Potato Masher Bike Rack

All bike racks are not created equal and this one in Colorado is one of my favorites. I bet the designer is a big Claus Oldenburg fan but without the budget. In my house the tool above is not a potato masher but a guacamole masher. We eat a lot of Mexican food. Seriously

Via Copenhagenzine

Transistor Radio Collections

Yes! Wolfdog over at Metafilter just added a great post on two transistor radio collections. Then, in the comments, Slack-a-gogo sweetened the pot with two more links. This can definitely be a time waster. Someone tell me how it turns out ’cause I gots work to do, durn it. Click at your own risk:

Radio Walla transistor radio collection
Sarah’s Transistor Radios
Transistor Radio’s Flickr stream
More Fifties Radios

Dutch Architecture Fiver

Check out the Dutch Architecture Fiver in all it’s glory! This is a brand new commemorative coin that pays tribute to the great architects of the Netherlands. On the front is a portrait of the Queen that is formed by the names of the architects. On the back, architecture books are placed along the edge of the coin so that the tops of the books form the shape of the Netherlands. Bird silhouettes suggest the capitals of all the provinces.

Two interesting facts about the Architecture Fiver:

1. The design was created using nothing but free software.
2. The names on the front are not in alphabetical order, nor are they in chronological order but are ordered by the number of hits on the Internet. OMG!

Here is the story on how designer Stani Michiels came up with the design and the free programs he used to create the design. There are also some large scans of the coin on that page as well.

Want one?

Startup Mug

OK, Mac nerds. Go get your (wife’s) credit card and head over to Cafe Press and pick up this smart Startup mug.

Rubitone (Rubik + Pantone)

Yes, please! Unfortunately this is not intended to be a real product. I think that is a mistake.

(via Boing Boing Gadgets)

Idée Labs Multicolor Flickr Search

Tired of searching Flickr via tags and keywords? Me too. That is so 2003. Now, here comes Idée Labs with their awesome multicolor Flickr search tool thingamabob. They have taken “…10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr” and indexed them by color. Just pick a few colors and and their visual similarity technology takes care of the rest. Pretty freaking sweet, really.

By the way, don’t put in a bunch of flesh tones trying to find quick nudie picks. Tried it. Doesn’t work.

McCain Will Lose Due to Poor Font Choice

Never trust a candidate who uses default fonts.

Betterbaby Badge

This is one sweet name badge. It is even sweeter knowing that it came on a snake proof baby crib. That’s right. A snake-proof baby crib. Scary-cool!

Everyone Poops

A very appropriate t-shirt design.

(Via Laughing Squid)

The Evolution of Corporate Logos

Holly kay-wrap! Here is an awesome collection of a bunch of large corporation logos and how they have changed since the companies began. This is pretty sweet (and comes to us via Metafilter).

Hue Test

OK. do NOT try to do this early in the morning or  if you have a hangover or if you are at work and you have shit to do. Seriously. All you have to do is drag-and-drop the boxes and place them in the proper hue order – from one end box to the other. I scored an 8 on my first go around on my laptop screen (go MacBook!) which is pretty awesome for a 40 year old (0 is the best score, 1464 the highest). I am going to try it on some other screens to see if I fare better or worse.

Link

UPDATE: Got a big frickin’ ZERO the second time thank you very much. Go forty-year-old eye balls!

Super Sweet Obama Buttons

Dig these awesome election buttons for Obama. Super cool.

(via BB-Blog)

Why America is F*cked (Graphically at Least)

(Whole lot of appropriate swearing in the video above. Might not be safe for work if you work in a cube.)

I have been meaning to post this. I have watched it about twelve times. This is a little rant by Aaron Draplin founder and proprietor of Draplin Design Co., North America. He is a designer with a passion for industrial designs of the past and and the designs of blue collar industries. He has a great eye. He knows what has heart and what doesn’t. He has a Dachshund named Gary. He swears like a sailor and damn him if he isn’t 100% right in this video. I am thinking that all designers should make a video like this and fight the idiots who can’t see the art or intrinsic value in a professional designer and have the idea that designers just push a bunch buttons all day without skill or talent. I deal with this crap all day.

Way to go, Aaron. Drop shadows, not bombs.

Cassette Tape Museum

Holy awesome collections, Batman! tapedeck.org has a huge collection of analog cassette tapes that can be browsed by brand, time length, and quality. I was a vinyl guy back in the 80’s so whenever I would get my new Oingo Boingo or Surf Punks LP, I would immediately record them to cassette so that I could “rock out” to them in the car or whatever portable device was around. Usually I did it on this little guy right here or possibly this one. I had freakin’ boxes of ’em. Don’t see your brand? Submit your own!

Awesome Woodccuts by Paul Roden & Valerie Lueth

Check out this beautiful series of limited edition woodcuts by Paul Roden and Valerie Leuth for sale over at Tugboat Printshop. I want the one pictured here but I have five or six prints that are waiting to be framed right now so it is a bit hard to justify. Will one of you go buy it and get it framed real nice and then invite me over to dinner so I can steal it from you? Thanks in advance!

(Via OMG Posters)