We have been having some pretty crazy storms around here lately. The tornado sirens have went off at least 3 times in the last week and I lost power for 8 hours on Friday (of course right as my family who was staying the weekend walked in the door).

Last night was one of the most intense storms I have seen in awhile. Truly what you would call rolling thunder. It was almost one constant rumbling sound. While that happened lightning streaked across every direction of the sky, constantly, for about an hour. I wish I could have photographed it but my balcony is in a very bad spot for that.

I did enjoy watching it. It was slightly cloudy so sometimes it would just be the entire sky turning white as the clouds diffused the energy, then a streak would come down and touch the ground as another snaked through the sky.

Why does all this matter? One, because lightning is pretty cool and that's not my photograph above, but it is pretty great. Second, because I went to post last night and the storm knocked my internet and cable out, better then the power I guess.

I wanted to throw in a non-photograph lighting piece of art too. As always I am a sucker for letterpress, and the above card from Etsy is pretty great too (check out the rest of their stuff, great patterns, love it!).

[photo from Flickr and card from Etsy ]

There is always the saying the gift that keeps on giving. Do you have someone you know that loves posters? Do they have a nice collection going? Would they love for you to add another to their collection?

Check out the top poster by Ty Mattson. It is just one of many over at Lift Up Nashville and the $10 you spend on it goes towards helping out in Nashville from the recent floods. They have a lot of other posters but that one is my favorite. Go check them out. Get a cool poster and help out. 12x18 and printed on a digital press.

If you have slightly deeper pockets and/or a love for Hatch Show Prints you can pick up their poster. It is $100 (100% goes to flood relief) but it is hand printed in an edition of 250 from woodcuts (no new age digital presses here). That store also has a version of Ty's that is 18x24 if you want to fill your walls a little easier.

Go get 1 or 2 or 5 and help Nashville out

[via Unplggd]

Up for today is the always awesome House Industries. If you need a large cast aluminum ampersand, some designer building blog, or the always sexy Eames typeface they've got you covered.

They used to have a really cool mousepad as well but I don't see it for sale anymore.

Check out the rest of their merchandise.

Now that my technical difficulties are over I can get back to business.

If you are in need of a gift for the designer in your life, and quick...Veer is the place to go. Check out their merch here.

They have great apparel, accessories, mugs, portfolios, pins etc. All of them are guaranteed* to put a smile on someone's face.

A few of my favorites are above. The KERN and TYPO GRAPHY sweatshirts and some faux ampersand cufflinks.

I have a hand full of their pins from a HOW conference as well, which were partly an inspiration to a project at school as well. We made a lot of buttons and sold them at our AIGA fundraiser and actually made some good money on them.

*I really can't guarantee this, but I am 98% sure it will!

Today was my Birthday and I'd have to say there isn't much better then an awesome wife that gets you a Happy Labbit. Wait, maybe there is... Add in a scavenger hunt around the apartment to find all of his accessories. YES, that is even better!

So this is my new friend above with his popsicle, piece of grass, gas mask, and hotdog. He will soon go to the office to live with Ribeye, Zapp Branigan and Mom.

The only problem with all of the Kid Robot toys is they are blind assortment so you don't know what you are going to get for accessories (or in the case of dunnys, munnys, smorkin' labbits, the actual figure is a mystery, unless you go to ebay, where you can pick the one you want). The mystery of it though just you want more of them. If you check out the link he has a ton of great little add-ons. Pipes, mustaches, bubbles, drool, all very cool.

I am trying to not get addicted to them and keep the collection small but there are so many cool ones out there. I really want to add to my Futurama collection since they are amazing but there are some specific other ones that are good too. I just don't wan to end up with shelves and shelves of them.

So go check out the Labbit, and right now a lot of them are on sale for "Stop Smorkin'" Month.

In honor of a great gift I think I am going to make this week great gift week. I will show a few of the great things I have found to make every geek, designer, typophile, and eccentric person in your life happy.

I am a big fan of the small Moleskine Notebooks, I like gridded page and the Kraft paper cover. I often end up drawing on them or leaving them plain. However, I always thought it would be cool to do some custom ones.

Normally, that would take a lot of work. You would have to buy all the Moleskines (and lets face it, they are not cheap) and then screen print them all.

Wouldn't it be nice if it was easier? BAM Scout Book!

My creative director picked up one of these for me when she went to a printing show in chicago, theirs is to promote AIGA Chicago Design week, and it's pretty snazzy. So I looked up the company on the back.

Scout will print your notebooks with your own graphics on them starting with an order of 50 book (for $195 or $3.90 a book). That pricing can be a bit steep for some, but for a custom printed notebook that really is a steal. You can get the price down to 90 cents a book if you are ordering over 1000 (good for trade show giveaways, or just any promo).

Go check them out. They use 100% recycled papers and soy based inks, so you'll get some green karma along the way.

I'll put them on my list, and maybe some day I could get some cool "The Large Bear" notebooks made up and run a big giveaway. One day...

There are a few skins for your laptop out there that I would actually put on a laptop, and this is one of them. The Chocolate Pine skin from Karvt. To me it seems just like an elegant modern kitchen combining dark woods and stainless steel, a great combination in my book. It also looks slightly textured from this photo which might give it a more high end look instead of a kid putting stickers on their trapper keeper (remember those!).

Only parts I am not a fan of? Their logo on the bottom corner, no thanks, and the price is a little steep at $35.

They come in a variety of woods: Bamboo, Pine, Walnut, and Cherry with a very options of "stain" colors.

[via unplggd]

I popped over to etsy today to kill sometime and I was greeted by a page full of yellow. Although it was cool outside today, I can see i'm not the only one loving that spring is here. As well as just loving yellow lately.

If you haven't been to etsy yet, go check it out and find some great handmade presents for your family and friends (and as always you can buy one of my prints there too...)

This has been in my "to post" list for quite awhile and by the awesome feature of how Safari fills in your address bar and my need to go to Office Depot, I once again came across The Office of the Tooth Fairy.

When I was a kid and we lost a tooth we put it in a film canister, the black with the gray top, and that went under our pillow. When we woke up the money would be in the canister for us and the tooth would be mysteriously gone. I still remember when I had to clean the tooth up after it came out because it came out while eating a Carmellow bar and it was covered in chocolate and caramel. Great memories (although teeth do freak me out a bit in general) and I will always remember that film canister.

Memories like that are great but on the other hand I can't get over the shear beauty of these "official" letterpress Office of the Tooth Fairy certificates. I drooled over them the first time and once again I am. They thought of everything, the bag for the tooth, extremely detailed record keeping, the deposit envelope (although I might make one out of a film canister, heck my kids won't even know what film is...). I know I am sucker for letterpress in general, but these are fantastic. I have always been tempted to order, and now they have extra sheets so you can keep track of multiple children easily. Which was kind of the reason I held back. To buy for multiple children at $16 a set, was a little pricey, especially when I don't have kids yet. Now with the extra sheets, I can pick up one kit, a few extra record sheets and keep them for the future (plus one just to keep for myself).

You can order online or find a store near you. I just saw that there was one sort of nearby, but since the extra sheets are new, i'll probably order online and save the hassle. $16 for the first set, extra sheets are $6 each or they have packages of 5 and 10. Shipping is reasonable too at $1.50. Go get it!

P.S. Could they have picked better colors! Love the brown and blue. I have been trying to get some clients to use this combo forever.

Has it been sunny out for you? I know it has been here, and you can see that it has greatly affected my mood. The weather has been great, tomorrow it is supposed to be 70, and that means drinks on the balcony when I get home from work.

I went to etsy and typed in "sunny" and this is what I found. Want a way to spruce up your portfolio, stand out a bit? You'll stand out anywhere with this bright yellow case. Plus, can't beat a username like JohnTWalrus.

Enjoy your Friday, then it's the weekend!

Today I have had the beach on the mind. It was a long chain of events that got it on my mind but then I remembered this awesome post on swissmiss, and about a really cool new tool called the Willysphere. I wanted to post it back then, but it wasn't available anywhere, so you'd get all excited about it (like I did) then have no way to get them.

Well they are finally available in the US!

The Willyshpere is a sand shaping tool invented by a guy from the Netherlands. The creator won second place in a "Best Idea in the Netherlands" contest for the product. Basically you move them in a circular motion on well packed sand or snow, and the slight curve in the tool will create different size spheres. Check out the video to see it in action, and just how insane of a project you can make out of it.

You can get them here, for $14.95 (regular $20) for a set of 4 of them with free shipping. You'll be able to make 20, 30, 40 and 50cm diameter spheres. So not as big as he said in the video, up to 1m, but still a pretty good size and more manageable for the everyday user. I am ordering a set for sure, and can't wait for the warm weather to get here and try them out (I need something else to do when there isn't enough wind for my kite, and plus, these are beyond cool). I am really happy they made it a reasonable price too since it is such a simple product, this way everybody can pick up a set and play on the beach all day. Pick up a set for yourself, friends, family, kids, anyone who would love making shapes in the sand all day.

So this is something I have been wanting to post about for awhile, but it kept slipping my mind. But, yeah, this is totally on my wishlist. Although my wife is not the biggest fan, so it may take longer then planned.

This is the amazing Donkey Kong wall graphic from Blik. What is Blik you might ask (ironically that is their web address too, whatisblik.com)? They make vinyl wall graphics and are probably the leading company doing this. The graphics are fantastic. They have officially licensed graphics from Nintendo, Eames, Threadless, other artists, and tons of other great ones.

So I have been craving the Kong one. It is made with reStik, which is the kind of vinyl you can take down and put back up. How awesome is that? It is $65 for a set, but if you can reuse it, it's worth it. Unfortunately, the image at the top is most likely made with multiple sets. They recently redid their website, and I miss 2 great features it had. 1. It used to have more photos from people who have bought them, there was a great donkey kong one on a light grey wall wrapped around a corner (they have it as the icon if you search "kong" you'll see it) Found it! 2. It had a little graphic that showed what you could do with one kit, then two, then three, to show you how elaborate you could make it. Essential for this type of kit where you really need to see what you could do with one if you are on a budget, obviously not making the show stopper above.

What is with the Mega Man picture you ask? Yeah that's right, Mega Man coming soon, killer. If I had a perfect world, I would have my own studio, old school Mario in one room, Kong in another, Mega Man in another. I doubt I would get any work done though, since I would just sit there and play my NES on the biggest TV I could while blasting the Double Dragon theme song.

Ok, back to a point. If you have checked them out in the past, go again, because they are adding amazing things. If you haven't been before, go now, and see how you can spice up your place (these are key for rentals since they are removable). I would really like to see how the reStik works, how many times you can reapply it etc. One day, my wall WILL be Donkey Kong, one day. The wall behind me is begging for it right now...

Things don't always have to make sense, ands that is why the world is awesome.

Lunasaurus by Aesthetic Apparatus. $20 

I have been hearing from my friends and family in Michigan (where I am from) about the storm that hit them yesterday, and it has me thinking about snow. I love the stuff. I don't mind driving in it, if no one else is on the road to hit me, and if the city plows the roads (but they never do, do they own a plow? I don't think so). I wouldn't have minded to get some hear instead of the rain that we got.

This is a great poster called First Snow by Power Slide. It encompasses probably a perfect day for me, and while some might say it looks bitter and cold, I feel that it looks refreshing. Amazing what you can do ith just 2 colors, gotta think outside the normal realm of color (since when you screen print, every color means you gotta print the entire run AGAIN).

I often read a great design blog called AisleOne, written by Antonio Carusone. He is a great designer, blogger, etc, and recently he also has started designing skateboards. His first one was the Hello and the new one is the 39 Longboard.

I love this board! I don't skateboard, I have trouble staying on things that aren't attached to my feet, but I love it. The shape, color, type, wheels, everything is fantastic. Looks like it would fit right in with the color scheme here too.

If you've got some free time, go check out his boards, and go check out his blog. Lots of great info and work being shown over there.

$160 + Shipping for the complete board

The always popular and always amazing Feltron Annual Report is back. Nicholas records pretty much every aspect of his life and then at the end of the year produces a visually stunning annual report cataloging the previous year. Each AR is slightly different and always great.

This year is is letterpressed on French Durotone paper, and I bet it looks fantastic in person.

Available for Pre Order right now, and will be limited to 2000 copies.

So I lied, I said I would put something up yesterday, but I slacked. Well you can't call it slacking, I was playing Mario. So I had objectives and goals, that's the same as work right?

In celebration of my obsession with Mario, I found this awesome design. Apparently I am a bit late on the game though because apparently it is crazy hot right now and all over the place.

It is by Glenn Brogan and is up for voting over on Split Reason to have it made into a t-shirt. There was also talk of maybe trying to do a print of it. My opinion on that? Awesome! BUT, and this is the big BUT, do not make a giant 18x24 poster of it. How about a smaller art print? That is one reason why I dislike threadless' prints so much, they are all 18x24. Well, that is pretty big, takes up a lot of wall real estate and you can only put up so many large posters before it looks like a dorm room. So I vote small sized art print, 8x10, 11x14 something in that general vicinity. Not a weird size either so that you can easily get a frame for it (but this goes on to my general rambling about this kind of stuff, so I will cut it short.

So, for the short story, awesome illustration, hope it wins, make lots of moolah, and now I shall go back to controlling an italian man and make him do my bidding.

[via Sprite Stitch]

It's the time of the year, and I wanted to make all of your seasons a little more jolly. I've put together a little Holiday Gift Giveaway. So this is my gift to all of you .

Here is how it works

1. Leave me a comment (comment link is above by the date or below the post!). To make it a little more interesting tell me what your favorite Pantone color is and why (and if you don't know what your favorite is, or what a Pantone color even is, just go with your favorite color and then go research Pantone because it is a good thing to know about)
2. Make sure you leave your e-mail address with the comments, this is how I will contact you, they won't be shared with anyone. No e-mail No Prize
3. Winners will be selected by a Random Number Generator. First winner will get their choice of prize, second gets next choice, etc.
4. I send you out your amazing prizes (magazines will be subscribed to for you)!

Sorry for the weird comment form on this one, it is the only way I can get it to collect your e-mail address so I can actually contact you. I will most likely turn it off since it is making my blog a little less then beautiful.

So good luck, pass the link on to your friends, and have a great holiday season

Contest is Open until Friday December 18th 5:00 PM EST

* One entry per person. Contest is ONLY open in the Continental United States, sorry Hawaii, Alaska & International!

Prize #1
Pantone 388c Coffee Mug

Prize #2
Readymade Magazine 1 Year Subscription (6 Issues)

Prize #3
Wired Magazine 1 Year Subscription (I know this is an old issue, but I like Jenna Fischer, you will get new ones)

Prize #4
A-Frame Blockprint

Prize #5
Yeti Blockprint by Gregory (in Brown/ Terra Cotta NOT Green)

Prize #6
2 French Paper Cat Notebooks (1 Black and 1 Orange Sorry, NO blue)

Prize #7
Moleskine Cahier Kraft Paper Pocket Sized 3 Pack.

Are you going to be in Chicago this weekend?

If you are, stop by and checkout the Renegade Holiday Sale. This weekend, Dec 5 & 6, from 11-7, at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse.

From what I learned at the summer event. There will probably be NO parking... But they are offering a trolley service around the Wicker Park area to the fieldhouse, although there really isn't any parking in the Wicker Park area... It is also really near the blue line, so you could take that as well.

I will hopefully have a full report on it next week.

Buy Handmade!

Are you looking for that ornament that has a little extra style? A little tired of Santa holding a Coke, snowmen doing various things, or the Grinch stealing christmas in a miniature scale? Well Look no more. Dress up your tree with some acrylic game controller ornaments . Available in 6 colors in a set of 7 for $25.

I can only think of to things to improve it. I would offer a few more options. Possibly an all wiimote set (they would look like icicles hanging on the tree...) or maybe some single serving options  since the NES controller is amazing.

Second, although the acrylic looks good, and had a direct connection to all of the plastics the real controllers are made out of... I want to see it in wood. Maybe out of a nice plywood or bamboo. This would give it kind of a more elegant look and instead of having brightly colored plastic on the tree you could have nice, warm, wood tones. I would be more driven to purchase it in wood and think it would look phenomenal on the tree.