marketing materials for the new book is this quote from scientist Linus Paulin: "In order to come up with one good idea, you must have lots of ideas."

Web First Steps For Print Designers

Over at Subtraction, Khoi Vinh has a nice post up about the basic steps print designers need to take in order to start working with design for the web. He recommends several good books, and also correctly pinpoints the first step as "embracing the medium as something different from print. Indeed, there’s no point in learning these skills unless as a print designer you’ve made a prior shift in your understanding of how design works in digital media." Definitely worth a read.

I am ster'damn!

Check out Amsterdam based illustrator Fidor Sumkin. She does some pretty cool old scool illustration mixed with hip type treatments.

HOLY HIATUS!

After a long summer of working at ye 'ol bike shop I'm back in action full throttle at Kendall. Posts to come soon...much to share!