I’m sure many (if not all of you) have seen those pay-per-use charging stations at airports recently. Doesn’t that make you mad– or at the very least puzzled– that airports are trying to charge you to juice up your electronic devices after you have already paid to use the facilities at the airport via your ticket’s taxes and surcharges? Jeff Sandquist is helping us all out with his AirPower Wiki– the wiki is dedicated to informing passengers where open (and free) electrical outlets are in airports. The descriptions get into sufficient detail so that you shouldn’t have a problem finding these hidden gems; and if the directions aren’t clear, you can help refine them– that’s the great thing about a wiki. You also have to love Jeff’s final advice: If you’re having trouble find a power outlet in the airport you’re at, just look for airport personnel vacuuming. Wait till there done and plug in. Works like a charm.

Via The Consumerist

We were excited to hear that Ryder Robison, a favorite artist and rocker of ours, was recently commissioned to hand paint the walls of a Caravan, a new, by-appointment-only boutique in New York’s Upper East Side. The idea of a multi-label boutique (Caravan carries designs by Shoshanna and American Vintage, among others) requiring appointments– made via secret telephone number– is intriguing to me. I’m interested to watch and see if that concept, which is somewhat unique to design houses like Prada and Gucci, catches on. However, it’s clear that Ryder and Samuelle Greene (the artist behind the back lit wood cutouts) did a beautiful job giving the space warmth and personality. Now I’m just crossing my fingers that some of us will get the chance to see their work in person. Anyone out there been to Caravan? Want to tell us about the experience?

Logology, the latest title from the folks at Victionary, was just announced. The 288 page leather-bound book is packed full of both case studies and literally dozens upon dozens of examples of breathtaking identity design solutions from graphic designers around the world. Various styles, forms, and concepts of logos are presented in 3 main categories: Typography, Icon and Illustration Contributors include everyone from Adhemas Batista to Zion Graphics– this looks to become a fantastic resource for inspiration.

This isn’t a post about sneakers, sorry; although Keith Peters did work as a Nike executive for 17 years, where he founded nike.com. Now residing in Jackson Hole, WY, where he runs his own communications company, Keith woke up in the middle of the night one night bothered about Global Warming and specifically his family’s contribution to the problem. It was at that point he decided to start the Carbon Neutral Journal– a weblog documenting his family’s efforts to become carbon-neutral. It is great to see people begin to realize that the first step toward fighting Global Warming is to make the necessary adjustments in their own lives. Keith has taken this important step one notch further, and is educating Carbon Neutral Journal readers through his own experience and is linking them into some great resources in the process; for instance, this simple carbon calculator that lets you determine your individual (or family’s) carbon impact. With a baseline from which to work, you can begin to erase your carbon footprint– aggregated change on the micro level leads to positive change on the macro level.

I’ve been following San Diego, CA born and bred Vinyl Radio for several years now, and I think these guys are going to make quite a splash with their new album ‘A Better Time Coming,’ the tracks of which are now finished and set to be released on March 6th. The band will then bring their quiver of new songs to Austin, TX where they’ll perform as part of the SXSW Music Festival on March 17th. I’m not quite sure exactly when and where the show will be, but hopefully VR will be posting that info on their website soon. If you are in Austin for the festival, this show is a must-see if you like Rock and Roll music with some serious swagger. But if you’re a little inpatient like me, and can’t wait until SXSW, and want to stream/download some tracks off of the new album, you can find them here. My favorites are Blind Our Sights and Death of Me– they definitely have that traditional, solid, ‘barn burning’ quality that I look for in good Rock. Enjoy.

One of our favorite designers up in the Great White North, Eric Chan, has just revamped his Eepmon site. A couple of months ago, we took a liking to his old site (and its contents)– but I have to say, the new one blows doors on both the old site, and on most flash sites I have seen lately. Eric has really made an effort to design the update to be the complete website experience– from the aesthetics, to the Susumu Yokota music tracks, to an XML weather feed that greets you with the current conditions, to the seamless nav tutorials that take all of the possible confusion out of navigating this flash masterpiece. Eric, what can I say? You’ve even one-upped yourself this time. Well done!

Lomography is a photography term: it’s the casual, snap-shot method of taking photos used to document daily life. The Lomographic Society International has just released a Lomography Notebook that serves as a great companion to your camera. Even if you aren’t into lomographic photography, but you feel as though your life is scattered, you might want to try one of these– I have to admit, given my current reliance on Mr. Laptop, I don’t know that I would ever use one of these, but I like the idea nonetheless. The Lomography Notebook is compact, contains plenty of white space for making notes, but also has nifty features like the Lomomission– which is a daily theme that gives “push” to your imagination; the Lomolocation– a worldly location that you should probably visit before you kick the bucket; and finally, the Lomotip– an exercise that will help you hone your skills as a lomographic photographer.