by 2x4, New York.  it is what it is by 2x4 Inc.

I must get this book since 2x4 has been one of my favorite studios since university and i feel that they had quite influence on the kind of designer i am today.

Objectified is a documentary about industrial design; it’s about the manufactured objects we surround ourselves with, and the people who make them. On an average day, each of us uses hundreds of objects. (Don’t believe it? Start counting: alarm clock, light switch, faucet, shampoo bottle, toothbrush, razor…) Who makes all these things, and why do they look and feel the way they do? All of these objects are “designed,” but how can good design make them, and our lives, better?

Words fail!

NORWEGIAN COLLECTION OF POTENTIAL ARCHITECTURE is an online collection of the half-baked, the promising, the raw and the invisible architecture; Projects that miscarried, went over the top, were turned down by clients or for other reasons never became realised.

The idea was to create a database of this collective knowledge, designed as a user-generated web platform with continuously added projects. A statistical representation and survey of the collection will provide insight into this undisclosed realm.

Here's the 5 reasons,"Why would a typeface designer want to give a font away?

1. To make a selfless gift to humanity.
2. To raise global awareness of typographic excellence.
3. To create a visual resource that will be used by students, citizens, amateurs, and professionals all over the world.
4. To contribute to a global design vocabulary.
5. To seed the world with a visual idea that could be built on and enriched by other designers serving smaller linguistic communities."

The annual Graphic Design seminar and competition by Grafill, a norwegian Association of Graphic Design and Illustration member of Icograda, just happen last week with a great program including talks from Adrian Shaughnessy, Rinzen Steve & Rilla Alexander, Sami Kortemäki (Underware), Rick Webb (Barbarian Group), Geneviève Gauckler, Mateus de Pula Santos (Lobo), among others.

At the Awards ceremony i was given a Special Mention for the Design and Art direction (at Bleed Design Studio) of the Diesel New Art 2006 Catalogue. As the night went on, surprises yet to come when i was called to the stage again, this time with my friend and colleague Svein Haakon Lia, to receive the Gold Award (and a bottle of champagne :) for the PSP Candy website in the open class category also made at Bleed.

For all you norwegian readers *here's* the list of the awarded works in all categories...

At last but not the least, this year profile for Visuelt.07 was design by Skin and you can check more great work at their website ;)

Cette publication ambitionne d’être un espace d’échange, de partage, de confrontation et offrir ainsi une approche plurielle du design graphique, à la fois visuelle et théorique.

Elle veut parler du design graphique comme d’un champ de création et de recherche. Elle veut faire parler les acteurs du design graphique – professionnel, étudiants, théoriciens, journalistes, etc. – de leurs pratiques et de leurs réflexions ; créer.

Beautiful work from Barbara Hahn. Very small showcase but absolutely worth to check.

NODE is a Berlin and Oslo based graphic design studio, founded in 2003 by Anders Hofgaard (NO) and Serge Rompza (DE). Vladimir Llovet Casademont (DE/ES) joined the collaboration 2006. All three studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. The studio works for international clients and on self initiated projects across various media: books, magazines, posters, typefaces, identities, exhibition design, signage and websites.

Brilliant work by Rosemarie Fiore. Here's one image from the firework drawing series (above). "These large works on paper are made by exploding and containing live fireworks, resulting in bursts of saturated color that are overlaped and collaged into abstract compositions."

Probably the coolest toy ever! Some time ago i was talking with my friend Chris and he was saying that he had one pair of Hit Stix II. The only difference, except the color, is that the second version has 2 tone switch on each stic! how cool?!! Specially back in the mid 80's...

I really don't know why i post this! I was working (just now) and suddenly it just came to my mind Pump Up the Jam : i got ecstatic!!

I remember when came out in the late 80's and it must have been one of the first house music hits, Acid was what people called back then as i recall... yet, I had another vision along with the video of a school bus trip to Fátima (ahahah), the biggest Portuguese sanctuary... I was on the 6th or 7th grade and during the bus trip, ca. 2 hours, everyone had to listen Technotronic cassette the whole time because some guy was playing it in huge radio!! I must say that not everyone appreciated the idea, including me, but hey! i had a WALKMAN!!! Killer time and a great image in my head now... :)