♥ / Wazala!™

A big thank you to Wazala! for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed.

Wazala is a slick, minimal and beautiful looking ecommerce store and shopping cart that allows you to sell physical or digital goods such as fonts, photos or music. You can create a store in minutes, then add it to your website, blog or even your facebook pages. It is that simple.

I am extremely intruiged by the fact that Wazala works as an overlay, which means your reader/potential customer won’t leave your site. If your customers are visiting on mobile devices, Wazala Touch provides a slick shopping experience both on the iPhone and Android devices.

If you are thinking about selling anything online you should consider Wazala!, just signup for a 15 day trial risk free.

(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)

The Story Behind the Cloud Key Holder

Earlier this year I posted about the beautiful Magnetic Cloud Key Holder by Duncan Shotton. I had *no* idea that Duncan made the one he sent me by hand, at home. Why did I find out? He sent me a link to his Pecha Kucha talk in which he tells the story. I find it charming and inspiring. Every young designer should watch this one:

Mr. Button

Mr.Button is putting a serious smile on my face. Produced by John Caswell Design.

TV iPhone Case

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw this hand-made Retro Looking iPhone Case.

Hooray for You

Hooray for you cards by Mary Kate McDevitt. #happy

Real Artists Ship

‘Real Artists Ship‘ is a quote by Steve Jobs that Andrew Power turned into a wallpaper design.

(thank you Joel)

Words As Image

Ji Lee, former Creative Director of Google, now at Facebook just published a book called Word as Image. If you want to learn about Ji’s design philosophies, watch his fabulous CreativeMornings talk.

(thank you Ji)

Viewmaster Wedding Invitation

This Viewmaster wedding invitation by Lesley Weiner integrates the couple’s engagement photos. Wonderful!

UPDATE: I apparently didn’t properly credit the work: The invite was designed by studio Melangerie Inc and Lesley Weiner worked collaboratively on the design. And you can get your custom invite over at Etsy.

CreativeMornings Video: Jason Fried

Our speaker at the July CreativeMornings/Chicago was Jason Fried of 37Signals. A big thank you to our Chicago host Mig Reyes for making this happen.

And thanks to Charlie Curran and James Schonzeit for taping and editing the video.

Donkeys



A site entirely dedicated to donkeys. Peculiar and fascinating.

Satellight

satellight lamp from yi-cong lu on Vimeo.

Satellight is a fantastic lighting concept. A pendant lamp with an intricate hanging system that allows you to use it in different places of the room, hence a satellite traveling through your living space. Fascinating and playful idea. I like it. Hat tip to German based Yi Cong Lu.

(great find, Stilsucht)

Photos of Really, Really Scared People

An online photo gallery of really scared people by the NIGHTMARES FEAR FACTORY, the longest running and scariest haunted house in North America, possibly the world.

(via this is colossal)

Power Strip Svintus



This Power Strip Svintus is unfortunately only a concept at this point, but boy, it sure made me smile.

RIP Steve Jobs

“Your Time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life”. – Steve Jobs

On The Value Of Work

(via @keeftv)

Envelope Bag

I find this envelope bag quite charming.

Think…

Uhm. Ok!

#4AMIT

UPDATE: Please go to AmitGuptaNeedsYou.com to find out how you can help.

The amazing Amit Gupta, force behind Photojojo has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. His friends in the photography and tech communities have been rallying together to show their support and love in several ways and I’d like to encourage my swissmiss readers to do the same.

Here’s what you can do:

– Send Amit real mail to Yale-New Haven Hospital, Amit Gupta 11 220
Smilow Cancer Center 11 North, 20 York St., New Haven, CT 06511

– Add a message on fuckyeahamitgupta.tumblr.com

– Add a message to Yale-New Haven Hospital’s online board

– SoundCloud has created a space where well-wishers can send sound-based messages to Amit via SoundCloud’s Dropbox integration feature.

– Postagram has set up a code for folks to send Amit a free get-well-soon Postagram.

– Join me in sending Amit twitter messages by using the hashtag #4AMIT (image above)

UPDATE: Please go to AmitGuptaNeedsYou.com to find out how you can help.

Amit, we’re sending tons of good energy!

(Thank you Yoko for applying the Deming Tattly message)
(via Raul / laughingsquid)

Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits

The lovely Debbie Millman published a new book called Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits.

Brand Thinking is a dialogue with 22 of the world’s top culture critics, design executives, and branding strategists – people like Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, Grant McCracken, and Wally Olins – on the state of branding today, what “brand” truly means, and how companies and consumers can best embrace the future.

In each interview, Millman cuts through all the empty jargon and buzzwords to expose the underpinnings of how people respond to the ideas of designers, and how the best brands open avenues for cultural change in our daily lives–whether we’re aware of it or not.

FastCompany wrote a long post about the new book. Read it here.

I am ordering my copy right now: Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits

Erasable Gel Pen

“Over the past week I’ve twice heard twenty-somethings wonder whether kids growing up today, kids who were practically born with iPhones in hand, will still have the capacity for wonder. Yesterday as a present for his first day of second grade I brought home an erasable gel pen for my iPhone savvy six year old. After a brief demonstration, he spontaneously hugged me, “I’ve been waiting for this pen my entire life!” I think the kids are alright.”

– Raul Gutierrez

(via Bobulate)

Tattly Tuesday

Every Tuesday we launch 4 new Tattlys and this week’s design are a homage to print design. We launched two new artists: Jason Tiernan debuts with FPO (For Placement Only), a cheeky little placeholder for your forthcoming Tattly endeavors, and our own Yoko Sakao Ohama joins the fun with Crops. Josh Smith returns with the ever-classic Golden Ratio, and I contributed a colorful CMYK Tattly.

As always, shipping is free anywhere in the United States, and just $2 flat for all of our international friends. Happy Tattly Tuesday!

Happy Chopper

Who wouldn’t like to chop onions on a cutting board that is smiling at you? Exactly.

Peculiar Snapshots

Thanks to my studiomate Raul I discovered this Collection of Peculiar Vintage Snapshots over on Flickr. Made my day!

Spaces, Etc.



These sculptural objects by New York based designer Ron Gilad are minimal three-dimensional outlines of various familiar shapes. As minimal as they are, they form spaces, rooms, shapes. It’s fascinating how our mind finishes what his artwork has started.

Spaces, Etc, by Ron Gilad