Get Excited and Make Things

I figure this is a pretty good reason to jump back into the fray. Like a lot of people primarily connected to the design world through the internet, I’ve been following the reemergence of the Keep Calm and Carry On motivational poster. The piece was originally designed in by a British civil servant in 1939 and resurrected in the early part of this decade. A variety of clever variations have popped up in the past few years, but I tend to gravitate toward the ones that translate the message with a nod toward ingenuity and optimism.

This Get Excited and Make Things tee seems to fit the bill, and I particularly love the crown variation. Incorporating tools into the design evokes the concept of a utilitarian-minded kingdom that values creation and, like the message says, the act of making things. It’s a rosy directive. Doesn’t being motivated to build something just seem so much more appealing than being asked to merely toe the line?

Awww…It’s a Savage, Blood-Thirsty Bear

OK, I got a job, so time to stop ignoring this blog and start considering Gloomy Bear. Created by Mori Chack as an ironic alternative to the overbearingly cuteness of the Sanrio stable, Gloomy Bear is a vicious, pink bear that’s actually pretty cute despite all the claws and blood. I’m going to have so much trouble not exposing my kid to this beast. Here are a few TN leftovers.

General Mills Classic Cereal Box Redesigns

Maybe I just find this appealing because my parents never let me eat sugary cereals, but I like the Pop Art sensibility that went into the General Mills classics Frankenberry, Booberry, and Count Chocula. It’s hard for me to really get behind marketing fun imagery to kids in order to feed them sugar-packed, nutritionally-deficient crap, but I appreciate the visual draw of these designs, and I have to say I love the idea of putting artistically framed (lowbrow as it may be) portraiture in front of kids every morning.

Cocoon Branding Red Bull DJ Table

I’ve never spent much time looking into DJ furniture design, but I love this DJ Table created for Red Bull by Winnipeg-based Cocoon Branding. The table features room for decks and integrated slots for vinyl. There’s also plenty of interior storage space, and holes for sending wiring through, much like you’d see in an office desk. (Additionally, one particularly quirky detail can be seen at designboom.) This is a promotional piece, and it’s too big and clunky for mobility, but it’s a cool feature to stay put in a club.

Dia de los Muertos

Halloween is rolling into Day of the Dead in Los Angeles once again, and I’m reminded how hard it is to miss the reach of Dia de los Muertos in this city. The influence within Mexican and Chicano culture in the area is indisputable, but there are also so many subcultural spaces — from rockabilly fashion to kitschy interior design to lowbrow art — that borrow heavily from the iconography and general levity of the tradition. I guess the cultural significance is another discussion, but I’ve always appreciated the aesthetics of Dia de los Muertos art and craft, which is a really energetic folk tradition that continually proves to be a cheap, provocative, and fun resource when decorating an interior or accessorizing.

Party Time Revisited

I was reminded this morning of Damien Hirst’s absurd “Party Time,” which consisted of an eight-foot-diameter ashtray simply loaded with ash, smoke cigarette butts, and empty packages of cigarettes. I recall seeing Hirst being interviewed on “60 Minutes” during “Sensation” and seeing him sitting on the edge of the giant ashtray, smoking and ashing into the sculpture. It was a pretty poignant intro to YBAs, which I was mostly unfamiliar with at the time. I think this piece, and how Hirst regarded it so casually, really opened me up to an irreverent world of art-as-fun that I mostly got as the real message of Young British Art. [image via kmhinkle]

Flickrista: Best of Flickr Fashion

Fans of fashion photography and ready access to it will appreciate Flickrista, which was recently launched “to give exposure to Flickr’s best fashion photographers.” The stream is editorialized “based on composition, lighting, concept and beauty,” and the primary focus is fashion, although the guidelines are loose. Aspiring photographers who want the Flickrista seal of approval are encouraged to add photos to the Flickrista Flickr Group, which is frequented by Flickrista editors.

Make This Year a Camo Christmas

I suppose it’s time to start thinking about Christmas again. Every year I get further and further from the magic of youth, I’m able to more clearly assess the meaning of the season, which, for me, sort of just means getting in touch with my pagan roots. I think I’d feel slightly more attached with these camo Christmas ornaments, designed by Alexander Malinovsky for Art Lebedev. I would have enjoyed seeing a desert print, which would get far less lost in your tree, but I like to think the designer enjoyed the ironic gesture.

America the Gift Shop

America the Gift Shop is an installation by Phillip Toldano that considers foreign policy issue through the lens of consumerism. “We buy souvenirs at the end of a trip to remind ourselves of the experience,” says Toldano. “What do we have to remind us of the events of the last eight years?”

The Motmot’s Tail

Full disclosure on the fact that while I’m a huge fan of Motmot Design, I’m also friends with Anna and Steve, who run the design studio and accompanying shop in Vienna: who cares; I love their work. There’s a really quirky sensibility to what they do, which I imagine they both like to see as a smooth mixture of the fun and fucked-up. Now they’re blogging about it all at The Motmot’s Tail.