On the Cicli Maestro Milano website you can customize by color every attribute of your Italian made bike. Frame, rims, tires, spokes, saddle, handlebar, handles. Even the crankset and chain colors. All made to order in Milan and shipped to your door. A rainbow of cycling opportunities. Fantastic!

This bench was visually inspired by the feeling of floating that the main character felt in the French movie, “Le Ballon Rouge”(1953).

Great bench design by Japanese Studio h220430.

In reality the bench is suspended from the ceiling by 4 anchors concealed by the balloon shapes. This creates the illusion of the bench being lifted by balloons. Via Dezeen

I’m loving the looks of the Arwey Notebooks– especially the Flavin series with the pen holder on the front that keeps the book closed. Available in half a dozen colors for a mere $19.

What About Vintage is an awesome online vintage Scandinavian furniture shop, based in Antwerp, Belgium. Great 60’s furniture and lighting from no-names and names alike. Enjoy!

First it was the one-for-one program with what have now become an iconic pair of shoes, but they didn’t stop there. Next up is eyewear. For every purchase, TOM’s will help give sight to a person in need. Another genius move. They even have a Virtual Try-On!

Blindness and visual impairment is the seventh-largest health disability in the world. But in most cases it can be prevented or treated. In fact, available solutions, including medical treatment, prescription eyeglasses or a 15-minute cataract surgery, could impact 80% of people afflicted with vision impairment and blindness.

Congrats Blake and crew, this is huge and I can already tell will have a meaingful impact.

Beautiful craftsmanship here.

Tenue de Nîmes have teamed up with Paolo Bellini, a Dutch vintage aficionado and founder of CS Bell. Bellini has created a very exclusive series of hand-made canoe packs for the Dutch denim store. The bags, produced in Amsterdam, are made of thick canvas and leather. The design of the large backpack is based on traditional canoe packs from North America.

Haus of Society creates premium leather bags for MacBooks, iPads and other portable computers.

Their first bag is designed to fit the 15 inch MacBook Pro. The exterior features pockets and pouches for your MacBook charger and cables as well as your iPad and iPhone. On the inside the bag has a reinforced partitioning and a padded compartment to keep your laptop safe from everyday bumps and shocks.

Wallplates is a functional light switch system that already works with your standard light switches. Hook and Envelope are the first of these functional Wallplates, but eventually new product functions will be created as the product line expands. Hook and Envelope are simply light switch cover plates that add practical function to your space. Check out the Kickstarter project here to learn more. Great idea Justin!

This one made me laugh. Rarely do you see a company like Herman Miller doing out there design collaborations like this one– especially with a Japense botanic artist, Makoto Azuma. The AstroTurf covered Aeron will be available for sale at the Herman Miller Store in Tokyo, in the Marunouchi shopping district. Via Fresh Home

Photos by Jan Kempenaers of incredibly interesting (LOST anyone?) sculptures erected by the communist regime in the former Yugoslavia. Via ISO50

A more in-depth story of their origins can be found here.

Powerful photographs of mysterious monuments in former Yugoslavia. Willem Jan Neutelings, quoted from this book: “The Antwerp-based photographer Jan Kempenaers undertook a laborious trek through the Balkans in order to photograph a series of these mysterious objects.

Ckie (pronouced seeky) is an interntational funding and pre-ordering platform for product design. Yes, like a Kickstarter clone, but this time just for product design. There aren’t a ton of projects for you to explore quite yet, but they’re getting there. It’s not clear if this is a solution in search of a problem– because Kickstarter has plenty of traffic and works just fine, but we’ll see where this ones goes.

Update: I didn’t realize Takashi Yamada, the force behind Yanko Design was behind this one. That makes things more interesting.

Love fonts? Me too. Want to see them in use in print design and all over the web in the real world? Check out Fonts In Use where you can see type at work in all it’s beauty and glory.

Hypebeast has a fantastic interview with my good friend George Bamford of Bamford Watch Department and Dr. Romanelli. Check it out!

I discovered de Medici Ming Fine Paper today strolling around in my free time after a meeting here in Seattle. What an absolute gem of a shop. I was mesmerized by the fantastic selection of cards, journals, handmade papers, letterpress work and gifts. Perhaps one of the most quirky paper boutiques I’ve seen in a very long time. I left with a bag full of goodies.

They don’t sell online, but if you call them directly the owner will speak with you and help you out with an order– but you really have to pop by in person to get the full feeling. Calls will work for refills afterwards.

de Medici Ming Fine Paper opened in 1983 on First Avenue and University Street. Inspired by Marie Papier in Paris, the store was originally dedicated to the art of letter writing. It quickly grew into providing papers from around the world in all forms for all sorts of projects.

The name comes from two of the cultures who historically have had the most to do with development of paper: The Chinese who invented it, and the Italians who made an “everyday” style of it. The de Medici Family and the Ming Dynasty governed their respective cultures from the 1200’s-1600’s, and, still today in Seattle, in this Renaissance paper bouquet.

de Medici Ming Fine Paper
1222 A 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
206.624.1983

Procrastination, Cat Videos and more!

An idea for a series with honest logos, revealing the actual content of the company, what they really should be called. Some are cheap, some might be a bit funny, some will maybe be brilliant. I don’t know.