I completely forgot about the existence of Carpet Beaters.
Cone Backpack
Cone backpack by Doug Johnston. Beautiful.
cloudreporter
Stumbled upon this lovely site called cloudreporter. It features cloudy sky photos from around the world. If you want to join and be part of the cloud reporter movement, get in touch here. Lovely.
♥ / Squarespace
Thanks again to Squarespace, a long-time supporter of my blog. Really excited about highlighting the wonderful integration with Getty Images:
Squarespace is integrated with Getty Images, the largest archive of stunning creative and editorial photography in the world. When you build a website with Squarespace, you get the combined force of Squarespace’s design, your content, and the most beautiful images anywhere.
Discover what you can create today. Swiss Miss readers get 10% off with the code SWISSMISS: Squarespace.com
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
Michael Bierut on the Power of Logos
Michael Bierut interview at Design Indaba.
(via Quipsologies)
What cloud services do you use?
Here’s a question for you. What subscription based, cloud software do you use and love? I made a list of services I use personally or subscribe to with my companies CreativeMornings and Tattly. I was surprised to see how long the list is:
Freshbooks for all my invoicing needs (also does time tracking but I don’t need that at this point in my career)
Squarespace for my co-working space website and smaller CreativeMornings related project sites.
Helpscout is what we use for all of our Tattly support.
Dropbox is where we store all of our files. I would not be able to sleep without it.
Mailchimp is our service of choice to maintain our mailing lists and sending our newsletters.
Shutterstock is our stock photography service of choice.
JustworksHR takes care of our CreativeMornings payroll, benefits and HR related services.
Trinet takes care of our Tattly payroll, insurance needs and HR Management.
Netsuite helps us keep track of our Tattly inventory, our financials and we use it as our CRM. It’s a beast.
Shopify is what powers our Tattly e-commerce site.
Typekit makes sure we look good on the web with designy fonts.
Mediatemple hosts our CreativeMornings website
Contactually helps me organize and keep on top of all my contacts.
Sanebox is the best $5 I spend every month. It filters out non-important email.
Brandboom is our wholesale e-commerce platform for Tattly.
Slack is a chat app on steroids. It has completely revolutionized how I communicate with my teams, cutting down on emails we are sending each other.
Basecamp keeps track of our custom projects at Tattly and allows conversations for our CreativeMornings hosts around the world.
Tinyletter is the simplest and most pleasant way to send small, personal newsletters. I use it for my co-working space.
Authenticjobs is where we post all of our job listings
Trello is keeping us on track with internal projects and bugs we need to fix.
1Password keeps me sane. Not sure what I would do without it. The team functionality is pure gold.
Flickr hosts all of our CreativeMornings photos.
Teuxdeux is how I keep track of my daily to-dos. (it’s my own app)
Simplenote is where I keep all of my notes, combined with Notational Velocity on the computer.
rdio is my music library in the cloud.
Feedly is where I keep all my bookmarks organized.
Netflix is what I use to watch shows.
What about you? Do you love and use certain services that we don’t know about? Share in a comment!
Friday Link Pack
In case you’ve never seen Playtime, you should.
– This 4-Port Sliding Smart Hub instantly adds four extra USB ports where there once was one.
– First the Floyd Table, now the Floyd Shelf.
– Seriously touching: Woman Photoshops Herself Into Her Mom’s Childhood Pictures For Touching Photo Series
– What a bummer! United Pixelworkers is closing shop.
– I think I know what I am getting G for the holidays: The Access Case.
– It’s a mitten, it’s a flask. It made me laugh!
– Making cupcakes that look like ice cream cones
– Six stretches for people who sit at desks
– I am dreaming of driving a snazzy stick shift on these windy roads.
– I just discovered The Sweet Home and
The Wire Cutter. What rock did I hide under?
– Storest – a seriously adorable app for kids to play store.
– Love the look of this Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay A2 Bluetooth speaker.
– SurgeProtector helps you call an Uber to the nearest location without surge pricing.
– I love this Cardboard Mushroom.
– This lake cabin! A dream!
– The Language of Lying: Animated Primer on How to Detect Deception
– The 3 Most Valuable Leadership Traits according to Simon Sinek
– Microscopic photo of vinyl record grooves
– NeoCover is a standard light switch cover that has super-strong rare earth neodymium magnets inside, and that allows you to hang your keys, favorite pen, or even tools from it.
– I grew up with a ski lift in front of my door on the Swiss country side. I used to go night skiing as a kid, granted without LED lights. Oh, the memories.
– This phone case/stand made me giggle.
– Come work with me and team CreativeMornings: We are looking to hire a Content Curator and Community Coordinator.
♥ / No more crappy spatulas
A big thank you to Get It Right (GIR) for sponsoring this week of my RSS Feed.
Get It Right (GIR) makes kitchen tools with attitude. Their flagship unibody silicone spatula is the internet’s best-reviewed spat — and the internet never lies.
The folks at GIR are launching a Kickstarter campaign for a series of silicone lids to top any pot or turn any bowl into a storage container (seeing is believing). To get in on the action, check out their campaign here.
SwissMiss readers can also get their very own GIR Spatula for an excellent 20% off at productofgir.com with code HEARTSWISSMISS. But honestly, you have to see these Lids.
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
Portable Standing Desk: StandStand
StandStand is a portable standing desk, an invention by Luke Leafgreen. StandStand is super lightweight, sturdy and folds down in seconds. Brilliant! Want to get one? Support the Kickstarter, it ends in 7 days!
IKEA Parodies Apple Product Commercial
This Apple commercial parody to introduce IKEA’s new catalog made me laugh. Experience the power of a book book!
(via Daniel)
Papier-Mâché Projects
This little family is currently spending a week in the Northfork, enjoying the last week before school starts again. I’ve reconnected with my younger self and looked up some papier-mâché projects to do with my 8 year old, Ella. Here are some of my favorite finds:
Papier-Mâché Lollipop man (no instructions)
Papier-Mâché Face (no instructions)
Papier-Mâché Turtle with Step-by-step instructions
DIY Papier-Mâché Pencil Toppers (step-by-step instructions)
Papier-Mâché Bowls (with step-by-step instructions)
And then here, slightly creepy personalized DIY papier-mâché pinatas:
Don’t know how to make the ‘glue’? Here’s a round-up of various papier-mâché recipes. What are you going to make?
One Of Many
My studiomate Wesley Verhoeve launched a fantastic new project called One of Many. Over the next few months, Wesley will travel to 12 cities across the US and over the course of a week immerse himself in their creative communities. The results are beautiful essays with stunning portrait photography and personal stories. Check out Charleston.
Wesley, who is the most outgoing person I have ever met, can strike up a conversation with anyone. When visiting these cities, he will be seeking out designers, chefs, woodworkers, farmers, engineers, writers, coffee brewers and anyone else making something that moves people.
Wesley believes that being a small business owner or a creative independent is exhilarating, but it can also be quite lonely and stressful. With One of Many Wesley wants to remind us that we are not alone. We are part of a growing movement. We are one of many.
(Above photos are all by Wesley Verhoeve, part of the Charleston series but previously unpublished. From top to bottom: David Lee, Diego Castro Oliva and Kate Nevin, members of the Charleston community)
♥ / Brainbean
A big thank you to Brainbean for sponsoring this week of my RSS Feed.
Parents! Let your kids explore their creativity with Brainbean It’s a brand new, free iPad app with fun and colorful creative mini-games.
“The perfect game to inspire family-time creative play,” says Common Sense Media. “Educational but not necessarily just for kids,” wrote msn.com. Gizmodo described Brainbean as “a brain training app suitable for anyone from the ages of nine to 109. With eight games available, based on various scientific exercises, with the aim of challenging your brain to the full.” One teacher who uses the app in her classroom wrote: “Brainbean is a colorful, kid-friendly game that will boost your students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills.”
Download Brainbean for free from the iPad App Store.
(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)
Friday Link Pack
Broadway cast of ‘The Lion King’ takes over NYC subway, sings ‘Circle of Life’ I love this city. So much.
– 5 Hard-to-kill houseplants
– Couple Performs ‘You’re the One That I Want’ From ‘Grease’ in Sign Language While Driving
– OMG. This. Is. Hilarious: How to stop a baby from crying by Katy Perry Dark Horse
– What the heck is toothpaste anyway?
– “Google to collect data to create a full picture of what a healthy human being is.” (via)
– Uber keeps impressing me with how they push their service forward. Now, you can ‘car pool‘.
– Discover the saddest, most lonely tweets you ever tweeted. (Can it be that I had only one sad tweet out of 22.8k tweets total? I doubt it!)
– Here’s what Brooklyn Summer looked like in 1974
– Wow, Accurat does some seriously legit information design.
– The Art of Not Moving, with Laure Courtellemont. The latest installment of the urban dance video newsletter called Why Aren’t We Dancing by Yoko Ohama.
– Layer Tennis is back! I once participated in a global match. Most stressful 15 minutes of my life.
– Just re-watched this conversation between Gary Vaynerchuk and Chase Jarvis.
– Infographic: Porn Vs. Real Sex, Explained In Food
– Most spoken language by NYC neighborhood — aside from English or Spanish. (via)
– The fine folks over at Brooklyn based Hyperakt are looking to hire a front-end developer.
A Better Queue
A Better Queue lets you filter Netflix’s instantly streaming movies by Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, number of reviews, years, and genres. It also lets you add movies straight to your queue. Awesome!
(Thanks Jake)
Tattly Super Set (Top 100)
Last week Tattly launched the brand new SUPER SET whiche contains their top 100 super sellers! Plus a bonus “Super” Tattly by Oliver Jeffers! The Super Set is enclosed in a sturdy, shiny, hinged-lid tin with “Super” screen printed by Brooklyn-based Haven Press.
(Psst.. Today’s the last day you can get it 50% off. As well as all of the other 400+ Tatty designs over at Tattly.com. Yay for birthday sales!)
Friday Link Pack
– Next time you look up into a starry sky, read this: The Fermi Paradox: Where the hell are the other earths?
– Excited to read Weingart: The Man and the Machine. Weingart taught for over 30 years at Basel School of Design and now this book documents his students reflecting on his teaching.
– OTO, the famous ice cream truck, now comes in cat size. Yup.
– The Found Art of Thank-You Notes
– “A mature understanding of the madness of crushes turns out to be the best and perhaps the only solution to the tensions of long-term love.” On the madness and charm of crushes
– Mister Softee Ice Cream Truck Printed Pillow
– Fun: Neon Adjustable Ring Geometric Leather
– Ever think you’re getting old? I just learned that the moon has orbited the earth 540 times since I was born. Ok!
– Why would you want to sacrifice a couple of square feet to a dish drying rack, when this compact roll-up alternative turns an open sink into a place for anything to drip dry?
– Your brain on chocolate vs. kissing.
– I would love this FRESH POTS sign at Studiomates to indicate fresh coffee is ready! Go Mailchimp for always coming up with fun stuff like this.
– I am not into sports, but this made me look: A scale replica of your favorite team’s stadium, made entirely of LEGOs.
– Now that’s a stylish mug: MUGr
– BULBING is an optical illusion LED lamp.
– So tempted to get this Adult Cookie Monster costume and answer Skype video calls wearing it.
– A tent hotel on Rockaway beach? Yes, please!
– A Type House Divided, the story of Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones
– Bounce.
– Tattly launched a tattoo by Stefan Sagmeister: Self-confidence produces fine results.
– ÄKTA in Chicago is looking for a Sr. User Interface (UI) Designer.
Remember to Drink Water
The refresh cap, by Vittel, pops up a tiny red flag every hour to prompt you to hydrate. When you put the bottle cap back on the bottle the timer automatically begins. So fun!
(thanks Sally)
Car UX
Car-UX.com is a fascinating project by user experience designer Min Seung Song: a growing collection of UX image details of contemporary automobiles. This field of UX seems to be undergoing dramatic changes. A few weeks ago I had the change to drive a Tesla and the interior felt like an oversized iPad on wheels. I can’t remember seeing one physical button. The car is basically an app.
(via Khoi)
Inflatable Car Seat by Volvo
Whenever this little family travels by plane, the thing I dread the most is schlepping our car seats. Thanks Volvo, for making a lot of traveling parents very happy with this inflatable car seat.
Easter DIY
Here’s a fun crafts project: Put Tattly on (Dancing) Easter Eggs.
