What do guns, axes, grenades, eagles, otters and penguins have in common? Absolutely nothing til now. They’ve been montaged ( is that a word ? ) together to make this beautiful illustration above. Would look great as a textile print. I’ve not got much info on it - mail me if you do - but i found it mixed in with a bunch of crazy images here. Down a random rabbit hole on the web. Also, and very special it is too, is the proud fashion statement made by the lady above. Waste-not-want-not in these credit crunching times eh? Now, that’s fashion thrift.

Last Christmas i drew this for my lovely fella Cookie to nudge him in the right direction for the Christmas shopping ;) I spilled a bit of squash on the corner, but it served it’s purpose well in the rush of the festive season. You might remember Cookie’s Christmas Cheat Sheets from last year. Well they’re back, as a new and improved 2008 version. It’s best way to ensure avoiding the embarrassing moment when your loved one opens the parcel to discover a pair of sexy pants the wrong size! Going too big or too small is a lose-lose situation. So to be sure of smiles all round, grab yourself one of these and sneak it under the nose of your special friend while he’s still got time to take them back ;) Both Boys and Girls versions available.

… Apparently! How do they squeeze in there? It’s hard enough for humans! A great Lomo taken by artist, self-taught photographer and cyclist, Ed Scoble. Check out his Flickr, his LomoHome and his blog here. Reminds me of the classic MrLomo news snap, Asteroid.

And while you’re there, absolutely don’t miss MrLomo’s Sign Collection. It’s second to none! You’ll be rummaging around in there for hours.

FontShuffle - a new App from the FontShop. A neat way of identifying fonts without knowing their name, or finding something fresh when you fancy a break from Helvetica ;)

“Hundreds of font families are sorted by visual similarity into a visual family tree… Just shake the device and six new options appear... Display your favourite font as a sample text, or test your font dynamically using your own words. Turn the screen to have a look at the glyph chart.”

Download it here.

Costing only £3000 to build, this low impact eco home looks straight out of The Shire. Built using mainly a chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel it’s pretty amazing. Read Simon Dale’s thoughts on sustainable society, and why he built the home - here.  Also - how it was done, step by step photos. More images of this gorgeous home here. I want to live there!

I’d like to know how closely these pictograms mimic the actual characters they represent. Are they still readable in Japanese ? ( Sachiko can you tell me ? ). A great way of helping you recognise and memorize foods if they are. Interested to know if it’s more for art than a practical tool ? The original Tamalog article in Japanese. Have a look and see what you think. It would make a lovely poster either way.

Update: Uriana Let me know that they are in fact Chinese characters.

I’ve had these in my ‘To Blog’ folder for so long i can’t remember where i spotted them! But i wanted to share them anyway. I thought the colour palette and typography on these two were great. Some of them are so retro they look super modern. I wasn’t sure if the trainer boxes were toothpaste, or cigarette packaging at first. Oh! - found it the top one is from MoonStar the lower one from Laboratorium, the sam guys that created the Never Ending Tape Calendar. Lots of stuff to see there.

Update: The badges are in fact Yugoslavian ( Croatian ). My apologies to Marko.

Good News! International super star designer and illustrator Cookie ( of Made-In-England ) is up for grabs! Back from a brief 3,000 mile walk, a cup of tea, and a biscuit, his portfolio is up and he’s out on the mean streets of London. If you’re in need of a freelance touch of graphical magic, or indeed some in house talent, give Cookie a buzz. Loving the Monster City rampage at the top. Track him down here: Cookie{at}made-in-england.org

Asi and I have been beavering away on a little project for a while now. I’ve been hand sewing this book together, and inking up the cover ( made from t-shirt fabric ) ready to launch it out into the wide world. The aim is to create something interesting we can auction for charity at Christmas.

So, what’s the idea ? Well it’s a bit of a cross between Pass the Parcel, Consequences, and the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. There’s 6 spreads in the book, and we’ve sent it to the most famous person we know to create something or leave a message, and then pass it on to the most famous person they know. Fingers crossed it will get to some exciting people along the way. And you never know, maybe even Mr.Bacon himself ;) Anyway, we’ll keep you updated!

The proceeds of the auction will be going to the NSPCC. So if you could blog about it and help get people excited, the more monies we can hopefully raise for this excellent cause. Thanks :D More from Asi here.

IT’s there right now! Get down to Shoreditch this lunchtime and grab some snaps. He apparently wafts quite nicely in the wind making him feel alive and look as if he’s grappling the building. I love this kind of thing.

What a wicked idea. Two rolls of tape, and you get a calendar that works for any year, forever. Well… for as long at the roll lasts ;) Awesome. You can stick it any where - in your sketch book, on your kitchen wall, in your office. Lovely looking type too. Spotted on Reuben Miller’s packing tape review. ( Shit, how geeky does that sound! ). Design/Concept by the typographically skilled chaps at Laboratorium in Croatia. I want it!

Check his sausage fingers. Oh there’s a tiny topless lady on there too, scaling his love handles… Spotted on Change The Thought via Ffffound.

I was just saying the other day how bloody stupid it is now with cable, freeview, dvd, wii and everything, that to turn on the tv takes 3 remotes sometimes, fiddling with AV settings, and to change channel and adjust the volume can take a further scrabble around for two more. How many buttons do we really need ?? I said i wanted an iPhone Remote app where i can select the buttons i actually want to use and stick the others on the second page. Then anyone in the room can just grab their phone ( usually sitting obediently next us - day and night ) whenever the ads come on. If the old iPod can do everything it needs with one swivel thingy then surely you tv dudes could think about it. Or will it take Apple to design the whole tv for you as well?

Spotted this perfect image over at The Cosmonaut. He says his job is to ‘remove buttons’. I think in a way mine is too. Making complex stuff simple isn’t easy, but people will love you for it if you do it right :)

More in the way of cloud installations i’ve stumbled over in the last couple of days. Nice idea huh. I like the outdoors indoors, indoors outdoors thing. We should have more of that. Looks like you could make some interesting sets for a short video with this kind of idea. Puppet clouds and smoke chasing people. A Gondry style Beck or Bjork video perhaps. Could be fun to make!

Just found the artist!  A Nice Idea Every Day

Be jolly in the mornings. I guess if you take sugar you could always place the cubes on his eyes so as not to spoil the effect… Well, at least it may conjure a smile whilst reading about global economic Armageddon in the papers. Cup by Psyho. Loads more Happy Cup variations here! The yellow one gets top marks for jolliness.