Last week we kicked off the Sweden chapter of CreativeMornings. Richard Feigin and his team organized the first CreativeMornings/Stockholm at the supercool looking Bianchi Cafe & Cycles with Nicke Bergström, Creative Director of VICE, as the speaker. Richard and his team are breaking all video speed limits as they already uploaded the talk on vimeo, English subtitles included. A big thank you to Nisse Emil Forest Axman and Oskar Törnros for the fantastic work on documenting this event! Hat tip off to Team Stockholm!
PSFK: Joe Gebbia
Joe Gebbia is a designer and entrepreneur who co-founded Airbnb, a community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique spaces around the world. In this inspiring PSFK Conference talk he shares the process and story behind Airbnb.
(via @brainpicker)
How to speed up plane boarding
Physicist Jason Steffen has discovered a method for getting passengers onto airplanes twice as fast as the usual method.
(via kottke)
Museum Of Obsolete Objects
German Digital Agency Jung von Matt/Next created the “Museum of Obsolete Objects“. Sadly, as our daily lives become more and more digital some things fall by the way side as they are replaced by newer, «better» devices. Let us not forget those fallen appliances, tools and gadgets and relive those bygone times by taking a visit to The Museum of Obsolete Objects.
I love the idea behind the site but I don’t really understand why they built it as a YouTube Channel. Hmm..
(Thank you Boris)
Happy Weekend
Yes, with this cow, I wish you all a happy weekend. It’s a long one here in the US. See you tuesday!
(that cow is available over at Sharon Montrose’s Animal Print Shop)
What to Focus on:
Get it as a temporary tattoo.
Chipotle
I know, I am late with posting this one, but I am absolutely loving this stunning stop-motion advertising directed by Johnny Kelly for Chipotle. Check out the making of photos.
Iconathon
Now here’s an idea that made me look: The Iconathon is an initiative to collaboratively design new civic symbols for the public domain.
In August & September 2011, several cities across the US will participate in a series of design charrettes — day-long collaborative workshops — called “Iconathons”. Through facilitated design sessions, event participants will generate icons and symbols that visually convey concepts frequently needed in civic design.
Iconathon events will include design workshops and networking opportunities for local designers, urban planners, city staffers and developers who are passionate about civic design. Participants will sketch ideas and concepts during the events, and refine them from their home or design studios while continuing the collaboration process through social media.
The NYC event is on September 10th, from 11am -4pm at the School of Visual Arts new space in the Flatiron District. Register here. Boston is happening tomorrow.
More info: www.iconathon.org
(thank you Josh)
Wood Type Revival
I am thrilled that the Wood Type Revival store is now live and ready for business. Born out of Kickstarter: Wood Type Revival is printing rare historic wood type, and turning them into digital fonts for modern designers. And all you web designers will be happy to know that all WTR fonts are avaialable on Typekit for web use! YES!
CUBE Dieter Rams
A little over a year ago three German students tested the design viability of a shiny black cube. They asked established designers and design critics to assess the cube. Above is the video with design legend Dieter Rams.
I agree with Steve Heller, you’ll never look at a cube the same way again (or will you?).
Read more: Daily Heller: In CUBE We Trust
UPDATE: They just launched their site: the-black-cube.com
The Evolution of the Web
My friends over at Hyperakt just launched a new interactive project illustrating The Evolution of the Web. Each browser’s evolution is illustrated with screen captures of their various versions and many technologies are each linked to extensive definitions, all available in six languages. Quite amusing to go down (browser) memory lane!
Think…
Think of your own ideas poster by Anthony Burrill
Bellstrike
Bellstrike is a new service that allows nonprofits to launch a professional looking website in virtually no time, without any coding or design skills.
But it goes beyond just being a static website; Bellstrike lets a nonprofit accept donations, send out donation receipts, get the word out on social media channels and offers the possiblity to maintain a blog. All that at no monthly cost. If someone does makes an online donation, Bellstrike takes 9.5% of the total amount and covers all transaction fees.
The founders Dodd, Marshall and Sean sure put some love into all of this. Also, they have a great sense of humor. Pull the string next to their faces on the about page.
But, why does the bell not ring when you click on it on the homepage? That’s what I wonder!
Bellstrike Intro Video from Bellstrike on Vimeo.
(thank you zach)
Designers vs Coding
In his most recent blog post my studiomate Frank Chimero takes on the very frequent question asked by design students: “Do I need to know how to code?”
The Art of Clean Up
I am completely fascinated by The Art of Clean Up: Sorting and Stacking Everyday Objects, by Swiss artist Ursus Wehrli.
Under what rock do I live? Why did I miss his TED talk?
(via @Typeconf)
Gimme Bar
My studiomate Cameron and his FictiveKin crew have been cooking up a fantastic new service and they didn’t let me write about until today! Now, talk about torturing a blogger!
Gimme Bar is the name of their brilliant visual booksaving service. Yes, you read right, I said visual bookSAVING, not visual bookmarking. Whenever you ‘gimme bar’ a photo/website/recipe/text you save the item. Literally. How? You well, by saving it to your Gimme Bar page and by saving it to your Dropbox account. You gimmie something and boom, it’s not only on your Gimmie Bar account but also on your hard drive.
Gimme Bar‘s interface is clean and a pleasure to use. It lets you organize your findings in collections, easily follow what your friend’s collections and add their content to yours, all with just a few clicks.
Gimme Bar is still in private Beta but they are opening it up for 3 days for my swissmiss readers, starting today. Take advantage of this and sign up *now*. They’ll close it up again thursday night!
Not sure yet why Gimme Bar is better than other seemingly similar services? Well, watch the demo below and you’ll be in the know.
www.gimmebar.com Sign up is opening up for three days only!
ps: It’s Cameron’s birthday today! Let’s make it a good one and share that GimmeBar Goodness!
Email Closing Lines
This blog post is a few years old but still timely: Liz Danzico makes us think about our Email Closing Lines.
If a closing line can be so meaningful, so important, why are emailers squandering the opportunity, putting no thought in the closing? Time, perhaps, iPhone-finger exhaustion, multi-tasking—they’re all possible excuses. And many times, acceptable ones. We can’t be expected to neatly tie up every email every time. But once in a while, it would be delightful if people applied the same sincerity to the last impressions that we do to first ones.
My personal closing line “Waving from Brooklyn” is not on her list. What’s yours?
(via @brainpicker)
Zucchini Fritters
Zucchini Fritters? Yes, please.
Airplanes Box Set
This portable wooden airplanes box set is simply beautiful. Oh, the temptation to get one for our little Tilo. #ohm
Kitchenware that made me smile
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of these Kitchen Utensils over at Fab.com designed by Raia Studio. From left to right: Sud Green Dish Brush, Gaby Green Cheese Grater and Marshall Green Potato Masher. For the next three days you can get them over at Fab.
I admit though, that I am afraid my kids would want to play with them, not ideal, especially in the case of the grater.
Inker Linker
The Inker Linker site is a perfect example on why I love the internet. Inker Linker lets you easily find a printer near you. Hat tip to the fabulous Jessica Hische for yet another fabulous addition to the interwebs.
♥ / ScratchBook
A big thank you to Expired Software for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed.
First thing designers pick up when inspiration strikes is pen and paper, to quickly sketch out the idea. But sharing sketches on paper is hard. That’s where ScratchBook comes in, a simple, straightforward, easy to use, sketching app for the Android tablets.
Got ideas? Sketch it and share it, right from the app via 37signals Campfire, Email, Dropbox, Evernote, Twitter and much more?
ScratchBook is available in the Android Marketplace and Amazon Appstore. Find out more at: www.expiredsw.com/scratchbook
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
