Designer toys make great gifts, from the Pee and Poo toys to Lego Mindstorm’s– here are our picks from the vaults. Enjoy!

• Pee and Poo: The Unflushables: I know some of you wouldn't as much as entertain the idea of buying someone the gift of Pee and Poo… Continue Reading

• Lego Mindstorms NXT: When I was a wee lad, I played with Legos. To me, Legos were those little plastic blocks that came in different colors and sizes; the sky… Continue Reading

• Star Wars Mimobots: We have kept you informed about Mimoco's gradual release of their Star Wars Series 1 Mimobots, and we're happy to report that Series 1 is now complete… Continue Reading

• The Moofia: A sneak peak at the ultra-cute new mini figure series from STRANEGco and tokidoki. The hottest stocking stuffers this season, for sure… Continue Reading

• Super Bastard Toys: It's simple, fun, and inexpensive gift time. Our pal Undoboy has parlayed his abundant design talent into these Super-Bastard art characters… Continue Reading

• UNKL Toys: New SUGs, the Tactical Unit team member working for you are finally here, courtesy of UNKL… Continue Reading

• Hazamapos: I've always been a big fan of the UNKL toys, especially the Hazmapos series. In celebration of the super-special B1 Series, UNLK created a limited… Continue Reading

By now you all know the drill– my picks ‘From the Vaults’ of our travel goodies! Should be something here for everyone on your list. Bon Voyage!

• Inside Out Guidebooks: The Inside Out Guide Book series from Rand McNally is pretty much the Swiss Army knife of travel guides…Continue Reading

• Tumi: Ultra Slim Power Adaptors: We love our Tumi Adaptors– when we travel you're hard pressed to find us leave home without them. They just introduced an ‘ultra-slim' design, even more compact than before… Continue Reading

• Tom Bihn: The Arechtype: When the MacBook Pro's came out, our friends over at Tom Bihn were the first to the scene with a stylish, functional and properly-sized laptop case… Continue Reading

• OHSO Travel Toothbrush:The OHSO travel tooth brushes made quite the rumble when I posted them back in May– but unfortunately they weren't even out yet… Continue Reading

• Tom Bihn: Super Ego Bag: I've been heavily testing a bag I received from Tom Bihn a few months ago– they call it the Super Ego… Continue Reading

• Chrome Bags: If you are in the market for a serious, hard-core messenger bag, then look no further than Chrome Bags… Continue Reading

Some of my favorite content on the site comes from our fashion vaults (that probably has a lot to do with my love for fashion, but I really do think we have found some fabric gems). I frequently find myself sifting through the archives to see what we’ve written about so I can give references to interested friends. Then I thought: why not do the same for all of you? So here it is– my top fashion picks from our vault. Just in time for holiday shopping!

Newson for G-Star: Industrial design legend Marc Newson teamed up with the raw denim hounds at G-STAR to bring us G-Star by Marc Newson… Continue Reading

Triko: The Art of Life: Triko is a brand founded by Hector Estrada, after years of designing for some of the biggest names in the street-wear market he decided to set out on his own to build a premium brand with what he proclaims to be a soul… Continue Reading

Invicid Takes on Broadway: I really dig this new Invicid Hoodie, called ‘Tanks on Broadway.' It's new for Winter 06, hand-screened, and has inside pattern prints of grenades… Continue Reading

Wrath Arcane Clothing: Cleveland, Ohio. The home of the Cuyahoga River, the Tribe (Cleveland Indians), and now Wrath Arcane Clothing… Continue Reading

Monsieur T: Our friends over at Monsieur T in Portland, OR have been creating great skateboard and indie art-scene-inspired screen printed tees since 2004… Continue Reading

PRPS Denim: PRPS, also known as Purpose, lives by the slogan “bruised but never broken,” because each pair of jeans is put through various treatments, washes and hand-done details to give it that amazing finish… Continue Reading

Trovata: We just received word that our friends at Trovata have just opened their online store for business… Continue Reading

Ever Clothing: Ten years ago I didn't think anyone did vintage clothing better then my friends Mr. Abercrombie and Mr. Fitch, but since then times have really changed and Ever clothing is a perfect example… Continue Reading

Big Mouth On Tour: On Tour Lab strikes again with their autumn / winter 2006 collection of tees, sweatshirts, and hoodies dubbed Big Mouth Ontour… Continue Reading

Blue Blood Denim: For those denim aficionados that love a great looking pair of distressed jeans, but hate looking like you just walked out of a homeless shelter then Blue Blood Brand has your back… Continue Reading

Nudie Jeans: Some companies merely make products. Others strive to create not just a “product,” but instead something that becomes a natural extension of the consumer, almost like a second skin… Continue Reading

Angry Retail: A fashion and graphic design agency out of Dublin, Angry recently launched their website Angry Retail… Continue Reading

We have been enjoying assembling these ‘from the vault‘ posts in the past week. We figure it’s a great way to give you a ‘wrap-up’ of what we have been posting recently without having to dig through the archives– just in time for the holiday gift buying season I might add. Here are some of our favorite music posts from the past year or so. Mashups, pure rock, acoustic guitar and hip hop. Something here for everyone, enjoy!

• Sometimes I Rhyme Slow: Hip Hop meets acoustic guitar as Jose Gonzalaez's album Veneer (which is amazing to begin with) gets reworked and blended with hip hop lyrics. Sometimes I Rhyme Slow is an updated take on fusing acoustic guitar samples with funk… Continue Reading

• Ben Kweller: We sure do, actually we've got a few questions for the indie-pop superstar. We're sitting down with Mr. Kweller tonight… Continue Reading

• Q-Unit Greatest Hits: Ah, yes, another mash-up record. Q-Unit is a 50 Cent meets Queen mix with stellar hits like “This is How We Bite The Dust”… Continue Reading

• The Bird and The Bee: Having met during the recording of her 2005 album All Rise, Inara George and Greg Kurstin have labored away in the last three years in Southern California… Continue Reading

• Ray Lamontange: New Hampshire born, Ray La Montagne’s acclaimed 2004 debut, “Trouble”, quietly sold over 250,000 copies, thanks to word of mouth praises from grassroots fans… Continue Reading

• Phoenix: It’s Never Been Like That: Phoenix is hands down one of my favorite bands and their new album, “It’s Never Been Like That”, released May 15, 2006, has only fueled my loyalty… Continue Reading

• Waking Rothko: I wanted to give a special nod to the ingenuity behind the campaign promoting Waking Rothko, a local Denver band clearly comprised of more than just stoner musicians– they're musical strategists… Continue Reading

• Kid Koala: Your Mom’s Favorite DJ: I'd consider Eric San (aka Kid Koala) a musician more so than the limiting definition of DJ… Continue Reading

• Kaki King: Until We Felt Red: Until We Felt Red is the third and latest album from Kaki King, the pretty-faced, guitar demigod-ess we've come to know and love…Continue Reading

• John Mayer: Continuum: You can't help but notice John Mayer. The self-described awkward kid from Connecticut turned what was once an escape into an inspiring career… Continue Reading

• TV On The Radio: Plug in your nicest set of headphones for this one—you will need them to fully appreciate the deep, layered audio of the newest from TV on the Radio…

• Explosions In The Sky: Chance is that even though you’ve never heard of Explosions in the Sky, you’ve probably heard their music whether it be on the masterfully done soundtrack to Friday Night Lights… Continue Reading

Art is generally a difficult thing to buy for someone else–but hopefully narrowing down our favorite posters, affordable sculptures and limited-edition prints from the vaults will help make that purchase for friend or family easier. Enjoy!

• DNA11: Fingerprint Art: Our friends over at DNA11 continue to live their mantra “From Life Comes Art” with their latest product: Fingerprint Portraits… Continue Reading

• Right Brain Terrain: We covered the fabulous posters of ironic, witty and maybe even borderline genius designer Frederic Terral of Right Brain Terrain before…Continue Reading

• Scott Rench: Scott Rench has got to have one of the most inventive lines of artwork I have seen in a very long time, not to mention… Continue Reading

• All Pop Art: allpopart.com does retro inspired personalized pop art. It looks like a ‘buncha folks got crazy with a few Photoshop plug-ins and after final touchups… Continue Reading

• ISO 50 Prints: Scott Hansen, the talented designer/musician behind ISO50 just released three brand new poster prints in time for the holidays… Continue Reading

• Chuck Anderson: Chuck Anderson has a nice little update to his site No Pattern, including a pretty bad-ass print titled Good Parts of Bad Dreams… Continue Reading

• The Poster List: Sick of bare walls but can't bring yourself to put up a poster of Pink Floyd or Jerry Garcia? We are too… Continue Reading

• BetterWall: Ever wonder what happens to those big vinyl street banners that are displayed at museums when an exhibit ends? BetterWall is a Colorado… Continue Reading

• Jeremy Prasatik: jp33 is the online portfolio of graphic artist Jeremy Prasatik– a seriously talented young individual. His multi-dimensional portfolio… Continue Reading

• DeeDee9:14: Dee Adams paints because she is obsessed with the idea of simplifying. As a kid she would worry her mother as she sat at a table and colored… Continue Reading

• Tra Sheltrow: Tra Selhtrow was born in what he calls ‘the middle of nowhere' Kansas. He graduated from the Columbus… Continue Reading

• Jefrey Lacson: Jefrey Lacson creates very intricate and interesting artwork–they're collages, digital assemblages, or “3-D constructions” as he calls them… Continue Reading

From the timeless classics to wild and limited-edition pieces, sneakers are a big part of our lives. Know someone who would be wildly surprised if you just happen to buy them a pair of the latest JB Classics? Some Royal Elastic slip ons for inside shoes, or eco-friendly creations by Terra Plana? Here are our picks of sneaker gifts from the vaults of our sneaker finding obsession. You wont find any of these pieces at a Foot Locker (that’s the point)– And, as of writing this, I’m 99% sure all shoes written about and referenced here, as well as pictured above, are available for sale somewhere.

• Royal Elastics: The Zedlen Leather: Why did you wear velcro sneakers when you were a kid? Because you couldn't tie your shoes… Continue Reading

• Terra Plana: Eco Friendly Shoes: Their Worn Again recycled materials campaign is pretty great– and we actually think some of the shoe designs are fun… Continue Reading

• Cushe Shoes: Cushe is an independent British shoe brand formed by a group of people who share a real passion for footwear… Continue Reading

• JB Classics: The Hounds: The guys (and gals) at JB Classics Lab never seize to amaze me. Perforated leather, synthetic pony hair… Continue Reading

• The String Republic: The String Republic is the work of French graphic artist Stephane Bucco. He originally created this project when he… Continue Reading

• Marc Jacob Vans: Aloha Rag just received literally 15 different styles of the the limited edition Vans Marc Jacob Editions. These aren't new styles, but they've been fairly… Continue Reading

• Adidas Americana Lux: Check out the nice limited edition shoes over at Commonwealth, the Adidas ‘American Lux‘– an instant and timeless classic. Red, white… Continue Reading

• Puma True Crime Sneakers: It looks as though Puma teamed up with Activision's True Crime video game to create the Puma True Crime Sneaker… Continue Reading

• Adidas Oddity: I just added some of the funky adidas All Black's into my shoe mix over here at the headquarters. They're from the famed adidas Oddity collection, a wacky line of funky mismatched colors… Continue Reading

• Gravis Footwear: Stylish, Warm and Native American?: Gravis has always succeeded by blending board-sport function with design-conscious… Continue Reading

• Royal Elastics Grata: I've been rocking the Royal Elastic Grata's for a few weeks now, and today I'll officially give them my “fly footwear” nod of approval… Continue Reading

T-Shirts, an item of clothing generally reserved for the warm spring time– but really is a year round necessity. Don’t get caught wearing mainstream nonsense this year– buy independent. We believe t-shirts are wearable art, and here are 11 of our favorite shirts ‘from the vaults’ for holiday time gift-age.

• Beautiful Decay Holiday Line: As we promised back in August, the nice people at Beautiful Decay have come out with quite an impressive fall/holiday line of t-shirts… Continue Reading

• Momimomi: I'm absolutely loving the new t-shirts I just received from momimomi. Very rarely does a t-shirt line get both factors of the ultimate t-shirt… Continue Reading

• I-Manifest: This shirt is solid holiday-time update from the guys at I-Manifest. They call the design ‘Cupid‘, and it's the first of hopefully many collaboration t-shirts… Continue Reading

• Nossa: Che Poppa: I'd seen this shirt around before on a couple of hipsters but never knew where they got it. The Che Poppa shirt is by a design group called Nossa… Continue Reading

• Artefacture: I Will Pay for Good Design: I recently had a conversation with a friend who said ‘it's so hard to find great designers these days', and I totally agree… Continue Reading

• Squidfire Designs: Focused on quality, comfort, and individuality; SquidFire's t-shirts are all hand designed, hand printed, and each piece is given individual attention… Continue Reading

• Softservice: softservice's line of t-shirts responds to the “homogeneity and ubiquity” of commercial “superstore” clothing. All of the shirts are individually hand-painted and embroidered, giving them each a unique appearance… Continue Reading

• Rxmance Clothing: Chris Dennler and Nick Motte started rxmance as a small independent clothing company. Right now they make t-shirts and tops… Continue Reading

• Invicid:Hot designers Invicid are back! They just released their latest collection– the series is called “Clouded By Fiction”, featuring 9 new styles for… Continue Reading

• Monsieur T: Here's another hot tip on T's.. Are you aching for some truly unique designs? Monsieur T. offers you just that. Limited edition… Continue Reading

• Materialust: It takes a lot for a t-shirt line to really impress me, but when I came across LA based Materialust, my hand immediately reached for my wallet. Materialust is really a globe trotting brand… Continue Reading

Often times when you get a book as a gift, you smile nervously, file it away into the book shelf and never glance at again. That’s not likely to happen with the books pictures above– so here are our picks from the vaults for best “books as gifts”, from political to die-hard design, there’s something in here for everyone.

• The Best of Technology Writing: Technology is a pervasive part of our daily lives, and increasingly so. It seems as though with each passing year, technology engulfs another portion of each of us. It is an evolution for which I am… Continue Reading

• Gorrilaz: Rose of the Ogre: As soon as the ‘Clint Eastwood' video came out in 2001, I was impressed by the Gorillaz– in my mind, they really are the pioneers of the visual integration of digital arts into the musical… Continue Reading

• Victionary: Zoom In Zoom Out: Zoom In Zoom Out, the latest book from the folks at Victionary, explores design from a couple of different perspectives to create what appears to be a seriously… Continue Reading

• Stingermania: This is a new and entertaining book called Stingermania by Jan Willem Wennekes, known for his fun and wacky illustrations. Wennekes studied Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy… Continue Reading

• Vintage T-Shirts: If you read this blog a lot, you probably know that we are big fans of great t-shirts. I would wear a t-shirt every day if left to my own devices–I like to think of them as comfortable little canvases… Continue Reading

• World Changing: I've been a WorldChanging blog reader ever since I learned of them through my first invitation to the TED conference last year (I wasn't able to make it, but can't wait for this year's lineup). They just released their first book… Continue Reading

• Rojo Books: Barcelona based Rojo just released a couple of their newest design and art Books. These ones are explained as: Lolo-Blanco, Sakristan-Heads or Tails, Juju's Delivery- The Dead, the damned and the children… Continue Reading

• Talk Back: Anyone who has spent any amount of time in NYC would have noticed the hundreds of thought and speech bubbles strategically placed on advertisements around the city–that's The Bubble Project… Continue Reading

• Real Dutch Design: This year's edition of the Dutch design book is so real that the publishers added the word ‘Real' to the title. Real Dutch Design 2006/2007 is quite possibly the most comprehensive reference for anyone… Continue Reading

• Help, It’s Broken: Are you rendered useless when you're faced with unassembled furniture? A leaky faucet? Broken lamp? If this sounds like you, I've got the book for you that I saw floating around the… Continue Reading

• Freewave: Oooh fonts, designs, goodies, I totally love the concept of Freewave. It's a book and DVD packaged together full of cutting edge design that “allows immediate access to graphic design… Continue Reading

Rather than putting together a full fledged gift guide this year, we thought we’d dig into the archives and share our favorite items from the past. One thing we notice every year is a vast majority of our ‘finds’ are timeless. So with that said, here are a handful of our favorites from the past few years our design category.

• Pillows By Eat: Luxury– Desire–Sore Loser–Little sewn on patches of skulls, couples having sex, these handmade pillows by EAT are sure to spark conversation… Continue Reading

• Potion Brand Holiday Cards: If you're like me, you don't have the stomach for cheesy holiday greeting cards. It's one thing to receive such a card, but it's an entirely different proposition to send one… Continue Reading

• Ball of Whacks: The Ball of Whacks is made up of 30 magnetic ‘golden ratio' rhombic pyramids– they can be taken apart and rearranged in endless ways. It's billed as a ‘creative tool for innovators' and a ‘creativity workshop in a ball'… Continue Reading

• The Nooka Zub Watch: Nooka, one of our favorite alternative watch makers just announced a handful of stunning new time-pieces. The Nooka Zub's as they're called are the first ever rubber band… Continue Reading

• ShuffleArt Koobniks: ShuffleArt, originally the makers of the cute vinyl stickers used to decorate your iPod collection, recently released what they're calling Koobniks: Soft vinyl film to protect against scratches on… Continue Reading

• Delfonics Tokyo: Wallet, keys, mobile, bag. There seems to be an over-saturation of the market with these quirky yet ordinary objects. However our comrades at Delfonics have provided us with one more piece to worry about for our daily… Continue Reading

• Maki Sushi Plates: Each dish has a pod like built-in dipping dish for wasabi, ginger, soy sauce or the like. They're also only $5.95, and while I rarely post mass-market finds and products on this site, the sushi-fanatic inside me needed to give these well designed plates a special nod… Continue Reading

• Tokidoki for Le Sportsac: The line of hand bags, totes, and travel bags created for Le Sportsac are bright, colorful and full of characters that include laughing flowers, winking stars, and coy babies… Continue Reading

• Maiko Kuzunishi: It appears she mostly does illustrations which appear on her t-shirts, accessories and few prints available in her new online store. These plates are my favorite in her body of work and believe it or not totally affordable… Continue Reading

• Accoustical Art: The Acoustical Art speakers are neat modified PVC piping with high fidelity speakers built in. These look very well made, and are precisely fabricated by hand . They are available in a few different styles, as well as a full surround sound… Continue Reading

• Ideation Taks: Ideation's new Taks, make me wonder why it took this long to make new taks, rounded, friendly, and this cool looking. They were chosen from the RAW show “Metropolis Next Generation” competition… Continue Reading

TIME Magazine just released their picks for the Best Inventions of 2006. YouTube makes it to the top of the list (although technically I think they were founded in 2005), as well as the super-sexy, eco-friendly Tesla Roadster, the flesh sensing table saw, floating beds and the HugShirt– a shirt that stimulates the feeling of being embraced by a loved one. Go go gadget, to infinity and beyond!

Smash The Tones
The Bubble Project
Pedestrian Levitation
Bamboosa
First Undersea Restaurant
Delocator
Human Ad Space
Designer Barcodes
The Flybar

Crummy Brothers Cookies
Tumi Adaptors
a9 maps
Hotel Alternatives
Copenhagen Sneaker Shopping
Berlin: Monsieur Vuong
Seat Guru
Chocolate Sneakers

Reinventing The Umbrella
Realm Dekor
Barkitecture
Nike iD Design Studio
Martin Robitsch
Makr Wallet
Ohso Toothbrush
Bamboo Snowboard
Beck(y)

This was a tough category to narrow down. We had some great fashion related posts this year!
Momimomi T-shirts
SquidFire
Installation Shoe Gallery
Future Handsome Millionaire
Royal Elastics Grata
Softservice T-shirts
Rock n’ Clothing
i-Manifest
Rxmance Clothing
Perplex and Lola
Marc Jacobs Vans

This was never meant to be a music site, but I love music too much to ever ignore posting some of my favorite finds!