Changethethought

I lost my sleeve for my iPod traveling this weekend and while searching for somewhere to buy a new one I stumbled across an entire line of sleeves for Apple products by designers Katja Hettler and Jula Tullmann for Redmaloo. They make sleeves for Apple laptops as well the swath your computer is hipster-chic felt and fold down to form an arm pad and mouse pad. They are pretty slick. The downside is they are priced in euros and considering I am being paid in dollars, I most likely won’t be buying one for myself.

written by Christopher | tags: Apple Sleeves, iPod Sleeves, Products, Redmaloo

How would you like to own one of or even some of the most classic rock posters of all time? Well, as you can imagine, they ain’t cheap, but then again who said they would be. I was pretty amazed that you could actually buy most of these. They are a little piece of history if you are a rock n’ roller like I am. They may actually be worth the price if you a big enough fan. Some of them really aren’t too bad. I never have any damn though so I doubt I will be owning one any time soon.

Regardless, of any or all of the above. It’s worth a peak at Rock Explosion just to see some of these classic rock posters.

written by Christopher | tags: Posters, Products, Rock and Roll, Rock Explosion, Rock Posters

Penguin Books has recently commissioned Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant fame to design new covers for two of their most famous titles, Animal Farm and Orwell’s 1984. They are both obvious choices for Fairey’s style and work perfectly with his message. I think if it gets kids to read it is a great thing. I was required to read both of these titles when I was in highschool and junior high. 1984 had a big impact on me and is and will remain a relevant work for a long time to come. Hopefully the visual cue and recognition of what is obviously Fairey’s design will prompt kids to at least want to own the books and eventually read them.

It would be nice to see more of this kind of thing as I think it would be a positive trend in utilizing recognizable artists and designers to create materials that help promote thought and encourage learning and awareness. There has always seemed to be a divide between what I refer to as the old guard and the young blood. I think it would be mutually beneficial to both if the best of each was represented in certain situations as to help inspire and activate today’s youth culture. It’s so hard to stay relevant with today’s youth that more of this really needs to start happening right away.

You can read a little more insight about the book covers here.

Link discovered via Kitsunenoir.

written by Christopher | tags: 1984, Animal Farm, Obey Giant, Penguin Books, Products, Shepard Fairey

The winning designs for the Royal Mint coin collection have been revealed. The new designs are the result of a competition held back in 2005. The winner of the competition is 26-year-old Graphic Designer Matthew Dent who is originally from Bangor but now lives and works in London.

The set is based on the Royal Arms heraldic coat of arms theme. The shield of the Royal Arms is split between the six denominations from the 1 pence to the 50 pence with the £1 coin featuring the shield in its entirety.

The new designs will slowly enter circulation throughout the upcoming year. According to Matthew Dent’s website it is estimated that 28 billion or more UK coins are in circulation. That’s enough to wrap the world in single file, 16 times.

When is an internationally accepted omni (all-in-one) style card going to happen? It just seems so wasteful and archaic to still be wasting the resources it takes to produce these coins? Am I wrong on this? Isn’t it 2008 already and aren’t we experiencing some kind of energy and pollution crisis?

written by Christopher | tags: Matthew Dent, New Coins, The Royal Mint, United Kingdom

Well, have you had enough of the t-shirt craze yet? Has the saturation point been reached? Hang on a minute because I just discovered one of the coolest t-shirt community/submission sites I have discovered since Threadless. It’s called Design By Humans. I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone else would take a crack at this business model. The differentiator at Design By Humans is the product. It isn’t the ‘buzz’ factor or the fact that this is a revolutionary idea, the fantastic thing about this website, hands down, is the shirts themselves. I was inspired just looking through them. There are some beautiful works of art in there and the fact that it looks as though they spare no expense in reproducing those works on the t-shirts warrants merit. I was seriously amazed at how many original, vibrant and just spectacular designs are available. The really unbelievable thing is that they are all only $19 bucks. If you live in Europe, you can’t miss.

The shirts are printed after they are voted upon by the Design By Humans user community. You can set up an account at the site and vote for the designs you like.  All of this should sound familiar if you have ever involved yourself with Threadless.

It gets even better. Just check out how much money you can win if your design wins shirt of the month. Here are the rules and regulations surrounding their pay for designs: “Each weekday a submitted design wins the Shirt of the Day (SOTD) prize of $750 ($500 cash & $250 store credit). Each week the five previous SOTD winners go head to head for the Shirt of the Week (SOTW) prize of $1000 cash. Then the four SOTW winners compete for the final prize of $1750 ($1500 cash & $250 store credit) and the coveted trophy and title of Shirt of the Month. All in all, a winning design that goes all the way can win up to $3500!”

So go there now and see for yourself.

written by Christopher | tags: Design By Humans, Products, T-shirt Design

Seymourpowell was founded in 1984 by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell. They are now a team of 65 strong in London. Companies seek out Seymourpowell from around the world to help them answer three basic questions: What should we do? Why do we do it? How do we do It? They provide the answers through; ethnographic user research, brand and design strategy, trends, innovation process, transportaion design, product design and development, packaging and interactive.

They are fueled by a passion for all things creative and an absolute commitment to the cause of creating better products. They believe design is about making things better. Better for people. Better for business and better for the world.

Now that is a philosophy I can get behind.

written by Christopher | tags: Advertising, Interactive, London, Product Design, Seymourpowell

Around the end of this month Incase plans on offering a durable hardcase for both of the Apple laptops, MacBook and MacBook Pro. The cases feature a frosted hardshell exterior, soft-touch coating, raised rubber feet, thermal vents, and trouble-free access to all the MacBook features. They claim that it is the most sophisticated and discreet option in notebook protection. The precise cutout features allow access to the magnetic power cable, headphone and microphone input jacks, CD Rom drive, battery level check button, and all side ports.

The case will be available in White Frost, Red Frost, Black Frost and Plum Frost. The shell is mildly translucent allowing the Apple Logo to shine through on the back.

As of now the cases are only available for the 13 inch MacBooks but they should be available for the 15 inch MacBook Pros by the end of March. They start at $49.95 and will be available for purchase at Incase’s website.

written by Christopher | tags: Incase, Incase MacBook Hardshell, Products