Wow! I can not even tell you how cool I think these Tin Can Lids are designed by Jack Bresnahan. Apparently he is a recent 3D Design graduate from Northumbria University. I saw this article about his new design on Dezeen (which is an awesome site! You should check it out right now!) after seeing a little snippet on Notcot. Oh the internet! I love how one thing leads to another and on and on…

Back to Jack, I love these designs so much. They are so simple and lovely and biodegradable! I have no idea what they are made from but he says they are biodegradable (I’ll believe him for now). The quote Dezeen has from him is great” anything that ends up in landfill is simply poor design”. Awesome! How can we get more designers to think like this?

(Image: from Dezeen)

The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona Spain was started in 1882. Just one year later Antoni Gaudi took over designing the church. He worked on it until his death in 1923, devoting the last 12 years of his life exclusively to it and the work continues today. The projected finish date of this amazing Church is 2030. Is was breathtaking to see in person! The church towers over the entire city. From any high point you can see it’s massive pillars like a giant drip sand castle (as my sister describes it).

It was really interesting to go through the mini museum they had on the history and design of the church. I loved seeing all the photos of Gaudi’s inspiration. In the photo above you can see the huge pillars of the main chapel. They really do look like stylized trees with the canopy of leaves creating the ceiling.

The exterior of the church is covered in detailed sculptures. When you see all the details up close it’s not difficult to believe that this has been in the making for 127 years! I have a sneaking suspicion that this will not be finished in 2030 but when it is finished my friends and I have vowed to go see it again. I might actually check in on it before it’s finished, I can’t wait to go back to Barcelona I loved the city so much!

Not too long ago my friend Anne e-mailed me this eco-font. Ok so it’s not the prettiest looking font when it’s all blown up like that. But when it is a normal point size you can’t even tell there are little swiss-cheese holes in every letter. The site claims to reduce the amount of ink used by 20% ! Pretty cool, I think. So if you really have to print out something you might want to consider this font.  I am desperately trying not to print out anything, ever. It’s not only a waste but the paper collects by the stacks in my house. If I let paper in it never seems to leave…. curious phenomena, I think it’s called “pack rat”. Apologies for the mini tangent!

On Not-cot I saw this post where Matt Robinson took it upon himself to see just how much ink (from a ballpoint pen) different mainstream type faces would use. It’s not exactly a scientific way of measuring how much ink is used since he could fill in the lines of one font more than the other (sorry, I’m a bit of a stickler for the scientific method). But I think it’s a really great way of making someone aware that something as simple as changing the font before you print out a letter could, in the long run, will save money and resources.

(Image from: mattewrobinson.co.uk )

For the past few days I have been reading all of the posts over at Design*Sponge about the ICFF Design Show. I have been drooling over some of the images! I’m jealous of everyone that was able to go. But today Design*Sponge posted about some of the schools that were showing work… two schools… I will not name them but lets just say they are the arch rivals of my beloved Alma mater and current employer MICA (don’t worry, I still love you Design*Sponge!). And OK, maybe arch rival is a little extreme but we do compete for being the top art school in the country. And this year we were in fact at the ICFF show and not only that but we got an editors pick from Metropolis Mag. You can also read more about MICA’s booth here on the GD MFA MICA website. That’s a lot of acronyms!

You can see more photos of the MICA booth on Flickr. I wish that there were more detail shots, guess i’ll just have to go next time and take my own photos. I love this idea above, the Sliding Window Gardens. It would be like a beautiful green garden curtain! Congratulations ICFF MICA participants! 

Images: Top- from graduate.mica.edu Bottom- from Anrew Shea’s flickr)

There is a very cool and inspirational new site called craftgawker. It is an off-shoot of the foodie site foodgawker. Anyone can post photos of their work by following a few simple rules, find out how here. This is such a simple, great way to show off your work… speaking of I really need to get it together and photograph some of my own work! Maybe the idea of putting my work up on this site will motivate me.  

Like I said, the site is new but it’s looking very promising! I can’t wait to watch how it spreads over the interwebs!

Thanks Landon!

(Photos above from craft gawker. top to bottom: xenosdesigns, katbaro & maebee )

I just saw these fabulous porcelain lamps by Laura Pregger over at NOTCOT. I love that she reuses existing china in a new and creative way. It’s really an inspiration!