My boys at Quirky finally got the big redesign done on their site. Very nice, go check it out and buy some socially developed products!

Full Disclosure (Hat tip to the FTC): I’m a minority shareholder and advisor to Quirky.

Behance is back with new and improved Action Method Products! (Action Journals, Dot Grid Journals, and Action Cahiers shown here). They look gorgeous, just gorgeous. They’re now also made 100% recycled and ecologically sound, in a unique partnership with New Leaf Paper.

Full Disclosure (Hat tip to the FTC): I’m a minority shareholder and advisor to Behance.

Related: The Dot Grid Book

Well, the Mighty Mouse was a flop. How will the Magic Mouse do? A gorgeous place to start, that’s for sure.

Great product ideas happening over at Quirky as usual! Check this lightbulb shaped bedside clock– the alarm illuminates the bulb as you wake up if the blaring sound isn’t enough. This product is in pre-sale and 300 need to be pre-ordered for it to go into manufacturing. I’d love to see this get made. Go, go, go!

Being an outsider sucks. We sometimes feature products on our site, like kicks, that are available only in Brazil, and we’re definitely guilty for making you salivate and yearn for them. Today we’re psyched to tell you about the launch in mid-May of MOMA’s Brazil Product Collection, a group of 75 Brazilian design goodies not found anywhere else in the U.S. One of the works featured is Estudio Manus, who we introduced here a while ago and has gone on to dizzying success since then. Also in the collection is a sushi bowl by design kings the Campana Brothers, a movable Centipede fruit bowl by Gustavo Engelhardt, Daniel Castelo and Diego Costi and a Dry Erase Wall Clock by Ricardo Saint-Clair (pictured)—MOMA exclusives, so ha, take that, Brazil, you can’t get these products over there. The products will be available super-close: at MOMA Design stores and on MOMA’s site. Which means for now, you don’t need to take an emergency Portuguese class to learn how to say “Can you buy these for me?”

The minds behind New Soap, Old Bottle are marketing multifuncionality in the form of new liquid soap sold in reused plastic and glass bottles. After being sanitized, the former Coke and Heineken bottles are filled with home or car cleaner, topped with child safe caps, and sold at $4 a pop. “Big companies aren’t going to do this on their own. So we’ll do it for them,” said Scott Amron, designer, electrical engineer and founding principal of New York’s Amron Exprimental. “We buy brand name liquid soap by the barrel and package it in old bottles here in America.” Recessionistas and green thumbs rejoice– we love this work.

Can anyone guess the bottles above? First one is pretty easy…

I always wondered during my travels to Europe if an expensive line of trashcans from Denmark would gain traction in design and shelter magazine-obsessed America. When I saw the line was picked up by Water Works and DWR (not to mention a few others), I realized that Vipp’s time had come, despite recessionary times. Even artist Dominic Wilcox took a shine to them. What makes this line even more intriguing is Vipp’s noteworthy annual limited-edition artist series, including amazing takedowns from Bono, Helena Christensen, Todd Oldham, Sir Terence Conran, Ron Arad and Christian Lacroix. Taking that momentum one step further is Vipp’s colorful Spring ‘09 celebration of NYC: The Yellow Cab Series. If you have a penchant for colors that pop in your kitchen or bathroom, as well as a desire for mechanical and design detail in everything in your home, then head over to a Vipp dealer to test drive this latest rendition. Death-defying speeds on 7th Avenue during rush hour not included.

It’s estimated that 8-10 billion un-recyclable plastic and wire hangers are wasted every year, and they end up clogging our landfills, requiring more than 1,000 years to break down. Kind of a big deal, that’s like 4.6 Empire State Buildings full of plastic hangers every single year. And it gets worse — those white plastic hangers in your closet also leak all sorts of dangerous chemicals into the ground water. Mega scary.

Until now.

In comes Ditto Hangers, a global company with an incredible and honorable mission: Save the world with hangers. They’re solving the worldwide and much forgotten problem by designing hangers made from recycled materials; papers and plastics. Vegetable inks add to the environmentally friendly ingredient list. The 100% recyclable paper and PET plastic hangers are meant for retail environments and non-toxic dry cleaners, but I say we all could use a little more green in our closets. No word on ordering direct from their site, but keep your eyes peeled for them near you — word is they’re coming to GAP in the states.

They were also recently nominated finalists at the Design Excellence Awards for their Ditto PETE CLIP Hanger for Eco Design. Congrats!

Thanks Anna!