I love tshirts. And this is a good’en! If your New Years Resolution is to find some new t-shirt inspiration, then i have the perfect spot for you to cruise around for a while – ButThisTshirt – Nik’s Tshirt Blog. Ram packed with inspiration apparel ideas, it makes you want to take a screen printing course. ( I did actually ;) i’ll post about that once i’ve printed something, but don’t hold your breath! ). But if you do get a sudden surge of creative thoughts, and you’re in the East London area, i’d get yourself down to PrintClub London. A wicked studio up in Dalston where a jolly fellow named Freddy will walk you through the ins and outs of emulsion-ing and exposing a screen, and you’ll be rolling in no time. A great day out on a grim January Saturday. In the meantime – you can get this fried egg gem from Nixon. Yey.

Hellovon is an amazing illustrator/artist that just keeps cropping up. He has a wonderful way of capturing only what’s necessary to convey the essence of character. When you look, all you can see are simple shapes, flat planes of tone. But somehow these simple, loose, free shapes come together to create an extremely accurate and often vividly real representation of the subject. His images manage to be both soft and sharp at once. Extremely talented. And in this era of fashionable ‘can’t draw’ style, here’s a very welcome example of modern, yet exceptional drawing / painting skill. I wish i could draw like this. Don’t miss the Hellovon Shop.

A new documentary film about product design ( industrial design ), what makes a designer a designer, and what makes us obsessed with form, and discussion on how these products really affect us. Directed by the same fella who created the Helvetica movie, Gary Hustwit. I’m interested to see it. More detail on the Objectified movie website here. 

That’s the kind of weird shit that ends up in my inbox these days. These these sinister Snoopys are conjured up by Parisian illustrator and artist, Olivier Tallec. I love the sculpture to the left, and the casual manner in which he’s folding the severed legs down to the kitchen bin ;) How would you read it if the knife weren’t there ? Thank you Olivier for sending me your lovely work.

Absolutely love these chairs. I want them! Pairs of Happy Sad characters always work well, but it’s the abstractness of these i like the most. The work of Bott Scarry. Check out his illustration and exhibition shots here. Lovely work. A warm and optimistic individual style. For a high res of All Smiles ( below ) here.

A couple of mate’s of mine Tom and Liz have just had their first baby a couple of days ago. So it got me thinking about where to get cool baby stuff from. Asi sent me these lovely things from Manuella Design. If you to have got a gaggle of new babies to kit out this year ( i know there’s a few bumps going around), there’s some lovely bags, toys, and general baby kit on there. Have a look.

Streamline for 2009! Yes, that’s the way forward. If you only aim to get one thing done today – then you’ll probably complete your to-do list. Ah, that’s true satisfaction ;) Stationary available from Pretty Bitter.

Not sure how authentic some of these designs are ;) Some nice old type and illustration – See more here.

Transmission will resume shortly – once i’ve figured out how to use these jelly fingers on this new fangled keyboard thing …  ;) No computers for 2 weeks does funny things to you!

A couple of weeks ago now we popped down to the ICA for a quick-fire celebration of the internet – The Webby’s Night. Organised by our eminent Mr. Roope. This is a little run down of the bits that stuck in my head… Guess what, David Bowie, Beck, and Matt Groening are among the judges for next year’s Webby’s – pretty cool huh? Some pics of the night here. And some rough, from memory, highlight notes below:

Sam: Lean Mean Fighting Machine

“Dem phones, dem phones them iPhones” video track pointing out how simple new media is, and how much of a fuss people make about it. His advice? “Focus on the things that don’t change”. People – how and why they talk to each other, what they enjoy – emotional connections. “Don’t focus on learning every piece of new technology”. That’s not where the magic is. Wise words :)

Matt: The Viral Factory

“Cat’s rule the internet”. ( People laughed the most at this one ). He’s probably right. After porn, cats are probably more popular than anything else on the web. Although no-one would admit it, we’ve all watched the odd cat compilation on YouTube ; ) Essentially, a comment on how a bit of fun and humour are one of the most powerful ways to attract people’s attention. It’s the Guilty Pleasures that make the internet go round.

Marcus: Deezeen

“Light Bulbs Direct”. A comedy look at something that could only be achieved online. As Marcus found out after he couldn’t find a bulb for any of his sixties design-classic lamps. Something useful! – a solution to a maddening situation, however mundane, is great.  People will thank you for making their life easier, and simpler, and be better off for it. We noted there ‘happened to be’ a very suspicious resemblance between him and the chap making off with the light bulb in the logo. Marcus is there something you’re not telling us ?

Miltos: Neen

What a lovely fella. He showed some of the work of Raphaël Rozendaal, who’s wry look at everyday life in the form of simple flash interactions always gets a smile out of me. It’s the details that count. The main point made, was the idea of buying physical art, transferred onto digital art. He argues that every digital art piece is a one off. “You can copy the content, but only one person can own the situation”. By that he means the url, it’s point in space and time, and the message within it. To that end he’s been buying up pieces of online art. He might have something there. I liked that it was a really new way of looking at creativity, and digital ownership. And that no matter how much you copy something, the original is still the original, and therefore worth more. It’s an upside down way of looking at things, but i like it. The music and film industry should think about that – and also this from Feltron Eight.

It’s been a while since the event, so if any of you out there would like to add to this ( comments open below ), or set me straight on details, add links etc – shove it in there! : ) Cheers, Nicky.

I was sauntering around the web when i came across this awesome pencil bench. Kind of reminds me of blades of grass or a bed of nails. I wonder if the rubber tips would wear away in the shape of your arse as time went on ;) Anyway, low and behold it turns out that the makers of this wonderfully original piece of furniture are none other than my old school ( literally ) mates from Cornwall, the Boex’s. The legendarily handsome international surfer dude twins. After whirl wind pro surfer careers the two have settled down in the motherland, to work on interiors, product, furniture, and retail design. ( They’ve renovated a gorgeous restaurant in Falmouth. ) Check their site here. Good work boys!

If your still looking for that final Christmas present, … then frankly, you’re screwed. But if you were, then here’s the perfect gift for the monster lover in your life. Via SuperPunch - 2008 Vinyl Toy Round Up.

Or is he a duck ? See him even bigger here.

Spotted here :)

A teeny weeny pocket sized / handbag sized keyboard. It’s quite cute i think. Shown here in illuminated blue, it actually looks much better in the pure white daylight shot. But at least you can use it in the dark ( why would you need to do that ? ;) ). Thanks to Lizbeth for the link. A good present for the lady, or the small person, in your life.