Save the date! Jan 15th. Gallery 1988 : Venice (Grand Opening!) presents MULTIPLAYER: Limited Edition Posters Inspired By Video Games! And curated by the super awesome OMG Posters. As they say - “Opening January 15th at their new Venice gallery, Multiplayer will feature over 30 limited edition prints based on classic video games. You can see most of the artists on the list below, but there will also be a surprise or two.” Can’t wait!

--> to more images

So many great inspiring ads and videos this week! The Conan O’Brien Amex Ads ares are just incredible. From a design and travel perspective, they are such a nice look at a culture and an artisanal skill. First there was “Curtain” ad shot in India, where in about a minute you get to see exactly how cloth is made and dyed… in the follow up, we’re brought to Italy, and Conan blows the glass to make the Applause sign! The obsessive attention to detail in these ads, and sharing the process… the pain of imperfection followed by the perseverance to perfect it… such a great thing to aspire to! Take a look at both adverts as well as the great Making Of videos on the next page!

--> to more images

Spotted this stunner of a new ad from Audi at the always awesome Stash ~ “Imagination Meets Engineering” advert for the new Audi A7 Sportback. It’s like an xray kaleidoscope of nature meets engineering madness that is absolutely mesmerizingly set to Basement Jaxx’s ‘Dracula’. I just watched it a few times over! See the video on the next page, as well as screenshots of some of my favorite moments.

--> to more images

Facebook data infrastructure engineering team intern, Paul Butler, has made a beautiful infographic mapping friendships through plotting their coordinates and connections… and what lit up looks a lot like the Earth At Night!

Butler’s goal? “One that piqued my curiosity was the locality of friendship. I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends. I wanted a visualization that would show which cities had a lot of friendships between them.” And how did he do it? “I began by taking a sample of about ten million pairs of friends from Apache Hive, our data warehouse. I combined that data with each user’s current city and summed the number of friends between each pair of cities. Then I merged the data with the longitude and latitude of each city.”

See close ups, as well as comparisons between his infographic and the Earth at Night on the next page…

--> to more images

Another gorgeous week has passed and this week’s NOTCOT.org roundup is full of stunning images of lustworthy products, breathtaking scenes and overlooked minutia. To find out more about each post, click on its individual image.

Mmmmm, you know i adore a good unexpected juxtaposition… like these fun paintings by Kelly Reemsten! Headless/footless women in lovely party frocks holding simple tools… like bolt cutters, axes, gardening shears, chainsaws, crowbars… and wearing dish gloves and oven mits… simple every day things! They also have great names like ‘The load I Carry’, ‘Heavy Handed’, ‘Axe’, ‘B & E’, ‘Prowler’, ‘Leverage’, ‘Character Assassination’, etc. Awesome, right? And these are all large oil paintings ranging from 20’x20’ to 44’x44’. How fun would it be to have the perfect one hanging conspicuously in that perfect entry way… Is it any surprise that she started in Fashion Design and Painting? See more on Kelly Reemsten, and see some of my absolute favorites on the next page!

--> to more images

Love these french ads for Martell XO that i ran into on I Believe in Adv. Such a fun concept to show that it’s “The same pleasure since 1715”, having the more modern day scene reflect the world in the painting from the 1700s! I supposed the question is did they take it too far? or not far enough? Part of my wishes in the paintings, there would be a painting of an even OLDER time with the same scenario inside… or that the dresses and suites were matching in color… though that might just be because of the girl in the pink dress matching… and a guy in a red suit might be a bit much! See the second ad, as well as close ups of the paintings on the next page!

--> to more images

NOTCOT.org Roundup time! It continually blows my mind daily how together we’ve all found so much inspiration constantly! Can you believe its been doing its thing since 2006??? As for today’s look at the last week of inspiration ~ click the pics to find out more!

There’s lots to love about this week’s NOTCOT.org roundup which includes great packaging, new gadgetry, stunning illustration and more. To find out more about each post, click on its image.

Mesmerizing isn’t it? The most amazing things come through from the CIA - just discovered this in my email from their newsletter! The beauty and simplicity of these gifs are sucking me in tonight. So so beautiful, and Richard Wilkinson basically captures his work flow in photoshop - saving them into high res animated gifs you can view on his blog! It’s as if you’re watching the image paint itself… yes, it’s nearly 3am, and you’ll see why i’ve gone quiet the last few days as i’ve been obsessively working on the giveaways and gift guides launching this week… but for now… aren’t these incredible? These beautiful illustrations were for a 5 page spread for The Telegraph Magazine’s ‘Luxury’ supplement. See a few more of my favorites and a peek at the spread on the next page…

--> to more images

Virtual museums, grand spiraling staircases and paper weaponry are only a few highlights of this week’s NOTCOT.org roundup. To find out more about each post, click on its image.

Leave it to a Louis Vuitton case, a beautifully sleek sculpture… and a retro modern manta ray meets metropolis feeling beauty of a concept i couldn’t stop staring at during the LA Auto Show. Though it debuted in Geneva in 09, there is something so striking about it in person i couldn’t resist. The Infiniti Essence Concept! “Celebrating 20 years as a creator of performance luxury vehicles, Infiniti introduces a vision crafted to embody our core values and inspire future design: the Infiniti Essence. This dramatic styling, technology and performance statement is a 592-hp gasoline/electric hybrid coupe defined by exterior lines sculpted to express fluidity and speed. Destined to influence production models of the future, the Infiniti Essence vividly captures the balance between grace and power, and the unrestrained possibility of Inspired Performance.” What IS new however is this 300 piece, limited-edition, solid resin, Infiniti Essence model which costs $300, and it can be ordered with a Louis Vuitton carrying case, available at Infiniti Lifestyle. For now see more pics of the case, sculpture, and concept car on the next page.

--> to more images

Freshly launched, an adorable series of prints ~ Amanda Visell’s Posters for Girls… while my natural inclination towards things too girl focused is that it’s reverse sexist against boys… (and really, i’m just not that girly pink kind of girl)… i do find myself wanting to gift these prints to a bunch of my friends who are new moms with adorable baby girls. Seriously, what girl doesn’t need the poster of the knight? To grow up remembering the importance of having the ability of self-saving (also dragon-friend-making is key!) - granted whether/when you USE that ability is a whole other lesson. I look at the maverick one, and i just think of poor goose. and iceman… but she is looking pretty bad ass with the parachute and aviators. And the captain is pretty cute too ~ though, the wild bigfoot beast frightens me a tiny bit, but the trees are so happy! See them all on the next page!

--> to more images

There are some fascinating design shifts happening at Mercedes-Benz ~ from the design studio in Sindelfingen to Como to Tokyo to Carlsbad, the message was clear - the hunt is on for “Perfect Aesthetics” and in doing so, they are aggressively pushing their designs to be more fresh, young, emotional, and sexy ~ phrases like “enjoyment of innovation” + “inspire our customers” + “sensuality and joy” + “importance of perception” kept recurring in addition to talk of the future and fascination and playfulness. It was most definitely a buzzwordfest, but the excitement and passion of the design teams was impossible to ignore. There was an inescapable giddiness throughout the week around where the future may take us, and a need to think far beyond their more traditional production vehicles. Steffen Kohl’s gung ho push from the design side to gain the freedom to explore the insane ideas are guaranteed to frighten corporate types a bit. It’s inspiring to see his team indulge in the ideas designers dream about as students ~ you know, that awesomely idealistic time when you believe absolutely anything is possible?

A big part of this is the fight to create more artistic explorations through sculpture to push abstract concepts. The idea of art being key to Mercedes-Benz design strategies as well as a beautiful way to tease designs earlier in the year is intriguing. And i love these form studies of Oliver Samson, Thomas Stopka,Yves Renaud, and Sylvain Wehnert from Karim Habib’s team. Exploring lightweight forms to play with strength, perspective, and transparency, the results resemble polygons, honeycombs (all sharing one central perspective point), string art, and woven chaos. See them all on the next page!

--> to more images

Prefabs, packaging and puppies, this week’s NOTCOT.org roundup has it all. To find out more about each post, click on its image.