Lunchguest: David McCandless

Today, I am finally starting the long overdue “LunchGuest” category here on swissmiss. We often have interesting, smart people come visit Studiomates (our studio collective) and we’ve been talking for a while that we should simply start a digital guestbook of all the fantastic people that stop by.

Today’s studio lunchtable was more than packed: Studiomates were excited to meet and lunch with David McCandless, force behind Information Is Beautiful and this amazing TED Talk by David called The beauty of Data Visualization.

David McCandless is a London-based author, writer and designer. He’s written for The Guardian, Wired and others. These days he’s an independent data journalist and information designer. A passion of his is visualizing information – facts, data, ideas, subjects, issues, statistics, questions – all with the minimum of words. He’s interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal the hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath. Or, failing that, it can just look cool!

More about David:

– A book of his information designs is published by HarperCollins in the US and UK in 2009.
– In the past, he has worked as a journalist, video games writer, satirist, copywriter, and creative director. His personal site.
– Check out his Google Shared Items scrapbook (Be warned: it’s mostly funny viral chaff and bizarro pictures)

Here’s David McCandless virtual Guestbook entry on our studio-ideapaint wall (link to view large)

It was great to have you, David!

Wrong / Right

These cosy gloves marked right and wrong by Donna Wilson make sure you get them on right on those sleepy mornings. Yes, they made me smile.

Retro Photography of Modern Switzerland


Project Clack! by Zürich photographer Matthias Bünzli is an artistic throwback to the beginnings of travel photography.

(via NewlySwissed)

On Digging Holes

If you’re digging a hole in the wrong place, making it deeper doesn’t help anything.

– Seymour Chwast (via Michael Bierut at the BrandNewConference)

NYC/CreativeMornings with Andrew Zuckerman

I am thrilled to announce next week’s NewYork/CreativeMornings with the amazingly talented Andrew Zuckerman as our speaker.

WHEN/WHERE

NewYork/CreativeMornings, November 12th 2010, 8.30am – 10am. Please note that rsvp will open on monday november 8th, at 11.55am over at creativemornings.eventbrite.com.

This month’s event will be hosted by the generous folks over at the amazing Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. If you are not familiar with the space, get ready for a real treat.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Andrew Zuckerman is a New York City based Photographer and Film Director with a truly inspiring body of work.

You might be familiar with his fantastic books: CREATURE, a portrait series of animals, was released worldwide in November 2007 to critical acclaim and is now in its fourth printing. WISDOM, a book, film, and traveling exhibition released in October 2008, is an ongoing project made with the support of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Andrew traveled the globe to photograph and interview the world’s most eminent elders, from Judi Dench to Nelson Mandela, creating a comprehensive account of their perspectives on life. His latest book, BIRD, is a visual study of birds from the rarest to the most common and will be available in October 2009.

In 2006 Andrew co-founded Late Night and Weekends, a company that produces advertising, films, books, and online content.

www.andrewzuckerman.com

HOW TO SIGN UP

R.S.V.P will open at 11.55am on monday november 8, 2010 over at creativemornings.eventbrite.com!

Please let us know if you r.s.v.p’d but can no longer make it. Our events fill up quickly and we usually keep a waiting list. Thank you! And at the morning of the event, make sure to put on your chatty networking hats!

BREAKFAST SPONSORS

Breakfast will be sponsored by our main sponsor MailChimp and this month’s co-sponsor Freshbooks.

MailChimp is a fantastic service that makes it easy to send email newsletters to your customers, manage your subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. A big yay-hooray to the team over at MailChimp!

FreshBooks is the leader in online invoicing for creative professionals. Get your free account at FreshBooks.com

ABOUT CREATIVEMORNINGS

CreativeMornings is a monthly morning gathering of creative types. Each event includes a 20 minute lecture, followed by a 20 minute group discussion. The gathering begins at 8:30am with the topic presentation starting at 9:00am and everyone taking off for work at 10am. CreativeMornings are free of charge! There are currently three chapters: Zurich, LosAngeles + NewYork/CreativeMornings. (More chapters are planned but not for another 2-3months)

Be the first to know when r.s.v.p’s open up, follow NewYork/CreativeMornings on twitter!

Check out pictures of previous NewYork/CreativeMornings over at Flickr.

View all the taped talks we’ve put up on the web so far over at Vimeo.com/creativemornings.

Broken Britain

From Pete Dungey’s site:

“A drawing workshop was undertaken with a class of 27 school children between 5—7 years of age as a response to the Conservative Party phrase ‘Broken Britain’. The exercise was an investigation into the source of problems within society today, hoping to unearth why children grow into living troubled lives. When asked to illustrate their favourite activity outside of school, 66% drew television and computer games, many of which contained violent content.”

The 80s in Swiss TV

Now here’s a video that my Swiss Readers will appreciate. It’s a quick overview of Swiss TV shows in the 80s. I do remember pretty much all of them. (I’d love to see an equivalent of US TV shows.)

(via bloggingtom)

LosAngeles/CreativeMornings with Bobby Solomon

Our November LosAngeles/CreativeMornings speaker is Bobby Solomon of Kitsune Noir on November 12th, 8.30am – 10am. (RSVP will open Friday November 5, 2010 at 11am over at losangelescreativemornings.eventbrite.com!)

Bobby is a Los Angeles based designer who runs Kitsune Noir, a culture blog that dabbles in art, design, food & fashion. Since it’s inception in 2007 Bobby has created severable notable projects such as The Desktop Wallpaper Project, which features the best contemporary artists and designers from around the world, creating wallpapers to liven up people’s computer desktops.

The event will be hosted at the Ford&Ching showroom in the historic Kim Sing Theatre in Chinatown. Not familiar with their space? Get ready for a real treat!

A big thank you to HUGE/Los Angeles for sponsoring breakfast.

And many thanks to Boxed Water Is Better for generously donating a few cases of their delicious and environmentally friendly boxed water.

SIGN UP
RSVP will open up on friday, november 5, 2010 at 11am. (Space is limited and we will up quickly, so mark your calendars!)

ABOUT CREATIVEMORNINGS
CreativeMornings is a monthly morning gathering of creative types. Each event includes a 20 minute lecture, followed by a 20 minute group discussion. The gathering begins at 8:30am with the topic presentation starting at 9:00am and everyone taking off for work at 10am. CreativeMornings are free of charge! LosAngeles is now the third chapter and joins Zurich + NewYork/CreativeMornings.

The LosAngeles/CreativeMornings chapter is run by Jon Setzen.

Clouds

Clouds and Umbrellas make me happy. Considering that one of Ella’s walls is light blue, these wall clouds would look amazing.

(thank you Dave)

Inspired

I just spent the last 45minutes reading and flipping through “Inspired“, a book that looks at how creative people think, work and find inspiration. The only reason I put the book down is because reminders are going off on my computer on what I need to get done. But before I do that, I want to share this gem of a book:

“Inspired” was out of print and has returned by popular demand by BIS Publishers. The book takes a closer look at creative people: what inspires them, how they think and work, how they create an environment where they can easily generate ideas. Forty European creative individuals from many different disciplines, including art directors, fashion designers, architects and photographers, are interviewed. Their working environments, scrapbooks, notebooks, doodles, sources of inspiration an so on have been photographically documented to produce this beautiful, inspiring book.

Love it when other designers let us peek into their process, work space and share little process secrets. “Inspired” over on Amazon.

Bubble Dot Sleeve

Protect your laptop or iPad from scratching, denting or breaking with the Bubble Dot Sleeves. Made from 100% wool felt each sleeve has a flat side and a molded side with protective bumps.

Crazy Animal Magnets

I’ve always loved these body-assembling games/books when I was a kid. I am tempted to get these eight wooden magnetic figures, each consisting of 3 parts for Tilo and Ella.

It’s raining. (Mr)

Very appropriate for today’s wet weather here in NYC: It’s raining. (Mr.) by Blanca Gomez

(via Joanna)

Good Morning/Good Night

This limited edition Morning/Good Night letterpress poster features glow-on-the-dark ink. Lovely idea!

Pop-Up Bicycle Basket

The Pop-Up Bicycle Basket is designed by Jaime Salm and Brian Kelly. It fits most bicycles, ships flat and can be installed in either the front or rear of any bicycle. The baskets unique design and sturdy construction are fit for urban cycling and carrying purses, backpacks or shopping bags.

(via svpply)

Loop Jacket


The Loop Jacket is a lightweight, colorful and designy windbreak. As the jacket gets used it wrinkles becoming softer to the touch. Each jacket comes with a sewn on envelope for shipping the jacket back to MIO at end of life for recycling. Closing the recycling loop has never looked this good.

Gilbertville Public Library I

This Art print of a paper collage by Hollie Chastain made me look. Lovely. (A rainbow laser?)

Tapi

Tapi, by Dreamfarm, turns your faucet into a drinking fountain without disturbing the normal flow of water. Simply press the bottom of Tapi to change the flow of water. I agree with DesignMilk, this would be a big hit with kids. (they only need to be big enough to lean over the sink enough)

Light up your mood

These “Light up your mood” stickers turn your dull light switches into smiling faces! Each pack contains four sheets of stickers, enough to make eight faces, including eyebrows, rosy cheeks, facial hair, freckles and smiles. Now, if only our lightswitches would be as big as the ones shown above. Our little Ella Joy would love (!) these!

Potato print gift wrap

With the Holiday Season aproaching, what could be cooler than wrapping your presents with your own ‘potato printed’ paper? What a cool thing to do on a rainy sunday afternoon. More info and link to tutorial.

Never Say No To Panda

(via Cameron)

2011 Mediocrity

(via Graphicology)

Dropbox Toolkit & Guide

AppStorm posted an extensive Dropbox Toolkit & Guide. I’ll definitely have to look into some of the options, especially the syncing of my iTunes Library.

(via @rufusd)

Mistake Report Archive

MistakeReports.com contains user submitted stories of real mistakes. It’s a little like Post Secret or Clients from Hell, but accessible to anyone who knows how to string a sentence together. I especially enjoy the “Summarize your Advice” box at the bottom. Thanks for making me smile Joshua Keay!