Changethethought

Mash Creative (who reached out to us) and Design Museum recently released a new series of minimal yet affordable products as a part of their State of the Obvious line. The entire collection is available only through the Design Museum shop and features some beautifully designed pieces like iPhone and tablet skins.

Creative Director, Mark Bloom had this to say about the release:

“Extending the philosophy & thinking behind our branded State of the Obvious collection, we have designed a set of products exclusively for the Design Museum.

The design of these products has been heavily influenced by the International Typographic Style from the 50’s and 60’s & shows an evolution from our original S/O/T/O collection. It has been designed to appeal to typography and design lovers alike.

At S/O/T/O we design and produce products which not only look good but also have a useful function.”

written by Christopher | tags: Mash Creative, Products, Typography

“The ZIIIRO Gravity presents a simple and unique way of reading time. The tip of the inner swirl represents the current hour, while the outer swirl displays the minutes, with a continuous gradient movement showing the passing through time.”

I love watches and I am always on the fence about the alternative time reading pieces like this but you can’t deny the striking design of this watch. I am not sure I could adjust to reading it regularly or with ease but it would definitely spark a conversation. I’m feeling the white and black one. Why the three I’s in the name? Because it’s unusual I guess.

written by Christopher

Design consultancy Antrepo recently experimented with a project that tested the effect of minimizing the graphics utilized on popular products in a market crowded with visual clutter. The end result is an interesting foray into reinterpreting popular products that maintain their brand essence while doing away with all of the unnecessary pomp that marketers feel they need for their item to stand out off the shelf. You can see the resultant product studies at Antrepo’s blog but also at their Flickr site as well.

On a personal sidenote, I’d eat the buttery, sugary chocolatey goodness that is Nutella out of a paint can with the word ‘Nutella’ written on the outside in Sharpie. Just sayin’.

written by Christopher | tags: Advertising, Antrepo, Marketing, Product Design

Commonwealth Stacks has released some new skateboards that any self-confessed design and typography nerd will find wall-hang worthy. I am curious who designed these beauties. They are deceptively simple making expert use of type and color. I’d hang them over the couch in my studio since all I can ride is a snowboard.

written by Christopher | tags: Commonwealth Stacks, Graphic Design, Skateboarding

Typographer Marian Bantjes was commissioned to design graphics to be printed on  a Laser sailboat for Wallpaper’s Handmade issue. The end result is a stunning little piece of floating design art and you can pick one up for £10,000 or so. I’d imagine they would make quite an impression on the water.

written by Christopher | tags: Boating, Graphic Design, Laser Sailboat, Marian Bantjes

The Best Made Company is at it again making beautiful things that designers and artist alike will certainly desire. This time they have screened their trademark ‘X’ over a series of maps. The result is a guaranteed unique piece of art. I was thinking it would be nice if you could also mail them a map that they would print over and then send back to you. Just an idea but I love this series. Beautifully simple idea resulting in beautiful art.

written by Christopher | tags: Art, Best Made Co., Maps, screenprinting

The Future Mapping Company is producing some very unusual maps that bridge the gap between functionality and decorative technical art that any good graphic design lover would appreciate. I am thinking about picking one up to put in our studio. They are very reasonably priced and each has an interesting feature making them unique works of graphic art.

written by Christopher | tags: Future Maps, Graphic Design, Maps, Prints

Chinese product designer Daizi Zheng created a range of healthy snacks packaged to look like drugs and junk food in order to encourage people to rethink their relationship between health and diet. The project features cigarette carrot sticks, blueberries in a pill blister pack and celery french fries. It’s a though provoking concept that deserves merit.

written by Christopher | tags: China, Daizi Zheng, Graphic Design, Health Food, Product Design

Alright, I am not going to sit here and pretend that I know a lot about fixed gear bikes, so I am not vouching for this but I did think it was kind of cool. Urban Outfitters has launched a new program where you can customize a fixed gear bike that they then build and ship to you. It’s kind of an armchair way to get into fixed gear riding I know but for $400 bucks I am tempted to cop one just for the hell of it. I am curious about the quality of the bike and how they ride. If anyone gets one, shoot me an email and let me know what you think about it.

written by Christopher | tags: Fixed Gear Bike, Fixie, Products, Urban Outfitters

Grove creates custom laser-engraved bamboo iPhone cases that are just plain awesome. I try to hold off on writing about products or promoting anything on the site (because this isn’t a free PR blog) unless I really think it’s cool. And I think these are some of the coolest iPhone cases I have seen so far. They don’t come cheap but the artist series is really impressive and the craftsmanship required to create these doesn’t come cheap either. If you really are looking for a unique piece of art to shield your unique piece of technology, I think this is it (for me at least).

written by Christopher | tags: Bamboo, Grove, iPhone Case, Laser Engraving, Products

Karvt is a (Denver) locally owned business that created custom wooden skins for Macbook computers. The wooden skins are applied directly to the computer to bring a more natural look to your masterpiece of modern technology. Karvt currently has a Twitter Sweepstakes going on and are giving away 7 Originals Wooden Macbook skins. All you have to do is friend us and send a tweet to enter. The entire month of April they are accepting pre-orders. All pre-orders are 10% off if you use the code PREORDER during checkout.

Karvt also has an artist series of skins and hopes to expand the library or available designs. I am hoping to submit a design in the near future so keep an eye out for that.

written by Christopher | tags: Denver, Karvt, Macbook Skins, Products, Wood

“Moxie Sozo, the organizer of the 2005 Hurricane Poster Project, has teamed up with Josh Higgins, the organizer of the 2007 So-Cal Fire Project to produce the 2010 Haiti Poster Project.

The Haiti Poster Project seeks limited edition sets of posters from artists, designers and design firms from around the world. The donated posters will be sold online to raise money for Doctors Without Borders”

The posters go on sale April 5th. There are some beautiful posters there and it all goes to support an important cause. I am still hoping to have something to them by May as well. So stay tuned for that and in the meantime create your own poster and purchase one from your favorite artist (mine is Christopher David Ryan of Atmostheory).

written by Christopher | tags: Atmostheory, Charity, Haiti, Posters, The Haiti Poster Project

I stumbled upon Mollusk Surf Shop tonight and was doubly impressed by the posters available for purchase and the t-shirts in stock. The site runs much deeper than that though offering up all kinds of amazing goodies. The poster shop offers up artwork from the likes of Geoff McFetridge, Thomas Campbell, Jessie LeDoux and Evan Hecox to name a few. It’s a little gold mine of good stuff supporting good artists.

written by Christopher | tags: Art, Geoff McFetridge, Mollusk Surf Shop, Posters

Bobby at Kitsune Noir continues to inspire with exceptional artist collaborations and has recently launched a new series of designer clocks. The first clock comes from Dan Funderburgh is available through Furni. The clock is available in two colors and measures in at 16″ high by 9″ wide. Keep up the great work Bobby.

written by Christopher | tags: Dan Funderburghe, Designer Clocks, Furni, Kitnune Noir

Counter-Objects is the sister store to Counter-Print and features some equally thoughtfully curated art and design goodies that I am sure a lot of us would love to get our hands on. There are some posters available from some my favorite designers and illustrators that I didn’t even realize were still in circulation. I discovered the site via a link back to Changethethought and for that I thank them very much.

written by Christopher | tags: Counter Objects, Graphic Design, Illustration, Products, U.K.

I can’t much confess to ever being into the toy craze but I do love me some 123 Klan, and they have just released their own little geo-graf-inspired versions of vinyl fellas. They are cool to look at but the price tag is definitely for the serious collector.

written by Christopher | tags: 123 Klan, Art, Products, Toys, Vinyl

Kim Colin and Sam Hecht have launched ‘Retail Facility‘ with some really attractive design-as-consumer products (becoming a valid retail marketplace despite the economic downturn). Love the clocks. Can’t afford the price.

But I really want one of those clocks.

written by Christopher | tags: Clocks, Industrial Services, Products, Retail Facility

Buddy Carr Skateboards has teamed up with Aisle One blogger Antonio Carusone to release a limited edition skateboard featuring some crispy clean typography. Looks pretty sweet. If only I had even a molecule of athletic ability floating somewhere within my person. I guess you could always just hang it on the wall.

written by Christopher | tags: Aisle One, Buddy Carr Skateboards, Skateboarding, Typography