“Unmakeable”

Book printers said Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Unmakeable” Book “could not be made.” Belgian publishing house Die Keure proved them wrong. Jonathan Safran Foer’s book is an interactive paper-sculpture: Foer and his collaborators at Die Keure in Belgium took the pages of another book, Bruno Schulz’s The Street of Crocodiles, and literally carved a brand new story out of them using a die-cut technique.

You can see more pictures of the Tree of Codes on Visual Editions’s Flickr stream. This is gasp-for-air-stunning. At least in my book.

(thank you martina, via fastcodesign)

Axel Dupeux

I am in serious need of updating my portrait that I use as my avatar on all the social media sites. So, I have been putting my feelers out to find the right photographer. I just noticed Lucien Zayan’s amazing photo on Twitter. (above)

It was taken by photographer Axel Dupeux’s. Check out Axel’s Personal 1 and 2 Portrait series on his site. Stunning, no?

Oh, and by the way, Lucien, pictured above, is the king of Bergen street, Brooklyn. He runs a fantastic (!) art hub called The Invisible Dog.

iBend XL (iPad)

I have written about the iBend for iPhone before. I love using mine. They now just came out with an iPad version. Yay!

The iBendXL was designed to support the iPad in both portrait and landscape modes; it fits nicely inside any standard iPad case and works great while traveling on a plane or train, for entertaining kids, cooking, and more.

I use a felt sleeve for my iPad and at times wished I had a portable iPad stand. Voila, here’s my answer. The iBendXL costs a mere $9.99.

Dress Size Converter

This International Dress Size Converter is a great idea for a helpful mini resource site but with a lousy execution. (Did you see the Fav Icon?)

Here’s how it works: Simply select your dress size from the drop-down list which corresponds to the sizing scale used in your country, and the equivalent sizes in all other international standards will be displayed.

Somebody should make a beautiful, fun, designy version of this! Anyone?

(thank you bobulate)

Updates via Email –> Mailchimp

I am superhappy to announce that starting saturday november 20th, my blog email updates will be delivered via Mailchimp. (Yes, this means there will be a chimp delivered into your inbox, daily.) If you can’t keep up with your RSS reader and don’t always want to look up my site to see what’s new, you can simply follow swissmiss via email. Sign up on the left on my blog where it says ‘updates via email’.

If you already are a subscriber, your email address will be moved over to Mailchimp. If for some reason you are not getting the updates anymore, please sign up again. But first make sure that the email updates didn’t end up in your spam folder. It will be coming from a different email address so there is a chance that might happen.

Yay! And thank you Mailchimp!

svpply.com

Svpply is a fantastic online service that helps you find the products you love, from the people and stores you find interesting. The first time I blogged about Svpply, I called it “Fffffound for products”. Well, Ben Pieratt and Zach Klein have relaunched the site, and now it would be more accurate to call it “Tumblr with a Buy button”. Go register for an account to see what I mean. It’s a pretty amazing shopping experience.

You can follow my Svpply here.

Rainbow Backgammon

I was big into playing Backgammon with my family growing up. So, it’s no surprise that this Rainbow Backgammon would make me very happy. Check out all the different variations of backgammon boards by Ara Peterson and his father Jack. (Warning: You might have a color seizure if you click on his site here: arapeterson.com)

(via carolsogard)

Olaf Breuning

Olaf Breuning is a Switzerland based artist. His work makes me look:


CAN SOMEONE TELL US WHY WE ARE HERE ??, 2006


SNOWMEN, 2006


INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1997


CLOUDS, 2008

Sparkling Chair



Sparkling Chair is a plastic chair made using the blow molding process commonly used for PET bottles. Designed by Marcel Wanders for Magis.

Lens Bracelets


Here’s a perfect gift for any photo buff: Lens Bracelets.

Little Owl Lost

I am always looking for new Children’s Books ideas for our little Ella. That’s why I love reading 36Pages by Craig Frazier where he highlights children’s books that catch his eye. In his latest post he introduces Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton. It instantly won my heart. How incredibly adorable are those illustrations? (I will order this for Ella asap. One holiday gift down! Yay!)

Order Little Owl Lost on Amazon
Read Craig Frazier’s Blog post

Fooducate iPhone App

Fooducate’s iPhone App lets shoppers make better, healthier choices at the supermarket. It empowers you with all the tips and tricks Fooducate’s been writing about on their blog. The nifty app let’s you scan the barcode of a food product and then tells you the good and the bad. And it suggests healthier alternatives.

(via jayparkinson)

CSS3 for Web Designers

A Book Apart just came out with another fantastic read: CSS3 For WebDesigners by Dan Cederholm. Required reading for anyone who wants to make the web a more beautiful place. As with all the books from A Book Apart, this one is brief: you won’t learn everything there is to know about CSS3, just what you need to know.

I haven’t read it yet myself but heard raving reviews from people that have. You can get the Paperback for $18 or the ebook for $9.

(Hat tip to my studiomates Mandy and Jason!)

May the force of Typography be with you

May the force of Typography be with you. (I don’t know who to give credit to!?)

Tie Tea Cup



This is what I call smart design. Tie Tea Cup by George Lee.

(via @substudio)

Verizon says I don’t exist

Have you ever had a customer support experience so bad that it makes you want to cry? I am there. It’s been so bad, that I need to write a post about it, realizing that this is a rather unusual post on my blog.

Thinking of this epic customer support failure, which I’ll explain in detail below, I keep thinking of a quote by Steve Jobs:

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

To me, customer support of any service is part of the ‘design’ and ‘how it works’. I have now reached a level of frustration with Verizon’s customer support that has me flabbergasted.

Here’s the story:

Our internet connection in the studio has been somewhat spotty from the beginning. We dealt with it. Last week, it went out. Gone. Poof. No more. I first spent an hour trying to log onto Verizon’s online account system, to troubleshoot the matter. No luck. I couldn’t access my account. (Which I have done before numerous times.)

I then spent 2 hours on the phone talking to customer representatives trying to figure out what’s wrong. (Add another 35 minutes onto that for simply trying to talk to a real human being) After I have been transferred 4 times (!!!), spelled my name and my former studiomate’s name a dozen of times, the fourth customer representative, confirmed what all his collegues said as well: I can’t find you in our database. I can’t access your information.

Granted I got an email 10 days ago from Verizon, clearly stating my account number. We tried to access my information via my account number, my email address, my physical address, our former studiomate’s information who initially got the service started. NOTHING.

So, I can’t even troubleshoot because to them, I do not exist as a customer.

I just gave it another try, spent another hour trying to get to talk to someone. I am not kidding, I tried 5 customer support numbers, numerous times, chosing different routes in their selection process and each time, the call was ended by the machine saying, ‘your account does not exist’.

This must be the worst customer service in history. I can’t talk to anyone. I don’t exist. Yet I have proof (email notifications) that I am a customer.

If a Verizon manager reads this, I kindly ask you to give me a call: 646 373 6653. I suggest you take Steve Job’s quote (above) to heart.

UPDATE 1: A customer support person just called and is looking into the matter. I will keep you posted! Preliminary YAY!

UPDATE 2: YES! Ron (customer support ninja) is my hero! I exist! I do really exist! Our internet connection is back! (sigh of relief) But I wholeheartedly agree with Tina Higgins’ comment below:

So having a popular blog to complain on is the only effective way to get Verizon to solve their problem? More power to you, Tina — I’m glad you have used your voice to say something. But please ask what the rest of Verizon customers, who may not have the readership you do, should do when they run into similar roadblocks.

Verizon, what are others to do, that don’t have a popular blog?

Fancy Custom Dock Icons

Two readers asked me about Jessica Hische’s fancy custom doc icons that they spotted in an earlier post today. She created them herself, you can download them here and watch the video below explaining how to change your dock icons.

How to Change your Dock Icons from Jessica Hische on Vimeo.

Jessica is one talented lady. We miss her here in studiomates land.

Please note: When sh says “left click” in the video she really mean “right click”.)

Block Dock



The BlockDock for iPad is an elegant, solid wood stand for vertical and horizontal viewing. Every BlockDock is hand crafted from wood locally harvested in the Pacific Northwest. Pretty, no?

Illustrator CS5 Feature

You like to draw type? Jessica Hische style? Then you’ll love the below screencast Jessica did of a new Illustrator CS5 feature:

Cut & Paste

Yes, more cutting board goodness. (Seen these last week?) This Cut & Paste cutting board by Klaus Häckl is a functional beauty.

Available at Made by Design

(thank you Chesley)

P&C Christmas Cracker

I haven’t really grown up with Christmas Crackers, but seeing these by Present and Correct, I wish I did. Made from graph paper, in Devon, each cracker will burst open (with a bang!) to reveal a foiled pencil, a tag notebook, wood rubber stamp, scrabble magnet, vintage animal eraser & finally a chocolate sixpence for luck!

Steel Table

I’ve just gone to Steel Table Heaven. Yes, please! Designed by Pierogiorgio Cazzaniga and Michele Cazzaniga, by MDF Italy.

Draper Stripe Persimmon/Cream Rug

How lovely (and stripey) is this Draper Stripe Persimmon/Cream Rug by Dwell?

Head and Tail

Each of these Head and Tail cups has a print that represents the front or the rear end of an animal. Stacked in pairs, the cups form a whole animal. The prints represent horses, pigs, cows and sheep, and so, the starting point is common, familiar Danish animals. Whether to make new mutations or species is up to the owner. Thus, surprising new species may be lurking in the kitchen cupboard.