The Iconfactory strikes again and has released a free set of wallpapers (fullscreen, widescreen, or iPhone) inspired by the upcoming Alice in Wonderland from Disney. As an added bonus, check out the modernist magic they weaved by turning the EPCOT logos into network node icons.
io9 has a post up covering LA’s new Time Travel Mart. The real store with the fake items is the storefront for 826LA. 826 is a nonprofit that tutors kids in creative writing techniques with chapters in LA, NY, Seattle, and SanFran. To raise funds, 826 asks designers to do some pro-bono package design for everything from canned Mammoth Chunks to Particle Guns to Scurvy Begone. These fictional products–in actuality everything from bottled water to solar blankets–are sold in 826′s Time Travel Mart, Space Travel Supply, Superhero Supply, or Pirate Supply stores. Check out the links and some of the awesome products the designers have dreamed up (you can order most of them online as well).
Ran across a neat section of the blog Dinosaurs and Robots where they post “Then and Now” images of various items and packaging. So far there are only eleven examples, but they’re still oddly compelling.
Here’s a link to the National Archives Experience: a massive amount of inspiration (visual or otherwise) that doesn’t involve a collection a sub-par logos or an overwhelming amount of business cards. It’s up to you how to be inspired by this, but please believe this can be an unbelievable timesink.
Smashing Magazine once again presents a great list of recent free fonts and faces for you to download. What makes this post especially good is that it ends with a roundup of fonts featured in their other free font posts as well.
I’ve written about light graffiti and light writing before, but this DIY project from Aissa Logerot is pretty cool. While it’s nothing revolutionary, it does present a neat synthesis between the worlds of spraycans and LED torches normally used in graffiti and light graffiti. Jump over to engadget for a couple other shots and a look at the actual unit itself.
Rumors have been building for quite a while now that Apple will release some form a of an iPhone/MacBook hybrid. While no official pictures have surfaced, that hasn’t stopped people on the internet from conceptualizing what an Apple tablet might look like. Now, Mashable has assembled a great collection of different artists’ concepts from around the net.
One creative way apparently involves posting an image of a green unicorn that is visually impaired by some random geometric shapes and a globe. However, this post at All Facebook (a site I don’t want to believe exists) has a good inspirational post up about five creative ways to “hack” your profile pic. I say inspirational because their examples are ridiculously subpar, but the techniques could lead to some very interesting outcomes. If you venture to make one, leave a copy of it in the comments so we can all outshine All Facebook together.
Neat project out of the Department of Information Physics and Computing at Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory of the University of Tokyo. Video shows short demonstration and then at around the 2:00 mark it shows some simple game concepts. Hit the site for more videos, including one focusing on the addition of sound to the project.
I thought this was rather gimmicky when I first heard the concept, but it’s actually pretty awesome. Two typographers and one pro race pilot collaborate to create a font. I was expecting the outcome to be a total mess, but the iQ Font is actually quite nice.
Straw Dog Design is a hub for designer and blue sky day-dreamer Josiah DePaoli. It contains a blog, and a link to a portfolio and resume (you can find those above under "My Stuff"). It will change your life. For more info about this site, check out my About page.