I want to make beautiful things.

Watch this. Inspiration.

Time to drool over House Industries again...

Every time an email shows up in my inbox from House Industries, I can expect I am going to be wanting most of what is contained. This week's email is no exception, they are featuring their new Holiday Objects and of course, I want way too many things. (Hint hint, Christmas is coming up - I am making it easy for you, buy me pretty much ANYTHING from House and I will be happy.)

Check out all of House's wares on their website and if you are in NYC today, you'd be stupid not to hit up their one day Pop-Up Shop at the Type Directors Club to touch and feel both old and new Housewares in person:

House Industries Pop-Up Shop
November 19th from 11:30am-6pm
Type Directors Club
347 West 36 Street, Suite 603
New York, New York
212-633-8943

Our pals Allison and Craig from Strawberryluna, got me the Ampersand Cutting Board for my birthday last month and it rules my face!! I have it on display in our kitchen and it makes me happy every single morning. (thanks again guys)

Hero at the Bumbershoot Music Festival and Flatstock 22

If you are in Seattle this Labor Day Weekend Hero will have a booth at Flatstock 22 at Bumbershoot Music Festival - stop by and say Hi and buy some stuffs :) There will be over 60 different poster artists from all over the world displaying and selling their work. Come grab posters and hear the stories behind them straight from the artist. Show up early and be ready to be overwhelmed with amazing posters (you might want to bring some dough too since you won't want to leave empty handed.) FLATSTOCK is an all-ages event.

Bumbershoot Music Festival
Seattle, WA
Sept 5, 6, and 7
11AM to 8PM

Flatstock 22, presented by Bumbershoot Arts And Music Festival and The American Poster Institute, will be held for three days, Saturday, September 5, Sunday September 6 and Monday September 7 at The Fisher Pavillion, Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. You must have a Bumbershoot Music Fest Pass to get access to the Flatstock show.

Find more information on the event and band line up at www.bumbershoot.org


Below is a map of the festival grounds so you can easily find your way to us. Click to view it larger.
(Thanks Strawberryluna)

A little bit more about what Flatstock is:

The FLATSTOCK poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today.

The API is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving poster artists and promoting the art form. Both the API and its FLATSTOCK series were organized in 2002 as a result of conversations between interested artists and supporters frequenting the popular web site GigPosters.com. The best concert posters have always captured both the essence of the music they promoted and the spirit of the time in which they were produced. This is as true today as it was in San Francisco during the Sixties.

The FLATSTOCK shows provide the general public with an ongoing series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who've created it -- they provide the API with a way to present the poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent.

I want this doormat

So geeky and so amazing!! I need this "enter" key doormat!

The Mid-Century Modernist

A website dedicated to mid-century design aesthetics, utility and ideals, The Mid-Century Modernist.

Wow, this is a wonderful collection, whether it be authentic or inspired, architecture, ads or products, there are just so many great gems to geek out over!!! I think I could spend all day on this site.



[via Chris Glass]

Vintage Coasters and Beermats

Found over at Delicious Industries

"Sell! Sell! have posted up more of their fabulous vintage coasters and beermats. Check out their Flickr group to see the full collection."

So many goodies in there!

We Buy Your Kids - "Clementine" Video.

I don't usually watch YouTube videos, because usually I am let down or just far too antsy to take a few minutes to sit still and watch something, but this beauty is worth watching. We Buy Your Kids is Sydney based design duo Sonny Day and Biddy Maroney, who do all sorts of lovely graphic design and illustration. One of their latest projects is this video for fellow Aussie Megan Washington, the song and this video are just both tooth painfully sweet and adorable. Watch it.

Oh and here is a Quicktime of it which looks even better than the YouTube video

Italia Modern Design Book.

Saw this amazing book over at Grain Edit and I want it!!! So many great designs from the 1950s-1970s and includes many of my favorites like Bruno Munari, Giovanni Pintori, Max Huber, Enzo Mari, Pino Tovaglia, Albe Steiner etc. It also includes a fair amount of work from Olivetti and Pirelli.

Anyone know where to find it?

links and photos from Grain Edit

Most influential designers of our time...

Who has influenced how we think about design now? Who will influence it in the next few years? Make your own top five list and check out what other people think. Do you agree with who is on the list? Is there anyone missing? Check out the list here.

Hardformat - Reaching for the sublime in music design.

Hardformat - a super fabulous website featuring outstanding music-related design - more specifically really elaborate packaging, which if you are anything like us, is something to really geek out about.

From their "About" page:

It seems like everybody’s talking about the end of physical music media. Who knows whether they’re right or not, but Hard Format is a little place we’ve set up to celebrate our love of brilliant music-related design. That means we’re going to focus on records, CDs, cassettes and their like. However, Hard Format isn’t intended to become a dusty museum devoted exclusively to past glories, though there’ll certainly be some of that, we also want to highlight the brilliant new design work being produced right now. In fact, we’re not setting ourselves up to supply a canon of classic design - this is a place where we record stuff we like, if you want yet another reproduction of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band there are enough ‘Greatest album covers of all time’ books out there already.

Oh and who knows, perhaps at some point in the future we may even need to set up a parallel site to celebrate brilliant virtual design…

Even More Album and Design Fun

Sleevage is likely to appeal to anyone with the slightest interest in album covers as well as full blown aficionados. From the LP’s of the 60’s to the digital artworks of now. It’s still a work in progress but there’s a wealth of album covers listed by artists and design studio on their site. When possible they try to get a bit of background on each cover and if possible some early working comps, giving insight into the creation of many iconic covers.

They are currently in BETA release (that’s why a few things are still rough) and they’re also looking for writers who want to regularly submit to Sleevage in exchange for free CD’s and concert tickets. If that sounds like something you want to do then contact them.

Type Coasters

By acd on Supermarket.

[via]

Holeder Earphones

Wow - how brilliant are these headphones? You can take them out of your ears, leave them on and not worry about them falling or dragging. This is something that would come in handy at our house, our cat, Jpeg, loves nothing more than a dangling pair of headphones to swat at and to chew on.

The unique shape actually serves several purposes, it fits snug in your ear, easily loops together around your neck when not in use, and somehow prevents bacterial growth which is 700 times more concentrated in regular ear buds. Too bad they are still just a concept, would you buy one?

Designed by Yoonsang Kim.


via Design Milk

Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Lorem Ipsum tee for design-geeks at Tee Fury, today only!!!

Tee Fury has an amazing concept, "TEE TODAY. GONE TOMORROW". A brand new business with this concept, Limited edition designer tees at affordable prices, available for ONE DAY ONLY!!!

Today's shirt is awesome, it's perfect for us design nerds and so stinken cheap, only $9 plus $2 shipping. The artist is RikkiB - see an interview her on the homepage now.

I just bought one for myself actually!! Get on it NOW - according to the site there is just over 8 hours left!!!

Interview: tokidoki Creative Director Simone Legno

Karmaloop TV features some of the most influential design minds in the world. Tokidoki’s founder and creative director Simone Legno invites KarmaloopTV into the tokidoki studio for an exclusive glimpse into his methods and imagination.

Legno speaks about his influences, his background and you also get a sneak peak at some upcoming releases.

via KarmaloopTV

5 Great Social Networking Sites for Designers

Are you a graphic, web, industrial, or other designer? If so, there are 5 invaluable sites where you can network with other designers, get inspiration, and build a sweet portfolio.

1. Coroflot has the largest bank of portfolios I have ever seen, recently adding their 100,000th portfolio! You could spend weeks just browsing. Coroflot also has a great design job board. http://www.coroflot.com

2. Behance lets you build a dynamic, multimedia portfolio of your latest projects, open to all or shared selectively. You can comment on others’ portfolios. The Tip Exchange is also a great resource for sharing sources. http://www.behance.net

3. design:related is similar to Behance, but it is more focused on inspiration and collecting things that inspire you as a designer. The site also has a lot of great news and features. http://www.designrelated.com

4. Design Spotter is an online design magazine dedicated to everything related to young modern contemporary design. It focuses on designer portfolios, new products and prototypes, and promoting young designers. You can add your own portfolio too. http://www.designspotter.com

5. DESIGN 21 is a joint-venture project of Felissimo and UNESCO created to inspire and promote design for the greater good. http://www.design21sdn.com

These are also great places to check out upcoming designers or find a designer for a project. If you have more suggestions for helpful social designs sites, please post in the comments.

via Design Milk

Hero will present at Pecha Kucha - Part of TypeCon2008

Type-themed "Pecha Kucha Night" - an Evening of Mini Presentations From Design Legends and Rising Stars
Hallwalls Cinema
8:00 pm

Anyone who has attended a Pecha Kucha night before knows that the keys to the event are it's fast pace and visual punch. Each presenter is allowed exactly 20 images, each shown for exactly 20 seconds, adding up to 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. Time limits are strictly adhered to, and anything goes – from short films to bagpipe accompaniment to super-hot product design.

The TypeCon2008 edition of Pecha Kucha brings a stellar line-up of presenters from Buffalo and beyond: Julian Montague, Rick Griffith, Mark and Jill Wisz (OtherWisz), Stephen Coles, Greg Meadows, Mark Brickey (Hero Design Studio), Shasti O'Leary Soudant, Mark Byk and Kristine Tortora (AmpersandAmpersand), Brian Maloney, and Emily Luce.

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/buffalo/7

flexibility - renewable clothing by fernando brízio

renewable clothing by fernando brízio by placing colored felt-tip pens in the pockets of the dress its appearance changes over time.
within an hour - to one and a half hours the colored ink bleeds into the fabric and creates a one-off design
for each occasion. the owner can then clean the dress and color it in a different way for each time they wear it.

flexibility - design in a fast changing society ex carceri 'le nuove', turin
june 29 - october12
http://www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it

'flexibility - design in a fast-changing society' is one of the many events taking place in turin this year in
conjunction with the city being named the 'design world capital for 2008'. the show consists of nine
projects by international designers installed at a former prison ex carceri 'le nuove'.

via Design Boom

The Ampersand

Yup, a blog entirely dedicated to the Ampersand. This under appreciated, sweet dude is finally getting the attention he so deserves.

The Ampersand is one of my favs!!!

Check the blog out here
While you are at it check out this flickr group dedicated to our curvy friend.