How would you like to own one of or even some of the most classic rock posters of all time? Well, as you can imagine, they ain’t cheap, but then again who said they would be. I was pretty amazed that you could actually buy most of these. They are a little piece of history if you are a rock n’ roller like I am. They may actually be worth the price if you a big enough fan. Some of them really aren’t too bad. I never have any damn though so I doubt I will be owning one any time soon.
Regardless, of any or all of the above. It’s worth a peak at Rock Explosion just to see some of these classic rock posters.
Penguin Books has recently commissioned Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant fame to design new covers for two of their most famous titles, Animal Farm and Orwell’s 1984. They are both obvious choices for Fairey’s style and work perfectly with his message. I think if it gets kids to read it is a great thing. I was required to read both of these titles when I was in highschool and junior high. 1984 had a big impact on me and is and will remain a relevant work for a long time to come. Hopefully the visual cue and recognition of what is obviously Fairey’s design will prompt kids to at least want to own the books and eventually read them.
It would be nice to see more of this kind of thing as I think it would be a positive trend in utilizing recognizable artists and designers to create materials that help promote thought and encourage learning and awareness. There has always seemed to be a divide between what I refer to as the old guard and the young blood. I think it would be mutually beneficial to both if the best of each was represented in certain situations as to help inspire and activate today’s youth culture. It’s so hard to stay relevant with today’s youth that more of this really needs to start happening right away.
You might’ve heard, you might not have, but Starbucks officially started brewing their Pike Place Roast today. They had a “come get some for free” tasting today, but if you missed it, go buy yourself a cup. I wouldn’t normally suggest anyone go buy coffee from Starbucks, but Pike Place is a fine brew and more importantly, is easy on the wallet.
See, Starbucks is having a little trouble due to the dwindling economy and due to a case of over saturating the world with Starbucks locations, but they’re attempting to reinvent the cup of coffee, the same way they did back in 1971. A bit retro and a bit competitive (McDonald’s & Dunkin Donuts are becoming their top competition) Starbucks is bringing things back to basics, literally. Not only are they launching a new cup o’ joe, but they’re cup branding has reverted to their original logo. Gone is the green and black logo that everyone knows, and back is the brown and white logo with the old fashion mermaid. See for yourself on the Pike Place website or at a store near you.
I, in no way, am a proponent of the $5 cup of coffee, but I had two cups (one was on the house) of Pike Place today and it’s a damn good cup of coffee, especially at the competitive price of just about $1.50. If you’re really nice to barrista or just ask politely for a taste, you’ll probably be able to score a small cup on the house.
There’s a chance I’m just buying into the hype of this, but I honestly enjoyed the cup of coffee. Comment and leave your thoughts after you try some for yourself.
The winning designs for the Royal Mint coin collection have been revealed. The new designs are the result of a competition held back in 2005. The winner of the competition is 26-year-old Graphic Designer Matthew Dent who is originally from Bangor but now lives and works in London.
The set is based on the Royal Arms heraldic coat of arms theme. The shield of the Royal Arms is split between the six denominations from the 1 pence to the 50 pence with the £1 coin featuring the shield in its entirety.
The new designs will slowly enter circulation throughout the upcoming year. According to Matthew Dent’s website it is estimated that 28 billion or more UK coins are in circulation. That’s enough to wrap the world in single file, 16 times.
When is an internationally accepted omni (all-in-one) style card going to happen? It just seems so wasteful and archaic to still be wasting the resources it takes to produce these coins? Am I wrong on this? Isn’t it 2008 already and aren’t we experiencing some kind of energy and pollution crisis?
I met Samuel Rodriguez (aka ShortyFatz) in San Jose a few years ago while we were doing live paintings for a PAC Event at the SJMA. He was my favorite painter at the jam. He definitely has got a unique style. He’s not only a painter and designer, he also has a rad custom lowrider bike company. And when I say custom, I mean custom. He and his cousin build the frames from scratch and Sam creates custom art for each frame. Definitely swing through his portfolio to see the evolution of ShortyFatz. Nice work homie!
Well, have you had enough of the t-shirt craze yet? Has the saturation point been reached? Hang on a minute because I just discovered one of the coolest t-shirt community/submission sites I have discovered since Threadless. It’s called Design By Humans. I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone else would take a crack at this business model. The differentiator at Design By Humans is the product. It isn’t the ‘buzz’ factor or the fact that this is a revolutionary idea, the fantastic thing about this website, hands down, is the shirts themselves. I was inspired just looking through them. There are some beautiful works of art in there and the fact that it looks as though they spare no expense in reproducing those works on the t-shirts warrants merit. I was seriously amazed at how many original, vibrant and just spectacular designs are available. The really unbelievable thing is that they are all only $19 bucks. If you live in Europe, you can’t miss.
The shirts are printed after they are voted upon by the Design By Humans user community. You can set up an account at the site and vote for the designs you like. All of this should sound familiar if you have ever involved yourself with Threadless.
It gets even better. Just check out how much money you can win if your design wins shirt of the month. Here are the rules and regulations surrounding their pay for designs: “Each weekday a submitted design wins the Shirt of the Day (SOTD) prize of $750 ($500 cash & $250 store credit). Each week the five previous SOTD winners go head to head for the Shirt of the Week (SOTW) prize of $1000 cash. Then the four SOTW winners compete for the final prize of $1750 ($1500 cash & $250 store credit) and the coveted trophy and title of Shirt of the Month. All in all, a winning design that goes all the way can win up to $3500!”
I still can’t figure out how I found the site for Doane Paper this morning, but boy am I glad I did. I was actually searching for information on the artist of a print I purchased over the weekend (more about that in another post soon) and after at least 20 or so clicks to various links and websites, I found what could be the bestest paper ever.
Doane Paper is one of those products you kick yourself in the ass for not thinking of first. After a good self-inflicted ass-kicking, you then ask yourself why this hasn’t been around forever.
To be honest, I haven’t really used pads of paper since college. Well, let me clarify that…I haven’t used line or graph paper since college. Small pads are always on hand, but I never really brainstorm on paper or sketch things out, and I really should do that more. And now I just might.
Doane Paper takes the boxes of graph paper and combines them with the lines of your typical notebook paper or legal pad. Doane Paper was created by Chad Doane during the break of a product design meeting. After realizing that half the room was using grid paper (the product designers) while the other half was using legal pads (the marketing team) he decided to combine the two and the rest is history.
Not only can you order some pads for yourself through the Doane Paper website, but you can also download a PDF or JPEG and give the paper a trial run.
Now if I can only convince myself to step away from the mouse and to pick up a pencil…
Steve Nash isn’t just a point guard for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, he’s also an environmentalist. Along with Nike, they created the sneaker above called the Nike Trash Talk.
Back in February, he debuted these kicks at the NBA All Star Game, but come April, these will be available for purchase by anyone who’s willing to pay the $100 price tag (which is just about what Nike sneakers cost these days). What makes these so special? The Nike Trash Talk is made from Nike’s garbage.
The Nike Trash Talk is modeled after Nash’s current shoe, the Nike Zoom BB II Low, and meets Nike’s Considered design standardsfor taking a sustainable approach to performance footwear innovation.
Nike footwear designer, Kasey Jarvis said: “ We were really looking for a ‘here and now’ solution to footwear waste, and creating a performance product using waste materials felt like a very innovative solution. Using Nike’s Considered design ethos we were able to create a shoe that stands up to the stringent on-court performance requirements but is also more environmentally friendly.”
The Nike Trash Talk meets Nike’s Considered design standards because…
- The upper is pieced together from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory floor using zig-zag stitching. - The mid-sole uses scrap-ground foam from factory production - The outsole uses environmentally-preferred rubber that reduces toxics and incorporates Nike Grind* material from footwear outsole manufacturing waste. - The Phoenix Suns’ colorways will have shoe laces and sockliners which use environmentally-preferred materials and will be packaged in a fully recycled cardboard shoe box.
A limited number of Trash Talk’s will be released, so snatch them up while you can. The All-Star version is already available for purchase (but were only made available in New York and New Orleans). On April 22nd, the Phoenix Suns colorways will be available for purchase through the House of Hoops by Foot Locker.
If you have yet to take a gander at Antenna Magazine, rush out and pick one up, or head to their website and check it out.
Antenna is the first mainstream magazine to target individuals who are on a constant quest for the newest and coolest products on the horizon. And it does so without using celebrities, models, concept shoots, service stories and whatever else we deem superfluous to our mission: to become a guidebook, allowing readers to navigate the most extensive collection of products ever compiled in a single publication, while championing the people who create, sell and collect them—all in one comprehensive, artful, elegant and innovative format. Featuring everything from dress shirts and cellphones to jeans and graphic T’s, Antenna is considered to be a non-disposable magazine in a disposable world. And you cannot ask for more than that.
The layout is clean, the pages are plenty (180+), the products are dope, and the magazine is organized from A-Z, each letter getting it’s own page or spread. So a regular issue will cover any topic (and they helpfully display pictures and prices) from “B” for boxing gloves, “L” for lighters,”O” for obese, “P” for puffy coats, etc. The A-Z’s change with each issue, as do the article inserts. Even if you don’t purchase anything featured in the magazine it’s eye candy and visual pleasing, and of course the slick magazine stock doesn’t hurt.
Seymourpowell was founded in 1984 by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell. They are now a team of 65 strong in London. Companies seek out Seymourpowell from around the world to help them answer three basic questions: What should we do? Why do we do it? How do we do It? They provide the answers through; ethnographic user research, brand and design strategy, trends, innovation process, transportaion design, product design and development, packaging and interactive.
They are fueled by a passion for all things creative and an absolute commitment to the cause of creating better products. They believe design is about making things better. Better for people. Better for business and better for the world.
Nike’s new company wide ethos goes sustainable. With the launch of the “Considered” series in 2005, Nike has made huge changes in the way it plans its product lines. The “Considered” products are the first Nike shoes to not use any environmentally harmful glues or materials. The new ethos is pushing the designers to create products that use less material waste and more fully recycled materials on all of its products. The new Jordan XX3 is the a great example of this new found attitude, it is the first performance basketball shoe from Nike to use the “Considered” technology. Designed by a team led by the great Tinker Hatfield, the XX3 is supposedly the last Jordan signature shoe to be designed for the Jordan Brand. I am sure there will continue to be new colorways/collaborations of all the other 22 Jordan releases. I am not a huge fan of the whole Jordan craze, but this one at least has a great story behind it. There is a great article in the new issue of Sole Collector Magazine on the whole design process, and lots of pretty pics of the kicks. The XX3’s dropped February 23rd, 2008. They are going from $185-$1800 on Ebay and other sneaker re-seller sites.
Seems like everyone is on some kind of health kick these days. Every day grocery store products are going organic and re-branding themselves to appeal to the health-conscious. And now big brand names are getting in on the action, too.
Take Coke for example. Last year they launched Diet Coke Plus, a soda packed with vitamins and minerals. According to Wikipedia, “each 12-ounce serving of Diet Coke Plus provides 25% of the daily value for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 15% for zinc and magnesium.” Although the Plus logo is a little more colorful than the regular Diet Coke logo, it ultimately stays true to the brand.
Not to be outdone by Coke, Pepsi just launched Pepsi Raw in the UK. Pepsi Raw is just that, as raw as a soda can be. Raw ingredients include apple extract, plain caramel coloring, coffee leaf, tartaric acid from grapes, gum arabic from acacia trees, cane sugar and sparkling water. That’s it. But I think the best part has to be the design of the Raw bottle. Moving away from their more colorful work, Pepsi Raw introduces a bottle almost as raw as the product itself. Minimal branding (a small Pepsi logo up top), big RAW type, stacked down the neck of the bottle, and waves showing off the natural curves of the bottle. And being a clear bottle, the product shines right through. A great example of less is more.
Hopefully Pepsi Raw will hit stateside sometime this year (no word yet) but if you’re wondering how it tastes compared to regular Diet Pepsi, the results are in, and apparently it’s pretty damn similar.
Around the end of this month Incase plans on offering a durable hardcase for both of the Apple laptops, MacBook and MacBook Pro. The cases feature a frosted hardshell exterior, soft-touch coating, raised rubber feet, thermal vents, and trouble-free access to all the MacBook features. They claim that it is the most sophisticated and discreet option in notebook protection. The precise cutout features allow access to the magnetic power cable, headphone and microphone input jacks, CD Rom drive, battery level check button, and all side ports.
The case will be available in White Frost, Red Frost, Black Frost and Plum Frost. The shell is mildly translucent allowing the Apple Logo to shine through on the back.
As of now the cases are only available for the 13 inch MacBooks but they should be available for the 15 inch MacBook Pros by the end of March. They start at $49.95 and will be available for purchase at Incase’s website.
05/14 EDWARDS BACKS OBAMA A pleasant surprise for the Obama campaign today came in the shape of an endorsement from John Edwards. Do I smell a new VP on the Obama ticket?
05/12 EARTHQUAKE KILLS 9000 A terrible earthquake measuring 7.9 on the richter scale rocked Chengdu, China yesterday. Authorities are claiming it is the worst in decades and the death toll may now be close to 9000.
05/10 100,000 DEAD I am sure by now you have heard all about this but the scale of human tragedy is just shattering. As many as 100,000 may now be dead in the wake of the Myanmar cyclone. Please Myanmar, let foreign aid workers help you.
05/06 SDSU DRUG BUST Nearly 100 people, most of them students at San Diego State University have been arrested as part of a drug investigation. I am sure there will be plenty of room for them in the California Penal System. I think they are running short on inmates the last time I checked.
05/02 HEPARIN TAMPERING This case of what is now being called ‘deliberate’ tampering with the drug Heparin in order to substitute a cheap alternative and save money is deplorable. We have to hold the FDA to higher standards.
