iStyle offers a unique way to personalize, brand, and uniquely identify your electronic devices. Using a laser, iStyle can etch almost any image–photos, logos, artwork, text or a design from our own library of images and tattoos–onto any device made of metal or plastic. About $35 to get your iPod done. Click the pic for more info. Read More...

Neither Hip Nor Funky's tutorial on Read More...

from the site, "Is it the power of the pony racers inside them that makes these balls bounce so high? You might think so, seeing so much equine energy posed to run, jump, gallop, and race inside our set of six translucent balls.

But it's the balls themselves that rebound like rockets, and it's children ages 3 and up that run, jump, gallop, and race after them." click the pic to get a set of 6 for $2.79
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Tracie Herrtage has designed a cross between a hammock and a bed.

From fashion model to expert sailmaker to qualified welder, Tracie Herrtage’s career in design has embraced style, fun and functionality.
A lifelong interest in interior and furniture design has given birth to many innovative ideas culminating in her unique achievement – Le Beanock.
“The beauty of it” says Tracie, “is it’s simple, cool and extremely comfortable” Read More...

UK Designer Colin Lee is doing some cool Illustrator and Photoshop mash-ups. click the pic for more Read More...

a french fashion photographer... interesting stuff. Read More...

This Jigsaw Carpet. I think this is a bright idea, because you have total control over your carpet, you define the pattern, shape and size of this carpet, and you can have a new model everytime you want one just arrange the pieces in any way you like. You have 10 pieces to have fun with …and you can get one for $77. click the pic to go to the store. Read More...

Behind the Wall is an intriguing two sided piece of furniture that is both wall
and sofa created by Jordi Canudas. It offers a comfortable sitting area that becomes playful when users interact from both sides of the wall. Movement, sound and touch hint at what might be happening on the other side. Read More...

Designed by Hiroshi Tsunoda, ‘Joyn’ is a hexagon curtain / wall which can be used to divide a room or funk up a window. The structure is made up of hexagons which can be connected together. There is no need for a standing structure; it’s connected and swiftly hung up, on a steel cable using the accompanying attachment pieces, or directly to the wall using a number of fixation methods. Joyn can be put together in countless aesthetic and functional ways. Read More...

A wonderful piece of outdoor furniture made by Jane Hamley Wells - The Capsule Turntable. This season is wonderful for this piece of furniture. The Capsule Turntable is great for a morning beakfast outdoors enjoying the fresh air, and bird songs. A stainless steel frame supports a simple arching canopy provides a light and airy fabric cover over the table. A teak bench runs along each side of the table. Behind each bench run teak slats which shield you from the wind and sun. Read More...

When Photoshop entered the CS series it included a new tool called 'Match Color.' This tools was made so that you could match a series of photos to one another.

But there is another thing you can do with 'Match Color' that is much cooler: You can match the colors in your photos to those in famous paintings. Click the pic to learn how. Read More...

Painfully Hip is a cheap chic fashion blog and a collaboration of a pair of west coast twins with different but complimentary styles.
Amber (Vancouver, BC) might describe her style as vintage boho glam with 60's tendencies. Eve (NoCal) is more folk-rock chic with a 70's edge. They are both mad about color and prints. click the link to visit their site. Read More...

heartbreaking moment from the documentary about his work, "Rivers and Tides" Read More...

The quartet's textured melodies capture the hypnotic dream pop threads of My Bloody Valentine and pop bitter sweetness of Earlimart amd Pavemant... and such a blend has wowed their native L.A. since 2005.

here they are on Letterman




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cool. $2500 cool? I don't know, but it is pretty cool.

Using a network of 32 active and passive near-infrared optical sensors, it detects motion above the table and changes in ambient light. Made of fully analog circuits, the light patterns sweep outwards from your motion with perfect fades, rippling across a pool of 480 super-bright white LEDs. It works in full sunlight or total darkness. Without motion it calms down to a very slight attractive twinkling.



click the pic for more. Read More...

‘In a Lonely Place’ takes the form of a 7 meter inflated black sphere punctured by a half-timbered structure. Inside, a stair leads up to a viewing platform, from where the surrounding void is broken by small pinpricks of light, made by transparent panels cut into the sphere.

The installation, entitled In a Lonely Place, was designed by Fat (Fashion Architecture Taste), who describe themselves as 'a company that makes architecture and art (and all kinds of things in between)'. In a Lonely Place was the first in a series of installations specially commissioned by the RIBA Trust.

The installation combines different kinds of architecture: high tech inflatable and nostalgic historicism – both of which are deeply embedded as opposites within English architectural debate. The half timbered structure recalls both church and factory in its sharp-pointed roofline, its mock Tudor pattern suggestive of faux-historical suburban styling. The sphere is made from industrial PVC sheet, inflated by a series of electric fans – a piece of raw infrastructure.

The combination creates ambiguities of form and formlessness, of narrative and abstraction, and of object and experience. Structurally, the two parts work in opposite ways, the half timbered structure in load bearing compression, and the spheres form maintained by air pressure pushing outwards from its interior – one hard and one soft.

‘In a Lonely Place’ – whose title is title is taken from a Joy Division / New Order song - is a modern day folly that explores the idea of architecture as a series of experiences made richer by drawing on diverse references, materials and techniques.
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I don't even have hair and I want one of these. Read More...

ring of bright water... click the pic to see it full size. excellent. Read More...

One distinct fact about every number from 0 to 9999. fun! click the pic for more. Read More...

wow. this one is two piles of garbage set up with a projector to shine on it and cast teh shadows of the 2 artists. LOVE it. click the pic for more. Read More...

I remember seeing this on the Grammys one year... good TV! Read More...

cool demo from the TED conference of Microsoft Photosynth. Click the video to play. Read More...

Some pictures from Milan during the Salone del Mobile week in a Flickr Gallery Read More...

Jennifer Aniston is equal to almost 130 can of soda. A midsize car is equal to 253 spider monkeys. The weird converter converts the weight of one thing into the weight of another thing. absurd and quite useful.

from the site author: "Why? Well, while watching the Discovery Channel one day, listening to the narrators compare the size of a truck to blue whales, I thought that someone should make a converter to change other completely unrelated items. So I built one. And come on, who hasn't pondered how many poops a blue whale equals?" Read More...

From the nice people at BME Magazine, a gallery of glow in the dark and UV ink tattoos... many of which are not visible at all in sunlight. Click the pic for more. Read More...

From Wikipedia: "A building designed by Antoni Gaudi and Josep Maria Jujol and built in years 1905–1907; located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia (passeig is Catalan for promenade or avenue in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), and indeed it does have a visceral, skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona.

The building looks very remarkable — like everything Gaudi designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work.

It seems that the goal of the designers was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon." Read More...

Interesting collection of 10 "Green" designs for skyscrapers. click the pic for more info. Read More...

Shorpy.com is a photography blog that brings our ancestors back, at least to the desktop. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a boy who worked in an Alabama coal mine near the turn of the century.

shown here: "Going-to-the-Sun Hwy., Glacier Nat. Park, Montana. June 8, 1963." 35mm Kodachrome transparency." click the pic for more. Read More...

Liz Nonnemacher's site for shoppers seeking advice and product recommendations from the world of Indie design and fashion. Liz’s experience as trend-spotter for her two daughters led her to take the reigns of Wickedly Chic in 2006. Not everything here is great, but she's passionate about finding interesting things. Read More...

Step-by-step logo creation

"I don't know about you but I love to see examples of how other designers work—they reveal better (or worse) ways of doing things and allow me to gauge whether my methods are mainstream or totally whacked-out. “If anyone finds out how I obsess about this stuff,” I tell myself, “they'll stick me in a home.”

The problem is that step-by-step examples are rare. Why? Mainly because unless you are interested in sharing such information, there isn't much reason for recording it. And even if you are, detailing the steps can get in the way of the process." click the sketchbook to see the steps. Read More...

A Photo Gallery of Spirals in Natural and Man Made forms... lovely. click the spiral for more. Read More...

An area of wood tiles connected by elastic cords in tension creates a flat table top. However, the surface bows to provide cushioned seating, acknowledging the behaviour of people perching on the edge of coffee tables.

Exhibited at the Furniture Show Birmingham NEC following nomination for Young Designer of the Year award 2006

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French Graphic Design Firm Creaktif "we are digital terrorist!". They have bad english grammar, but some interesting ideas.

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There is a lot of great and strange illustration at jules.net but not a lot of information... click the pic "arghMyEyes" for more

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Pete Goldlust has some strange stuff going on in his head and expresses it in his work. He also carves crayons. Click the pic to see his website.

From his artist statement:

For several years, my work has explored a sculptural landscape where human urges (libidinous, predatory and monstrous) are acted out by half-recognizable, otherworldly surrogate creatures. The work reflects my interest in mutated, hybrid forms, and the disjunctive psychological states that they represent.

I’ve explored these themes using a variety of media. These have included traditional studio techniques, digital imaging, industrial manufacturing processes, and children’s arts-and-crafts materials. A sense of play is key to each of these creative strategies. For several years, the work has been largely focused on polymer clay sculpture.

Since 2005, I have worked with painter Julie Hughes to create collaborative mixed media installations that reflect our shared fascination with reconstituted, fragmented biomorphic form. Installations typically interweave Julie’s paintings on shaped sintra panels with my own polymer clay and mixed-media sculptures across a backdrop consisting of cut vinyl wall drawings. These environments explore the gray areas between seemingly distinct states of being: the alluring and the repulsive; the playful and the threatening; and the natural and the synthetic. Read More...

Born in 1973 in Los Angeles, David Vegezzi grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina and came back to LA years later to attend Calarts.

Entering the graphic design program, he took full advantage of the school’s interdisciplinary structure by incorporating experimental animation and film classes into his curriculum.

Currently more active in live action directing, Vegezzi most recently completed his second theatrical spot for LA’s prestigious and eclectic independent radio station Read More...

Solara is the first apartment community in California to be fully powered by the sun. The 56-unit apartment community, which opened yesterday, has some pretty impressive green features. The community has rooftop solar arrays that provide 140 kilowatts of power in total. The solar panels provide 100% power for the entire residential complex, and, on some days, provides surplus electricity to feed the region's power grid. Read More...

Poop-Freeze is an emergency pet product that every pet owner should have. Just keep it under the sink for those occassions in which your pet has diarrhea or loose stool. Poop-Freeze is ideal for new pet owners as their pets are learning the basics of potty training and is also great for seasoned pet owners whos pets occassionally make a mess in the house.

Poop-Freeze is safe to use both on carpet and vegatation. This aerosol freeze spray can frost dog, cat and bird poop. Wait 10 seconds...and a white crusty film solidifies the waste. A clean, easy and affordable solution to nasty waste clean-up problems.
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Plaster Casts from the 79 A.D. Eruption of Vesuvius

"One of the morbidly fascinating results of the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius is the large number of holes found in the volcanic deposits around Pompeii that represented corpses of people and animals that were buried by the hot ash. The ash lithified before the corpses decayed so that a good mold of the deceased remained. Early in the excavation it was discovered that filling these molds with plaster produced remarkable casts of the victims of the eruption. This page is a collection of photos taken of casts at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naploli."
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Click the link to view the scanned collection of 18th Century Entertainment Ephemera. fascinating. Read More...

snip: Phirebrush is an online magazine (art group if you want) that displays user submissions in monthly issues. These submissions showcase visitor submitted artwork, photography, music, desktop wallpapers and writings of various styles. Unlike most art groups and e-zines, we let ANYONE submit, trying to showcase both the famous and beginners, giving everyone a voice and a chance in the spotlight. Along with each issue we release an interview as well. We try to spread the variety around, one month talking to an artist, another month with a photographer or maybe a band, spreading insight into their minds and styles. So, what is Phirebrush? Phirebrush is whatever you make it to be.
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A company called AgiLight has created a way to insert LEDs (light-emitting diodes) into thin films. The LED strips could start showing up in credit cards by year's end, increasing security by flashing a dynamic security code. The LED strips can also be inserted into mirrors or pieces of glass and then display news headlines or stock quotes. Read More...