Asvetic posted this to .org earlier this week, and i found myself showing it to so many people, it needed a post here for anyone who missed it.

Remember the Baby Suit? Well that was apparently the work of the incredible London based Mr. Toledano, from his Hope and Fear set. View the full Video Gamer Faces set as well! All of his imagery manages to capture such a frighteningly realistic surreal view of humanity.

I might be too giddy to post this post. Photomontages AND Genevieve Gaukler? *swoon* Her latest exhibition details: “16 artworks made for the exhibition I hold at the Someday Gallery in Melbourne. So exciting to make these large photomontages, such a huge amount of work also, cutting out around 3000 photos!” See my favorites below, and/or click through the series here.

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As much as i love Tord Boontje’s vectory tendrils of naturally inspired goodness, the Blossfeldt Fractals d*s featured today blew me away. Something about science and art merging perfectly grabs me. 1920’s-1930’s photography meets a brilliant algorithm is simply gorgeous… “Blossfeldt Fractals are a dynamic composition of plant forms, based on photographs by Karl Blossfeldt, and generated through algorithms similar to Lindenmayer System.” Truly incredible are HOW this is accomplished, see below. Great video walking you through his process as well as the gallery.

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As if we don’t have enough complexity in the day to day? Love this diagram that SwissMiss pointed out from &Partners’ Process Page.

MocoLoco has a great interview with Tord Boontje - talking about design, life, and what’s going on with Target. My favorite clips are:

How would you label/categorize your work?
Somewhere between romantic and technological.

What item (PC, pen, etc) can you not do without when you are designing?
For the first bit, I do not need anything at all, I can do it inside my head. For the next part of the process I need my complete studio which is as large as an airplane hanger and houses a team of 6 people, machines, tools, computers and stuff. It is all essential, and seems to becomes more every day. Oh, and the coffee machine is important.

And on target… “Besides the products, we have made store decorations for all 1,500 stores, the graphics for all catalogues and collaborated on the art-direction of the TV commercials.” Wow. Now i need to go to target just to see this!

I love all the ingenious things people manage to do with shipping containers… to add to the list? This great installation piece by Hulger (the brilliant retro phone handsets for mobiles and bluetooth) over at Tokyo’s 100% Design this year, where you can experience what it feels like to be able to see and talk just like prisoners, but not touch.

Free People has a Blog! I must admit i’m impressed with the cutting edge webbiness of Free People - they were the first fun shopping site i noticed had RSS feeds for their new products, and they are fully embodying the selling a lifestyle/culture brand with their blog… surrounded by their classic stylishly vintage/collage-y design that i love, and filled with fun, witty commentary and designer eyecandy (as well as behind the scenes tidbits from the catalog shoots and whats going on in their philly office, customers get a feel for WHO the people behind the clothes are… after all isn’t that what corporate blogging is all about) So what’s next? The Urban Outfitters blog?

Came across this piece by Michael Schall, while at that art festival in DUMBO, and was completely mesmerized by it. Can you believe it is graphite on paper? In this piece, from afar it looks like mountains… and as you get closer, much much closer, you notice all the tiny water towers. Close ups below.

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After working on NOTCOT.org far too long - Jermacide fell out of his apt in Hayes Valley, SF this morning to check out the Capsule Street Festival For Design. You can see pictures below of some of the crafty goods, masses of people, and even the bald guy from Bald Guy Greetings out enjoying the bizarre heatwave we got all through California today. It’s been absolutely gorgeous out today.

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Diem Chau has mad skills when it comes to crayon carving… i keep finding myself stopping this post writing to go stare at the pictures again. Chau also has an incredible passion for storytelling, especially of the oral tradition. I love this quote from her statement “My grandmother told some of the best and most unique tales. She had a wonderful way of spicing up the traditional fable. According to her, Cinderella was kept from the Prince’s ball by having to sort a jumble of Mung beans, Red beans and Soybeans. Snow White went on many dates with Prince Charming before they got married, their first date being a picnic in the park with sandwiches and sliced melons. These small deviations are what fascinate me with oral traditions. Ordinary events injected into fantasy worlds make them more believable but, at the same time, it makes them extraordinary. Stories enable us to live a more vivid life.” Her grandmother ought to write them down and publish them - with her crayon carvings to illustrate it… i’d buy that.

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Can you believe this is the 1000th post on NOTCOT.com? It kind of feels more exciting than a birthday. (granted i’m behind in projects, overworked, and working on this friday night… i guess part of me wishes i had a reason to escape and celebrate something!)

Anyhow, thought a good 1000th post is this Art of Complex Problem Solving that Asvetic posted to .org… because problem solving is no easy task, but evolving .com and .org have kept me on my toes and constantly finding new problems to solve and things to learn. And seriously - how gorgeous are these images? Some of the most impressive uses of rollovers i’ve seen lately. Great content, presented beautifully…

Lucy Feagins, Melbourne contributor, sends us more design news from down under. State of Design is a new State-government funded design festival (yes, another one!) kind of trying to bill Melbourne as the ‘design’ capital (although everyone kind of knows that’s a title traditionally held by Sydney).

There was lots going on around town as part of the festival and unfortunately I didn’t get along to see a lot of it, but one exhibition I did see was ‘Freestyle – New Australian Design for Living’ at the Melbourne Museum. The exhibition was beautifully and thoughtfully laid out, though it seemed like more of a retrospective of established Aussie designers that a true collection of ‘new’ Australian design. Anyway, it was fantastic to be reminded of so many successful and inspiring Australian designers, and also to see such variety within the one show – from furniture to fashion to ceramics and jewellery. Among those designers featured were fashion designers Akira Isogawa and Easton Pearson, bag designer/manufacturer’s Crumpler Bag, Jewelery and homewares designers Dinosaur Designs and many others. See some of my top picks below…

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NOTCOT’s favorite designer couple, Anna and Tim Harrington of Deadly Squire, present Converter. This new show opens this week at my favorite Williamsburg Gallery ~ The Riviera. Known for their beautiful patterns (you may remember their skateboard, as seen in NOTed) ~ “Textiles/Patterns reside in an uncrowded corner of the design world having the unusual property of being simultaneously raw material and finished work. The pattern designer’s work is completed when their design is applied to paper, fabric, etc. but it’s true purpose is not served until those patterned materials are made into something by another artist.” So to put their patterns to good use (better use? a different use?) they have enlisted 20 artists to apply them to everything from furniture and apparel to jewelry, sculpture, animals and more. Can’t wait to see what they come up ~ if you make it over there, send pics!

The Sony Bravia Paint Adspot we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. So happy Tuesday - go enjoy an insane amount of paint acting like fireworks… it took them 5 days just to do the clean up. and don’t forget to watch the MAKING OF… yay for paint in glasgow.

Miwa Koizumi’s PET Project. “I love the idea of using liquid containers to make water animals. Contained/containing, trash/non-trash, like the jellyfish or anemone: Living/non-living. And i wanted some pets…” PET (polyethelyene terephthalate) - San Pellegrino, Evian and Poland Spring plastic water bottles. Do these get to join the Water List?

Found Koizumi’s PET Project over at Spring Design & Art in Dumbo, brooklyn, which felt like my equivalent of a candy store. SO many designs i have obsessed about on NOTCOT were there to touch and drool over in real life! From the flat diamond acrylic/gold/cilver rings, to the gun shaped vases, to the jimmyjane “fuck design”’ vibrators, and the balloon lamps - i literally found myself spinning around in what certainly had a Museum Store kind of feel, only more Store with a Museum side to it… You can see my picture of her piece below.

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