Martin Laksman has a great set of illustrations, icons, characters, graphics, and logos at his website Laksman.com.ar. My particular favorites: freaky flo, cosos, eggs, egressados, consumerway, letterface, and many more. If your looking for some lively, colorful, fun, and spunky graphics, check out his website and get inspired.
Talk about a HUGE umbrella! “The Big Umbrella is a big umbrella designed to shield a large group of people from the rain. A typical big umbrella can shield approximately 4 tightly squeezed people from the rain. ‘The Big Umbrella’ is twice as big (240 x 160 cm) as the biggest men’s umbrella found on the consumer market and can in turn potentially shield 16 people from the rain. ”
I’d love to get my hands on one of these head turning monsters for fun. I best not get wet!
It’s amazing how technology has become an indispensable element in our everyday lives, but it’s also curious how it has introduced us to a series of gestures that are perhaps changing more than our intent. Pictured left is Private Public, a great series of objects that highlight the privacy we sacrifice when using mobile devices in public spaces, making visible a cone of privacy technology has brought to our public attention. Pictured right is a series of sculptures inspired by gestures formed by people using the PSP (Playstation Portable). Keyboards, mice, laptops, remotes, etc are all devices that have made us gesture in new ways. My favorite is probably the the awkward position designers plot their fingers on the keyboard at all times while using photoshop or illustrator. Another example is googles interface design. Anyhow, this is just a brief thought on how the things we design change and echo out past our intentions and expectations.
via WMMNAÂ
Here’s another great ad that goes straight to the point and shows what the product does and how well. If only mr clean were everywhere in public spaces. I’m not sure if this ad is real, but it sures cuts to the point.
“Shoot me if you can” is a fun urban game inspired by first person shooting video games. A gun is replaced by a phone camera, players wear bright labels with their numbers on them, players track down opponents, snap pictures, and SMS the opposing teams when they are shot. First team with shots of all the other team members wins! Different rules exist for variations in the game.
I love it when creative uses in technology allow people to return to the physical landscape, though, anyone playing this game may seem like a krazy James Bond nut on the street with a bright barcode on their shirt. This game brings awareness to the mind-boggling abundance of cameras throughout our culture everywhere we go. Whichever the case, I’d be curious to give this game a go if I can convince a dozen of my local friends to give it a run. Check out their webpage for more info!
“Already beautiful, already essential, Doublewide legitimizes the elegance that already exists within the simple steel folding chair. A subtle change in proportion alters its character, subtly shifting typologies. It is now slightly more formal, more intimate. It moves from the meeting hall to the living room. What was a public banality to accomodate a singular person is grown to accept a couple in a more private setting.”
via designboom
While in nyc I went down to St. Marks street to grab some grub with some friends at Kenka, a spunky, fun, and wildly popular japanese restaurant streaming with a vibrant crowd of college students and visitors curious about the oddly colorful and punk like scene, though I think the whistling grandmother logo and beaver-like red eyed mascot really caught my curious attention. I’d been to a like place nearby, Yakitori Taisho, right down the street, but thought I’d give this find a try. The wait to get in took some time, but it was worth evey second.
As for the restaurant, the staff was jazzy, the environment was fun and spontaneous, the bizarre menu was full of delicious and surprising items, and the prices just rocked! A bowl of edamame for $1, Seaweed salad $2, japaneses pancake $4, smoked salmon $5, sapporo beer for $1.50!!! The best part was their dessert. Instead of the traditional mint, or chocolate candies, they give you a little bucket of red suger to toss into their cotton candy machine at their entrance. You toss it in, grab a chopstick, and spin it till you have a fluff of carnival like candy to munch on. Kenkas is a great place to kick it with friends and munch down on some fast, hot, and tasty japanese food. If your in nyc, give it a try!
Bastardino is a prickly little pooch in the Cactus Friends series by artist Simone Legno and his art brand tokidoki, which is a pretty krazy page(launch the flash page). Others in the series include the pink and spunky Sabochan and a very green Sandy!
via Strangeco
I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Gregory Colbert speak at the TED conference where he made an extremely rare public appearance talking about his photographic journey and exhibition “Ashes and Snow”. He also spoke about his controversial initiative to start the “Animal Copyright Foundation”, which will aim to collect 1 percent of royalties from companies using images of animals in their ads and distribute these funds to conservation projects around the world, which could become the largest environmental fund in the world. He suggests we should renegotiate our contract with nature. It is common practice to compensate people for fair use of their images in advertising but this has not been the case for nature and animals.
I think this is a brilliant foundation to give back to nature and help keep it sustainable. There’s not much online about this foundation, but lookout for it soon.
more via ethanzuckerman
So I walked into Wholefoods today and did my regular routine, picked up my usuals and a few surprise items, but as I walked over to the the cereal section, I saw an empty spot!!!! My new favorite cereal was sold out! I was devastastd over a cereal! Seriously, if you have not tried this cereal (Kashi: Organic Promise, Strawberry Fields) you are missing out. .. it’s crispy, flavorful, and yummy. It’s seriously delicious and I’ve become an addict. Anyhow, I had to resort to the Cinnamon Harvest this week, which is also tasty.
Check out maharishis website and see their fresh line of clothing styles for men and women ranging from pants, shirts, jackets, shorts, dresses, and skirts. Maharishis been a huge influence in the prolifereation of camouflage trousers in fashion for a while but also has some other great designs. Also, if you have not had a glimpse, check out their awesome book DPM (Disruptive Pattern Materials), or buy it here.
Business 2.0 has a short article on a few great companies that not only listen to what their customers say, but let their customers run their company. “It’s the open-source software concept applied to product marketing”.
Two examples mentioned were Threadless, an awesome ongoing online t-shirt competition that has some great deals and designs, and Etsy, a very unique place to sell all things handmade.
I love the idea of letting customers vote on what gets further developed and perhaps produced. Sure, people are paid to make those decisions and some products take a ton more time to manufacture than t-shirts, but as we all know, the mass market will always surprise us with what customers want. I mean, seriously, we already have TV shows that let viewers decide who the next rock star, singer, dancer, comedian, invention, chef, designer, wife, etc are!
I’m not saying all products need to adopt this method nor am I asking for mass customization… I’m just saying there is such a rich opportunity in this internet infested society that allows us to show and hear from customers before they see what we thought was great. Sure, smart Continue Reading
