connecting creativity + community
From Japan, of course.
Designed by the Japanese firm, d-barcode. Via The Dieline.
These came to me via The Food Section (thanks Ann).
It looks like these were designed by d-barcode’s US partner, Barcode Revolution. I’m still a little confused about who is who in the world of barcode design. But you can’t help but admire their imagination and vision, eh?
Proving, once again, that nature wins the best designer award.
Hand letterpressed by Doug Wilson on vintage maps. Each one is different. From the Keep Calm Gallery. I love type, letterpress, maps, and the concept of the designer (and especially the project manager) as the pathfinder.
Yes, I do need this.
Mike Dempsey’s blog, Graphic Journey, has been on re:design’s blogroll from the beginning. I don’t know Mike, but I admire his thoughtful discourse and perspective on our industry, our work, and our responsibility as designers and communicators.
This week when I checked in on his blog, I found that he’s been involved in a significant art project, Journey.
Journey depicts the world of human trafficking of women and young girls, showing the seven stages of a woman who was sold into sexual slavery, through exhibits created inside shipping containers. The traveling exhibition is in NYC this week. It was the brainchild of actress Emma Thompson, but has required the dedication of many, many people. A little more from the NY Times.
Mike’s writing partner, Tom Lynham, has been a guest blogger on Graphic Journey all week, chronicling the exhibit and the experience. The images, the writing, the project—are overwhelming. Absolutely uncomfortable, and absolutely powerful.
Uniform by Sandy Powell
An excerpt:
JOURNEY is all about human trafficking. It tells the story of Elena who was seduced from her home in central Europe with promises of finding fortune in the west. Terminal 3 was the cash point where trafficked women who have been ordered are paid for. The minder (the woman who has groomed the girls) hands them over the trafficker. You can pick up a nice young fresh one for as little as a £ 1,000. Once they have been sold, the minder flies back to nurture the next one and the trafficker takes his prize home. Home is a house somewhere in the suburbs, or a massage parlour in some innocent enough neighbourhood. The woman is stripped of her passport, phone, clothes and identity, and summarily raped by new owners to break her in. Then she is put to work to service as many men a day as she can squeeze in. The traffickers control the women absolutely. They threaten violence against her relatives and the girl is effectively imprisoned. Most have no idea where they are and are kept under tight security by woman employed by the traffickers until they are tamed. There comes a point where the humiliation and loss of self is so overwhelming, staying put and paying their ‘sale price’ back to the trafficker seems the only alternative to going home to shame her family. The women are used until their sell-by date has expired, and then sold down the chain, gradually reduced in price until they are no longer marketable.
Please take a few moments to read Tom and Mike’s blog, here.
The power of design can make us see the truth. The least we can do is pay attention.
I’m an end-of-the-trend kind of gal. I usually catch them on their way out, just as they are about to hit the mainstream and become a Hallmark card or Target sales merchandise. Sure, there are a few folks behind me, but there are plenty more ahead of me. Skeletons, blackbirds, and robots, remember them? When mustache stuff started showing up, I just thought it was quirky and weird. I didn’t figure out it was a trend until, well, yesterday when a few design blogs started demanding death to the mustache posts. Which means I am right on time and have about three days left before I have to hide.
We all know every trend breeds unfortunate knockoffs. And really, a bad mustache is just…bad. As a public service to help prevent mustache mistakes, Re:design brings you the best-designed, classiest, most useful, clever and tasteful mustache gifts for the holiday season. You can thank me later.
For the jewelry lover, the Mustache Ring, by Melanie Favreau.
The How the West Was Warm Cowl, from Toasty Knits on Etsy.
Draw your own. Comes in five styles–Salvador, Zorro, Burt, Django and Clark. From Atypyk, via Swiss Miss.
If you’re on a budget, consider Mustache Bandages.
For your bike, from Etsy, also via Swiss Miss.
I don’t know that I can actually look at these, but I can’t look away, either. Mr. Mustache Pillow from Whorange.
But this, this I gotta have.
The Humunga Stash Dog Chew Toy, via Internet Therapy.
Oh, those small ideas that keep on going and growing. Young, a UK design firm is creating a buzz with their blog, Learn Something Every Day. Odd little tidbits offered daily to make you look smart, or perhaps obscure. But clever, for sure.
Which means I have been a parent for a many, many years. Long enough to have seen this about a bajillion times. And loving it. Still.
Yes, I know the thread between design and Sesame Street is thin, and perhaps even invisible. But I couldn’t pass it up. I consider it cross-over art. And when my girls were toddlers, and I needed a bit of space so I could write a proposal, or call a client from home, I considered it divine, blessed and high art.
Enjoy.
If you’re looking for the gift that keeps on giving (and I don’t mean the fruitcake of the month club) check out 500 Colored Pencils from Social Designer. Twenty five pencils delivered each month, for twenty months to the lucky-soon-to-be-inspired-and-never-again-lacking-for-color-in-their-life recipient.
Designed by Felissimo, the subscription is $33 each month (don’t do the x20 math, it’s better that way). I’m sold based on the names of the colors alone. Who wouldn’t be swayed by Lettuce, Mermaid’s Gown, Drizzly Afternoon, Lobster Bisque, Tragedy, Norwegian Sky, Vedure, Grandma’s Ring, and Frog Pond? (And Grandma’s Ring really is the same purple as my Grandma Jessie’s ring. How’d they know?)
I love this idea. And the packaging. And the displays. Steve has always had a healthy collection of colored pencils (although his are in tin cups, rather than cool acrylic art piece displays) both at home at at the studio, so I can’t get it for him. Kate will be moving around in Canada next year, so she’s out.
Gosh, know of anyone who could use a monthly dose of inspiration? Because this is so much better than fruitcake.
The most awesome design studio clock ever. If I had this clock, I wouldn’t be able to stop staring at it. Meet the Qlocktwo.
I would buy this, right this minute, except that we have a runner up for the m.a.d.s.c.e., the shadow clock that Steve carried back from Paris, on his lap.
But I will lust for this one. Perhaps in red, and in Spanish.
Or the Lime Green in Dutch.
The Frozen Blackberry tabletop, in Russian?
And they have an iPhone app. Of course, they have an iPhone app.
It’s from Biegert & Funk. It comes in six languages and five colors (except for the iPhone app, which is English and German only) and updates time every 5 seconds. I think it’s beautiful and brilliant.
Thanks to If It’s Hip, It’s Here for the find.
Think of this as my Halloween gift to you.
Some of my favorites from The Candy Wrapper Museum.
I actually have this one by R. Crumb. Had the good sense to pay $1 for it at the now-defunct-but-never-forgotten Tower Records on Broadway. The candy bar has crumbled (no pun intended), but the package sits on my desk and makes me laugh every day.
From Jason Leibig’s awesome Candy and Snacks Flickr set.
