On November 10th, 2010, Olimpia Zagnoli was invited to give a lecture at AIGA/NY about her work and the sources of her inspiration. The below video is short version of what she talked about, for people who couldn’t make it to the NYC event.
This is fantastic, Olimpia! Thank you so much! I missed your talk that night!
PS: I am kinda bummed that I wasn’t born with a bump on my head!
I had the pleasure to meet lovely Gretchen Rubin a few weeks ago. She is the force behind the powerful Happiness Project.
She currently features a short “Happiness Interview” with me on her site.
Make sure to check out her Book and the Happiness Project Toolbox.
In one of my earlier posts today, I mentioned the new highlighting functionality that the NYTimes added to their articles. In the comments Justin pointed me the AwesomeHighlighter.com. It lets you highlight text on web pages and then gives you a small link to the highlighted page so you can easily share it.
Try it with this link where I highlighted my Holiday Gift Guide Call Out.
What a useful tool when collaborating with others. Thank you Justin!
Blow Sofa is perfect for people living a nomadic life style. It is made from 100% recycled paper dunnage bags with a metal rack and rubber straps. It is easy to transport when flat and simple to inflate. Each section canbe personalized with a pen and if the cushion gets dirty, it is inexpensive to replace. For inside and outside use – the bags are water resist.
Pail is a beautiful felt bucket for all occasions. You can fill it with newspapers, magazines, use it as a wastepaper basket, for your knitting or fill it with kids toys.
The Pocket Square Digital Camera takes square-format photos and videos with analog edge. The camera uses MicroSD and delivers 1280 x 1200 resolution.
(This would be a fun gift for our little Ella!)
Sleek and sophisticated leather iPhone covers by Swedish design firm PAP Designs. Inside pouch holds your phone, outside pouch holds business cards, cash, etc.
I usually struggle to keep wine glasses upright in our dishwasher. Either they don’t fit or they fail to balance. Eva Solo to the rescue! Check out this nifty Wine Glass Dishwasher Rack. Cool gift, no?
How can this Teddy Bear Lamp not make you laugh? Designed by Matthew Kinealy.
The NYTimes recently introduced a new feature that allows users to link to and highlight individual sentences and paragraphs in its web stories. I am impressed!
I agree with Courtney Boyd Myers: While it could be a tad complicated for an average reader, it’s a great tool for writers and bloggers who frequently link to NYTimes stories.
Here’s how it works. Take the base URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/americas/01colombia.html
To link to a specific paragraph, simply add a “#” and the number of the paragraph, e.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/americas/01colombia.html#p2
To go a step deeper and skip to a particular sentence, try e.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/americas/01colombia.html#p2s2
And where it gets really gets cool: To highlight that section, simply switch the p to an h. e.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/americas/01colombia.html#h2s2
To simplify things, if you hit your shift key twice on a Times story, small icons appear next to every paragraph. Click on one of them and it’ll place the paragraph linked URL up in the address bar of your browser.
Read the full article over on TheNextWeb: The New York Times Introduces The Evolution of the Hyperlink, by Courtney Boyd Myers.
Hopefully more sites will adopt this feature. Hat tip, NYTimes!
(via @davidbauer)
Here’s a post that you can skip entirely if you do not have a little 4-6 year old girl or niece.
Our little Ella Joy, like so many girls in her age, likes to play with her Barbie dolls. Knowing that Santa is busy wrapping up gifts, she told me she really hopes Santa will bring her new outfits for her Barbie dolls for Christmas. I told her I’ll send him a text to let him know.
So, I just spent 15minutes perusing Amazon in sheer disbelief! Can anyone explain why the official Barbie clothes are so incredibly provocative?
Here are some of the shops I ended up buying some outfits for Ella’s dolls:
Grandma Linda’s House
Love 2 Knit Doll Clothes
Poppy Frocks
Marianne’s Collection, Handmade Doll Clothes
The Designing Rose
Little Miss Crafts
All 4 U
TrailsCrafts
Imaginaton + Magnets = Imaginets! Open the wood carry case to reveal a magnetic board surface that doubles as a dry-erase board. Brighly colored magnetic blocks can be arranged to form animals, faces, buildings – or try one of the 50 design challenge cards. I think I’d enjoy playing with Imaginets as much as our little Ella!
Danny Kuo is the designer behind this fantastic staircase shelfing system which tries to focus on flexibility and adaptability. As Ms. Kuo puts it herself:
‘The most efficient way to build is vertically. Building vertically saves space as it uses minimal ground square meters. When it comes to interior design, the same rule can be applied. By focusing on height rather than width, efficient storage designs can be created. However, high storage designs can create a new problem because the higher storage parts will be difficult to reach. My Staircase is a shelving unit that combines a bookshelf with a pullout stair system in the bottom three shelves. The shelving unit is 2.6 meters high and the top shelves are accessible by using the bottom shelves as steps for accessing the higher shelves.’
My friends over at The Heads of State (Jason is a former studiomates member) just launched their brandnew site and shop. Seeing their work is quite humbling, to say the least.
What is it with my obsession with typography-on-things? I can’t help it. How adorable are these letter lights?
They are handmade in Brooklyn by artist Amy Adams. Soft light peeks out of the tiny holes that make up each letter – just lovely! Choose a single letter to mark baby’s name or spell out any name or word (up to 6 letters) to create a bespoke chandelier.
Something tells you I am late to the game with Pentagram’s What Type Are You? But anyhow, it made me laugh! (I am Cooper Black Italic!)
(Thank you Markus!)
This jewelry alphabet by Jacqueline Rabun makes my heart beat a little faster. (Yes I would go for the + or &.)
(via dezeen)
Own an iPad? Do yourself a favor and order on of these iPad Stylus. I just spent 1.5hours with it surfing/browsing/reading on my iPad. Such a pleasure to navigate. (If G didn’t have one already, I’d totally buy him one for the holidays!)
The Raindrop Melody Maker allows you to make your own music. It’s totally therapeutic! Give it a try!
(via Kidshaus)
There’s usually only one gift guide I am looking forward to, it’s the one by Core77. Just today, they came out with their 2010 Gift Guide and it’s fantastic. So many of their finds make me chuckle, just take the Drinking Glasses or Make your own Mechanical Music Box for example. My favorite finds this year are the USB battleship and the 16 Months of Drawing Exercises in Excel by Danielle Aubert.
Tonight, I must go home, move furniture and make room for our very own Bicycle Drawing Machine. (G, can you build one?) Ella’s head will explode.
Hat tip to Joseph Griffith.
I am completely mesmerized looking at these colorful thread installations by Gabriel Dawe.
(via doobybrain)
Does the exterior of your house need repair? Ever thought of using LEGO to patch up holes and cracks? That’s exactly what the agents of dispatchwork do. Jan Vormann is the force behind this refreshingly fun public service. Whenever a space needs repair, Jan or one of his volunteers all over the world, jump into action and fix it with LEGO pieces. Made me laugh!
Somebody should send an agent to 10 Jay street in Brooklyn. There’s plenty of patching to do!
(thank you Charlotte)
