I didn't remember about this until late last night, so I was sad I didn't post it sooner to remind everyone.

FUTURAMA IS BACK ON COMEDY CENTRAL!

The new season premiered last night with 2 great episodes. I enjoyed the little joke in the beginning about getting cancelled etc. I aso thought the episodes were top notch and that it didn't really miss a beat being gone all of these years.

So if you want to check it out and get Back to the Future with Fry, Leela, Bender and the gang, it is on Comedy Central Thursdays @ 10

* The photo is the Kidrobot Futurama figures that I have on my desk. My collection is getting quite large.

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 ]

Thank you Pac Man for countless hours of wasted time.

Today if you head over to Google you can check out the Google logo done up in honor of Pac Man's 30th Birthday. But then the classic music starts playing, and that's not all...

YES! It is a working version of Pac Man you can play. Thanks Gooogle!

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.

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.

The weather has been getting warmer here so last night I had the ambition to get the bikes out of the attic. Then I had an even greater ambition to ride my bike to work today. The ride went well except it is still quite brisk in the morning!

Now I just have to ride home, which is a greater feat. Since there is a giant hill between me and home, although much better then the hill on the way to work and therefore being really gross and sweaty.

Get out there an enjoy the weather!

[image is a shirt on threadless]

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...

Two nights ago I was able to attend the ADDYs for my company and it turned out to be a fantastic evening. I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but we did amazing. I came home with 7 awards for us including a Judge's Choice and the Best in Show (with a sprinkling of some golds and silvers in there too).

A lot of our clients have been giving a lot of freedom lately and it has really been paying off. Since I work mostly for law firms, most of them are set in their stodgy ways and in the end it shows. However, the few choice clients that who let us go off an do what we love, end off better in the end. The work for the client that won both the gold and the Best in Show is an ad campaign that is far from what you would see for most law firms. Clever copywriting, great photographs, use of white space, these isn't the norm in the industry*.

So in the end, sorry for the goofy shot of me. This was my final seventh time up, and I was running out of little things to say at the mic and I am way overdue for a haircut. Plus, thanks to my wife for taking shots of the event and getting a couple of me not looking like an idiot.

*I try to keep from posting images and stuff from work, since I don't know exactly how that works, but if you want to see some of the winning work or my work in general just drop me a message.

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).

If you go to Google today you'll find a really nice Olympic themed header graphic. I am always a fan of when they put up new ones to correspond to special days of events, but I really like this one. It is a great illustration (instead of the usually cheesy modified Google logo) and has some texture to it as well.

I tried searching for the illustrator (in Google of course...) but only came across info on past times they did this.

Is everyone going to be watching tonight? I don't know if they'll be able to outdo the ceremony from China, that was crazy!

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A

(Insert joke about unlocking her secret world or her hidden treasures here)

Great dress created by Liz Tan for a Halloween costume. I don't see why it is limited to Halloween though, looks like proper attire for any day.

I really need to get my wife one of these for one I go as Mario. Yes, Peach is a more obvious costume choice, but this is just awesome!

[via Unplggd ]

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

No design post today because it a a great day and LOST is starting it's final season. So if you are casually browsing your design blogs tonight, I want you to see this, and go turn your TV on. Wait, you don't watch LOST?

Well, just think, does your life have a hole in it that is just too hard to fill? A certain emptiness? Could it use a TV show that makes you question all kinds of things but never really gives you answers, but only enfuriates you more? If the anser is yes, maybe you should go watch it (although you would be hoplessly lost as to what is going on, so maybe you should go get all the dvd sets, watch them all, build a time machine, come back to tonight, so you can watch it with the rest of us, then give me the time machine, Id like a pet T-Rex).

10 points to anyone who sees the photoshop disaster in the poster!

So this week I have been feeling a bit burnt out. Couple endeavors didn't work out, crazy busy at work. Because of all of that I haven't been out there finding awesome design stuff to post. I will be up to my usual caliber soon though.

So instead I leave you a photo of my dog Rocky, as we played outside in the snow last night. He really isn't that happy to see me, he is concentrating very hard on the frisbee I am holding.

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]

So I don't know if I can tell the future or what, but the Pantone Color of the year for 2010 is Turquoise (PS that is the link as well, since my links ARE turquoise)!

If you look around the blog you might see that is a pretty prominent color around here (1 of 2 I use besides white). When I was designing the blog I started with grey and yellow (which I think yellow was the 2009 COTY) because I loved those 2 colors together, but for some reason it wasn't working. So I switched over to turquoise, and now it's the color of the year.

Should I play the lotto tonight?

This is beyond amazing.

This video really says a lot about designers:

1. We have too much time on our hands
2. We don't just love typography we are IN love with typography
3. Designers still like beards
4. Maybe we don't have so much free time, but we would rather do this kind of stuff than sleep.

So watch it and love it.

"Gill Sans the G is whack when it's in lower case. Avant Garde you me me hard, like Helvetica you've been played."

That last part is so true, one of the main reasons I don't like to use Gill Sans

Lada Gaga HD Poker Face video if you somehow have no idea what the reference is here (because you have been on some kind of island with no internet).

Thanks for finding this Tina

[via swissmiss]

Do you ever have an experience with a client that just leaves you without words. Something they did or said is just beyond comprehension? Something that leaves you thinking "Holy Sh*t I can't believe they just said/did that!"

That is where Clients from Hell comes in. They describe themselves as A collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers." However, I think that translates if you have anything to do with the design world, your schedule just got booked for the afternoon.

I've included a few of my favorites just from the first page, go check it out and read to your heart's content.

Can you move that logo up 1/63 of an inch?

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The art director had flown from the UK to Florida to take a shot of a beautiful old Ford Mustang. Back in the UK, the account manager says the client is unhappy with all the palm tree fronds.

Account Manager: “Couldn’t we just photoshop some of them out?”

Art Director: “Well, it’s not quite as easy as that, because if you look at the shot, there are reflections of the palm fronds in the car’s glistening bodywork. They’ll be harder to remove.”

Account Manager: [Slightly bewildered] ”Yes, but if you remove the actual palm fronds, then the reflection of them will disappear too.”

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I received a call from a prospective client yesterday. I knew it was going to be a long conversation when the first word out of her mouth were, “I’m not going to lie, I’m bipolar, but I’m taking medication so I should be able to get through this phone call.”

So after reading all of these. the real question is... Do you ever have the opposite experience? That something so incredibly good happens you can't believe it. Sadly, I think it is weighted Pretty heavily in the opposite direction.

I can't say I have been a fan of the Keep Calm and Carry on posters, but that doesn't mean you can't get some other great things from the Keep Calm Gallery. They have a huge amount of great posters. But that's not all. They also have tea towels, mugs, and Christmas Cards.

I saw these cards a few week ago, and they were just too perfect. My love for wood block printing and that handmade look just takes over. Plus, these cards would be somewhat non-denominational. Yes, they do feature an evergreen, and it doesn't matter how many times we tells our clients this, that doesn't mean Christmas. So you can get that wintery vibe along with the simple message of "HI".  Pick some of them up today, get em early, and get them sent out before the holiday rush.