Not long after announcing a switch to a subscription cloud-based model for its ever-popular Creative Suite, Adobe steps into the hardware market with the "Project Mighty" stylus and "Napoleon" ruler. The devices are designed to work together, using Bluetooth and an upcoming Adobe app, to mimic the experience of sketching with a pen on paper. From a tactile perspective, the stylus features a pressurized tip to make line drawing feel more natural. Conceptually, the devices are built for collaboration, and have sharing functions built-in to move assets to and from the cloud and whatever tablet you're working on. When we get our hands on them, we'll let you know. [via Design Taxi]
When Evangelia Koutsovoulou moved from rural Greece to Milan, Italy her cooking suffered. She realized city cooks didn't have access to the same herbs founds in the mediterranean country side, so she launched a Kickstarter campaign to start distributing fresher Sage, Bay Leaves, Oregano, and Thyme.
But because she's not the biggest fan of cameras, and Kickstarter campaigns require a video element, she commissioned friends to tell the story of her two-year search for the best herbs in a simple but impressive animated short. Koutsovoulou also designed a strong branding identity for the herbs: each package is shipped in a small foldable bag with a cleanly designed name and information card affixed to the front. A tiny yellow sun at the bottom of the card contrasts the blue sans serif type, and along with the market-style bag, connotes freshness.
Pledge some money and become an official "Oregano Tester"
Put simply, the colors in Nadja Staubli photos are surprising. Whether it's an image of a Martian red sky above an indoor pool, or a three-color pastel mansion shot from the parking lot, Staubli finds colors and shapes that don't seem of this world. Instead her collections read as a kind of happily distorted vacation diary that pays more attention to unexpected patterns in swimming pools, golf courses, and highways than documenting sights and people. [Via It's Nice That]
from Community
from Urtropica
from P.U.R.P.L.E
While it might be mid-May, it still gets a little chilly in Los Angeles at night. In an effort to help those stranded without a sweater and sell a few ponchos, the L.A.-based poncho company Señor Tyrone just launched a "Poncho Express" program that promises local delivery of one of its fine, made-in-the-Andes ponchos in under an hour with only a simple tweet. To get your hands on an emergency poncho, all you have to do is send a tweet to @senortyrone bearing the hashtag #ponchoexpress with your location. Delivery is free, and the messengers accept cash and credit. And the good news for cold folks in New York is that a similar service is planned for a fall launch.
Before you get stuck poncho-less out in the cold, head to Señor Tyrone to see if you're in the delivery zone.
After the end of World War II, a number of writers and creatives left home in Europe and immigrated to the United States and Canada. One group of Latvian writers and artists, who set up new lives in Canada, launched a magazine called Jaunā Gaita, or "The New Course," to create work about their unfamiliar surroundings. While the content was notable on its own, the magazine also developed a cohesive tone with their cover art for each issue, typically featuring a bold design and rarely more than three colors. The magazine is still active in the increasingly rare print format, and although printing technology has made full color images commonplace, Jaunā Gaita often still opts for the simplicity of a two-color design.
Check out the Jaunā Gaita archives to see even more covers and features.
Nearly 130 years old, Les Bains was originally a municipal bath house where folks like Marcel Proust like to take a steam. From the late 1970s, it transformed (via a design by a young Philippe Stark) into one of the key venues for new wave and rock acts and celebrity scenesters. Joy Division played Les Bains. But by May 2010, the structure of the space was deemed too dangerous for occupation. While its owner Jean-Pierre Marois jumps into the restoration—the plan is to make it private residences/hotel/club called La Societe Des Bains—he temporarily turned the space into a canvas for fifty urban artists (Futura, Mr. Brainwash, Jef Aerosol, Mosko et associés, L'Atlas and so many more) commissioned by gallerist Magda Danysz. While the building remains closed to the public, one can still browse an incredible ranges of works graving the walls of the building via the Les Bains website's artist-a-day blog. The contrasting approaches make for a buzzy contemporary survey with a Parisian perspective.
To find out more, visit LesBains-Paris.com
Photos by Stephane Bisseuil and Jerome Coton
Jef Aerosol
Zeer
Sambre
Mosko et associes
Clone
Baudelocque
Space Invader
L'Atlas
The violence and destruction of property surrounding the 2011 London riots was devastating. Notably, a laundry list of independent record labels including Warp, Domino, Mute, 4AD, and XL lost valuable inventory when the 200,000 square-foot PIAS warehouse was burned to the ground. Countless retail shops endured days of looting and vandalism. During the mayhem, photographer Petra Valenti snapped the dramatic photo above of a few looters robbing a Carhartt store while a bright red sports car burns in the foreground. The designers at Carhartt, likely drawn to the gravity of the photo, have included the image on a new tee for its SS 2013 line. [via]
As competition in the beer cooler gets tougher, breweries big and small are making changes to package design to catch more eyes. Already this year, beer titans Budweiser, Miller, Heineken, and Sam Adams have all announced major makeovers of their can and bottle looks.
In South America, Brazilian beer brand Antarctica made a big change to its packaging just in time for this year's annual Carnivale by adding a scannable subway ticket directly onto its can's label. To support the program it worked with the city of Rio de Janeiro and installed "beer turnstiles" at major train stations that scan and collect cans for recycling in one simple motion. Riders simply save their last empty or find a discarded can for a free ride home. The campaign is a social initiative as well, intended to cut down on litter and drunk drivers. [via Adverblog]
In 2012, Amanda Ghassaei used 3D printing to make her own, playable records from mp3 files. For 2013, she's dug into laser etching technology and used it to create functioning audio recordings (of Joy Division and Velvet Underground) in wood, acrylic, and even paper with a "theoretical precision of 1200dpi." Okay, so they don't sound so great—which perhaps says something for the technology used in making audiophile quality, conventional vinyl records—but she has shown etching "Femme Fatale" on maple can be done and perhaps refined.
You can read more about it on her Inscrutables page for the project which has instructions and code for making your own records.
Warm weather is finally here and we're hoping to make some upgrades in our beach bag this year. Noticing that Need was stocking a Pendleton Oversized Jacquard Towel suitable for the beach, we knew we'd found a little something extra to help us approach 2013 summer in style. It's cotton velour, sheared on one side, looped on the other, and comes in a Native American-inspired pattern for which Pendleton is known. Digging a bit further, we found Hank's Clothing stocking the large Pendleton Beach Towels in 13 styles. We don't want to roll up to the shore in the exact same pattern now, do we?
Made in Oregon carries a range as well.
