When you’re insane about design, as all of us here at World Famous Design Junkies are, you bet your biffy, you carry around a tiny camera in your pocket and photograph everything in your wake, most especially those things that blow your mind for one reason or another. Design moments, wild moments in everyday strange life in writings or color or shape or form, anything that inspires the eyeballs. Here is a collection of these photos of which I speak. From a flea market in North West Minnesota to a Target store in Minneapolis.

John Travolta, Professional Pilot

The ever-epic photo of Chewbacca feeling up Princess Leia (also to be seen in our ULTRA AMAZING collection of rare Star Wars photos) put to good use on a gig poster

The wording “A Most Liveable Community” in a community that would never, in a million years, word it as such (Saint Cloud, Minnesota)

Toilets in a basement bar being re-done

A folder of collectable Desert Storm cards at the flea market in Wright County

Bucky O’Hare action figures in their original bubble packaging

A custom-painted toilet seat cover

A personal message of pride to the world made in order to sell postcards in frames

Wolverine channels Rambo

Pogs, lots of pogs

Hand-painted corn dogs sign, with bonus “FREESYS” note

Record cover peeking out of backpack

ESPECIALLY no U turn

Fabulous choices in the jukebox at Psycho Suzi’s biker bar and restaurant

Re-painted facade at the 400 bar (where a friend and I once saw YTCracker!)

Clean broken sign

Sign covering a sign

A sweet ramp

21st Century Bank with futuristic font

Faced spraypaint cans

DESPITE license plate

That rock at the Subway in Osage

Cowlicks to Curls

Vandalized OBEY sticker

Drink fountain with both Pepsi and Coke (as far away from eachother as possible)

August Schell cap from New Ulm, Minnesota

Disco ball at Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown

UFFDA8 uff-da license plate (Norwegian slang)

Pile of weapons made of duct-tape

Dangerous cat warning written in chalk

Frattalone heavy machinery brand name

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies street signs category.

Let me tell you about the best little giant toy company in the world. Medicom. They’ve got contracts with some of the greatest toy designers in the world and they do not-hold-back! They make the greatest stuff ever! Lemme give you a rundown of their latest achievements. First, let’s talk about that KAWS Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket set you see above. They were first blasted all over the internets by Arrested Motion who, when walking about a museum exhibition, spotted the little cuties. This was (is) The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum‘s first KAWS exhibit, as well as Brian Donnelly (KAWS)’s first solo museum show. Then there’s all sort of other toys like EAMES, Ren and Stimpy, The Clash Mickey Mouse…

Oh my god the excellent things that are about to be released unto the world.

Arrested motion claims to have confirmation that these Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket toys will be coming to life via Medicom. It seems totally reasonable so there’s probably no reason to doubt it. Feel free to send me a set!

Then let’s keep going down the list. All of these are pictured in the gallery below, right after photos taken by Arrested Motion of the KAWS figure as pictured at the museum show. TOYS: There’s the EAMES yellow and black furniture pattern Bea@rbrick (which, if you don’t know what is, it’s a bear-shaped canvas-sort of toy onto which hundreds of designs have been placed), super flat black and white Mickey Mouse brick, Star Wars original packaging Kubrick set of 6 (Kubrick is very similar to Be@rbrick, only they’re more open to interpretation, not just bearish) -series 3 with C-3PO, Han Solo in Carbonite block, AT-AT driver, Lando Calrissian, Wicket W Warrick the ewok, and a jawa!

Next there’s a black and white version of the iconic London Calling pose (The Clash) Mickey Mouse, SpongeBob and Patrick Star Kubrick, Star Wars Kubrick series 1 (I don’t know what happened to 2) including Luke Skywalker in Jedi Knight uniform, C-3PO with Salacious Crumb, R2-D2 with drink serving tray as he had on Jabba’s Barge, Chewbacca (Bouschh’s Prisoner), the seen-once-maybe-twice in Return of the Jedi tall yellow and green alien Amanaman, and Jabba’s right hand man Bib Fortuna.

Then there’s REN AND STIMPY BE@RBRICKS what in the world?! There’s a plain set of them then there’s SPACE MADNESS. Then, since we’re in space already, there’s a Kirk and Uhura Star Trek pack of Be@rbricks – these have a very interesting style to them that makes me wonder who did the artwork.

There’s some KAWS “teeth” shoestrings that I’d like to have a whole case of because they’re so awesome I’d put them in all my shoes forever, “Deep Sweet Easy” and “Kuredosukopu” Be@rbricks with strap that are super gorgeous and will have profits donated to JCV polio vaccines, and surprise(!) a Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket Kubrick set. How much you wanna bet they got a deal on licensing for these two characters and came to KAWS with the idea of rocking out on a version of his own?

And that’s my conclusion. See how the world all connects.

For more info on the KAWS artshow at The Aldrich: http://aldrichart.org/exhibitions/kaws.php
For more MEDICOM news: http://medicomtoy.tv/blog/
For amazing hotdogs: http://unclefrankys.com/

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies toys category.

Perhaps you know that Japan is a wild and crazy place. Perhaps you know that. Something you also maybe know is that generally their autos, because of the congestion in their small world, are also small. What you may NOT know is that sometimes they get big. Really big. I mean like semi-truck big. And when they do, (not always, but I WISH always,) they go wild. Mister Roger Snider has a camera. Mister Roger Snider went to take some photos. Mister Roger Snider got some bright lights.

Mister Roger Snider goes more often by the name Roger Snider, and works with his fantastical set of photos he calls “Ultra Rigs of the World” or UROTW. This set of photos spans back to the late 1990s, with these seriously fantastically amazing ones still popping up today. In fact, the set you see above and below is his latest set, taken on a journey to Japan in May 2010.

A few words from Snider:

My 1st trip out of the country this year led me back to Japan. Capitalizing on my shoots from back in 2008, I really dove deeper into the culture this time. I also brought my Profoto strobe with me to shoot portraits and interiors. I think you can see the upgrade in production value.

What these trucks are called, or what the act of making these trucks is called is Dekotora. According to this wiki article, it’s believed that the first “Truck Guys (トラック野郎 Torakku Shōnen)” (1976) movie was the source of this modern Dekotora lifestyle, or at least the first boom of it. This “Truck Guys” movie (and its 7 sequels) was put out by the Toei company, a favorite of mine because they’re responsible for the ultra-gory cult-classic “Battle Royale” (2000). Each of these trucks of course has their own individual aesthetic, the opportunity for customization super-high now compared to when this fabulous hobby / lifestyle began in the 70′s. Back then it was hardcore, find the pipes and lights from wherever you could find them. Now there’s manufacturers and custom shops that’ve got the skills to do the deals.

Below you’ll see Snider’s May 2010 Japan set. It’s hot. It’s amazing. It’s trucks with so many lights on them that you wont know what to do with yourself when you see them.

It takes a special kind of person in an amazing sort of financial situation to create one of these rigs. The style and grace you can very obviously see in every one of these trucks is, thought it’d seem the opposite here, not easy to come by. It takes not only vision and skill, but craftsmanship and a LOT of dedication as well. Any project that’s had this amount of time put into it deserves a big hard look, handshake, and even a hug. The same goes for Snider, whom without, I and you might never have seen such magnificence. Thank you Snider, and please PLEASE continue to do this.

You can contact Roger Snider at roger@ultrarigsoftheworld.com, find him at his WordPress blog and leave him a nice comment, or take a peek at his fabulous portfolio site at http://ultrarigsoftheworld.com/ for real.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies custom culture category.

Look through these images using our sassy new gallery mode!

This one’s for you, world. Here’s the first 38 items in an ever-expanding list of magnificence via designer Ian Collins. He calls this project “The Big Caption” and calls it a complement to Boston Dot Com’s Big Picture. He’s got more than one element in play here, and the type type is good. This tha kind of meme I love the best.

Now, take a look at how easy this was to do, and is to do. How healthy is it? I say very healthy. Cultivating wit at the same time as practicing graphic design is tops, especially when you’re so amazing at typography like Collins is. Also it seems to me that he’s got his fair share of amazing fonts up his sleeve. That’s sometimes important too.

Keep on describin’.

Keep on city vibin’.

I’ve seen lots and lots of these all by their lonely selves around these internets, especially on share sites like tumblr, dropular, ffffound, piccsy, buamai, and the like. They get separated. They get sad. But now they can be happy in more than one place. Be sure to hang out and subscribe to “The Big Caption” for more of this magnificent mayhem, and if you ever meet Collins in real life, give him a high five from me.

Normally I’d tell you how to contact Collins here, but I already did that. So suck it.

Look at these images.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebration category.

For when you plan on fighting Fraggles, more than likely. This is what you need to get business done. This particular set of knuckles is made out of sterling silver and quartz crystals, it’s an art project by the wonderfully genius designer artist Debra Baxter. It’s just the sort of thing you think of a hundred times in a day, but you just never get out there to pick up those crystals from the crystal emporium. You know? Thumbs up for execution, for doing it, and doing it well. Harvest with your eyeballs this and a small load of extra projects by Baxter in the gallery below, whistling while you work.

I can’t imagine your wrist would be in any sort of good shape once you insert this into the mouth of your enemies. Maybe if you actually ARE fighting Fraggles.

They go down easy.

Crystal Brass Knuckles (I am going to realign your chakras motherf*****)
Quartz crystals, sterling silver
7 x 6 x 2.5 in

Debra Baxter is responsible for a huge sack of projects, each of them made with such methods as glass blowing, metalworking, and alabaster sculpting. What you’re about to devour is the Crystal Brass Knuckles as well as the earlier projects from over the past 12 months or so. She’s been rocking for several years now. Really heavy stuff.

Once you’re done here, contact Baxter by emailing debrabaxter@gmail.com and/or visit her portfolio page to explore all of her older works! It’s all very fabulous work of a very lovely sort: http://www.debrabaxter.com/ – get rocky!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies 3D category.

You’ve got a photo, but that’s just step one. Next you’ve got to make it fly. And how do you make it fly? You slice it up! Then of course, you glue it all back together in an aerodynamic way and push it really fast down one of those really big slides that ends in a jump, but we’ve not got one of those. We’ve got Marco Oliva. This guy is a designer who loves his shapes. Olivia loves his colors, his splashes, and his explosions of connections. Take a peek at this selection of his works, all of them photographed and accouterment’ed by him.

I have you tell you because I want to encourage you that this post is the direct result of the submission bar you see above this post. It sits presently in the center of the page, right next to the main WFDJ mark. In that bar, you should submit your portfolio or project website. When you do, it shoots an email straight to me, your humble narrator, so I can execute a post toot-sweet! That means quick, nice, happily!

But only if it’s good. And Marco Oliva is good.

Marco Oliva is a designer, a photographer, and an illustrator. Based in Tucson, Arizona, with the fingers pointing in all directions. To contact Olivia to give him a bunch of money, click an email to marco@marcoso.com or visit his portfolio.

Hot stuff.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies accessories category.

Hello world, have you been to London? In London, Adidas has several stores, one of which is there just a bunch of boxes with shoes in them, showing some of the more fantastic collaborations and celebrations the shoe co has done. Today, Adidas STEPS IT UP a NOTCH with this fantastically epic Star Wars video made to prep the universe for an “intergalactic” 2010 FIFA World Cup™. Chilling in the Mos Eisley cantina is a rogues gallery of Adidas affiliates including some you’d never expect.

Oh my god yes. Here’s the official message for this video spot from Adidas Originals:

Adidas Originals invites you to join David Beckham, Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Franz Beckenbauer, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, Ciara, Jay Baruchel, DJ Neil Armstrong and some of your dear, old friends for an intergalactic 2010 FIFA World Cup™ viewing party that you’ll never forget.

Snoop. You handled that situation like a pro. Good job.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies pizza party category. Thanks to WhiteZine for turning the world on to this. Adidas too, I suppose. Good job guys. Everyone. All around, good jobs.

OH SHIT what in the hell are these? “R2-D2 + C-3PO” model Top Ten Low Adidas shoes coming out sometime in September 2010? They’re in the movie too, see if you can find em.

Yays the fellow called Kaws, also known as Brian Donnelly is in this month’s edition (May 2010) of Interview Magazine. The cover has Madonna with a red painted cross on an image of her face. In celebration, it’s time for a master-blaster of Kaws-related pics. Blaster. Master. A collection right here and now, below, in no particular order, for the greater good of understanding the simplicity of his genius superstrokes. It’s all in the single line. The one that goes from fat to thin. Doubled up, placed on the face. Placed on the glove. Perfection.

You see the x x eyes? They are key. Elements to also look for are the teeth, the row of the teeth, and the sharp, black curved line. Outline. Below you’re going to find photos that span the whole art career of Kaws, from when he began spraying that name, “KAWS,” to now, when he’s doing very well for himself with his own brand and lots of artshows and toys and products. Everything a design-minded artist individual could want in this modern world.

If you love Kaws, and are unaware of how to find the continued works of him and his companies, take a look at this limited list. It’s super fabulous:
http://www.kawsone.com/blog/ Donnelly’s blog on Donnelly’s site.
http://blog.honeyee.com/kaws/ Donnelly’s blog on Honeyee’s site.
BBCIceCream Kaws tag archive at blog written by Pharrell Williams and crew.
http://fuckyeakaws.tumblr.com/ infinite updates of random KAWS images

Now take a hefty set of clickings through this vast* set. *Vast, yet limited, when compared to the true group of Kaws creations that are in the world. Variations on a theme, and hundreds and hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. At least hundreds of variations, thousands of items. Domination of the street art conscious world. This planet anyway.

Peeks!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebritarianism category.

I was thinking about bowling. Thinking about it, thinking about how awesome bowling alleys are, how the environment is quite the uniqueness in our society. Thinking about lanes. Thinking about the carpeting. Thinking about balls. And then I came to it. The screens! Look at them! They’re designed to work, to be understood, and to facilitate you having fun while you’re playing about the most thunderous rolling sport of our times. But by god, I’ve never seen two the same. Where we’re in a world where so many things come standard: pop machines, cars, newspaper dispensers, this program run by thousands of alleys is different in each of them. And the container on each has it’s own charm as well.

This situation reminds me of a cardinal lesson in economics: if two grocery stores have bread, but one has the bread priced 25¢ higher, you’ll still go to the other store because it’s closer by. While there might be a brand-name bowling system out there that would be universally easier to understand, it doesn’t matter because there’s no big demand for that kind of system from the bowlers. One bowler does not go to all sorts of different alleys asking for the same system enough for any alley to switch from the one that was originally most convenient for them.

Thus, this! Hundreds if not thousands of different setups and systems.

Now there might be some bowling systems out there trying to dominate the market, and good luck to them! But bowling is and always has been a sport that’s basically just for the love of it – there is no gigantic market or popular sporting event for it, thus happy mediocrity.

And thus the uniqueness of each alley.

Now behold these screens.

The following images are from the following contributors: nertzy, Jos, Abs44, Karen D, V&N, 2H Design, Adele, Razif H, Drew Makepeace, notMargaret, Lergik, Xiaming, Lucaskt, Miahz, Kevin H, Philipreid, Kirkala, Rick Spine, Mrs. Chardonnay, Real Blades, Ivan Tortuga, B Mune, Arksiel, Project BS, Orac808, Hupthur, Davers, Light Star Angel, Danny Huff, Alan Rappa, Optimum Inline, Primamag, Quiet Dangst, Moon Cowboy, Heather & Tom, Kenoir, Mika, Espelina, Elizabeth PS, Eats Dirt, buck82, idolector, Mr. Wright, Ben Sutherland, Joshua Mauldin, Jima, RonyyG, Kus Kus, nonKompliant, Jared Zimmerman, SGT Fun, Scuddr, Scotticus, Ryan W, Series Premiere, eatdog888, funnyliberal, Abby T, Love it Madly, TheNotQuiteFool, Carolina P, KingBeej, Cash and Carrie, Ariel Waldman, Geeky Artist Librarian, Kooop, Brian Bruchman, DarrenXYZ, Jannygirl, Andrastia, Little Dynamite, AbbyLadybug, Espelina, Dan 4th, Ario, PocketDora, Vicious Bits, Jaybert, Mixed Feelings, Skonen Blades, Girl of Bats, Lia, Sarah and Jason, and CindyLi.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies environment category.

You’ve got the synthesizers, you’ve got the moogs. You’ve got the music! You’ve got the muzak. You’re a collector of gadgets, and a distributor of sound. What could a person such as yourself hope to find new in the world that you don’t already know about or’r interested in? How about a smaller version of the things you’ve already got? How about then if those little things are made out of fresh, hand-modeled bits of cardboard? They look real nice I’m tellin ya! Dan McPharlin has exactly what you’re looking for, that you can be sure.

Dan McPharlin has this set of hand-constructed models move in some cases, in others they are still. They look fantastic, feel amazing, and oh my goodness do they replicate in a nice way. Made for commissions in some cases, bought in others, you’ll be lucky to get your eyes on one of these in real life. Unless you can make a deal with McPharlin himself. And that’s not too hard, just go on over to his http://www.danmcpharlin.com/ website and chat him up.

Also there’s a couple more of these than’s found in this set, you can find those in his flickr photostream, or if you’re one of the new owners of these fabulous tiny boxes, you could submit a nice picture to us here and we’ll get it up right away!

Hooray replication!

Bonus — The orangy setup of miniatures was made, set up, and photographed by Dan McPharlin for Mr. Chop: Sounds from the Cave 12″ EP. Really cool!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies accessories category.

The United States Government’s collection of fantastic or otherwise hyper-powerful things. Yes! This is what you and I KNOW they’re hiding. Every superhero or strange thing they’ve made a movie of is true! Real stuff, made entertainment to throw us off the track! But now Obama knows, so who knows what’ll happen next! The following is a collection of edited photos conjured up by comic artist Dean Trippe and submitted to us to tell the truth! That truly President Obama has been allowed into the motherload factory of awesome to inspect the weapons and gadgets of the greats. Many more in store.

This set of photos is called “Barack Obama Looking at Awesome Things” but it’s quite obviously an AKA to throw us all off the path again! Truly it must be real, photos of Obama’s look into the inner workings of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division aka S.H.I.E.L.D.! What a world we live in!

Below you will find the doorway to Narnia, the Tardis, the Sword of Omens, a proton pack, a friendly little mogwai, Mjonir hammer of Thor, a Mark IV SPARTAN helmet, the Mach 5, Link’s shield, a lightsaber, a hoverboard, the ring of the Green Lantern, the Fortress of Solitude, the shield of Captian America, and a collection of Bat accessories.

Bounce through these photos below and be thankful President Bush was never allowed in! What kind of terrible things kept safe now in the loving arms of Obama might have been let loose under such a Texan! Nay, now these secrets are still safe.

The location is still hidden, the supervillains at bay.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies accessories category.

Have you had a nice day today? Well, maybe it’s because you’re totally suffocating The Environment! Yes, every day, 1 million animals die from eating plastic bags. Isn’t that crazy? Well designer / artist Aron Kullander-Östling is about to get all up into the print shop and do something wild about it. Yes, that’s right, he’s gonna screenprint his way outta this one. And he does! In a limited edition of 50, he’s changed the world, one bag at a time. Taking the graphics from this 100% classic plastic bag you could find anywhere in the world basically, he transfered and inked his way onto 50 hand-sewn canvass bags.

Sewed em himself even!

That’s what I’m talkin about. For 200 Swedish krona (SEK) you could even get one yourself. Each bag contains a pamphlet about the message “Do something drastic, cut the plastic.”

Contact the dude at aron@selectedworks.se if you want to stock up!

Also collaborating on this project was Rikard Heberling, K.O.’s partner in design.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies accessories category.

Hello all you fun-loving satanists – keep your crappy rat-made tats. The following is a collection of images of upside-down crosses. This is not a collection of evil for satan’s sake. It is a collection of the tendency for images of inverted crosses to be wild and weird. It takes a special situation for a person to decide to flip a cross on its head because of the controversial reaction it might make. However, as you’ll be quick to see, many of these images are personal – images of flipped crosses written on hands, on desks in schools, and more, just for some sort of self-fulfilling need. But then again, they did photograph them.

Indulge in this weirdness, and stray not from the path of righteousness.

The following collection is made up of contributions from this list of generous donors: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos, LadyLadyLadyy, The Rev. Steve, LaruaLynn Patrick, John Hatfield, Criminal Intent, Toothpaw (illustration on text page), Swampy, Scott Prince, Klis, Angel D, Eggybird, Shbnggrth, Cemtry, Chwy, AntiMax, Hotspot O, PizDrunx, Yissah, BuChoy, Leo Curran, Jansenh, IEat Glamour, and Kahlerisms.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies bad taste category.

My name is Chris Burns and I am a Design Junkie. It is not a thing that is all-consuming. No. I am not an addict in the sense that I would not be able to go swimming for lack of letterforms in the ocean. Nay. It is the job of the design addict not to be addicted (exclusively) to the forms created by his or her fellow designer, but to see beauty in all things, seeing potential at any time they want to take a lesson from the things they see in life, then applying them to potential design forms. That said, it’s time to take a ride in the car across town to the grocery store. Looking, and considering, as we go, at every little thing with a healthy appetite.

The following set of photos were taken by me, Chris Burns, graduate with a BFA in Graphic Design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, publisher of World Famous Design Junkies, but otherwise a dude in my environment. The photos are taken on a short trip to the grocery store while my fiancee Elizabeth drove the car and shopped around for some milk and we went to subway to eat some subs and such.

*It’s important to note that taking a bunch of photos and posting them on the internet isn’t the one perfect activity you have to do to consider yourself a designer. God no, why would you think that. It is healthy though, and is always appreciated by your fellow workers.

That said, lets do this.

On the way out the door is this sign on the door. Hand written in lovely, big fat letters that are basically unmistakeable. There is nothing more pure than letters written with one cause in mind. Do not keep this door open, taped to the door, surviving for years and years and years until it’s rendered useless by one single vandal. Perfect.

Stickers and old paper cover this pole outside the building. Each of these stickers were placed in reaction to the stickers placed there before. It’s interesting to think about how many hundreds of signs and messages have been attached to this pole, the majority of them temporal in nature. Not only are the signs themselves important because of their aesthetics and messages, but their placement and the remnants of the other signs are worth investigating also. The three stickers you see here are inward facing (away from the street) because not only were they placed by people coming out of the alley (the same alley the photo is taken from) but also because they are so small, passing people in cars wouldn’t be able to make anything of them. Therefor it makes much more sense for these small messages to be placed in a place for people walking to see. There is a “right” place to put any bit of graffiti, and this right place is changed every time a bit of graffiti is placed.

After having sat probably overnight and up until the point when this photo was taken (afternoon) on a sunny day, this ice-cycle connected this car to the ground. This car had now five points of solid matter touching the ground. Very pretty!

Yellowish Van, Greenish Van. Beautiful are terrible colors when put in the correct combinations and collections. And then they drive apart. Like it never even happened.

As this truck passes under this bridge, at this angle, it becomes another leg.

We are driving at this moment over the 35W bridge (Minneapolis), aka the new bridge constructed over the bridge that collapsed in 2007. What you see here is a set of columns that flow into the air in the middle of the bridge (between lanes). Its interesting to note both the playfulness and the structural soundness of the sculpture. The air of the bridge now is that of futuristic soundness – it is simplified, it is beautiful – it even has lights under it that can be seen from neighboring bridges, the city, and Dinkytown. What was once basically just a busy bridge is now a design landmark.

These powerline towers stand in areas so devoid of tall structures that it is almost impossible to photograph them in a way that it appears they aren’t the dominant construction in the area. Mathematical architecture against the best blue ever, of all time: real sky blue.

Graffiti writers inadvertently intensify the grays on bridges by having their artworks covered up by so-called “cleaning crews.” Anti-definition by destructive design.

The same situation as above, also reflected by the snow, which covers the dirt and dead ugly grass, which is then again covered by the dirt. The harshness of the truth is that as the loveliness of simplicity and brightness increases, so too do the chances that dirt, chaos, and destruction will come. Then more snow, then more dirt, then springtime!

A spot like this is devoid of typography, graphic design, art. It lacks those things, but also provides a place for the eye to rest.

This little device was Industrial Designed by someone to act as a simple lever to make it easier to adjust the rear-view mirror. This sort of item will be made in bulk and used in many different iterations of cars, used as sort of a Lego building block until a car evolves to the point where a new nob is vital in some tiny way to its look. The new nob will then continue to be produced in this new way for several waves of car again. Again and again forever.

Millions of miles of road are applied to the ground now in blocks. Where when pavement was applied, it was more of a “strip” sort of a deal, now cement mixes are the smarter choice as they are less prone to crack in the heat. There is an area between Minneapolis and Saint Cloud that is a world-class testing area for road-materials. Some days you take one road, and other days you are re-directed to another one. It is a game you can play if you and a friend decide to travel to or from Saint Cloud some day.

Freelance truckers run their own trucks. Very often their cab will be amazing, pretty beautiful, large, have bunkbeds, tvs inside, all that good stuff, and the cab wont match the trailer. In some other cases, the truck runs corporate, for example a FedEx semi truck will have a giant “FedEx” on the trailer and a slightly smaller “FedEx” on the cab. But some companies (who shall remain nameless) take the time to make an amazing mark, typographic logo, or generally lovely side to their trailers, then put stock-ugly lettering on their cabs. I imagine the silly nature of this paradoxical situation does not cross their minds.

This is just how it’s done.

It’s quite the thing to think about how human beings adapt to their environment. If thought of in mathematically sound terms, a person who owns a house in Minnesota that keeps it up nice in the winter should have lots of extra spare time in their day if they then move to Los Angeles. But it just doesn’t happen that way, does it? It’s also quite the thing to think of how snow shapes our winter environment here in Minnesota- how it dictates where we can walk, what we can do, and how willing we are to get up in the morning to go to work. Not that a nice sunny day wouldn’t do that last one too, but imagine if you’d lived here your whole life then moved to somewhere in the world where snow does not fall? Adaptation. How does one design without computers? Adaptation.

The calculated marksmanship that goes into laying out a parking lot is one not-oft discussed in a graphic design classroom. For many reasons, like for example the idea that it’s a craft, one that one learns to do exclusively, then masterfully applies to all parking lots in a city. But two, because it is on the ground. Why does one not see many marks on the ground other than garbage? Because it is so quickly covered up, washed away, destroyed by the elements. This spring grab yourself a bucket of chalk and find out how much real-estate the cement you walk on every day has. Lots!

The special sale was never a way to offer the customer a favor, but a way to guide their eyes around the shelves of the store. Soda pop brand giants Pepsi and Coca Cola trade weeks for sales on endcaps not because they make more money that week, but because that week is theirs for advertising. Smart brands have their product placed in a variety of different outlets so that while one is showing good face, the others are making profit. Did you know that Coca Cola provides Disney with their product for their Disneyland locations free of charge? My uncle told me that, and I’d believe him.

Stores, bands, organizations flow from one event to another, one celebration to another, one special look to another constantly. Why? Because the modern consumer reacts best to a product when they see that it is tied to another product. One brand tied to anther brand. It means that this group is good enough that another group was willing to trust them in a partnership. This goes for everything, even on to grocery stores partnering with Valentines Day. We know we’re professional enough and gosh darnit GOOD enough for you to spend part of your holiday weeks here, with us!

This is salt on the ground. Salt in bags is used in Minnesota (and many other places, I’m sure) to delete the snow by lowering its melting point. But then it stains whatever the snow was on until spring or early summer. Also it makes cars rust. Using materials like this to destroy your old work, or to create new work, is awesome.

This is the stamp you need if you want to park in 2 hour zone in Minneapolis. It does the job. It’s so orange, and so white and black. The numbers go in the squares, and it works.

This is a bag of Subway trash. After eating Subway, this bag of trash was outside after a Subway employee took it out of the regular receptacle inside the restaurant. So what lesson about branding do you learn here? You learn this: Subway could ask if you want the sub “here or to go” and get rid of MOST of their waste, but they don’t because giving you the double wrapper and bag and single napkin is part of their brand ritual.

Trip over! This is inside the building! Notice the paint, of course. Look how intelligently it cuts off one color reflecting the cutoff of the color on the wall. That’s simple excellence.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies environment category.

So you know, if you grew up in say, the West, you came across a little thing at some point or another in your life called model cars. When the “modern” age of model cars came along, it continued through my childhood and survived pretty nicely to this day, even unto to the day this post is born. Anyone who’s made cars with kits in their childhood (or in their inner-childhood) knows, and will tell you, that the most amazing, technical, and stylistically important part of the whole process is also the most fun: the stickers.

What you see below is a collection of sticker sheets from model cars going back to the 1960′s, a big portion of them collected by one fantastic enthusiast Brian Myers.

EDIT:: This collection started out with a set of 50 sticker sheets as collected by Brian Myers (who, incidentally, still has the best idea for them, as written below), but as I searched through this list: http://www.towerhobbies.com/rcwcar.html a lot bigger set was soon acquired by picking up one here, two here, five there. So for more info on RC cars, hit up that list. For a gigantic set of stickers, look no further than below!

Now what Brian Myers aims to do is to not only collect these, but also to set them free! Yes! Though sheer willpower, Myers plans on recreating each of these strips with vector graphics, rendering them powerful enough to be re-printed in printing shops and re-distributed through him. Luckily for YOU, the preview of his project is right here in the first 50 images of the gallery you see below! As mentioned above, everything below that is otherwise unaffiliated but magnificent nonetheless.

Brian! You are a modern day graphics hero. Please contact us when you’re well on your way, as I am certain there are many who await your work! Please attribute all work below to Brian Myers and the original company from whens they came, if applicable. Also come back to this dedicated post for any updates on the Brian Myers project.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies stickers category.

Oh joy, oh rapture! Oh hooray! Lego’s had their so-called “minifigs” in all sorts of costumes for years and years now, lovely, amazing, fabulous little guys. My favorites have been the Star Wars collection of course, but up until now, you’ve sort of gotten what you’d payed for. Why’s that bad? It’s not! It’s just not as HIP as buying a package with mystery contents! They’ve gotten hip though. They’ve gotten with it! This right here’s the LEGO Minifigures blind boxed series one! 2 B Reeleased early this summer. Woopie!

This news comes straight from one of the eminent LEGO reporters in the whole world: HUW of Brickset. He went to the London Toy Fair earlier this month to find out all his most amazing reports on the LEGO universe. This is what I plan to do in the future when I am rich and only go to toy fairs.

This set of figures is scheduled to be released June 2010. I am pumped up. This sort of excitement harkens back to baseball card packs, where you’d get your favorites, least favorites, and a stick of gum in every pack. Don’t eat the old packs. These LEGO packs come with one of 16 figures, each of them’ve got unique accessories, some of the accessories totally unique to this set!

At $2 a pack, I am definitely going to try for the clown, the robot, and that really confusing thing in the back that’s gray and has a chicken leg and a shovel.

I’m really into that sort of thing.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies outer space category.

What a wonderful display. Chew if you will upon this new collection of illustrations by design group Geliografic that goes by the name of “Art of Innovation.” Weapons, ammo, and items of war set in still life paintings stolen from antiquity. Fear now the trends of war, or perhaps feel glad that G’s making fun of them. I’m personally like to note how weapons like these have become as commonplace in artwork these recent years as the items they’re set next to in these pictures. Tastes kinda nice!

Eleven pictures below in the gallery for your eyeballs, all of them illustrated by the fine folks at Geliografic. They usually do work for video games, book covers, and sometimes advertising. Thank goodness they sometimes delve into these fantastic works of design art too – not that it’s not just simple math – excellence equals more jobs. What masterpieces!

The designers and artists involved in Geliografic are based in Moscow, Russia. I’m sure you’ll see some of that Russ heritage in several of these works in the gallery below, especially since some of their main sparks of influence are artists Andrei Rublev, Karl Briullov, and Ivan Aivazovsky – Russian powerhouses all.

Now set your fingers on fire clicking these lovely works!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies fragile category.

Go Nigo Go Nigo Go! Go, go, go, go! Nigo, Nigo, rappala, Nigo, Nigo, hook fashion addict. Go! Go! Go! Go! — A Bathing Ape brand has the fishy smarts behind it. Those people know exactly what they’re doing when they bait this hook. What you see above (and below) is their new collaboration with Daiwa (fishing gear brand) – fishing lures with Bape camouflage graphics. Not just to further your total Bape lifestyle, but for the irony of the lure culture!

I must first mention that Bape, being the design conscious folks that they are, hooked up with a pretty magical brand here. Look no further than the official Daiwa mark (logo) and see how serious they are about their brand intelligence.

Now Bape, aka A Bathing Ape, grew then exploded all over the world using several extremely simple business concepts:

1. Limited Editions (Ignore cost of only producing a few hundred, push that bill on to the consumer, who will not only pay it, but will gladly pay it in order to be a special part of this subculture brand.)

2. Pretend to be Hidden (The original store, and still a bunch of stores today that sell Bape, were called “Nowhere” and had no marks on the outside of the building. You had to be “in the know,” making this brand not just a subculture brand, but a subculture in and of itself.)

3. Once the brand is “discovered”, strike the iron with celebrities and music personalities and music, brand collaborations, expansion to other products (like this lure.)

Nigo is the face of Bape. He is a personality, one of the original folks to conceive of the brand, and now the head promoter. In this lure is the brand-culture culture encapsulated.

It’s a lure to catch the fish who would gladly live in Nigo’s special brand fishtank.

Do want.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies sports category.

Matchbooks matchbooks, here and there, matchbooks matchbooks everywhere! Hooray for these little magical fantasms that contain the elemental power which set the world on fire. Fire! Not for children to collect, that’s this collection. Ranging from the wildness (see pic above) of the matchbooks in my personal collection (yours truly, Chris Burns,) to wonderful design-conscious collectors like the folks at “Oh Joy!” – it’s the first annual big fat huge industrial sized World Famous Design Junkies matchbook collection!

The cuteness! Flip your way through this gallery of matchbooks and thank your nicely-placed stars these people didn’t fear the contents of the packages enough to make their exterior nothing more than a warning label. Light em up!

Enjoy this quote from Albert Einstein as a bit of fire for thought.

The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than did the discovery of matches.

As noted above, this collection is from my personal collection (that’d be the matches photographed on wood flooring, you’ll know em when you see em), and from the following contributors: Oh Joy!, TwoDimeTokes, R Berdar, The Real Devil Doll, Roadside Pictures, psychosm, Vintage Roadside, Tokyo Cowboy, neocles, bonitoclub, Library Fashionista, Mike Z, Boomerang Thang, Galska, Sea Track, Erinzam, Chuckmoody, Dale Harris Design, Coltera, Co Design Shop, Jason202, Captian Panda Pants, Second Period, Waffle Whiffer, Scotty Sauce, Mattski, Neato Coolville, Julie Wilson World, Spin979, Sedanman, Look Homeward Harlot, Jessica World, The Real Devil Doll, Johnny Dollar, Terr-Bo, jsindal, andrea, Connor Molloy, Iron Lace, Prima Seadiva, and MADsLucky13.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies tiny category.

Welcome to the click-out world of Michael Johansson. The work you see above is his dingy. It’s called Toys’R'Us and it’s a 1:1 scale model of a boat with all the necessities for staying afloat along with it. This sort of model should remind you of 1-piece click-out toys packaged with action figures such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Michael Johansson specializes in parodying this particular moment in toydom by creating life-sized models with that molded-plastic “break-apart and play” action specifically in mind.

Some other models made this year are Some Assembly Required – Bed Frame Included, and Foldable Hand Truck Assembly, which are both also appearing below in the gallery. Think about how silly this is! It’s just taking the piss out of real toys in the world, things we make for eachother to play with, things we make for eachother to spend time on.

Imagine such a simple comparison!

We live with these toys all day, every day.

TOYS’R'US – Dingy scale 1:1
Mixed Media: dinghy, boat equipment, welded metal frame, spraypaint
Dimensions: 2 x 2,6 m.
Installation view: Besökarna, Västra Hamnen, Malmö (S)

Some Assembly Required – Bed Frame Included, 2009
Folding bed, welded metal frame, spray paint.
Dimensions: 3.2 x 1.3 m
Installation view: Frameworks, Østfold Kunstnersenter, Fredrikstad (N)

Foldable Hand Truck Assembly, 2009
Hand truck, welded metal frame, spray paint.
Dimensions: 0.9 x 1.8 m
Exhibited at: Frameworks, Østfold Kunstnersenter, Fredrikstad (N) 2009

Michael Johansson’s just been in a show called Örebro Open Art, Örebro (S) 2009 – which is where the Toys’R'Us boat was exhibited, and he’s gonna have more soon. He’s primed to go big soon, biggie big. The gallery you see below contains the boat, the bed frame, and the truck and wheels amongst many others, all of the rest besides these ones marked 2009 being before 2009, none older than 2006 if I’m not mistaken!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies toys category.

Inside of this post you’re about to behold a set of nicely constructed Japanese magazine advertisements from the late 60′s and early 70′s in a lovely amount (50+). Simplicity abound. Although there really was a smaller amount of “Futura terror” in the years before Helvetica in Japan, the times certainly did change by the end of the 1960s. Modern minimalism permeated the whole world, even super crazy time Japanese magazines.

That’s what we’ve got here!

From cartoons to half-naked women, this period in advertising represents a rather nice calming-down of things. Stark, simple, toooo the point. You’ll find a few of the more bang-up jobs above and below already expanded, then feel free to take a peek through the gallery.

This collection has been harvested and curated from That’s Euro Beat! aka “Western Journal of Showa nostalgia ads,” a vast, vast collection of Japanese advertisements from the start of the 1950s through the end of the 1980s.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies advertisements category.

This is the Golden Cart. It is gold. It is branded with the name Okko, which is totally gourmet. They have hard-to-find foods there. And what’s better to hold all your million-dollar foods and drinks than a freaking golden blinged-out cart? Nothing. Nothing is better. This cart sits nicely inside your local Instanbul Okko.

These carts were painted and embellished before the grand opening of the first Okko store in Istanbul, placed in strategic locations such as the elevator, parking lot, aisles, and were noticed by all of the fabulously rich customers.

Ultimate extravagance. Total immersion into kitsch wealth.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies installation category.

Bones. They are everywhere. You can’t see them because they are under your skin. Unless you are in a skateboard crash. Then you can see your bones, because oh my god that looks like it hurts pretty bad. But what do you do with the bones once the meat is eaten off the bones? I’m talking like after a nice chicken shack visit. Then what? Felipe Ribon has the solution in a bunch of forms. You read those, then you read which one I think I’ve thought of that’s missing.

What Felipe Ribon has done right here is to use some sophisticated secret techniques (widdling away with exacto knives and such) to recapitulate the forms of bones taken from food industry “waste.” The amount of “waste” generated from every food industry around the world is staggering. You know what I mean right away, I’m sure.

I applaude Felipe Ribon for taking the time to take bones apart and put them back together to make some really amazing stuff. Take a peek at this project here!

Glasses By gluing thing layers of bones, we can gain on flexibility and resistance. This properties allowed me using numerical drilling technology to use it in the fabrication of glasses.

High Heels Due to its high resistance to compression I wanted to use the bone in the fabrication of shoes.

Pen This material can easily be polished, making it very soft and gentle to the skin touch.

Disposable Food Instruments 100% ecological and food compatible, I imagine a series of instruments, such as a spatula, a pick , a swizzle stick and a mixer. that can be used once and throw away.

Here’s what I think’s missing: the prison shiv. Bones carved the right way can kill a dude! That’s scary as heck to think about. Don’t get sent to prison.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies industrial design category.

This post is a collection of hundreds of Star Wars photos from the set, of the movies, and from the promotional shots of the 70′s and 80′s. Doesn’t matter how you feel about Star Wars, it’s affected the way you work. The world you live in today is the world you live in today because of Star Wars. You’d better believe that. Its basically like this: Luke Skywalker: New York, Princess Leia: Los Angeles, Han Solo and Darth Vader: Minneapolis.

These have been scrounged from all over the internets. If you are one of the photographers of these phantastic photos, shoot me an email or a comment here. If you’d like to take credit for bringing an image here to the internet, I give you a hearty thank you and internet hand shake. If you’ve got photos you’d like to add to the collection, feel free to also contact!

This post is composed of photos from the movies, (the original trilogy,) making-of photos, a few posters, products, and advertisements. MOSTLY it’s photos from cut scenes and promotional photos. Everything is super amazing and very wild.

Star Wars: one of, if not the greatest non-Jesus brands in history.

UPDATE: There is now another Rare Star Wars Photos post by the name of More Star Wars Rarities. More on-set, behind the scenes, during shots, and good time havin by the crew.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies outer space category.

Here’s how you carve out your little piece of the money. You find your nitch FIRST. Then you think about what they do. Crazies. Hippies. Weirdos. They need to feed their cats. Then need to make their cats into crazy cats. So what should you do? You should make a catnip brand called Cosmic Catnip. And put a crazy cat on the bag. Crazy cat!

This bag of catnip is real, and it’s at the reptile store. It’s at the Twin Cities Reptiles store in Saint Paul. If you can stand smelling a bunch of snakes for a short period of time, take a walk through there! They’ve got a ton of lizards and turtles and grasshoppers and such, plus a few hairy animal supplies.

I am not even kidding you. That is the name of the solo show happening right now by artist / designer / wildman WK Interact. His name might be just “WK” now cause that’s what it says on the ads, but still, “How to Blow Yourself Up!” That’s what’s up. In this post is a basic rundown of everything that’s in the show. I recommend definitely GOING to the show though also because everything is so sculptural and needs to be seen IRL.*

*IRL = in real life. Reals.

WK
How to Blow Yourself Up
Opening Reception
November 7th / 8-11PM
November 7th – December 5th

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS GALLERY
1331 W. SUNSET BLVD
LOS ANGELES 90026
t.213.213.0078
INFO@SUBLIMINALPROJECTS.COM
TUES — FRI: 1-6 PM
SAT: NOON – 5PM

Keep your eyes open especially for ingredients such as Madness and Intensity

99 Crosby Street
Mixed Media Assemblage
(Salvaged Door, Caution Barracade, Electrical Socket, Wires, Acrylic,
Enamel and Mayhem)
82” h x 68” w

“Emergency”
Mixed Media Assemblage
(Former Studio Door, Chainsaw, Boxing Mask, Air Pump, Alarm, Mischief,
Readiness, and Revolution)
89”H x 38” W

“Trap”
Mixed Media Panel Assemblage
24”H x 72” W

“Double Attack”
Mixed Media Panel Assemblage
24”H x 72” W

“Lock Yourself”
Mixed Media Panel Assemblage
24”H x 60” W

“Jump Out”
Mixed Media Panel Assemblage
24”H x 72” W

“Caution”
Mixed Media Panel Assemblage
36”H x 72” W

“Blow Yourself Up 4”
Modfied Skate Deck
Circuit, Synthetic Dynamite, Severity
36”H x 16” W

“Blow Yourself Up 1”
Modfied Skate Deck
Pipe Bomb, Battery, Resistance
36”H x 17” W

“Blow Yourself Up 3”
Modified Skate Deck
(Pipe Bomb, Trigger, Madness)
36”H x 18” W

“Blow Yourself Up 2”
Modified Skate Deck
(Dynamite, Alarm, Trigger, Circuit, Danger and Invasion)
36”H x 16” W

“Blow Yourself Up 5”
Modified Skate Deck
(2-Way Radio, serigraph, intensity)
36”H x 14” W

“Ex Cop”
Mixed Media Assemblage and supplemental panels
107”H x 76” W

WK
“Ex Cop”
Acrylic, Enamel, and Ink on Natural Canvas
72”H x 72” W
(this last one is the canvas face, I have a feeling maybe that it’s not titled Ex Cop – might be a mistake)

I will take the blue “Ex Cop” (shown below) if you want to buy me one. That would be fine with me. Everything else you’ll have to match up yourself or go to the show. I am encouraging you to go to the show!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies DESTRUCTION category!