Streetwear is so hype right now. Thanks to sites like High Snobiety, Honeyee — and jeez, even this one — wild graphics and even wilder collabs have become as venerated as the celebrities that like to be spotted in them.

But what's brand to do when bold prints and bright colors, once considered so daring and original, start weaving their way into the mainstream? If you're Daniel Pierre and Kareem Blair, creators of respected streetwear line Lemar and Dauley, that question has one answer: Stay the hell ahead of everyone else.

READ MORE…

Let’s be straight, buying a bottle of water is much easier than donating some money to a charity of a worthy cause. The people at Project7 hope to bridge the gap by selling you bottled water. The company uses its sales to help tackle what they see as the seven areas of need: Build the Future, Feed the Hungry, Heal the Sick, Help those in Need, Hope for Peace, House the Homeless and Save the Planet. Fair enough, here’s the hook, Project7 sells bottled water with various labels describing one of these problems. By purchasing the bottle with the ‘Hope for Peace’ label the charities associated with peace efforts will receive the money from the sale. Pick your charity and buy your water. Its never been so easy.

Sharing photos is pretty easy these days, sharing music there are some legal loop hole to jump through, but what about combining the two? Postcard.FM is exactly that. Pick a photo, a song and then email away. Just that easy. I’m sure all of you are thinking up wonderful ways to use this service, but if we could recommend a little Friday political fun: take images from the recent political speeches and record what you wish the presidential candidate should have said.

via Zoomdoggle

Brazil’s Kakofonia has so much going on that it’s true testament that hard work produces firm results. The graphic designer and comic book artist has some great limited-edition, giclee prints for sale on his site that run the gamut of his work, some more richly detailed than the others but all exhibiting the same quality in execution. If anything, they present a Japanese style that isn’t so manga-nerdy or cutesy pop. But it isn’t to say he’s against that aesthetic; in fact, in keeping with his varied nature, he’s come up with his own iconographic set featuring a character named Monsuteru Xing that makes its mark on the East Asian island. Thanks to Kakofonia, Attention Deficit Disorder has never seemed more alluring.

These days, you can hardly round a city block without coming across wheat-pasted, stenciled and sticker-bombed walls. With artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy getting plenty of attention for their street art, there is an “artist” you’ve likely encountered but for whom fame remains elusive…until now. Brooklyn designer Grotesk is calling out the original kings of NY sticker art as the folks behind the “stuck gate” stickers. The yellow and black rectangular notices are adhered to metal gates and offer help to shopkeepers with malfunctioning gates. They are a part of the New York City landscape, and Grotesk collected them over several years of walking around the five buroughs. Empire Gates and crew will finally achieve a small dose of glory when on September 15th, 5BORO Skateboards will release this tribute skateboard and t-shirt.

Aside from making beautiful pastries (re: this morning and my kitchen window) the Danes are serious when it comes to furniture design. Andrew Hollingsworth has authored a book entitled Danish Modern exploring his findings of Danish furniture design. He covers everything from the history, to caring for pieces and guides to contemporary purchasing. The books mantra is to look at what is now seen as the pinnacle of furniture design and understand why so many Danish furniture designers are regarded as instant classics by exploring the details of the craft and market. Something a bit more classy that a bright yellow cover that reads “Danish furniture for dummies” because the Dans definitely wouldn’t except that hideous cover. The book begins shipping on September 11th, but you can pre-order copies now.

UNIQLO has never been afraid to inovate the shopping experience (think: UT Loop, grid playground and the concept t-shirt store) but this time they are adding a robot to their stores. Yep, you read right a robot named Wakamaru. Designed by Toshiyuki Kita and engineered by Mitsubishi, the robot can make eye contact with you, have simple conversations and help you shop for some Japanese animation t-shirts. But there is a catch, the robot is being described as neither human nor machine. The only thing we can think of that fits that catagory is robocop, which could end up to be a huge PR problem for UNIQLO if anyone saw Robocop 3. Look for Wakamaru to make his/her first appearnce at the Soho store in NYC sometime in the second week of September.