Ooooh fun packaging for the personalized Motorola ROKR E8’s going to Oscar nominees. “Each nominee received their ROKR E8 in a personalized, custom-made box. Keeping up with the latest red carpet trends, the ROKR E8 arrived encased in a keepsake box wrapped in an iridescent faux iguana print with a contrasting, yet complimentary, textured inside. Female nominees received a fashionable fuchsia colored box (with a rose pink interior), while the male nominees received a handsome cobalt colored blue (with a dusty blue interior) box. Each box was personalized with the nominee’s name and category.” Not so sure about the “faux iguana” thing… (but i’m biased i do miss my childhood iguana that grew from about 6” to 6’) Check out more on the press release! And congrats to Ellen Page and Johnny Depp! via Laura Sweet

NOTCOT Note: Here’s another article from Anna Corpron of Sub-Studio!

This recently completed project by Andrew Berman Architect was designed as a library and studio for a writer. As you approach the studio, you are greeted by an oversize glass door, with nothing but trees providing a contextual scale for the building. The building is divided programmatically, with the studio lifted up off the ground (and therefore providing privacy from neighbors), and a storage area located at ground level. With the studio floor situated at the elevation of the tree canopies, a floor to ceiling picture window provides the inhabitant with panoramic views of the wooded area beyond. A building-wide skylight floods the studio with daylight. The exterior of the building is clad in copper, which is meant to weather naturally over the years.

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Valentine’s Day is around the corner, so here’s a little something for the men ~ this kind of feels very Hugh Hefner channeling his inner Samurai on a Sunday morning, in a classic designer black. This is “Shogun”, the cotton terry robe for Swedish terry brand Pellevävare designed by Form Us With Love. The press release states:

“Shogun” is the name of the collaboration between young, innovative design studio Form Us With Love and prestige manufacturer of cotton terry, Pellevävare. The result is a limited edition of 30 exclusive robes of terry strategically reinforced with cotton canvas. “The inspiration derives from the Japanese medieval warriors and their protective outfits. We wanted the user to feel like a general, stepping out of bed, putting on his weekend uniform and start plotting strategies for the day.”

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Prada. They’ve been grabbing my attention in every magazine lately with these illustration heavy images… (remember NotCouture #1478?) and while i’m still debating and mixed on the illustration on leather bag concept, i’m still loving the illustrations! So while checking out all of the Spring/Summer 08 collections and campaign, i couldn’t help but share this incredible (HUGE like 17’ x 200’) wallpaper they have. Entitled Florid ~ Prada says it “represents the somewhat perverse intersection between Hieronymus Bosch and Aubrey Beardsley. The image depicts an intense landscape of man-eating flowers, dragons, hybrid creatures and eerie fairies.” Above is one of my favorite sections of it… the full wallpaper, closeups, and images from the print campaign are after the jump!

UPDATE: Apologies for missing that this was the collaboration work of local LA artist James Jean, and that this wallpaper is hanging right in the Beverly Hills and Soho Epicenter stores sized at 17 x 200 feet! In my cold meds induced haze and excitement while being illustration/prada giddy, i’m terribly embarrassed for the slip up and really should know better than early morning posting! Forgive me? Also take a look at the second wallpaper on his site that isn’t on Prada’s.

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As i’m sure most regular NOTCOT readers have noticed ~ my background and those of our few contributors is quite varied, but passion-filled! Justine and i grew up heavily inspired by both design and nature, and as a result i’m here doing NOTCOT, and she’s helping out when not busy finishing up her PhD in Animal Behavior and fencing… we grew up surrounded by all types of creatures, so it should be no surprise that we’re smitten with Life in Cold Blood, and i’m anxiously awaiting the DVDs… Here’s what she has to say about Attenborough’s latest:

Those of us lucky enough to be in the UK have caught our first look at the final installment in David Attenborough’s “Life” series. And this final series is a group particularly near and dear to my heart, the herps! “Life in Cold Blood” takes a look at the world’s diversity of reptiles and amphibians. The first episode: “The Cold-Blooded Truth” did not disappoint, packed full of gorgeous footage and remarkable creatures.

The making of (“Under the Skin”) was equally exciting, including glimpses of Attenborough in the early days of his career. The man is, without question, a legend. As a zoologist in training, I think I can honestly say, his documentaries have been an inspiration. And the producers of the series may just have outdone themselves again. You owe it to yourself to check out the BBC Life in Cold Blood site in its entirety of clips and goodies, but here are couple shots to whet your appetite after the jump!

DVD and Book are at the BBC Shop… which all Planet Earth lovers simply must have.

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Oh, Murakami… what will you do next? So apparently Murakami’s MOCA exhibition billboard on Melrose got a little addition to it thanks to Auger/Revok… and Murakami’s people found pictures of it on the internet (like these great ones on flickr from Ribbon Controller and G@br!3L)… and they had it REMOVED! And sent to japan! Because it was “so wonderful, he had to have it for his collection.” says this LA Weekly piece. And the circle continues… murakami makes art in his factory, sells everything from cellphone charms to massive paintings, has his art on LV bags, has a pop up LV store inside his own exhibition, does kanye wests album covers and has kanye play his opening gala, manages to get celebs clamoring to steal each others limited ed plates… and now even steals his own billboard that gets vandalized with some awesome street art. I wonder if he also has a private collection of LV/Murakami knockoffs in a special closet. Wow. I admire his insane branding/reach.

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Happy Super Tuesday! GO VOTE! If you haven’t already done so… and when you do… don’t forget your CAMERA! Because DesignObserver, AIGA, and the NYTimes have teamed up once again for the “Polling Place Photo Project”, which is exactly what it sounds like, “a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.” So you can see my contributions to the project here, and more images after the jump! GO VOTE ALREADY!

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Ah Superbowl XLII ~ congrats to the giants! And as usual, the ads were good fun! This year Hulu got in on the action and this NBC Universal and News Corporation’s online video joint venture is in beta and has a page up with 56 superbowl ads. I must say their player is quite pretty too… and i just went through all of them again, and picked my favorites below for you to watch!

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“Love Is In The Air” ~ Carlos Aires cut vinyl record silhouettes. This recycling/reshaping of vinyl is possibly one of the most amusing things i’ve seen with vinyl in a while! More images and close ups after the jump!

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Click the pics to find out more! Wow what a week its been over at TasteSpotting… honestly there was so much incredibly drool worthy deliciousness there this week, i dont know how i manage to not try to cook and consume it all. Looks like stand out trends this week were definitely those Cake Pops of Bakerella, who also brought us Oreo Balls and Nutter Butter Balls. There were also home made pop tarts this week! And my favorite and most inspiring post of all truly was Steamy Kitchen sharing her photo “food porn room” studio with us all! It certainly helped answer my questions about how some of the TasteSpotters get such beautiful imagery of their home cooked delights!

Oh, and if you click through any of those, you may have noticed a little experiment (in beta phases - still cleaning up design) on both notcot.org and TasteSpotting… we now have permalink pages… which also mean a single post view… where you can browse linearly (for those who dont like the overwhelming all at once view!)… AND you can play with the RANDOMIZER feature i’ve long begged for (and can spend hours exploring the nearly 9000 posts with now)… you can even try using Keybord Shortcuts! (although i haven’t put up the image about this on the sites yet… try ctrl+r, <, > keys on mac, and use alt instead of ctrl on a pc).

Ben Lawson draws incredible fish that we first fell for over at .org #7943 and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, i simply had to post his tentacled hearts. His illustration style is so scientific, yet the characters (yes even the tentacled hearts) are oozing with character, which is no surprise since he is a physicist/engineer turned artist/illustrator… and he is certainly our kind of guy - his career “includes sourcing squirrels for Rumanian TV and reporting on nuclear terrorism for the Japanese government.” Can you imagine how incredible these would be animated? And for those who need a refresher, a few of my favorites of his Ichthyological Specimens are after the jump.

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The Matter Box, apparently people have started receiving them, and i’m SO jealous! I mean seriously, this might be the coolest box of junk mail ever… i know its really just corporate schwag ~ but it’s corporate schwag at its finest, most creative, most amusing. So what was in there? Well below we bring you a break down of not only the contents and images of unboxings, but also some guy unboxing it live in a video!

Oh, and for anyone that is lost, Matter first came up on .org #8403… and it is “a box full of interesting stuff” and “a new and unique idea in communications that brings companies and people together around real, physical stuff–things you can hold in your hands, keep in your drawer, or give to your friends. It’s a new way for companies to introduce themselves by giving you something you might like” AND “is a collaboration between Artomatic and Royal Mail.” Read more at Matter: Brands you can hold, but firstly catch up on the first bow after the jump!

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Ok, i’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day. And certainly wasn’t expecting any this year… or this early! But a Despair, Inc. generated email from Jef (you can see what he sent after the jump) ~ tipped me off to these hilarious Bittersweets. Just in time for Valentine’s day, these candy hearts come in three tin variations: Dejected, Dysfunctional, and Dumped. “Dejected” sayings include: I MISS MY EX | PEAKED AT 17 | MAIL ORDER | TABLE FOR 1 | I CRY ON Q | U C MY BLOG? | LOSS LEADER | A FINE WHINE | MOMMY ISSUES | DIGNITY FREE | DORK MAGNET | PURE NAUSEA | WE HAD PLANS | MAIL ORDER | SETTLE 4LESS | I’M HOT INSIDE. “Dysfunctional” sayings include: ANNULMENT | I BEEN CREEPIN | HE CAN LISTEN | GAME ON TV | CALL A 900# | P.S. I LUV ME | DO MY DISHES | BOOTY INFL8N | PAROLE IS UP! | AWFUL INLAWS | SUB PRIME | I WANT HALF | RETURN 2 PIT | NO FIX 4 DUMB | RATHER DRINK | MUTUAL DISGUST. “Dumped” sayings include: I GOT SOBER | HE FIT U FAT | U LEFT SEATUP | USED U 4 FUN | JUST A FRIEND | BACK 2 KENNEL | DORKA PHOBIC | U HAVE A BLOG | RUSSIAN BRIDE | CELEB8 THX2U | DOG IS CUTER | TRADIN YOU IN | FORGET WE MET | KISS A FROG | SHE IS 22! | HE HAS A JOB. Wow. See more images after the jump!

p.s. Despair Inc is the company behind those Demotivators posters.

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Alex + Chloe are popping up a pop up store tomorrow in Chinatown at the New High (M)art and i just noticed their new Black Diamonds collection… particularly the Anneau Solitaire - Diamant Inverse. I have had a bizarre fascination with inverted diamonds ever since Tobias Wong’s Ultimate Reverse Setting Ring. Also shown here are the Sphere Noir Diamant Inverse and Sphere Diamant Inverse, which remind me of mini oxidized canon balls… canon balls coming at you with the point of a diamond. Inverted diamonds, an interesting twist on a classic symbol of luxury, and also the ultimate weapon with used with a point? See more images and info on the opening after the jump!

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Sneak peeks from the latest from the Working Class Heroes which will be available Feb 4th… introducing the Unfold laptop bag. This new “premium cognac leather”/”washed slate cotton canvas” combo will be perfectly filled with a 17” macbook pro, but when using a smaller laptop (macbook air?), it takes a cue from the trendy Foley and Corinna style city totes you can easily have it folded in half to more of a messenger bag proportion. With “comfy handles and a reinforced shoulder strap, the bag is also padded with a protective layer to keep whatever you carry safe”. Its interior is a soft cotton lining with small leather logo. See more images of the Unfold after the jump!

Seem familiar? Working Class Heroes has been previously seen on NOTCOT and the gift guide due to my obsession with their brilliantly designed grey wool felt and leather laptop sleeves i have two of.

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