swissmiss

Fireworks | Mike Mills

Fireworks, a new book by Mike Mills. Love!

Question for my readers: Do Cellular Repeaters work?

I am debating a very cool new office space which has only one big downside: poor phone reception. I am wondering: Do Cellular Repeaters work?

Sustainable Social Swiss Design

These belt buckles are made out of old swiss bicycle license plates. (Yes, I had a bicycle with a license plate growing up!) Created by “Werkmal” an organization that is trying to help people on welfare find their way back into the job market. Read more

Tubelor trash can utilizes, conceals the standard plastic bag

Tubelor trash can utilizes, conceals the standard plastic bag. INGENIOUS!

barbouille blackboard

Our little Ella would go completely gaga over this: Barbouille Blackboard. (Don't know who Barbouille is, go here!)

Salt and PepperShaker "Alien Style"

Salt and PepperShaker "Alien Style"

This Ain’t No Disco {it’s where we work}

It’s a well known fact that some agencies spend huge chunks of their hard earned money turning lifeless commercial spaces into bastions of creativity. These interiors provide insight as to the breadth and depth of their thinking and creative execution. They create spaces to envy. Places to shout about - loud. This Ain’t No Disco {it’s where we work} invites Agencies from across the world to show their inner sanctum and like Pandora’s Box, once you look inside nothing will ever be the same again.

(Above's my current favorite: The office space of MSLK)

(thank you jacob)

SERGE BLOCH : Opening Reception, Thursday January 31,2008

Oh, I wish I could go to the Opening of Serge Bloch's Art Show, at Living with Art gallery, Soho, New York.

Serge Bloch is a contributing illustrator to several US publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, GQ, The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Scholastic, National Geographic Magazine and France Amerique: "A page of newspaper is like a wall of a gallery that hundreds of thousands of people can visit without being afraid to enter. You can be on a train, in bed or on a bench in the sun. But the exhibit is ephemeral because the following day, it's gone. It's become a piece of paper used to dry your boots or to peel vegetables". Serge enjoys doing humorous work, and refers to it as a work of modest art.

SERGE BLOCH | works on paper | painted drawings. Opening Reception: Thursday January 31, 6-9 pm

Living with Art gallery
153 Lafayette Street 7th floor
New York NY 10013

wonderful quotes

Quotes that made me look over on circle design.

The 50 Most Popular Web Design Blog Posts, Resources & Cheat Sheets of 2007

The 50 Most Popular Web Design Blog Posts, Resources & Cheat Sheets of 2007

Some personal highlights:

The Importance of White space - One of the oldest principals of design is white space, and knowing how to use it properly could mean wonders for your design. Popular site A List Apart tackles the subject.

35 Designers x 5 Questions - What better way to learn technique then to speak to those who know it best? 35 of some of the brightest minds in web design get put on the spot and share some insightful expert advice.

(via muhsashum)

clothes rack / portemonteau 3 couleurs

This clothes rack is so cool. WOW!

tpod

tpod - add a little fun to tea. first you take the tea bag out of the box. than unfold it...it becomes a little boat. than put it into the cup with hot water and let it swim around until the tea is ready.

(via trendsnow)

Plugin: Bookmark A Page In Your PDF

My friend and wonderfully talented developer John Ford created a PDF Bookmark Plugin that allows you to bookmark a page in your PDF, almost like when you put your old-school real bookmark into a book before putting it down. Simply brilliant, like John.

Download: PDF Bookmark 1.1

Add to friends.

Add to friends t-shirt by Leon Oziel

The History of Visual Communication

The History of Visual Communication. Bookmarked. Need time to sit down and read.

(via chrisglass - the finder of good stuff)

Living Patterns

Living Patterns

Holy Crap! Facts!

Holy Crap! Facts! is basically a Twitter feed that Noah Brier and a pal started to share odd facts, such as: 5 of Japan’s 10 best selling books last year were composed on cell phones.

(via creativevictuals)

Teach your kid about 'volume' early.

This inventive box is perfect for teaching children about an important mathematical concept: volume. Each side of the three-sided box cut out is lined with grids, so that children can measure the volume of items by counting the boxes. As aesthetically pleasing as it is educational, the box comes with a stand to display the cut out, almost like a piece of art.

The Laptop Lover's Guide to Productivity On-the-Go

You're an on-the-go worker, and the one thing you always carry with you? Your trusty laptop, of course. Sure, you've reached a point where you're pretty good at getting things done away from your desk, but you still haven't reached laptop zen—that point at which your laptop does gymnastics for you and is a seamless extension of your productivity. Today we're taking a look at some of the best laptop hacks for notebook enthusiasts, from getting internet access anywhere and keeping your files in sync to adding an anti-theft layer of security to your laptop.

The Laptop Lover's Guide to Productivity On-the-Go

(via popwuping)

Paula Scher Says Get Rid of 'America' and Ditch the "Star Spangled Banner," But Keep the Flag

"Future States," a rebranding of the US by Paula Scher. Unfortunately, the Monocle print piece is (still) only available to subscribers, but there's a video component, Brand America, an interview with Scher conducted by Tyler Brûlé. In it, she advocates trashing several visual icons of the USA brand, including the "America" portion of our name. Which is funny, since she designed the book on America.

(via the fabulous unbeige alissa)

oilcloth lunch bags

oilcloth lunch bags

(via yokiddo)

Gus Design Group Picture Rail

I am a huge fan of picture rails as they allow you to be playful and easily re-arrange art pieces. The swissmiss family is going to be moving in a few weeks and I am hoping to be seeing some of these Gus Design Group Picture Rails in the new swissmiss home soon. Wheee!

Personal data is as hot as nuclear waste

Personal data is as hot as nuclear waste: We should treat personal electronic data with the same care and respect as weapons-grade plutonium - it is dangerous, long-lasting and once it has leaked there's no getting it back.

(via lunch over IP)

What font says 'Change'?

Type designers decode the presidential candidates: What font says 'Change'?

(via chrisglass)

Melinda Beck | Illustrator

Melinda Beck is an illustrator and graphic designer living in Brooklyn. Anyone having a little toddler and watching Noggin, like us, all the time, is very well familiar with her work as she did beautiful animated tv spots for the Noggin network. Love her style.

(via pica n pixel)

anna wolf | photographer

anna wolf | photographer

(via kaimueller)

Marc Johns | Illustrator

Marc Johns - wonderfully talented illustrator with a lovely sense of humor.

Looking at celebrity: Alison Jackson on TED.com

Why can't you make it through the checkout line without flipping through page after page of pregnant celebs in Us magazine? Alison Jackson knows why. In her work, she photographs the people you think you recognize doing what you really want to see. And in the process, she's questioning our shared desire to get personal with celebrity culture. Funny and sometimes shocking, Jackson's work contains some graphic images. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 17:36.)

(via TEDblog)

Puff the Magic Dragon, Live!

Flashbacks, anyone?

(via unfolded)

2008 publikum calendar

Publikum Calendar emerged fifteen years ago amidst the turmoil and war in Serbia. Co-founded by George Mill and Nada Ray, it has grown into an international collaborative publication, publishing works by Serbian and international artists, most notably Paula Scher, Mirko Ilic, Oliviero Toscani, Marina Abramovic, David Byrne, Barbara Kruger, Tadanori Yoko, Slavimir Stojanovic, Karlssonwilker, Andrea Dezso, and more.

The 2008 Publikum Calendar designed by Sean Adams features works by 12 international graphic artists from Asia, Africa, Europe and America. It is a multi-disciplinary project consisting of a wall calendar, a book, a video documentary, and lecture series and exhibitions. 2008 Publikum Calendar exhibition at AIGA National Design Center is at public view from December '07- February 22, '08.

On February 22, at the exhibition closing reception, lovely Debbie Millman, the 2008 Publikum Calendar curator, will moderate a talk with Chip Kidd, Luba Lukova, Matteo Bologna (designers featured in 2008 edition) and George Mill & Nada Ray (Publikum Calendar founders).

Location: AIGA National Design Center, New York, 6-7:30pm, 02/22/08
AIGA, 164 Fifth Ave, New York

View a five-minute video documentary about the 2008 Publikum Calendar with Sean Adams, Debbie Millman, Chip Kidd:

More info on: www.publikumcalendar.com and www.thebraindesign.com

disconnected

Illustration by Jennifer Daniel for the The New York Times» Against the Machine

maude | shoe shelf/stool

Great concept: Modular shoe shelf and stool (PDF) by zurich based Michael Mettler.

365 penguins

I picked up 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental, at the MoMA store on saturday and found myself laughing out loud while reading it to our little Ella.

This hilarious, oversize picture book integrates challenging math concepts and environmental concerns into a clever narrative. On New Year's Day, a family receives an anonymous package containing a penguin. The young narrator chases the bird around the house as it runs amok and knocks over lamps and furniture. His sister, Amy, finds a note, I'm number 1. Feed me when I'm hungry. Just as the message implies, there are more to come; by the end of the year, 365 in all. Penguins, penguins everywhere. As they arrive, readers must recall the number of days in each month–by the end of February, they are calculating the number of penguins in all. Then Father decides to organize them, first into four groups of 15, later in boxes by the dozen, and, finally, into a cubic formation. By summer, the heat, noise, and smell are unbearable. On New Year's Eve, ecologist Uncle Victor arrives and the mystery is solved. The engaging story is illustrated in a flat retro design with a palette dominated by orange, blue, gray, and black and white. The comical birds watch TV, dance with their teenage sister, and eat everything in sight. The text provides endless opportunities for word problems, and units on penguins and global warming will never be the same.
–Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools

less is more

Less is More by Douglas Wilson.

He who cares wins.

‘He Who Cares Wins’ by Hazel Nicholls

Museo Aero Solar - The First Flying Museum

Museo Aero Solar - the first flying museum, build with recycled plastic bag, that flies using only solar energy. A solar flying canvas. Any plastic bag of any size, color, and thickness is useful. From village to village, from country to country, from continent to continent, from solar system to the un-known, the “museo aero solar” will be traveling and growing with solar and human energy. Each time it lands there will be more plastic bags added to it from the local community which will determine its shape and content, and in this way increase the flight distance. A museum where dimensions, shape, color and location are in constant mutation – the more bags, the bigger its dimensions and the larger its collection. ...where the air is his own territory. .... a viable solar vehicle as an alternative to the un-sustainability of our airplanes. In search of new frontiers, where each launch will be questioning and challenging the existing military air division of this world...

Museo Aero Solar - The First Flying Museum – a project initiated by Tomas Saraceno

Alte Fabrik Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland
January 24-27, 2009

Next station of Museo Aero Solar: Tirana, Albania in February 2008 | www.air-port-city.org

Former New Republic Writer Charges Social Web Users As ‘Destructive’

Some people like bloggers. Some people don’t. Some people really don’t. Enter, Lee Siegel, the author of a book published January 22nd titled Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob..

(via mashable)

Is it possible to take a photograph of New Jersey...

You were born in New Jersey. You’ve been there. You’ve never been there. You know it from movies. TV. Songs. Newspapers. You’ve Googled it. YouTubed it. Wikipediaed it. Flickred it. You’ve never even heard of it.

So ask yourself: is it possible to make a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world? The Pierro Gallery and iheartphotograph.com invite photographers, designers, and artists of all kinds to participate in this global open call for work.

Is it possible to take a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world?

workshop about art and space

Jordi Ferreiro designs and leads workshops for kids to make art in and about space. He sets them free with rolls of colored tape, the same he uses in his own work. About his workshop at the Centre d'art La Panera in Lleida, near Barcelona, Jordi says:

"The kids was freaking out because they never have ABSOLUTLEY FREEDOM for drawing in the space, without paper and with the 3D possibility. They starting making really small rubbertape drawing, and later was have been constructing houses, spiderwebs... really really cool!"

(via storkbitesman / via unfolded)

Eight things I think I think

Google rank will become a political argument. Instead of saying “this is why I am right” political leaders will say “type ‘Iraq war’ in google and look at how my speech comes up first”. Google will be perceived as the ultimate organizer of relevance, and as nobody can control it it will provide the needed crowdibility (that’s a new word I just made up) politicians have lost. If you are on top of google you are right, and you are right because the population put you there.

Eight things I think I think, by Laurent Haug

(via lunchoverIP)