Searching In The Rain

Searching in the Rain is a light and comfortable PVC raincoat and a turist map as well. During rainy days it's very hard to handle a map and to keep oneself dry at the same time. With Searching in the Rain you have just to turn upside down the front bottom lip to read the map printed on it. The same map is also printed on the backside, helping anyone who stay behind us to read map informations. Such a funny way to meet new people, isn't it?

Richard Oriolo Book Cover

There is something about this cover I really like, even if I can't quite put my finger on it.... Typography? Colours? All at once? Anyways, it was designed by Richard Oriolo, whom I'm going to follow closely from now on! (...most likely via Book Cover Archive)

Calendar and Ruler

Calendar and Ruler made from polished 1mm stainless steel with 12 inch/months and 31 cm/days and two coloured magnetic rings. Designed by André Klauser, produced by Thorsten Van Elten.

Knitted Sock For iPod Nano By Paul Smith

Oh wow, aren't these socks for iPod nano by Paul Smith cute? I would definitely dress an iPod in those. Great use of his trademark stripes and an ideal Christmas gift. via Grafik magazine.

Barneys

Just a little collection of sweet-looking items from Barneys.

Pencil Crayon Jewellery

Oh my, what a colourful and funny idea! Jewellery designed and made by Maria Cristina Bellucci out of pencil crayons. Amazing. via designboom.

The Otherwine Tin Packaging

I don't know if a wine in a can works as good as the one in a bottle. I am no expert at all to judge and verify which packaging works better for the product, but it sure comes in handy when you don't have to carry a big glass bottle when you're heading for a picnic! The Otherwine aluminium can holds the equivalent of two glasses of wine (250 ml) - just right in my opinion to feel good in the afternoon.

OTHERWINE dare to create a range of wines in cans deliberately "personal" and advocates a single credo: have fun. With 25cl, OTHERWINE can is ideal for any occasion: Alone or with friends, at home or in the great outdoors!

Philco PC Retro Design

This asmazing pc was featured on many design websites this week, but I couldn't resist in case any of you had missed it! (I was lucky enough, my cousin brought my attention to it). Lately it seemed the only interesting computer design could be produced by Apple, but hey, here's something even better. Designed by an American studio Schultzworks the Philco PC was inspired by the 1950’s Philco Predicta, a design classic. This original design received Top Three honors in a competition. The keyboard looking like a typewriter? Absolutely ♥ it! Oh, there are detailed photos and a videoafter the break. Be smart and continue reading then.
via yankodesign.

My Dream Chair...

I recently bought an apartment and although there's still a couple of months ahead of me before I can move in, I already plan what it is going to look like. My funds are somewhat limited after paying the downpayment, so I'm not going to be able to buy all the designer furniture I would like to. I decided however to buy at least one beautiful chair. There is something about chairs that makes me ♥ them, for the way they can combine beauty and function. This design classic doesn't need introduction, it's RAR by Ray and Charles Eames. It's hard to believe in a way it was designed so many years, even decades, ago and it still gives you goose bumps when you look at it. I ♥ the fact that it rocks - literally. And the construction of the bottom was inspired by the Eifell Tower. I just haven't decided on th colour yet...

Plastic Armchairs were first presented as part of the famed New York Museum of Modern Art competition, "Low Cost Furniture Design". Their organically shaped seat shells made of fibreglass-reinforced plastic were later combined with various different bases, such as RAR's rockers and manufactured in their millions. In their latest version made of polypropylene the Armchairs now offer even greater sitting comfort.

Coarse Toys - False Friends

Do you remember the post about Coarse Toys? I will forgive you if you don't, but you have to check it out (here)! And right now some Coarse Toys updates - their new series called false friends. No sharks or blood, instead a rabbit that looks like the one from Donnie Darco, right? And also, would you look at that naked toy's six-pack.... Anyways, the toys seem to be so popular that new series is limited to 1 figure per household. God, just like in the communist times in Poland! I thought these days were long gone.
After the break there is a story about the false friends characters.

The Dieline Awards

It's been a while since the last post but before Christmas time starts to fly with unsusual speed. Any studio dealing with FMCG industry clients has to stretch their time limits to the max before events like this. All the companies want their special Xmas packaging editions, calendars to distribute among their own clients, Xmas cards etc. So we work crazy hours and try to meet the demands.

However, gotta go back to filling this site with best examples of design. First of all the site I've been writing for - The Dieline - decided not only to feature best package design, but also to actively choose and award them. Above are my favourite design concept for The Dieline Awards, designed by Established. It's cast of a trophy in metal, I think it's pretty amazing. You can see more concepts though and choose yourself which one would you like to receive, should you win that precious prize one day... Follow the article after the jump.

Spiral Condiments

These sauces by Frank Aloi are insanely beautiful... They should be featured in the decoration section in all the housing magazines. Seriously.

Byredo Parfums - Take Two

Some time ago I posted something on Byredo Parfums. There was some response to it (the way they evoke what's best in Chanel), so here's a couple more. This time their fragranced candles, body wash and body lotion and a gift set.

Tokyo Made

Just a bunch of stuff from Tokyomade... I'd like to walk a street wearing only Tokyomade one day. Wouldn't it be fun?

TV Posters

Winter is coming along and I am sure I will spend a big part of it watching my favourtie tv shows. A much as TV can wash your brain out, the advertisement for it is not always that bad. I ♥ these posters by Exergian - they prove the thought should always come first before the design. Make sure you see them all and continue reading after the break!

Czarodziejska Kura

Do you know the famous Thomas Mann book "The Magic Mountain"? In Polish it's called "Czarodziejska Góra". The authors of the magazine for children pictured above played on that title and called their project "Czarodziejska Kura" - The Magic Hen. It even rhymes. The magazine is filled with beautiful illustrations, original stories and manual challenges for the kids. The design by Robert Czajka and Mateusz Kaniewski won silver at the 2009 Ed-Awards, in the Self Initiated Project category.

Roland-Garros Chair

For the annual tournament 2009, 5.5 designers reinterpret Roland-Garros in 3 SETS. The tubes of balls are transformed into decanter and glasses ACE and invited on our tables. The wooden traditional rackets are revisited in stools BREAK corded by Laurent Lucas, Roland-Garros official cordeur. And in homage to the mythical scores board which centralizes all the results of the matches, 5.5 draw a domestic board to organize its timetable. Through this collection, the universe Roland-Garros goes out of the stadium and invites itself with elegance in our home: a collection for the fanatics of tennis.

Milk Gone Bad

Two different artistic experiences come together in this project. Anatomicfactory’s objects meet Bombo’s illustrations, giving us food for thought on the ambiguity of products that often have a hidden second nature. “Milk Gone Bad” is a collection of eight lamps somewhere between toys and furnishing complements. Made like milk cartons, each piece is one of a series. The light turns on to show the product’s real contents, a startling imaginary world of mold. Check out the detailed designs after the break.

Studio Otwarte For Ski Resort Zarabie

Another interesting piece of corporate identity work by the Krakow based Studio Otwarte. This time for a skiing resort in Zarabie - a winter and summer version.

True Blue Morocco

I saw them on The Dieline and haven't stopped looking at them ever since... These colours are driving me crazy. Positively crazy. Just looking at this blog you know I love red and my friend at work says everything I touch lately turns pink. So there you go... By Bath & Body Works.

Mini Calendar

If you're a graphic designer you are surely starting to feel the holiday season just now. Christmas cards, calendars, special holiday editions of packaging... Because we can drown in kitsch design and lose our design sensibility, I wanted to show you something bit more inspirational - calendar featuring the Mini Morris.

We asked MINI Space members to interpret MINIMALISM in an artistic and philosophical way by designing an image for the MINI Wall Calendar 2010. As a special design challenge the artists were required to integrate a MINI silhouette. This calendar shows a carefully curated collection of 12 winning designs.

So! Go Juice

Here's a splash of colour and perhaps some vitamins as well - So!Go juice from New Zealand.

Coca Cola Vintage Advertising

I am not a big fan of Coca Cola, neither the drink itself or the company. I do like to watch their old advertising though, it's kind of like the old fashioned Guinness posters and ads. Don't they bring a smile to your face? The vintage signs above remind me of Gone With The Wind and Scarlett O'Hara... If you're feeling nostalgic, you can buy them on-line. There's loads more after the break so make sure you follow the "Continue" button!

Poland Shaped Box

I like the title of my own post, because it plays on the Nirvana song, the "Heart Shaped Box". It's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that. Isn't it clever? The inside of the box, that you can take out, is shaped as Poland. Great idea, one of many by Kraków based Studio Otwarte.

Daylesford Organic

Couple of months ago there was a post about beautiful package design for Daylesford Organic - I though I could give you a couple more. I can never have enough of simplistic and stylish design.

Delicious Food Packaging Photos

Couple of posts ago I mentioned bar codes as an integral part of the design. But what's more important than the right photography? Imagery used for the project can make or brake the design...
These definitely proved the packaging sucessfull - from designs by Cowan Melbourne and Mousegraphics.

Pantone Chips

I think this is a great concept for food for graphic designers... We're quite a big group, after all!

Bring Your Pub Home

In the dire times of the economy failure, should we give up our social life? Avoid the pubs and restaurants, drying our money resources like the july sun? I say we should be creative and think outside the box (or outside the pub). Why not bring the pub back home? Invite the friends and pull the pints on the dining room table?

No matter how varied your glassware collection is, and no matter how many bags of nuts you've strewn around your home, the one thing that is always missing is beer on tap. The Chambrer Draft Beer Dispenser now provides you with the opportunity to bring the pub experience home!

Free Fonts - Museo

Jos Buivenga is one of those people who decided to give, instead of receive. His exljbris Font Foundry creates amazing (truly amazing) fonts, but instead of charging designers, Jos decided to give most of them away for free. Only certain weights are fully paid for versions.

I think his incredible attitude pays off. What goes around comes around - his name is heard loud and clear in the whole industry, his fonts are called out in numerous articles. To start your adventure with exljbris Font Foundry, try the beautiful Museo font, available for a free download here, in different weights. Continue reading to hear the "behind the scenes" story of creating the Museo font.

Eliza Logan In Cafeocean

Back in June I wrote a little post about my friend Eliza Logan, known as Francis Poland. I'm hoping one day I'll own one of her paintings, but she's also an incredible photographer. As I was browsing through Issuu the other day, I found an article about Eliza in Cafeocean - she's just that good. The picture above captures her portraits, but you can also browse the whole issue of the magazine with the Issuu browser embeded after the break (just click on the "continue" link below).

Connoiseur Ice Cream

Just received it from our client, he really liked it and wanted to share it. I have to say i like it too....
Designed by Asprey Creative.

Ted Noten's Jewellery

This is the first batch of Tod Noten's work I'm going to post in the near future - his jewellery. I think I found it in the recent issue of Machina Design and was intrigued enough to search the web to find more examples of his crazy imagination turned into jewellery. Noten takes small objects of everyday life and changes them into intricate piece of art, to be worn on a daily basis.

You can read a short interview with Noten here.
Photos via Atelier Ted Noten and yatzer.

Sinue's Cradle

the inspiration of { S I N U E } ‘S CRADLE was born when my wife and I have learned that we would become parents. A joy so great always makes something unexpected! We’ve designed the profile of the object by following the line of the belly of my wife Daniela and then we’ve gone ahead using the usual skills to design furniture shipping. The ergonomic shell is made of resin for food (non-toxic), the skin is leather “flower” natural, tanned with vegetable additives, formed by strips sewn by hand with double stitching on sight. Designed by Giovanni RADICCH, via designloft.

Heinz Baby Food

In the Heinz baby food portfolio, the cans play important role delivering wholesome, convenient baby food. Creating "Hero" characters from the keystone involves Mum and child alike whilst utilizing colourways from the hero brand reinforces Heinz canned food heritage and credentials.

Designed by Cowan.

Bread Slippers

That’s right, boys and girls! Put some romance in your “loaf” life! edible…dries itself… made from bread...first in fashion… needs no pressing… feels good in dry climate …won’t sag

What can I say... I ate my bread for breakfast and I could've saved it for later. It would make a pair of slippers. My friend Joanna noticed however, that the slippers might turn hard the next day, so I might as well stay with my fluffy ones from Primark. By Dadastudio, via designfetish.

Absolut Tropics Limited Edition.

There is no need to introduce Absolut. Or talk about their incredible design, advertising and limited bottles editions. Recently they had a bottle without a label, which was still amazing and so easy to recognize, even if it didn't have a giant Absolut logo in the middle. Beacause having invested in the quality of their design, Absolut managed to develop an incredibly strong brand. Check the rest of this entry to see a couple more of their recent design treats. (pictures via Lovely Package)

Pantone Typeface

Submission for Alphabet: An exhibition of hand-drawn lettering & experimental typography. Curated by Post Typography in Baltimore. My idea was to explore the relationship between type and colour. To support my entry a type specimen was created.

By Marc Alcock.

Kate And Kate Jewellery

Going through the latest issue of Elle Decor (polish edition) I stumbled upon an advertisement of a new fashion jewellery store opened in Krakow. Kate and Kate (despite the name, there's only one Kate behind the project) offers unique selection of fashion or costume jewellery from renowned designers. It's a rather expensive choice of accessories but if you want to own something beautiful and also one of a kind, Kate and Kate might be your destination.

Cat Davison - Vintage Records Jewellery

Made from 100% recycled vintage records, our new Heat The Beat collection manages to be both original and sustainable. Playing with concepts around the material - from its colour and texture to its previous incarnation as a purveyor of music - the collection combines retro sensibilities with a contemporary aesthetic, something key to all Cat Davison Jewellery.

The Flies' Afterlife

I'm leaving you with some curious photos for the weekend...

Clarence Court Eggs

Recently I'm obsessed with buying free-range egs. I read an article on how the hens are treated in the egg farms and simply couldn't continue adding any more hurt and pain to that. But these ducks look happy, right? I would not hesitate to have my scrambled eggs made with them. Or maybe it's just the way they were portraid by Simmer... There's a few more after the jump!

Firefly Press Video

I found this video on the Book Cover Archive blog and had to share it with you. After sharing it on facebook I was called crazy, but what the heck, I believe I'm not after all!
FireFly Letterpress from ilovetypography.com on Vimeo.

How To Be A Good Client

I can't rember when I found this gorgeous piece of advice for ...clients, but if you work in the graphic design industry you have to admit it's well prepared! If you know which agency released it feel free to add the credits, in other words give credit where credit is due.

Oleg Dou Photography

Going through the recent issue of Machina Design I stopped the moment I saw these photos. I was mesmerized. There's something really disturbing about them, the way all the humanity was somehow erased from them, leaving the models looking like characters from a movie about AI. Oleg Dou, Russian photographer and author of these, won numerous awards for his work, however I'm not sure it should be qualified as photography or photoshop / collage manipulation. Whatever it is though, it's hard to walk past by it staying indifferent. Make sure you see other photos after the break. Please.

Typography Is....

Typography in Motion from ilovetypography.com on Vimeo.

Typography is ...what a language looks like. A short explanation on a complex subject.

Book City Jackets

Book City Jackets was founded in 2008 by Emma Gaines-Ross and Jeremy Schwartz and is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I am not surprised something so cool came out of Brooklyn, out of all the places. My boyfriend is from Brooklyn, we stayed there for a while this summer and I fell in ♥ with the place. The idea of covering ugly book covers with a choice of your favourite art pieces or simply a drawing sounds great to me. I used to do the same with cd covers back in the teenage years, when I was utterly devoted to my favourite bands. I always seemed to know better what would suit their album covers. Very few cds made it to my cd rack with their original artwork. I cut out pieces of photos from magazines, made collages, stuck them on... It was fun. I will do that with books from now on instead.

Our goal is turn books into a new kind of affordable art that can be displayed on bookshelves and coffee tables, in cafes and classrooms, on planes and trains . . . anywhere people bring their books. Our covers are off-set printed on recycled kraft paper in downtown New York and “fold-to-fit” almost any book. A Book City Jacket isn’t just beautiful — it also protects from spilled drinks and prying eyes and provides a convenient space to doodle and jot down notes. Book covers were a good idea in junior high school and they’re a good idea now. via Blog Cover Archive blog.

Wooden Radio

Couple of weeks ago I went to London. You might've read about it. I was going to see a concert, that's why I decided to go there in the first place, but it was cancelled and I was just left with a few days in London. I decided to catch up with a city I used to ♥ so much. I walked all over the town and felt like home, even if it's been seven years since I used to live there.

Filling up my schedule I decided to go to the Design Museum, how could I miss it, and spent two hours (at least...) in the museum store. I'm addicted to design gadgets, I admit. I need to show you all of them, or at least anything that's available online.

These radios are made of wood. They're sustainable (I believe). They're funny. They look good. Any other reason you need to have one...?