This t-shirt gives expression to the massive political groundswell … of graphic designers opposed to the war(s). Drop shadows, as you know, are their own form of carpet bombing. If you know it, you’ve abused it — it’s the crude but effective daisy cutter in the designer’s toolbox.

For 30 bones here.

[via BoingBoing]

The magnetic knitted katamari ball. Just keep it away from hard drives and credit cards. These are for sale here.

I dunno what it is, but there was something about this one-armed tree-sweater that filled me with pathos …

The Wooster Collective has a post regarding Adidas’ brilliant viral street poster campaign in Berlin for their recently launched Adicolor paintable shoes:

We love the new campaign that adidas launched recently in Germany for adicolor.

Here’s how it works:

First, adidas put up a series of mostly white flyerposters – branded with the adidas logo – that subtley encouraged people to tag the billboard and basically fuck it up.

But then, days later, they came back to those same ads and placed another poster over it. The new poster features the adidas adicolor show, now with the original tags from the previous poster incorporated into the show design.

Of all the recent street campaigns we’ve seen lately, this is our favorite one by far. It’s extremely clever, but most importanly it fits the brand perfectly. It takes advantage of the street to the fullest. And most of all, it turns the tables in an absolutely brilliant way that is extremely impressive.

We’re sure that not everyone will agree with us, but whoever came up with this idea is really fuckin’ smart.

Fuckin’ smart indeed. More photographs and info here.

Ahh, this is a refreshing, super-simple site showcasing the new line of ‘mid-couture’ sportswear that Stella McCartney designed for Adidas. It’s low on content, but its real allure is purely sensual.

Adidas’ web-presence seems to grow more and more seductive all the time …

Their ‘What’s Next’ site pushes flash 8 to the limit — how they manage to get so many video-animated sprites on the stage at the same time boggles the mind …

Adidas’ Adicolor campaign, featuring kicks that have a paintable surface (Adidas also supplies the paint, natch), is intriguing. Beyond the playful art direction, this site is poignant for me because I have been working on the thematically related NIKEiD site (Nike is Adidas’ largest North American competitor) – both of these sites employ the mass customization principle (that Dell, of course, pioneered) though in qualitatively different ways.

Taking Adicolor as a comparison study against iD, the immediate difference is that Adicolor has an artisanal character that the iD experience doesn’t — a user doesn’t merely choose materials and color swatches through an on-line interface, the results of which are then fed through and delivered via an unseen, global manufacturing supply chain. Adicolor involves direct, and distinct, contact with the product itself during the customization process — you paint on the shoe with your hands. One act is closer to design (iterative, limited kit-of-parts, manufactured), the other is closer to art (one-shot, individuated, hand-made — and no UNDO button!); two identical NIKEiD-designed products may be produced as a result of limited permutations, but no two Adicolors ever will.

Truly, Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is in need of an update.

Starts at the tongue and ends … in the end. I love the cognitive dissonance – cute and fuzzy execution of a gross and gooey inspiration. The mind reels … ! Designed and knitted by a Eugene, Oregon biology student named Matie Trewe. From her FAQ:

Q. Why does your site suck so much?

A. Seriously, I’m a Biology grad whose main hobby is knitting. I know I’m not much of a web designer, but I’m learning.

Q. What on earth compelled you to knit the human digestive system?

A. The tube is one of the most basic structures of multicellular life and of knitting. It seemed like a great way to combine my two fascinations.

Q. Can I buy/commission a knit item from you?

A. The short answer is no. A large knit item such as a sweater or digestive system can take anywhere from 40-80 hours of work. If you think you can fairly compensate me for my time, I would be willing to consider it your offer. If not, I’m working on writing patterns for most of the items on this site. Perhaps you can find a friend or relative who could be persuaded to knit for you, as a labor of love.

Recipe (aka pattern) located here. 

[via Cool Hunting]

 

As an admitted time-piece fetishist, I truly dug this ‘fuzzy’ time-telling device. How dope is this:

‘This is the way they work. The first watch, called “AboutTime”, gives you an approximation of the time. “Going on quarter past one”, “almost six”, “a bit past three”, etc. Perfect if you want to take life a little more easy.

Then, there’s the “Timeline” watch, in which you’re only shown the hour, and not the minutes. Then, the numeral will slowly make it’s way from the bottom the the watch’s face, to the top. The minutes are thus expressed as a proportion of the distance traveled. In other words, if the number 2 is halfway up, you know it’s 2:30.’

[from The Talus Watch via OhGizmo]

 

And on the flipside, a decidedly non-fuzzy, mechanical wonder (and only 220,000 bones, too):

‘This really spectacular architecture seems to be absolutely original. The mechanical design of the Cabestan, including its tourbillon, is totally transversal. The indications (hour, minute, seconds, and power reserve) appear on the cylinders located at the four “corners” of the watch.

Starting from the lower left, we find the barrel, which transmits its driving power to the movement by the intermediary of a chain. This chain is connected to a second cylinder, at the upper left, made up of one part of a fusee (placed horizontally as opposed to the traditional fusees that are always vertical), and the other of the cylindrical power reserve indicator (a total of 72 hours).

Still on the upper end, but this time on the right, we find two cylinders next to each other, providing the perfectly readable hours and minutes. In the lower right hand corner, we can see the tourbillon, which is also placed vertically and is directly linked to another cylinder, which quite logically gives the seconds indication, as the tourbillon makes one rotation per minute.

This completely original mechanical movement, with manual winding, a fusee and a tourbillon, integrates six ball bearings into its operation. It is also water-resistant to 30 metres. The entire movement is visible from above and from the side, under a double sapphire crystal (“Trimaran” model) with three recessed and curved sides, taking the form of a “hood”, all in a very sturdy design.’

[from Europa Star via BoingBoing]

 

Adorable.

[From The Girls via BoingBoing]

 

Ok. So out of a sheer creative loss of nerve, this site’s palette is cribbed from the pair of Dunks I recently iD’ed. Totally craven–perhaps. I promise something less derivative next season.