Design

My plastic heart is an online toy retailer carrying some very cute figurines. There are some delightful kitty variations well worth parting with money for. Not a badly designed site that uses pink, not the highly trendy shocking magenta you see a fair bit around boutique design sites

www.davidandgoliathtees.com have some funny t-shirt designs. You gotta love the crude-toon-smart-ass-style.

This article about a particular style being pulled from some stores has been brought to my attention.

Did you read it? Of course not you’ve got the attention span of a boy! See if you read the article that anecdote would’ve been extra funny.

Talk about some hyper-sensitive folk who like to over analyse and over intellectualise. It’s a funny sarcastic piece o’fashion, get over it! Oh well at least it’s some great publicity for David and Goliath Tees, and damn funny ones at that.

Some design ranges in particular:

Eve L, for aspiring dark mistresses.

Trendy Wendy, for trendy chicks.

And of course the Boys Are Stupid range, containing many words of wisdom.

Be sure to check out the creative genius behind the designs.

I am back at work after 2 weeks of… not being at work. The time was spent/wasted on some freelance work, numerous family do’s, quality family fueding at the beach house, drinking with friends and family (note: drinking and family do’s go hand-in-hand, this is necessary for maximum sanity retention), photo taking wanderings and Lord of the Ring-ing. How many freaking close ups of Froddo’s freaky face do we bloody well need I ask you!

I say my time was spent and wasted simultaneously because I of course did not do everything I had intended, such as drawing, getting my resume up to speed and getting a new portfolio together. Oh well.

The Xmas haul was so-so. I got a cool purple bag and ring box. Everything else was pretty average. I guess no one read my Xmas wishlist entry earlier, which in hindsight was still far too short. I mean I forgot to add the graphics tablet, a better digital camera, some furry cat ears on a head band, a rice cooker (my mum can’t cook rice and when she does she puts steak spice and peas in it for christ sakes!), and heaps of other crap I can’t think of right now.

At least work was pretty easily eased into. Non-threatening coding and batch processing some photos was all that needed doing. The absence of the entire project management dept., (2 people) is also a blessing. What, just those 2 people gone make you happy? Why yes, yes it does beacuase they are both fucking nightmares to work with.

On another note, my friend Simone will be singing at the Hard Rock Cafe on Crown St, Surry Hills, 7 till 7:45pm 6th Jan. Go see her she’s good and she can write her own music, but not dance, she refuses to dance, but that’s ok.

OOOOO! Look at that, it’s home time!

One roll of wrapping paper lovingly designed to be suitable for all occasions, from the collective consciousness of Plastic Hassle.

I want some, and lots of it. Not only does it cover all occasions, but it’s guaranteed to offend a wide range of recipients. How can you not be happy with that?

Designer Jim from Plastic Hassle has pointed out that was the happy customer rather than the designer of the wrapping paper. You can get it from the T-Shirt Hell, along with a huge selection of offensive t-shirts.

Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed this UFO shaped dwelling in 1968, initially for use as a ski-cabin or holiday home.

The idea behind the design reflects the optimism of the sixties. At the time people believed technology could solve all problems for the human race. The ideal was of a new era, a space-age, where everybody would have more leisure time to spend on holidays away from home.

The Futuro house was completely furnished and could accommodate eight people. It was constructed entirely out of reinforced plastic, a new, light and inexpensive material back then. The plan was to mass-produce it, so it would be cheap enough to house all people around the earth. Because it was so light-weight, it was easily transportable by helicopter. Mobile living was the new possibility for the future. People could now take their moveable home with them, to wherever they went, and live like modern nomads.

Unfortunately the 1973 oil crisis spoiled all these plans. Prices of plastic raised production costs too high to be profitable. Only 20 Futuro houses were ever built.

I’ve had an interesting couple o’ days with a freelance client I just picked up. I got the go ahead on tuesday-ish. On wednesday afternoon I get a call from the other person I’m working on this project with. Let’s call them Red Wolf. So Red Wolf calls me just as I’m leaving day job / full-time work early ’cause I felt like shit, and informs me that client X wants new logo by friday so he can whack ’em on business cards, and that I should give him a call. You bet I should give this guy a call. Who the hell decides to organise logo design three days before he goes to print? I’ll tell you who, people who think design is just about some pretty shapes ‘n’ colours. These are the people who think that they are also designers because they know some, or own a copy of Photoshop. AAARGGGGHHH!!!!!!

You know what, there are designers who take this approach, and I pity them. These guys only see the surface of what their craft is / should be, in fact they don’t even see it as a craft. Then there are the designers who take a good, well thought out and researched approach to their work. These are the guys who make informed and educated descisions on colour, shape, typography and etc., as well as using their artistic and intuitive sensibilities. What can I say there are designers, and then there are good designers.

Sigh! Everyone thinks they are a designer. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but chances are you are not. Using the lastest fonts won’t help you, neither will using white, grey and orange. Knowing basic concepts or buzz words such as consistency, usability, font, pixel or rounded corners isn’t going to perform any transformations either.

Logo is done now and I sent off an .eps and .ai files to client X so they could shove them infront of their print guy. I then got an email back with him saying he couldn’t open the files. Then another saying I opened it in Photoshop, but it’s cropped weird can you fix this. This e-mail was met with some grinding of teeth, and responded in such a way as to educate him succinctly and diplomatically on the ways of graphic design and print. All seems fine now.

On another note, I’ve actually been eating breakfast at work in the mornings now. Our ceo’s son got a whole swag of mini cereal boxes for free. They kinda fell of the back of a truck.

I’ve been after a 00ga double flared titanium eyelet for a while. Had a look around at the various items on offer with no luck. Some of the members of the BMEzine Live Journal community suggested Anatometal. Even though Anatometal only have a single flared eyelet listed in their range they were happy to machine an eyelet up to my specs, and even anodised it light purple for me. The price was reasonable, even with the obscene US international postage rates added in, it was still far less than I would have been forced to pay locally

If you’ve ever been to Ikea and wondered about the wacky product names, you’re not alone, so has the rest of the world. All Ikea products carry the same name throughout the world, no matter how hard it may be for the locals to get their tongues around the mostly Swedish monikers.

It’s probably not going to surprise anyone that all Ikea product names have Scandinavian origins, but there is a logic in the naming that lost is on those not familiar with Swedish.

Sofas and armchairs have Swedish place names; bathroom articles get their designations from rivers and lakes; lights from music, chemistry or meteorology sources; textiles and curtains have female names; chairs and desks are given male names; and kitchen items have names that describe their function.

I have no idea if a Domo-kun phone is a real phone, a furry case, a case mod or an image manipulation, but all phones need little arms and teeth.

The Closet Beastie is a strange handmade toy that looks like a small buffalo. He has a pocket full of toys stolen from children’s closets.