idea/list™

Incredible flash experience site for Japanese interior design firm, Wonderwall. Wonderwall was founded by Masamichi Katayama, and its portfolio includes work in retail space, food and dining, office showrooms, and building complexes.

Designed by Siegfried Odermatt this book features a spread on every member of the VSG (association of Swiss graphic artists). It features many of the great names in Swiss modernist design: Müller-Broockmann, Fridolin Müller, Nelly Rudin, Max Schmid, Siegfried Odermatt, Hans Neuburg, Richard Paul Lohse. 

Initially shown back in April, Nike announces a wider launch for November from its Paris Bastille by 180g campaign, focused on three simple sneaker styles, including the Tennis Classic, Air Flytop, and Flash. All three receive unique 180g treatments, a process which allows some of the brand’s classic product to be custom dyed, achieving a tailor-made type of aesthetic amongst various premium textiles and custom detailing. A release event is slated for November 5th, 2009 at 180g in Paris.

Fantastic prints by Simon Page for International Year of Astronomy.

Japanese town logos — official symbols designed to communicate the identity of each municipality — come in a vast array of shapes and colors. Many of these municipal symbols incorporate typographical elements (particularly kanji, hiragana, katakana, and Roman letters) into their designs. In most cases, the stylized characters are straightforward and easy to spot (even if you don’t read Japanese), but sometimes you have to bend your eyes to see them. The more complex logos encode the name of the town into a puzzle-like symbol that begs to be deciphered. You can see a more extensive list at the original post from pink tentacle.

A smart little case for your iphone 3G/3GS or your new ipod touch made with thick, soft wool felt. Original design by Byrd & Belle. Strap design keeps your earbuds wrapped neatly around the case. Feels soft and offers great protection. Felted material is 100% Merino wool felt and is 1/8″ thick and soft to the touch. This felt is an ecological, sustainable and renewable material and due to its high quality, has an innate durability while remaining soft.

Art & Copy is a film about advertising currently making its way around the country. The film is an in-depth look at some of the best and most creative minds in the business. As director Doug Pray states, “I felt it could be a more powerful statement to focus the film only on those rare few who actually moved and inspired our culture with their work. And that higher standard made me want to make a film that reflected the same kind of disciplined artistic approach that my subjects used.”

Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design, by director Gary Hustwit, who also directed Helvetica. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Google has made every issue of LIFE magazine from the mid thirties to early seventies, available online, contents and ads included.

Here is a clear breakdown of the core differences between Arial and Helvetica. You can find the full alphabet overlayed here. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the unique history these typefaces share, here’s an in-depth analysis.