swissmiss

swiss alps are calling.

This little swissmiss family is leaving for the swiss alps today. Posts might be infrequent or not existent for the coming days. Please pardon me taking a break from the blogsphere but I have some bratwurst eating to do. Ho ho ho and stuff!

last minute gift ideas

Elevating Feet for Laptop Computers

Aerolatte Frother

Leica D-LUX 3

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Frolicking Frog Pull Toy

Fisher Chrome Bullet Space Pen

Creature by Andrew Zuckerman

Soft & Sturdy Deluxe Blocks

For those surfing while lounging on the sofa: Belkin CushTop Notebook Stand

Play & Learn Soft & Safe World Map 6'5" x 4' x 5/8"

Talking Odyssey III Interactive Globe

Mondaine Swiss Railway Watch

signer's suitcase (sleeping)

Behind the Freakout

Crispin Porter + Bogusky's latest online adventure for Burger King forces viewers to contemplate the unthinkable: a world without Whoppers. In a web film and series of spots kicking to the site, whopperfreakout.com, CP+B and Smuggler director Henry-Alex Rubin captured the reactions of real Burger King customers who were denied their beloved burger. While the campaign provides entertaining answers to the question "What if there were no Whoppers?" it raises others. Were all those people really real? How did the agency and director capture those reactions? Did anyone just say "Oh, OK, I'll have the chicken then"? Here, Rubin gives us the behind the counter perspective on the shoot.

Behind the Freakout

"How my iPhone evolved how I tell stories"

Interesting post over at Designnotes: How my iPhone evolved how I tell stories

Web Economy Bulls**t Generator

Web Economy Bullshit Generator

(via lunch over IP)

Recycled christmas trees

The coolest christmas tree I have seen so far this year. If you get four of them and add them together, back to back, you get a full tree. Love it.

You look lovely today!

These business card sized compliments have been produced on thick laid card using traditional letterpress printing. Great if you’re a bachelor and want to jot your number down for a special person! Or if you’re already with that special someone, a nice reminder to present them with from time to time.

sunday land

I just googled some of my friends from growing up and found this lovely video of my next door neighbor and friend, Gabriela Krapf. Learn more here.

Thank you internet.

Brian Dettmer: Book Autopsies

Brian Dettmer: Book Autopsies

(via xblog)

OFFI mag table red

You can now buy the fabulous OFFI Mag Table in Red, over at designpublic. Yay! It goes from table or seat to laptop stand with a simple flip. As a side table it stores your magazines while providing a surface for a cup of coffee or an extra seat.

Skype Phone Adapter

Do you have a favorite old telephone--maybe that old rotary phone, or your house cordless phone? Use this handy adapter to connect it to your PC. The SKYHJA has standard audio in/out plugs on one side and a regular old phone plug (RJ11) on the other, essentially converting your old phone to a speaker and mic to use with Skype.

hanabi lamp

Hanabi (fireworks party) is the name of this beautiful lamp, by japanese designer Endo. Closed when cold, and with petals opened when it becomes hotter due to the light bulb's temperature. A lovely and original idea.

(via senorita puri)

The Gender Battle.

See it in much better quality here.

(thank you marcello)

Toastvertising

Toastvertising.

Making of Toastvertising.

See the site of toastvertising and The Book of Spam.

(thank you dustin)

formal apology

Formal apology by the Bureau of Communication. Wonderful. (You can fill it out online and email it!)

(via monoscope)

Never Mind What’s in Them, Bags Are the Fashion

Retailers are giving shopping bags a makeover, turning consumers into walking ads. At left, Lord & Taylor bags; center, a bag from Lululemon Athletica; at right, the Scoop bag.

Once a flimsy afterthought in American retailing — used to lug a purchase home from the store, then tossed into the trash — the lowly, free store bag is undergoing a luxurious makeover.

Never Mind What’s in Them, Bags Are the Fashion, by Michael Barbaro for the NYTimes

Google Introduces Video Sitemaps

Google has extended their Sitemaps to include support for videos, which means your videos will be more easily indexed by Google’s Video search. In practice, this means that webmasters will now be able to create a new Sitemap in which they can specify all videos (and metadata that goes with them) on the site. One of the benefits of this, for example, is that Google will be able to generate a thumbnail of your video and place it in the search results. See an example on the official Google Webmaster Central blog.

(via mashable)

Halo Ultraviolet Vacuum

The Halo Ultraviolet Vacuum ($500) is the first vacuum to use UV-C light to kill unseen bacteria and germs hiding in your carpet and flooring, and also includes "normal" vacuum features like a lightweight design, integrated HEPA filtration, adjustable height, a 13-foot detachable hose, and a 31-foot power cord.

(via uncrate)

do books still matter?

"We’re just not going to be reading for text anymore,” said Saveri, the Institute for the Future researcher. “We’re going to be ‘reading’ for movies, graphics, images, digital stories, symbols,” she says. “You may say young people aren’t reading the classics, but 20 years from now, there might be some classic multimedia pieces with video, with hyperlinks. That’s the new edge of literacy.”

Saveri suggests parents blog with their kids, make a YouTube video, jump into the new media - and take books along. “We’ve got to get over our nostalgia,” she says. “Denying your child a rich media world is doing your child a disservice.”

Do books still matter?

(thank you Molly)

zid zid kids backpacks

zid zid kids Bus Backpack and Airplane Backpack. Cool funky gifts for kids. And yes, I admit it, I want the bus one for myself. Wromm. Wromm.

human tetris

(via cogitations)

tokyo bay neptune watch

tokyo bay neptune watch, $78

(via mighty goods)

6.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame

Tired of sending your loved ones actual photo prints? Send them hundreds of images on a little memory card along with a 6.5-inch digital picture frame. The frame connects via USB directly to your camera or PC; supports up to 12-megapixel photos in the JPEG format. It is compatible with the following memory cards: CompactFlash Card type I, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard and SD Memory Card. Runs on AC power via the included adapter, or lasts up to 8 hours on its included rechargeable battery. 6.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame

FEED bag

Your purchase of the FEED Bag offered exclusively at Amazon will help the UN World Food Programme feed a child for one full school year. What a fabulous christmas gift idea!

Creative Tip: Photoshop CS3 Keyboard Shortcuts

Photographer and designer Trevor Morris has updated his terrific Photoshop keyboard shortcut cheatsheets for Adobe Photoshop CS3. Download this handy PDF cheatsheet, print it out, and keep it near your computer:

PDF: Photoshop CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac)

PDF: Photoshop CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts (PC)

Another fabulous tip via creative techs.

Happy Holidays from "I hate young people"

an idea from one of my readers...

Mac Funamizu emailed me and wrote:

Hello. I'm a designer working in Tokyo. I have long wished a USB powered coffee warmer like shown in the attached image, but I have never seen anything like that. So I'd appreciate if you could introduce the idea to everyone and hopefully someone could realize it into a product.

Anyone?

Make sure to have a look at Mac's blog. It's filled with ideas for services/products.

oh my! swisscom's new logo/brand

Swisscom, the biggest Swiss telecom operator, will be launching a new brand identity: the new logo, which will be rolled out across fixnet, mobile and Internet services next spring, is the one at right. Check out the animated logo over on the custom rebranding website. While the new mark truly doesn't do anything for me, I must say I enjoyed watching the history of the brand itself. Click on "Die Motivation".

(via lunch over IP)

candle carver

I had never heard of a Candle Carver until recently while looking through Core77's gift guide. This is brilliant and makes for such a fabulous table decoration.

Dirt Devil Kone

Looking for a gift for friends that just had a baby or are about to have one? Get them a cordless vac. It's a must have for every young family. At this point, I would buy the Dirt Devil Kone Vacuum White. It looks stylish and, oddly enough, also serves as a nightlight.

life

image by chris glass

Twitter - 140story

"I am done!" whistled the teapot in a proud childish squeal. "I'm done! I'm done! I am done!" it continued to scream like an obnoxious brat.

Twitter - 140story

(via chrisglass)

a blast from the past: 99 luftballons by NENA

... how non-german speaking americans connect with germans:

rainbow car

I want a car in these colors. I mean all of them. Stripy fun.

Light installation by robert stadler

Visitors enter the church through a lateral door and first see a scattered group of luminous spheres hovering in the choir. As one approaches the center of the entrance, the spheres form a giant question mark. They become a punctuation mark superposing religious symbols. As one moves through the church, the question mark decomposes. The figure becomes abstracted again in order to echo the figures of hanging cathedral lights. Contrasting the symmetry of the edifice, these luminous suspension points are like a sort of musical notation or holes punctuating the architectural volume. The question (or doubt) is absorbed by the space.

Light installation at Saint-Paul Saint-Louis church / Nuit Blanche Paris 2007

(photo Marc Domage)

Aad Goudappel | Illustrator

Aad Goudappel | Illustrator

(via camillaengman)

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

Looking for a good gift for a 'designer friend'? Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, by Michael Bierut

Extension Cord Extreme

Extension Cord Extreme by Wilson Song

Snack Catapult

Snack Catapult. Made me laugh. Our little Ella sure would LOVE to play with this.