Hi Everyone- I’m leaving in 7 hours, traveling for the next three weeks! I’ll be hunting around London, Lisbon, and Berlin for the ultimate in everything from design to food. Don’t worry, I’ll be posting my finds regularly, and there will be plenty to read about. If anyone has any tips for any of those cities, must sees, good places to eat, shops I can’t miss, or if you’re a designer or shop owner and want me to stop in, please drop me a line. I have a list a mile long for each city, I’ll be checking in from London tomorrow. Ciao!

London dwelling, Andy Smith is an incredibly talented illustrator, and a graduate from the Royal College of Art. His work is organic–while still embracing modern technology and his knowledge of print making, typography, and drawing. His work is about characters, humor, and events. His list of clients isn’t too shabby either, his work has been animated by Passion Pictures and Tandem, and he even has done animation and direction for a commercial for Nike– among others impressive clients. He has some hand printed, limited edition silkscreens for sale on his site, plus a few other goodies.

Normann, a Copenhagen based design firm has a slew of wonderful products–like this innovative funnel, designed by Boje Estermann. The funnel seems to be the kitchen contraption that never quite fits in any drawers, and looked unorganized floating around a cabinet; until now. This funnel is made up of several durable rings that can fold down and flatten entirely to fit into drawers easily–and when opened is durable enough to take icy cold, and boiling hot liquids. An excellent idea, and only 20 euros. They have a bunch of other very well designed products, all worth checking out.