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(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 ]

So what do all of you think of this proposed redesign of Monopoly by Andy Mangold? He created this packaging for a class project and I like the way he put it, "Monopoly, in spite being the classiest of all board games, unfortunately is packaged just as boringly and uncreatively as every other garbage board game on the shelves. So, I decided to repackage it... turning the class up to 11." Nice Spinal Tap reference there.

I am really loving the color, and these are the exact ones I have been into lately. Rich colors: earthy brown, deep orange, cream, all so good. I think my favorite part (besides the color...) is the cover with just the giant monopoly face. So iconic and so perfect.

Now, what I would like to see next, is the board and the rest of the pieces finished to go with the set. Maybe a more elegant design for the cash, something really extravagant and ornate. And a really nice paper used for the money and the properties. Get something 100% cotton. To go over the top (and I mean like everest over the top, dare I say it) letterpress cards and money. Mmmmmmm.

So, here is what is on my mind though. What is stopping you from making your own version of the game, seriously? All you need is a printer and a bit of time. You could even take a current board and box and just put your design over it. I would suggest a laser printer though so that it has a bit of durability. Inkjet might deteriorate a bit faster.

Throw it on the to do list.

And a last note. I had a bunch of links in my browser at work (forever, I always have too many tabs) and I lost an important one I wanted to post. So, I pulled this link today out of my giant folder of "Blog It" of all kind of stuff that I have found, and, what do you know, the same guy did the thing I wanted to post and lost... another post coming up soon!

Very cool Pac Man bag I found over on technabob. I mean how cool is that? I am a big fan of the second one because it is a bit more low key, but the first one is nice and bright.

Too bad they are only in Korea right now, the $39 price tag isn't bad though.

Makes me think about a design project I am working on, and how I might have to do a second one...

As Promised time for a full report on the Renegade Craft Fair.

First things first, I had been looking forward to go to this for quite awhile, so I was all ready to be dazzled. However, overall I probably give it a 7 out of 10. Leaps and bounds above the standard touring art fair that seems to show up everywhere, but room for improvement.

My biggest gripe for the entire event would be parking, of the extreme lack thereof. I double and triple checked the website for information. It told me how to get there if taking the EL, if I was biking, but nothing about a car. I live 2 hours away from Chicago, biking isn't an option... Looked for other info online and in past years this was a bad area as well... great start. So after 2 traffic jams, we were in the area, and yup, no parking. The fair is basically set up in a neighborhood, so there aren't any parking garages, and about 60% (or more) of the street parking is permit only. After driving around for 20 min, and almost just giving up, I scored a spot.

Step 1: Get there - CHECK

It was much bigger then I expected, and had white tents as far as the eye could see as well as so many people near the booths you could barely move. I didn't even go in a lot of them because it was just too packed with people. Plus the people were for the lack of better words, assholes. Pushy, grabby, etc. They would push right in front of you only to stop right in the middle of the flow of "traffic." People would just stand in large groups right outside a booth and chat, when they were obviously in everyone's way. I mean come on people, look around you, have common sense.

So, after that rant, lets break it down into some lists:

Pros

• Overall Great contest for an art fair, not too many watercolors of a beach going on if you know what I mean
• Some illustrators I have seen on the web forever and got to see in person
• I met Jay Ryan
• Found art that would normally be somewhat hard to find (although most of it is actually on etsy you just need to look)
• Free
• Some good food and beer tent (although I didn't have any beer)

Cons

• No parking
• Everybody else who was there (ha... I sound like I need to live in a shack out in the woods or something)
• Booth after booth of overpriced screen printed t-shirts. $30 for a t-shirt, probably not. That's just me though.
• Lack of vendors who excepted credit card (even the food). I have taken this as a normal part of everyday life and didn't expect people to not except it (maybe some, but not THAT many). One place actually accepted checks, but not plastic. I didn't bring a ton of cash one me since I had planned on credit cards, so I was wrong.

To expand on the last con above I think etsy is the culprit behind this part though. Most of the vendors are on etsy and etsy takes care of all of the transactions for them. So if that is the only place you sell, you don't need CC services. However, then put yourself in a setting like this, and now you can only take cash, and limit your potential cash flow. It seems like there would be a way to do it with a smart phone and paypal (actually I know you can).

Ok, so back to the rating of a 7 out of 10. It was fun, I am glad I went, and will try to go up for the holiday sale. However, I think I prefer the much smaller and low key INDIEana Craft Exchange that I went to last year. But Renegade started out small too, and it's just grown to where it is now. I know the planners put a lot into it, but there are some problems that need to be fixed. Parking, and maybe some diversity of vendors, too much of the same thing.

We all know that I am somewhat obsessed with video games. While I was traveling last week, I did not have a NES for my daily mario on it, so sad. As a fan of video games I am also a fan of video game art and "I am 8-Bit". If you don't know what that is it is in LA each year and is a gallery event filled with video game inspired art. Very cool. 

Above is the guitar hero guitar strap that was created in conjunction with" I am 8-bit" from Couch Guitar Straps. It also happens to be the strap on my guitar hero guitar. Love it. I am also thinking about / working on painting my guitar to go along wih the strap. Maybe soon I will have some time to work on that. I will be posting the end result on here for sure, maybe some process pics.

*NOTE I was told today how I didn't mention that my awesome wife got me the guitar strap... Well she did, and now I pay for being wrong.

I am going to kickoff Poster Week with this great triptych called Starry Nights by Sean Tubridy.

Unfortunately, it looks like he is sold out of them and therefore I can't find some of the better photos he used to have on his site of it.

I own this set and it is one of my favorite pieces I have up (which is makes it a favorite if it actually makes it on to the wall, so many still in storage). The color on these is fantastic in person and they look great in a natural colored wood frame (they fit ikea frames).  They remind me of a warm summers night, both because of the color and the imagery. I don't think they will be coming off of my office wall anytime soon.

Flickr Friday

These great photos were created balakov. He recreates some of the world's greatest art/photographs all in Legos. Not only does he recreate them but he does an amazing job at at!

Plus, he has a thing for the star wars Legos, and you can't argue with that. So a few of this images here and there, like the shot from American Beauty above, have a nice little addition of a storm trooper. 

Check out his photostream to see the rest of the photos and he puts up shots of his setups for the photos too. A behind the scenes look. Plus, you can buy prints of a lot of his classic shots. These would look great hung on any wall...

I have had Legos on the brain lately, so it was time for this to get posted. I can't wait until the next time I go to my parent's house, I am getting my old Legos out for sure.

I still have video games on the brain lately, and I don't think it is going anywhere. It could be my daily playing of the Original Super Mario for the NES, or working on painting my guitar hero guitar to match my I Am 8-Bit strap. Not all video game material is design related, so sometimes it is just what is on my mind, but sometimes you've got to think of design as a whole. To me Mario is the design of the future of video games, the design of history, and the design of creative thinking (a leaf that turns you into a raccoon, sort of, but gives you the ability to fly...come on! Nothing like that out there right now)

This is a very detailed chart of various Mario Power Ups as it progressed through the different video games. The small text in the black areas also goes into detail why certain power ups are important to the game's development as a series. You can click on the image to enlarge it and read it a bit easier.

I originally found this as CPLUV and I think it is from Go Nintendo, it was really hard to source the original document.

So, question time. It's a two Parter, and I know a lot of people that read this blog aren't active commenters (and I know a video game question isn't going to appeal to everyone)...BUT

1 What is your favorite Mario Power Up, and why?
2. If you could have one for yourself, what would it be?

Cool Pixel Pendant Lamp by Meninos. Comes in a pendant and a table lamp version. I know I say this as lot, but could be a good DIY. $70

I'm going to keep going with the video game theme tonight. One, because these Tetris planters are seriously awesome, and two, because I just feel like it.

I found these planters on Behance made by Stephanie Choplin, they were created in 2007 at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. Everything about these really just makes me smile. The fact that they are Tetris themed, the bright colors, and just a different take on pottery. Well done.

So, the video game posts and these really started me thinking. Enough that a day or two ago I got out my NES, and hooked it up to the LCD tv (nice mix of old and new) and started playing. Such good times. The other thing with these is they make me want to get back into pottery. There is a studio downtown here and I really want to take one of their workshops and go to open studio when I have free time. I can say that if I do, something similar to these might be happening...seriously. But, we shall see when I get around to that, gotta add it to my list of things to do. Also on the list: take my glass blowing workshop that was a gift from my wife (awesome present!) and get back into block printing (learning how to) and screen-printing.

If only this wasn't too good to be true.

Great concept that mousevomit created in school. Based upon the class NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) controller, this mouse brings a little something old and something new to the party. 

If this was a real product, I would be picking one up. The only 2 flaws I can see is the D-Pad is placed a little father back for good thumb control (obviously right now so it has a little room on the mouse before it tapers...), and it would be great to discreetly add in a scroll ball (gotta have my 4 way scrolling). But neither of those additions would stick with the classic aesthetics and design cues of the original controller.

None the less, like I said, I would love to have one. I still use my NES, even though I tried to sell it once on e-bay, and the seller refused to pay, worked out better for me in the end, because I didn't lose it. Now I just slowly buy back some of my childhood games on ebay. Those controllers are the same ones I used in the 80's, and they still work, can't say that for technology nowadays. If they ever made this mouse, hopefully they stand up the test of time (and abuse) as well.

I totally went to Whole Foods this weekend in search of 2 things: Japanese Hitachino Nest beer (which they did not carry, anyone in Indiana know where to find some?) and these boxes that were featured on NotCot. I am pretty mad at myself that I forgot to look. However, in my defense, I was tired and hungry. My wife and I just got done with a bike ride and we hadn't had dinner yet.

I would love to know who the illustrator(s) were for this, and would like to obtain some of them. Being a guy who used to work in the produce section of a grocery store, I know they just throw the boxes out, so next time I will have to ask for a couple before they go in the crusher. It would be a lot easier if our whole foods wasn't an hour away...

I may be that weird guy but I would hang these up on the wall, especially the Yeti, fantastic.

The June catalog from Anthropologie caught my eye recently. The store always has great window displays (I remember one of a mannequin trailing behind a herd of leashed, pink, balloon animal poodles when I was in New York) and it seems that their catalogs  are something to admire as well. 

It has a great layered block print / letterpress technique applied to the front of it (mostly from teaming up with Hatch Show Print, one of American's oldest working poster print shops) and the aged look just adds a bit more to it. I'll have to file this away in my "ideas vault" for a future project. My copy of the catalog is already on it's way.

Another one of my great joys in life would be video games. I'm not into the Xbox 360 and things like that (although I manage to stay alive for a bit with Halo3 when I play with my brother in law), but I prefer the old school video games. I still have my original NES from when I was a kid, and most of the games. I even replaced part of the system to make it work a bit better and avoid blowing into the cartridge slot every 5 minutes (some of you will know what I mean)

Above is a great mini version of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) created out of LEGOs by Arkov. For being so small it is extremely accurate. Would love one of these on my desk.

Now, this is just a side thought, but isn't it amazing how you can still play the old systems and they still work great? I don't see anyone pulling their PS1 or original xbox out for some playtime. Plus, how much newer game stuff do you break? I'm still using the two original controllers that came with my NES and I know as a kid we probably treated them like crap...

*Cuddly cat used for scale and to add a bit of awesome to the photos.