With the holidays rapidly approaching, these personalized rubber stamps seem like a fantastic idea (and gift). Oder them over at Paperwink.com. (I just ordered one of these for myself.)
(via makingitlovely)
Ericailcane – Potente di Fuoco
‘All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.’ – Pablo Picasso
In 2009 Ericailcane’s parents surprised him by giving him his own early childhood drawings, which they had kept safe for him for nearly 25 years. The book Potente di Fuoco shows these illustrations from 1985 side by side with his present-day reinterpretations. It is fascinating to see how a surrealistic artist came forth from an imaginative child that interpreted the world in a figurative way.
Read more about it over at FoundbyJames.com
(Thank you James. Your postcard submission made me look, and your site is fantastic! Thank you!)
Pocket Pencil
Simply Brilliant: Pocket Pencil. (And beautiful!)
NYC/CreativeMornings Video: Rachel Sussman
Our speaker at the august 2010 CreativeMornings was fabulous Rachel Sussman, force behind the fabulous The Oldest Living Things in The World project.
See all our NYC/CreativeMornings videos here.
A big giant thank you to Sy Abudu for offering her video and editing skills.
LA/CreativeMornings Video: Bobby Solomon
Our speaker at the second Los Angeles/CreativeMornings was Bobby Solomon, force behind the fantastic KitsuneNoir / TheFoxisBlack.
The event took place on November 12, 2010 and was generously hosted by Willard Ford of Ford & Ching.
The Los Angeles/CreativeMornings chapter is run by my friend and former Brooklynite Jon Setzen. A big thank you to everyone involved.
A big giant thank you to Grant Withington and Stephen Haynes for offering to shoot and edit the video, with assistance from Michael Mahaffey.
Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/LosAngeles_CM
Oliver Jeffers ‘Heart and the Bottle’ iPad Version
Being a huge Oliver Jeffers fan, I am delighted to see that “Heart and the Bottle” will be available as an iPad Picture Book App starting december. I am hoping that “How to catch as Star” and “The Incredible Book Eating Boy” will be next.
♥ / KennedyStock
A big thank you to Stephen of KennedyStock for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed.
KennedyStock is a unique and quite personal collection of rights-managed stock photographs that are ideally sited for testimonials in print and web communications. KennedyStock offers a collection of authentic portraits diverse in age and ethnicity.
Many blue chip companies in industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals and higher education have used photographs from KennedyStock to build and enhance their brand.
Noted photographer Stephen Kennedy, based in middle America, is the creator, photographer and proprietor of KennedyStock.
20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web
“20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web” is a short guide for anyone who’s curious about the basics of browsers and the web. Published by the Google Chrome Team, illustrations by Christoph Niemann.
“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?