So that sudden redeye from SF to NY (you know, the one that left my poor new carnivorous plants hanging out in my car in SFO somewhere) it is for the Dyson Air Multiplier Fan launch ~ and just between you and i, it took everything inside me not to get all fan girl while meeting James Dyson, and he was so incredibly nice (smart too of course!). But while i have lots of pics of the launch as well as the fans themselves... first things first ~ how adorable is the press kit? Stunning, sleek little brushed stainless usb key on a wire keychain attached to a book describing how not to waste those OLD fan blades that are now being rendered obsolete? (nearly?) ~ So, had to share with you "The demise of the buffetting blade: 20 Uses for the old buffetting blade" and adorably cheeky little book, my quick hotel shots may not fully do it justice, but you'll get the idea, and perhaps a quick giggle too. So flip through the details with me on the next page...

TO PAGE 2 of "Dyson's 20 Uses For The Old Buffeting Blade"! ----->

Tags: advertising - book - dyson - events - graphic - technology - usb

On fun packaging that has recently shown up ~ how awesome is this Made Of Japan (TAB Exclusive Boxed Edition) by Onitsuka Tiger ~ the packaging is stunning with a laser cut tiger motif on the cardboard sleeve that i'm just itching to spray paint as a stencil to see how it would look... From the TAB site: "Exclusive to TAB: the book comes in a box with a laser-cut Tiger sleeve. Limited to 250 boxes! Onitsuka Tiger is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year - an event of major significance in Japan. Made of Japan is the beautiful result of a journey into taste: 260 pages presenting the brands' original sports heritage, its vision and evolution, and its influence as a style icon amongst fashion leaders, artists, athletes and sports fans around the world." Take a peek on the next page of the awesome packaging (the sleeve and box are gorgeous ~ and the binding style as well!) + some of my favorite pics from within!

p.s.
Huge thanks to Limited Hype for sending this my way!

TO PAGE 2 of "Made Of Japan (TAB Excl Edition) by Onitsuka Tiger"! ----->

Tags: animals - book - gifts - luxury - magazines - packaging - review - unboxing

What a beautiful Sunday it is! On random inspiration (and i know, i've been a bit all over the place finding - or searching - for visual inspiration and feeding my insatiable curiosity just about anywhere lately - thanks for coming along for the ride as i figure things out while posting)... i never thought i'd be posting images from an early 70's exercise book here! But as i was checking out the pdf of the now out of print (but ebook available) Lotte Berk Method: Exercises for a Vital Body by Lydia Bach, i just couldn't get over how beautiful and artistic the imagery was ~ from the photography to the illustrations of the muscles... So naturally i had to share!

Oh and for some quick background on how i ended up at this at 3am on a saturday night... well you know how exercise fads come and go... and for some time now both the Exhale and Bar Method classes have been spreading quickly! Toning and strengthening your core and improving flexibility ~ making grown men and women twitch and weep while doing the tiniest of motions ~ giving you long lean muscles through low impact exercises mixing everything from modern ballet to yoga to orthopedic exercises... the Lotte Berk book even focuses on pelvic movements of sex as an influence on core strengthening. So while i was researching these various trends (a friend was recently working on me to come to Exhale classes, and i tried a few Bar Method classes a few years back) - i turns out that many of these "new" method all evolved directly from the Lotte Berk Method from the 70s ~ which was originated by Lotte Berk, a german dancer and teacher who developed the series of exercises to help her own recovery, and continued refining and teaching them in her studio in the UK, where Lydia Bach (author of the book) discovered her, loved her methods and licensed her name and methods, bringing them to the US. The internet says that the Exhale and Bar Method founder even came from running/teaching at Lotte Berk studios, so its no surprise that they are evolutions of the same methods from the 70s. Anyhow, that was my little random research last night ~ take a peek at the images on the next page!

p.s.
loving the workouts to slip into workaholic days with too much time spent at the computers...

TO PAGE 2 of "Lotte Berk Method Imagery"! ----->

Tags: book - exercise - gifts - photography - shopping

Is it possible to completely fall for the way someone sees the world? Because i want to live in the world that Kevin Dart has created for Yuki 7 - filled with non-stop jetsetting adventures through the 60's where "everyone should be SUPER cute" in adorable bikinis and gorgeous clothes and armed to the teeth while relaxing and calculating devious schemes and brilliantly daring escapes in mid-century modern furniture if not laying on the beach. If these feel familiar, we did an amazing giveaway of the series of 4 Yuki 7 posters over the holidays. (I'm still jealous of Jory for winning!)

Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7 - This is the second book from Fleet Street Scandal ~ it is built around the fictitious world of Yuki 7 ~ and they brought together some incredible artist friends to help bring her story to life. From an awesome action packed trailer (you may have seen as .org # 22010 - but its also on the next page!) ~ to absolutely stunning interpretations of this silver screen siren. See a peek at the t-shirt and into the book on the next page!

p.s.
Can someone please turn this into an animated series or movies? It's as if they pulled out my favorite parts of the old Bond films that the new ones lack... just add some mind blowing gadgets in perhaps?

p.p.s.
I totally flipped out seeing a quote from myself on the back cover! Definitely a NOTCOT first, and i'm so honored to be there! The doodle and signature/note inside the book also made my heart skip a beat... See the pics on the next page already!

TO PAGE 2 of "Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7"! ----->

Tags: art - book - gifts - review - shopping

On random inspiration ~ i was unpacking my bags from freshly getting back to LA ~ and realized being at a conference and sitting in talks was much like being back in school... flowing out of my bags come notebooks, pens, conference packets, scraps of paper, and more covered in scribbles and notes and doodles of an abundance of ideas!

On an even sillier note ~ i realized i'm totally obsessed with the DWR Tools for Living Press Kit that doubles as a super functional notebook that has nice stark white pages and fun super thick cardboard covers! And the Federated Media pen from the CM Summit has been great as well - both visually and functionally (so much, that i even stole dan's). Both have been ending up in my purse repeatedly enough that i thought they warranted a random sunday post! And while i was showing you that... my "speaker's gift" from FM was a nice and subtly branded Moleskine! Which is awesome, except playing with it during the summit, made me realize - i find a blank white piece of paper amazingly inspiring... but RULED PAPER, kind of freaks me out. I think there's something about lined paper that is just too rigid for me - definitely a big fan of the free form. Take a look at closeups of them all on the next page!

TO PAGE 2 of "On Notebooks and Pens"! ----->

Tags: book - dwr - events - notebook - paper - pens - press kit

Written On The City has been collecting up imagery from around the world of textual street art ~ and the book is now here! This project is the brainchild of Axel Albin and Josh Kamler of Language In Common. Trying a new form of book review ~ scanned in a bunch of random pieces of pages i liked to give you a feel for things on the next page!

Also ~ the letter, business cards, stickers, etc were so fun, i scanned those for you to check out too! And the next time you see some great texty street art, snap a pic and send it over to Written On The City!

TO PAGE 2 of "Written On The City"! ----->

Tags: art - book - gifts - graffiti - shopping - streetart - text

First off, i just want to apologize to Wright, they've been kind enough to send me some of their incredible catalogs, but the timing was when i was caught running around between trips this spring ~ and i've only just gotten to cleaning house and organizing and catching up on everything (yes, perhaps i do need an assistant?)...

Anyhow, i've been reorganizing like crazy, and i have notes and lists and scribbles everywhere, finally deciding and prioritizing the future of NOTCOT and where i want to take this ever evolving company we've grown ~ and inbetween it all, finally finding more time to have fun and catch up on all these books that have stacked up. For those who may not know, Wright is pretty much one of the most impressive auction houses of modern design pieces, and their catalogs are completely mind blowingly inspirational for any designer. Based in Chicago, i have been kicking myself that its just to far to make last minute invites to openings, but for today i'm catching up and drooling over their catalogs, and while doing so i just stumbled on these Enzo Mari Animali and Pesci Puzzles from 1974. They even come in their original boxes. Can you name all the species? See images of both and the catalog page on the next page!

p.s.
I'm thinking maybe my new way to deal with sharing books on NOTCOT will scan in favorite pages that are extra visually inspiring... thoughts? ideas? I've been having a hard time trying to figure out how to "review" books - and i certainly want to avoid the grade school summary styled book reports!

TO PAGE 2 of "Wright: Enzo Mari Animal Puzzles"! ----->

Tags: book - puzzle - wright

Zune has been a great supporter of the arts with their Zune Arts initiative, and its been incredible to see all of the artists - illustration, 3d, animation, and now graphic artists they have been supporting! The latest project is The Lost Ones: "a graphic novel written by celebrated writer Steve Niles. For the Zune-commissioned novel, Niles was paired up with visual artists Dr. Revolt, Gary Panter, Kime Buzzelli and Morning Breath to take the reader on an epic journey through time and space. Each artist illustrated a different chapter of the novel." On the next page you can check out a trailer video... i've also pulled some of my favorite pages from the novel, as well as the covers of the various chapters.

GIVEAWAY! There are two sets of a special collectors edition of the novel with a silk screened cover and poster waiting for two lucky readers ~ so leave a comment with your favorite on/offline comic and why you love it (by monday night PST) for a chance to win it!

TO PAGE 2 of "GIVEAWAY! The Lost Ones"! ----->

Tags: art - book - comics - contests - giveaway

So this engraving trend has been huge lately... grab a laser engraver and you can throw everything from moleskines to macbooks to.... well, you name it! Joe from EngraveYourTech and EngraveYourBook, sent over one of his creations, and it arrived while i was out of town, so by the time i got back i was so jetlagged and tired that when dan and i first looked at the moleskine, it took a second to remember that it was laser engraved. In fact first we were there touching it and looking at it up close arguing whether it was engraved or just silkscreened in this matte brownish color, since you could barely feel the indentation...

So we did the only thing we could do... get SUPER up close (200x) shots to see what was really going on... and here you can see, its clearly engraved enough just to scrape that black layer off... and then we even cut a tiny chunk out of the corner to see the colors underneath (you can also see pics of that, and slightly less upclose pics on the next page)... and if you still aren't convinced, there is also a video on the next page of this exact pattern being engraved on a moleskine...

TO PAGE 2 of "Engrave Your Book - Up (200x) Close"! ----->

Tags: book - engrave - gifts - laser - microscope - shopping - technology