Boo

This fall I have noticed an insane amount of spider webs everywhere. They are quite beautiful to behold and as long as they are not close to a window or door, I leave them alone. Nature's way of decorating for Halloween. I'll be locking my black cat Jesse inside for the night since we live 8 houses down from the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival & parade. It's much like living in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. 300,000 poeple (many in costume) descend upon my neighborhood for the party of the year and it gets pretty crazy around here. The costumes are amazing if you can see anything from the crush of the crowd. Where ever you are, have a happy & very safe Halloween!

The Secret Life of Books

Just stunning are these cut books by Scottish artist Georgia Russell! (Via PinkShirtsandCarWrecks)

Modern Moisture

During winter many of us may want to run a humidifier but the thought of having an ugly appliance is just not an option. Enter Middle Colors, a Japanese company that has designed the best looking humidifiers ever! They come in a rainbow of colors and look so sleek yet so functional. (Via AT)

A Bag of Bones

Love this darkly humorous skeleton key chain by Alexander McQueen, at Zappos.com and especially this Hero AL1 Upright with the sternum and backbone showing through the skin of the case. 

The Joy of Being Italian

I am a second generation Italian-American, raised in a lively & artistic household full of drama, great food & deep family connections. Many years later, when I first stepped onto Italian soil in Rome, I knew I was truly home. The smell of familiar cooking surrounded me, everyone looked like me or a relative, acted like me and had a similar style. If I was a wolf pup, I would have rolled around in that Italian dirt, home at last. The blood bond runs deep. The Little Bookroom publishers (of wonderful guidebooks like the City Secrets of Rome) have released a wonderful new book, Italianissimo, a quintessential guide to everything Italian. It profiles 50 Italian contributions to culture ranging from great ideas, to cuisine, fashion, cinema and much more. A beautiful edition & good read, even if you’re not Italian!

At the Zoo

Hilarious ad for the Calgary Zoo, copy line reads “Playtime will change after Zoo School. Kids learn everything from mating habits to wildlife conservation. Call 232-9346 to enroll. Calgary Zoo.”  Advertising Agency: Trigger communications, Canada, Creative Director: Patrick Doyle, Art Director: Joel Arbez, Copywriter: David Delibato, Photographer: Jean Perron

Dancing with Skeletons

Whether you are decorating for Halloween or just love the folk art depicting Dia De Los Muertos scenes, it’s time to break out the skulls & bones. Clockwise from top left: Day of the Dead diorama from Direct From Mexico, $48.25 (7" x 14" x 2"), Button from Cafe Press, $3.73, Bone Chillers ice cube tray from McPhee, $8.95 and dancing skeleton pot holders from Buckaroo’s Merchantile, $8.00.

A Play on Light & Type

The Momento Light designed by Hiroshi Yoneya and Yumi Masuko is a wonderful typographic study on light & type. I feel a new obsession coming on.

Spinning a Web

AirSpace, a screen facade design that creates an exterior building skin/web for a new dwelling in Tokyo by Thomas Faulders “is a zone where the artificial blends with nature: sunlight is refracted along its metallic surfaces; rainwater is channeled away from exterior walkways via capillary action; and interior views are shielded behind its variegated and foliage-like cover.” Just so beautiful!

United in Design

Men’s Vogue commissioned renowned Pentagram designer Michael Bierut to design a patriotic lapel pin which strives to reach beyond political parties. The pin is a modern typographic alternative to the flag pin. The very best part is all proceeds benefit Dog Tags, a new initiative of the charity Puppies Behind Bars. The program matches trained dogs with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who are injured or suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Get it here — for a deeply worthy cause!

Second Skin

Eco-friendly plastic jewelry, Batucada from Paris is made from a durable, flexible, eco-certified material. Waterproof and hugging the skin, they come in an array of patterns, but I really like the organic shape of the petals design shown above. Very reasonable, get them here.

The Hills are Alive with a Giant Bunny

High on a mountain top in Piedmont, Italy there's an enormous fluffy pink bunny. It’s been created and installed by Viennese art group Gelitin. The bunny (which took almost five years to knit) will be there for as long as it takes to be claimed by the elements around it. That's estimated at 2025. See & read more at the Gelitin website. So wonderful and so strange.

Still Life with Type

Stunning still life with type by Dan Tobin Smith, with the letter "E" created with red objects on a white background assembly. (Via SwissMiss)

Talking Feet

Kind of fabulous, these lyrical hand-painted wedges by Rachel Comey. Another style sports the words, Seance on a Wet Afternoon. Get them at TenOverSix, a new indie concept store recently opened here in L.A. They are currently featuring a new window installation by Shepard Fairey. Stocked with a wide selection of indie and high-concept fashion accessories, home accessories, books, magazines, film & music.

Photo: Julie Wolfson/LAist

Campaign O’Lanterns

Great site that has campaign pumpkin-carving templates for every persuasion, get them here. 

Taking the Chill Away/Swiss Style

There’s nothing worse than getting into bed during the winter and encountering cold sheets. Electric blankets are so not my thing, so when I saw this stylish hot water bottle from Target, I remembered how my Mom would warm up the sheets for us when we were little. From Kikkerland Design and available only online at Target through their Red Hot Shop. Now it just needs to cool off here in Southern California so it actually feels like Fall.

Design Without Reach

A well executed parody can provide quite a lot of amusement. With the launch of the new DWR: Tools for Living store in Santa Monica, I already want numerous pieces from their collection of everyday functional objects. Design Without Reach, a tongue-in-cheek creation of Rob Price and Kathy Park from Thwart Design has created Design Without Reach: Tools for Dying, a parody of the Tools for Living store, “items to help you celebrate the transition of death with the right design aesthetic.”  So hilarious and well-done!!

Field of Light

Lighting designer Bruce Munro will present his Field of Light installation at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England this winter. The installation, consisting of 6,000 acrylic tubes containing optical fibers, is inspired by the way the desert blooms and flowers after a rainstorm. So magical!

Landscaping with Type

You can get lost in this landscape of words with typographic artist Oded Ezer's I ♥ NY poster, an homage to Milton Glaser’s famous logo. He uses a 3D sculptural technique he developed in an earlier work called The Finger, originally created as a homage to the Israeli poet, choreographer and art critic Hezi Leskley (1952-1994), echoing the title of his first book, published in 1986. The project consists of a short movie and a poster. So imaginative!

Type Spacing

Fantastic typographic installation by Sebastian Lemm.

CNN Gets it Right

Associated Press: The 129-year-old Hatch Show Print, one of the few commercial letterpress printers in the country that have survived decades of obscurity and are now enjoying a revival in the midst of a digital age. CNN hired the business - whose designers handcraft posters using wood or metal blocks in much the same way printers did for hundreds of years- to design and create nearly all of its promotional materials for its presidential election coverage. Belmont University will hand out Hatch Show Print posters to everyone who attends the upcoming presidential debate on the college campus.
This is the same shop that made Elvis Presley's posters, Hank Williams' and Bill Monroe's. It has created posters for Pearl Jam and the Beastie Boys. It supplied traveling circuses and vaudeville acts with the posters that advertised shows in the earlier part of the last century."We're huge fans of their work and their approach," said CNN's marketing director, Scot Safon. "Anyone who cares about design knows what they do and loves what they do."

Note: Visit the Hatch Show Print shop for some stunning vintage restrike posters. 

True Design Gangstas

For all us graphic designers out there, from Kyle T. Webster. (Thanks La Blogda!)

Comme to Me

I know where I'll be November 13th, waiting in line at the H&M store to get my hands on these jackets and blouse from the upcoming Comme des Garcons collection debuting at H&M next month. Get a look at the collection here.