Having the luckiest privilege and chance to travel around the world has been the utmost, maybe undeserving gift to myself. Not that I'm any travel expert (yet?) but I don't mind giving myself a bit of pride, having spent countless nights in different accommodations—from luxury 5 star hotels to shared co-ed 12 person hostel apartment—I could say I know a thing or two about them. Without doubt, as soon as Design You Trust posted an article about "9 Hours: Capsule Hotel" my eyes widened with intrigue and excitement, not solely for the concept but very much so for the graphic design of the concept as well. Beautiful inside and out, the place is another Japanese nurtured idea of minimalism for confined spaces. I enjoy a good hotel—who doesn't? Hostels, however, with its underrated reputation, have more layers than its lack of bed sheets; character to dissect and unravel; there is more to experience, plus who needs a 300 sq feet hotel room when 95% of the time is spent outdoor exploring the city. Space has become a luxury, like water and gold. To live in standard North American spaces seem self-fish or astonishing lucky as most of the world population probably live one-eight of the average living space of North Americans. Now that the trend of owning smaller housing is on rise, perhaps our mind will change the way we see shelter in a different light.



For original article and pictures, click here.
For 9 Hours: Capsule hotel, click here.

"Why am I a designer? The facetious answer is, there's nothing else I can do; the real answer is, there's nothing else I can do."

I am a bit late in the game to post this video even though I had the intention to do so the day they debuted the video. OK Go is out with another inventive and creative (well deserved to be) viral video albeit not being a big fan of their music. I tried hard to like them in their freshmen year. Lately, I noticed a lot of the optical illusion spacial design projects, you know the ones when a designer/artist uses an urban space to create a 2D artwork. It's mind blowing and bending to figure out their methods and this video takes it to a new level, to which may i also add one sequence shoots are also on trend with music videos lately ( Phoenix's Trying to Be Cool, as an example). Special Guest and 1st Ave Machine were the agencies that collaborated with the band and their approach was simple: not a music video, it's a brand project. OK Go has become more known for their creative videos than their actual music. It's a smart move; their brand is a unique, humorous, ironic personality.

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Wow did I just type a large paragraph which I haven't done in months. It feels nice. Definitely does.

Key Ring Holder - Brilliant!

For all you runners and joggers.

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The troublesome (a pretty annoying) part of creativity, particularly in design, is that one person's idea is another person's as well. The likelihood of an idea being twins or quadruplets are essentially quite high. Why? Because we live on the same planet. Our inspirations comes from the same sources. Searched high and low, unique concepts are hard to come by, but when they do, they will hit you hard in the face and the stomach that the only thing you can do is spill a smile. The most irritating factor of it all, like the chicken and the egg situation, which one of the two was created first, provoking obvious questions, such as, "Was it copied? Was it stolen? Was it influenced by it?"; they come pouring out, quite generously and vocally. Gasp! OMG! WTF! Ew! Ouch! Uh... No!

For the designer, who obviously went through a semi-thorough research didn't come across it, know nothing of its existence, is now deemed a copycat and a "criminal". And, needlessly, have to (must) restart or at least dig extremely hard in their brain's crevasses to find an adaption or alteration. 

 

Sometimes our brains play games as well; popular online sites like Pinterest, Tumblr makes so easy and forgettable as we're saving ten thousand images into our "Inspiration" folders that the memory of something we saw gets rendered into something we think we thought of on our own. It happens. Like everything else in our lives. Was it dream sequence or did it actually happen? Was it her who told me the story or was it his? 

 

Solution? Nothing scientifically. Just basic sense: delete and startover; erase and startover. Pour me another coffee and sleepless nights. Thanks. 

----- Car To Go -----

Over the weekend, while on the highway ramps, there appeared a large parking area filled with blue smart cars, almost looking like a scene from a futuristic movie of cloned soldiers. When the name, Car to Go, appeared within my viewpoint, I suddenly realized what they were since i heard this kind of program starting in other cities around the world. Like the Bixi bikes, this is for automobiles. Looking around the website, car2go.com, I'm finding this program more and more interesting and meets my needs when I suddenly need to go, say, the South Shore or Laval where bmw isn't convenient or slightly too costly for round-trips. The future is looking bright and friendly.

How it works:
Pay for a one time cost for a membership. It doesn't start charging you until you swipe your card in front of the windshield, which will unlock the car. As you get in, the keys are located next to the touch screen. Money is charged as soon as you start the engine. Prices are varied between minutes, hours and day. Pretty cool.

----- NYC Thirteen -----

This year's New York trip marked my first return to the city when it wasn't covered in snow or requiring me to put my winter gear on, and boy it surely was nice; however rain did shower us generously. Nothing is more synonymous with the Big Apple than shopping, walking and eating. I walked till I limped on my second day; not sure if I really shopped, just really bought; went to the ones on my list, pop into spontaneous ones and called it a day. From staying in the Upper East Side to exploring the tip of Brooklyn to checking out street fairs, this trip was cool and relaxing as a cucumber on your eye. The picture below marks the most interesting purchases (sigh I spent so much).

1. Uniqlo always carry good graphic tee shirts, just not for women, in my opinion. I shopped at the Men Section and purchased the Jean Michel Basquiat Tee.
2. Pikolinos Pop Up store in Meat Packing District, where they lured me in for a free bracelet and mysteriously I came out with a pair of sandals. Pikolinos: The Maasai Collection is a sustainable project where the Maasai tribal women in Kenya hand embroider the designs then shipped back to the HQ. All proceeds go back to the tribe to sustain their culture and lifestyle. Pikolinos is environmentally and socially conscious brand of comfort shoes.
3. Chelsea Market: The Filling Station, is exactly that. You fill up your reusable bottle with their olive oils or vinegar and salt.
4. Stumptown Roasters Brooklyn: i once stayed in the same building as the cafe and really liked their coffee.
5. Mint M&Ms. Bring. Them. Up North.
6. Walked by a Myers of Keswick selling UK products: Walkers Crisps! 
7. Sigh I swear i thought I would stay away from Time Sq. but followed cousin to M&M store where I made an overprice purchase of personalized M&Ms.
8. Trader's Joe: Preserve toothbrush, finish and mail back (with paid postage) to the company.
9. M&Ms in cool colors.
10. Footsie, finally found those socks that make you look barefoot.
11. Brooklyn, Wisconsin.

Check:

http://maasai.pikolinos.com/project/

http://www.thefillingstationnyc.com/

http://stumptowncoffee.com/

http://www.preserveproducts.com/

----- Handmade Firsts -----

So i just learned that this years (tonight) Oscar's will mark the first time they handmade each winner announcement envelope; why only start now? For an event that prestigious should require every detail to be attentive right down to that envelope. Created by 184-year old fine papermakers, GMUND Paper, based in Gmund am Tegernsee in the Bavarian Alps.

Destroy Desk Culture by Steve Price

The word ‘desk’ comes from the 14th century Latin ‘desca’, meaning a table to write on. Medieval illustrations show the first pieces of furniture designed and constructed for reading and writing. Desks fill a practical purpose and have been given a physiological one, but they are not where creativity originates. In fact, they can be where it dies.

We need to reassess the workplace in general. In the creative industry you’ll see many variations of the ‘studio’. It was once a place where drawing boards, cutting boards, scalpels and maybe even typesets and pica rulers lay strewn in between old coffee cups and drawings, with more drawings, sketches and posters covering the walls. Most of this has been replaced by iMacs, white IKEA desks and walls adorned with a range of the latest screenprints. Or they might even be barren. You don’t want to ruin the look.

continue reading at http://www.computerarts.co.uk/features/destroy-desk-culture

----- goedzak -----

http://waarmakers.nl/projects/

A bag designed for a specific use: donation. Sure, something as easy as leaving it in a box and writing a sign, "Take Me" or "Free" would easily facilitate the process but this "brands" it in a way citizens won't feel weird or look weird taking other people's trash as it is universally understood by the packaging. Plus, it protects it from rain, snow and visible through the bag without the need to rummage through the possessions.

----- Packaging Dreamland -----

I feel disappointed to only have heard about the culinary heaven William Sonoma at the end of this year. They recently opened in my town; at first when I saw the construction announcement, i couldn't resist and said, "another cookware store?!". Oh how i regretted it once I stepped foot in the store, which then followed by long hours wasted on their website. Boy, it is not affordable; cookies for over $20; salsa for $16. The American stores serve and cater food; carry precooked food as well. I am overall most impressed with their in-house products; the packagings are to die for. Shelves and shelves of gorgeous visual design porn. Their in-house team is an impressive bunch, if not the team they hired; as well as the packaging from other brands they sell.

Williams Sonoma

----- What to Get for a Graphic Designer for Christmas -----

If you know a graphic designer, and you're stuck at what to get them, here's a list to help you for your holiday shopping. Based on things I've used and things i found.

 

1. Adobe Creative Suite 6, The Master Collection. 

This will make any designer happy. Fullfilling their dream of owning all the software. And if you have the ka-ching, this would be the ultimate luxury gift set; better than a diamond ring or the rolex watch. Reg. $2599 or student $799 (yeah i know huge discount)

 

2. The Wacom Tablet

Every designer will appreciate the value of this gadget, so will their hand. One of the most essential tool for any creative person; you can draw, write and ergonomically do what a pencil does.  

$349

 

3. The Pantone Color Swatches

  Yes, giving them color swatches, almost identical to the ones you pick up at the paint store, will be quite gift. These sets provide the most accurate color match system so when they meet their next client, they'd impress them with their colorful professionalism (of course with pun intended).

$319 

 

4. Fonts

 Give your love ones a credit of $300. It might not get them very far but may last 10 sets of fonts or 2 sets, it depends on how high taste they are because some sets cost $80 alone.

$300

5. 5 O'Clock Clock, Tibor and Maira Kalman

Although it doesn't have to be this specific clock, but this one is pretty awesome ain't it? Clocks is our gatekeeper, the guard, the Dumbledore in our world. We are constantly watched by The Deadline. I'd love to see the five being replaced by words like, Time to Get Creative, Procrastinate, Facebook a little, ok fine Youtube, Time to Get Working, Deadline Here and Oh Fuck.

$95

6. A French Press coffee Maker

We drink coffee like Honey Boo Boo drinks her Go-Go Juice. Can't live without it, at least well until 2080 when we will run out of coffee in the world (if this won't be an apocalypse, I don't know what is). The maker is portable and no electrical plug required so even during a black out, we can still make coffee! Hope you know how to start a fire though.

$50

7. Faces of the Moon Stress Ball
Great for those *special* moments of frustrations and thinking. This little ball is fun to squeeze because you can change its face into different emotions.
$38

8. HTML & CSS by Jon Duckett

 It is seriously hard to track down a good web design book without having to stab our eyes out trying to struggle through pages of mundane text and incomprehensible graphics . This one I must say is very well written, laid out and designed! For every designer who is ready to jump to web.

$30

9. The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Dog Flash Cards

What mumble jumble are we saying? This card game tests and helps designers practice their typeface recognition skills. Yes, there is such thing.

 $25

10. The Evernote Ruled Smart Notebook

 This notebook is specifically created with special paper that allows you to snap pictures of the pages with your smartphone and be automatically uploaded to a program where it will be searchable and organized. The app will automatically identity your handwriting and adjust shadows; your pages will look like they were scanned. It organizes your thoughts into tags.

$24.95 for small $29.95 for large

11. Drink Meee! Threadless
We always need a cute mug here and there. Plus, supporting Threadless, you're helping rising illustrators and designers. Grab a T-shirt there too if you want!
$12

----- Owen Gildersleeve: Master of Paper -----

One word: WTF. Okay, that's technically three words but—shut up. Owen Gildersleeve takes the level of illustration and design up to the next level of craziness: paper cut illustrations. These are examples from his portfolio. Tired of 2D digital or hand drawn factor, the kid uses paper and intelligent planning to articulate his visual communication. If only I had a 1/4 of his talent.

His porfolio.

----- Colours to Make You Successful -----