Let me get rather completely and utterly technical for a moment so those of you that’d know what’s going on here in such a way can get more into it: Mitchell is working on a package called CalcNet, networking software which uses his “Doors CS” – shell and GUI for TI calculators. In the video you’re about to see, he’ll tell you he’s demonstrating the high reliability and throughput of his network.

To demonstrate his network, he’s running a game called NetPong, a version of Pong made specifically to play over a multi-calculator network. Marvel at his coolness for connecting so many screens, then join in the antics by checking out the linked documents

- try it all yourself. Ziff!

[Via Hack A Day]

The original link to this video is [here], the video you’re seeing there is under our account with a blanked out name to keep it secret and keep it safe should the squares ever come hunting for our friend 17. Dance in glorious concentric circles and walk backwards immensely, friends!

Presenting the wildest use of collage I’ve ever seen applied to a fantasy comic book convention game boy situation. This is MCAD grad Mitchell Kenneth Lewis’s Pokemon project. One where he takes different parts from all sorts of other projects like photography projects and works them together with some hot photoshop skills and creates something completely wild in the jungle. Pokemon cartoons turned into what they’d probably look like if they existed in the same plane of existence as us.

Oh Pokemon, how fun you’ve been for so very many years. How Japanese you are. How diverse is your cartridge full of digital animals. Mitchell Lewis has a fanbase. He’s got 9 down, 141 to go. Pokemon. In the original game, there were 151 Pokemon (150 + the secret Mew.) He’s gonna catch em all. He’s gotta! Perfect for viral spread, perfect for promotion!

Find more wild action on the Mitchell Lewis portfolio ikioi.

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

This post is about crayons! Hooray! When people grow from a child into an adult, some things resonate with them – usually these things are tastes, like a certain kind of cookie, or a favorite lucky number. Some other people keep things with them that are supposed to be stuck on to the everyday lives of children ONLY. One of these things is coloring crayons. But like the awesome lady who’s done the project we’re looking at here, you and I are totally inspired by crayons and the fact that the whole tool can be turned into the artwork. Fabulous.

This is a collection of hipster dinosaurs crafted from the essence of an everyday jurassic coloring book. Crafted with the magic of crayons. Internet superstar Molly23 created these over a period of a few weeks if I’m not mistaken, and they’re traveling about on their own through the fffounds and reddits of this world. Here they are all together. Give Molly23 a shout on her super blog if you love her so much. Then head on down to the gallery here and look at these magical dinosaurs.

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

Behold! Posters of everyday things by designer Hiller Goodspeed aka H.G. Goodspeed. Each of these is done for the heck of it in good spirits for the greatness of mundane items, subjects, and events. Goodspeed is my kind of fellow. Seems to me that Goodspeed has that tick, that need to create, every single day of the year in some way or another. Even in the mind, speaking in giggles to his fellow affiliate – wouldn’t it be funny if – and the rest is history. A stack of lovely posters for the greatness of simplicity.

This is a tiny wonderful collection of posters that go by the title “EPDED POSTERS” and is in all colors, all subject matters of the average USA citizen. Lovely for those who love to rock, and for those who’r going to the bus stop to have a soda pop.

If you’d like to see more works by Hiller Goodspeed, take a look at his fab portfolio site at http://hillergoodspeed.com/ and click all around and eventually hire him to make something amazing or just send him a stack of cash. I say that for most people, but I tell you what, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it. The people I post here are the people you should rock with. I vouch for their fantastic skills.

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

So the masters of being on the scene have struck again. Thank you Arrested Motion for capturing this fabulous event: “Status Factory,” a solo show by Ron English. There was a tiny little preview back a couple days ago, and now you get to see the whole friggin thing thanks to the AM folks, those fabulous snapping fools. Thank you thank you! Hooray!

This isn’t the first time we’ve used Arrested Motion as a source. They’re fabulous and are always on the scene. This time they’ve captured the master of popaganda, Ron English, also known as one fantastic magician of paint, the reincarnation of… some mix of 60′s goon, kids who never grew up, and Picasso.

Here’s some words from Arrested Motion:

Last night, AM attended the private viewing of Ron English (featured), latest exhibition “Status Factory”. With the sponsorship of Opera Gallery, the pop-up exhibition was held in an extravagant triplex retail space in the heart of New York’s Soho district. As we showed you in the setup, the location was transformed by Ron & gang over the course of a week to give the audience the full experience of “Popaganda“.

“Status Factory” Sunday the 12th of September at 3PM
Opera Gallery
382 West Broadway New York, NY

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

No matter how conscious I am of the water I use, I still use too much. Just recently I payed the first bill I’ve ever had where the water portion was shown separately. It was cheap! Basically free! So I’m even less conscious now than I was before. I’m practically passed out! But look at this heavy statement right here, above and below. It’s called “Poor Little Fish” and it shows, in a very real way, how you could be killing all life on this planet by using too much water, especially all the little orange fishies.

This Poor Little Fish bowl is the work of designer / artist Yan Lu. He’s got your guilt in mind, and he wants it! He wants to smash you right in the guilt muscle if you think about using too much water. How? By threatening to kill this fish. As you use water, the water level in the fish tank goes down. That easy. That scary.

Then as he notes, the water you use isn’t the same water as is in the tank. Both are safe and clean for fish and human. You wont be washing your hands with goldfish poops.

Words from Yan Lu:

As consumption is incalculable, saving is often neglected through daily consumption. Rather than forcing people to consume less, thus depressing the using experience, Poor Little Fish basin offers an emotional way to persuade consumers to think about saving water, by making consumption tangible.

//

There is a traditional shaped fish bowl in the Poor Little Fish basin. While using, the level of water in the bowl gradually falls (but does not actually drain out); it will go back to the same level once the water stops running. As well, the water from the tap is pure, as its pipeline does not connect to the bowl.

Elegant and weird, just how mama likes it.

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

Dear world, it is my pleasure to announce the continued modern-day miracle working of Aesthetic Apparatus. Today’s magic: the 2010 label for Minneapolis’ own Surly Brewing Company’s Russian Imperial Stout: DARKNESS. This tasty opportunity was offered in past years to the likes of Adam Turman in 2007, Nic Skrade (misspelled on the label?) in 2008, and Dave Witt in 2009. Each of these artists and designers was (and is) based in the Twin Cities, and to continue that tradition in a highly proper manner, Aesthetic Apparatus has been asked next. Beer plus AA. How else could the world of beer and the beer filled world move on into the future? There is no other way available.

If you’re blind, you might not notice that above, you can see the label for the beer we’re talking about here. If you click the thumbnail in the gallery below, you can see it bigger. If you buy the beer on “Darkness Day” Saturday, October 23rd, you’ll see it even bigger-er.

Read the label in text here, courtesy of, who else, Beer News:

“The inception of Darkness was rather humble. In 2006, Todd Haug, Surly Head Brewer, told me he was going to brew twelve barrels of this Russian Imperial Stout. I wondered how we would ever sell 24 kegs of this giant brew to Twin Cities’ bars and restaurants. Given my faith in Todd, I did not stop him. Thank God. We soon heard of people pouring their beers into 12-ounce bottles, capping them and taking them home. Well, if bottles were what Surly Nation wanted, then bottles were what they would get! That year, two whole kegs -60 growlers- were sold.

In 2007, we ramped up production to 30 barrels, and Minneapolis-based artist, Adam Turman, designed the first label for a 750ml bottle. December 15th was the earliest we could label, fill and dip all 5,000 bottles: so we celebrated with bands, beer and donuts. We sold out quickly to the brave souls who weathered the cold to stand in line, and Darkness Day was born. In 2008, tattoo artist, Nik Skrade, designed the label and the event exploded ten-fold to 5,000 bottles. In 2009, local artist, Dave Witt was commissioned for the Darkness artwork, and the City of Brooklyn Center joined the party.

This year, Aesthetic Apparatus has designed the label and is beginning the new tradition of a yearlong series of original artwork for our beer. So, that’s how this humble little/big beer became the unexpected juggernaut you now hold in your hands. Let’s raise a glass to all the artists and beer geeks that have made it possible!”

Limited edition for sure. And ALSO in the gallery you’ll see past years’ beers. Credit for these photos go to: Friday Night Beer, The Perfectly Happy Man, and PeterHDK. See if you can match the beer to the artist. It’ll be fun for everyone.

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

What a perfect day, a wondrous day, for today a baby is born. My friends Erik Brandt and Elisabeth Workman have tied their lives together and shot out a whole ‘nother life into existence. This child you see before you has three glorious names, one more excellent than the last, all in a circle: Beatrix Lulu Sakile!!! She was born at 6:45AM this morning (CST) and is already dancing on the dance floor with the whole world. As per request by the parents, I issue you the demand that you get down and boogie in celebration too!

Musical selections below!

It’s a funky day, get out on the dance floor for Beatrix!

Dance all day!

The title of this post comes from Erik Brandt’s original announcement to the wider world through the internet, a passage which also included “Liebe Freunde! Beatrix Lulu Sakile was born at 6:45AM this morning (CST) … Mother and child are so beautiful and strong, it is just amazingly amazing and amazingly amazing.

So, all peace loving people must now GET ON THE FLOOR AND DANCE WITH US…”

Hooray forever!

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

This bike right here sat, the day I saw it, in the parking garage next to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Childrens Museum, and MCAD. It sat down on the bottom level, lookin all good, all covered in stickers from face to rear. What you’re about to see is a sneak-snap documentation of this parked bike including each and I hope every sticker on it.

It’s got things you might recognize too, including a lovely Burlesque Design sticker right under it’s toothy grin.

If you’re out there looking at this and you’ve got more details than I or we do, and you’d like to share, please do. Comment below or email any details about the bike or any of the stickers if you know and want to share in goodheartedness.

Then, if you’ve got a bike or other sort of automotive covered in stickers like this and you just so happen to have documentation of it, or if you know of someone else who has, send it in! I and we and everyone love reduplications of culture from around the planet.

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

If you’re anywhere near my age, young or old of heart, you “remember” the Pokemon craze when it first exploded unto the western world. Pokemon Red, the less-cool Pokemon Blue, the ccg card game, the restaurant toys, all of it very fun. There was a cartoon, too! But none of it really went very much in depth, into the personal lives of the characters. Why would it? It’s a friggin kids cartoon. But did you ever notice, you heavy-hitting fans of the Pokemon world, did you ever notice that the main character, Ash, was a bastard child? Truly the world was not ready for this storyline, and thustly it was never explored. Until NOW!

Designer / illustrator / writer / cartoonist Maré Odomo had a super idea. It’s called “Letters To An Absent Father” and it’s all about the main protagonist of the Pokemon original series, Ash, and the idea that not only do you never see his father, he simply isn’t in the family picture. It’s totally a bad social situation.

Odomo explains in a nutshell:

The first strip was originally created for Cory Schmitz’s video game art + culture magazine, EXP. Not to be confused with Matthew Kumar’s exp. The first strip expanded into 4. I had to start including my name because they were being passed around without giving me credit. I’ve left the original strips as they are because they show my growth, which is more important to me than consistency. Also, I am too lazy to redraw them.

The 4 strips kept growing and now there are 12.

I felt bad about making a print-only comic so that’s why I made the wallpaper. It’s based off of strip #7 (the print-only one). #8, which is animated, was created as another little Thank You to my online fans. Since, you know, you can’t print out animated gifs.

You can view all of these strips below, plus there’s a mini-comic which you can buy with your money! Not only does it come in regular edition, there’s a customized version too!

Letters To An Absent Father
MINI-COMIC NOW AVAILABLE!
4.25 inches x 4.25 inches
Fits in your Nintendo DS cartridge case!

$3 for the comic, but for $13, I’ll draw you a picture on the notebook paper!

Several of these customized comics (with a little sketch) are shown below as well. Enjoy this expanding of a universe thoroughly. It is always a strange and interesting journey to do so.

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

A tiny documentary in four photos of the insides of the photographer. It’s Ibai Acevedo’s strangest moment in four frames. Acevedo is a multitalented photographer whose filled herself with some colorful liquids and… let it all come out… upwards?

Devour such a lovely situation en large.

This project, “Lo que tengo yo dentro,” is listed under the “Personal” section of Acevedo’s online portfolio. Personal, side, “random”, these are the projects I just cannot leave a portfolio without looking through. And more often than not, there’s something in there that ends up being fantastic and perfect for World Famous Design Junkies. Lo que tengo yo dentro means “What Do I Have Inside,” basically.

To get in contact with Ibai Acevedo with the emailings, use this one: hello @ ibaiacevedo.com, or, if you want to see lots more work updates and such, head on over to http://ibaiacevedo.com/ and click click click and see see.

ALSO right after the four liquid inside photos there’s some other fabulous selections from Acevedo’s portfolio. It’s impossible to post them all though, they’re too epic for one post.

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

Lots and lots of skeletons and the occasional panda bear. That’s what you get when you thumb through your collection of prints made by the most amazing Jose Pulido aka Mis Nopales Art. You shall see so many skeletons that you will celebrate. Celebrate with all your death with Joke Pulido and dance, yes dance the night away! You will meet a serenading skeleton, a butterfly catching skeleton, Darth Vader skeleton, skeleton aboard an armadillo… wait! Darth Vader skeleton! Yes, the pop is in there for real.

But not only pop! This collection of skeletons, henceforth known as Calaveras (aka skulls), do all the fun stuff, all the thangs a skullhead might want to do, including impersonate the living.

Each of these, or at least most of these, is a print or a template for a print printed by Mis Nopales Art. Jose Pulido is a heavily prolific printmaker and he loves to skull them out! A whole bit ton of tiny prints for the whole world! Yes indeedy.

PLUS there’s some oddballs in there. Aka non-skully items also drawn by Pulido that show he’s not just a one-trick skelehorse. He’s got skills. Skeleskills, pandaskilla, luchidoreskills.

If you’d like to get yourself one of these skullys for your very own, take a ride on over to the Nopales Etsy shop, or contact Pulido by emailing him through his Etsy contact page. You’ll have to be logged in if I’m not mistaken.

AND AND AND if you’re in the southern California area, you could take a peek at his works up close at TWO count them TWO upcoming shows — Renegade Craft Fair Los Angeles, July 24+25 AND Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco, July 31-Aug 1. Get there!

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

Isn’t it amazing how some movies can be a bit hit in the theaters, then once they’ve been on people’s home movie shelves for a few years they peter out- while some movies are crap in the theater, then get watched forevermore? This is the cult classic, of course, and someone’s got their fingers right in the bloody pulse of this situation as it pertains to design, that being Toronto based designer Ibraheem Youssef. He’s rolling right beside these internet-famous designers who turn their eyeballs toward self-promotional work in the form of cult classic illustration. Here he’s done several that I might have passed over except for one thing…

INCEPTION. Yes, he’s got a couple of the classics here with Lebowski and Scarface, but then he tells us that when he went, just a few days ago, to this new film Inception, that he couldn’t resist! This is newness. This is in the vein of Tyler Stout, a dude who, once the theaters got wind of him making such fantastic illustrations for older films, began hiring him to create posters for limited releases of newer ones.

In so many words and a few dollars and pennies, you can purchase cult-classic status now, if only for a little while. Of course the true cult classic attains its status only through time and circumstance. But the situation is there! And it’s here, too, in some really super neat illustrative posters. Peek em out.

And take note — the mazes in the Inception poster work!

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

This fella right here, Thomas B, aka Bergie81, created a lovely masterwork here, a Star Wars scene done in heavy pop fashion. Specifically in the Sunday Funnies style of Roy Lichtenstein. This particular work “Battle” is done in direct tribute to the painting “Whaam!”, done by Lichtenstein in 1963. The style is hot.

Magnetic, that’s what these two entities are. Star Wars and Pop Art, together forever and never to part, together forever we two. That’s their song for each other.

Now here’s a couple words from Bergie:

I do admire the art of Roy Lichtenstein and I tried to convey his PopArt to the Star Wars theme.
Source of inspiration was his masterpiece “Whaam” from 1963 which is one of my favourites. Due to the fact that I am not George Lukas, I cant use it for commercial purpose. And again I say while pointing the finger:

DONT USE IT FOR ANY COMMERCIAL STUFF!

May the fairness be with you!

Yay free! You can hang out over at Bergie’s site for the PDFs of these works, or you can go in the gallery below for some rather-large jpg versions. Also included are Bergie’s Lightsaber Pop works. Cute!

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

Agh! Claws! Oh no, also robots! Wait, these robots have fantastic beats and French bits. They are Les Robots! Or, as I call them in my head, Daft Bear. They are one of a collection of bear-related background images from the extended collection of bears called “KING PANPAN,” a 365 day-a-year, image every single day, project by Julius Santiago. It’s 365 days starting at the beginning of 2010, so that’s a whole bunch of months already, with a whole bunch more to go! Check out more of the collection in the gallery below, then head over to Santiago’s twitter account to send him some suggestions for more bears!

This excellent trend of attaching yourself to a 365 day schedule, one a day, is extremely difficult. Don’t fool yourself into thinking “oh only one a day – that’ll be simple, one is easy!” It is easy to do one. But the next day, that’s when it starts getting harder. Each day wears on you a little bit more, and in the end you hate it! Unless you’re amazing and involve other people like Santiago has done here. No artist is an island, remember that. Designers, the same thing goes for you. You’ve got to stay inspired.

Inspired to work.

Inspired to play.

My name is Julius Santiago. I’m a graphic designer and Illustrator.

King Panpan is my little project to create as much art as possible. I’ll be creating one bear illustration a day for all of 2010. Drawing them is the easy part. The hard part is coming up with 365 ideas. Hopefully this is where you can help. Leave me a reply via twitter and I’ll add it to my list.

The images below are all from Santiago’s wallpaper collection, so once you click them, they’re gonna show up HUGE! Feel free to download and share, but remember to always attach links to Santiago when you do it. He’s gonna keep on bear-ing in the free world for the whole rest of the year!

Check filenames for inspiration on each bear situation -Robocop to Pokemon.

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

Today (I wrote this a few days ago) I hear the sad news that one of the ultimate original players in the Graffiti and Hip-hop world has kicked the bucket. “RAMM::ELL::ZEE” or Rammellzee as he was called died today [June 27, 2010] whilst, if the rumors are true, he was doing math equations in none other than his home town and city, Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. How unbelievably appropriate for one of the most mathematically sound wild-style artists of many generations. The first I ever heard of him, he was being described in the Graffiti documentary film “Style Wars,” his paintings of weapon-clad letters being shown by his pal Dondi, another king.

In humble celebration of the passing of Ram, I and we present to you a gallery of armored letters, operators that blow the lids off all that they encounter. Rest in peace, Zee.

“The letter is armed to stop all the phony formations, lies, and tricknowlegies placed upon its structure.” – RAM EL ZEE

Rammel is an enigma. An eternally complicated graffiti man who, according to wikipedia, revealed in an interview that his name meant heavy, heavy stuff – derived from “RAM” plus “‘M’ for ‘Magnitude’, ‘Sigma’ (Σ) the first summation operator, first ‘L’ – ‘longitude’, second ‘L’ – ‘latitude’, ‘Z’ – ‘z-bar’, Σ, Σ – ‘summation’.”

Dondi speaking about a work with Ram in a Style Wars “scene extra”:

And that’s just the tip of this metal, mental iceberg. Look for some videos of this crazy brilliant man if you dare. He’s wild. Above begins and below continues the gallery including a couple of works by Ram himself (above being a “B” by Ram owned by a private party), plus a bunch of paintings by adventurers that were inspired without a doubt by Ram’s life in one way or another. Have a feast on these giant masterpieces in his honor.

Where appropriate, the filenames of the letters in the gallery below will lead you to their sources. Due to the super-futuristic nature of Ramm Ell Zee, I expect you to know how to access that information. Internets, graffiti, letters with weapons. Activate!

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

Well, the day has finally come. June 29, 2010. This marks ten full years since the release of one of the most addictive keyboard-and-click video games ever created. It was there, in that game, online with thousands of other players fighting, leveling up, collecting treasures, that I realized my obsessive personality. I believe every modern person has this sort of “disorder” to some degree, they call it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder if I’m not mistaken, OCD for short. Diablo II (aka Diablo 2) took hold of that piece of each of us, the people finding themselves part of this new internet community, and held on tight.

Ten years tight.

And then there was the Social Media. And the clicking.

Now you might notice the “DIGG” logo mark stuck to the Diablo II image above. Why? Because it’s the same. Over the past few days I’ve attached myself to the community of DIGG like it was a game. Because it is a game. When you’ve got a brain like me and the rest of us young gentlemen and ladies who can’t keep their hands still, all you’ve got to do is provide a ranking system and you’ve got them occupied.

If you want to survive in today’s capitalizing network, you’ve got to keep your head. You consider your obsessive nature a disorder and you’re stuck feeling bad about it. You tell yourself you’re strong and that being obsessed allows you to do mass amounts of work, well, you’ll burn out, buddy. So what’s to be done? How many roads must a man walk down? Do girls just want to have fun?

Let’s talk about what we do on WFDJ to stay occupied in a healthy manner, or at least a progressively social manner. Sound good? How about we number this list, too.

1. DIGG – On this share and read site, I’ve found it beneficial to be yourself: ca77 is the name I go by. We had a WFDJ DIGG and it petered out. It had a little bit to do with that I lost interested back when I started it, and a lot to do with the fact that people on DIGG like to feel like they’re working with people as opposed to organizations. Now we’re making friends, connections, and cross-links. Up-voting per friendly suggestions, rooting out false prophets aka spammers, and submitting our own material here and there to capitalize on the work it does take to be a helpful member in this squad of workers.

2. FACEBOOK – Here we’re in a few places. There’s my personal page, something everybody’d probably enjoy having if they had one, then there’s both the WFDJ website page and personality. These both have their own unique abilities, both of them important to how we round out our facebook presence. The website page is the place where people basically thumb-up our page and suggest it to others. Real simple. The personality page is the same thing you get when you sign yourself up for facebook. If you’ll take a look you’ll see the name on it is “WorldFamous DesignJunkies” because we’ve got to fool fb into believing the presence is a person. People see this, find it unique, and friend it right away. 946 friends end up being much more valuable than 2,000 thumbs-ups. For real.

3. TUMBLR – A super-simple and lovely genius setup for bloggers from the start to the super-used-to. The WFDJ tumblr account acts as a subsidary of WFDJ’s main news page, allowing for more attention to be payed to individual images and quotes from pages. People today on these internets are interested not only in the content they’re peeking at, but in the way they’re peeking at it too. Tumblr is unique in it’s…well… twitter-list sort of friends feed, showing updates from everyone they love at once, with simple buttons for liking and re-posting. That, and if you’ve got the personality we’re talking about, tumblr’s a place where you can post thoughts and sub-images that come to your knowledgeable mind throughout the day not big enough for a whole post.

4. TWITTER – Have one. Love it. Don’t hold back. Unless you’re the kind of person who posts every 5 minutes, because that’s a cause to hold back. People de-friend people who post too much. I’d wager to say that posting too frequently is the number one reason people de-friend on Twitter. An awesome service to use to post to twitter is http://su.pr/, a site made by StumbleUpon for people to have instant url-shortening complete with a handy SU head-board. Always with the head-boards. Always with the grasp of the fingers.

5. STUMBLEUPON – This community is perhaps the most difficult to be a part of because of it’s dis-jointed nature. There are message boards and there are ways to send messages back and forth, but there’s so much sharing that it’s basically impossible to work with other people. Your best bet for becoming successful at SU is to follow the rules you’d work with for Reddit or Digg. Be sensible, work on helping other people first, yourself in the back of your mind most of the time, in front every once in a while. We’ve been at it so long that our method is to post different singular images from WFDJ, using SU as an image-sharing program rather than as a news aggregator.

6. REDDIT – Find your favorite sub-Reddit and thrive in it. I’ve had some little success working with the people who run the Star Wars list. Each subreddit has its own moderators and family, so it’s possible to be cool with these healthy “medium groups.”

With all of these plus finding the content plus preparing and publishing the content, one has the opportunity to have this OCD nature without messing a single one up by too much participation. Always keep in mind that everyone on these internets is a person, and that many people go to multiples of these sites. That means if you post the same thing to each of them, these people will find you and they will slap you in the face, digitally. So be new and unique with each little thing you post. In fact, just to be safe, never post the same thing twice. Not only is that healthy, it keeps you spry.

Stay spry!

And if you want to eat your life alive, play D2… or depending on when you read this post, play D3. And good luck, you’ll be alone there. It’s going to be TOO good.

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

This project reminds me of one of the first things I ever posted under the World Famous Design Junkies name, another cross with cash in mind, the Ticker Cross. This one’s sort of the analog version of that one, a severely simple message in a piggy bank the shape of a cross. Put your coins in there and remind yourself of the bad parts of the Catholic faith! It even has a little piggy tail on the butt.

This lovely bank is made by Wyatt Little aka Heck yes Design. It goes by the name of one of my favorite Slayer songs: “Jesus Saves.” I bet he would have saved if he weren’t chosen to be the son of God. That’s a big responsibility and demands a life without coins. Sandals only. No plastic.

This cross isn’t in production yet, but when it is, you can bet I’ll be gripping it with my slimy claw fingers, filling it with my gold coins from the gray market.

Contact Little through his http://www.behance.net/WyattLittle Behance contact form or visit his excellent portfolio at http://wyattlittle.com/. Updates!

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

So were were up there in the North-West part of Minnesota, just driving around looking for a good time and all and what do we find? A gosh-darned flea market! This is a brief account of this lovely place, a market by the name of Shady Hollow. Complete with painted signs, flags and strange people, and pile after pile of fabulously preserved pieces of consumer culture.

These photos were taken June 27th, 2010 up at Shady Hollow flea market. This little market has its own dot com, but don’t let that fool you. There’s plenty of stuff sitting around in these stalls you’d never be able to locate in the infinite halls of the internets, and more than a couple of strange vendors too.

Visit this one. It’s a good one.

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

We’ve been submitted some anonymously-photographed photos from the empty BUNGE tower over in Dinkytown, Minneapolis. These photos are full of lots of fabulous (and some terrible) graffiti and other silly drawings. All on the walls, all on the trains. From the looks of it, the train photos were taken right next to the tower, and the dark photos were taken inside the tower, probably all on the first level. You’ll notice a couple pics of some writing up at the top of the tower – this paint was up for about a week or two in early June, 2010, and’s now painted over. This happens up there from time to time.

Pretty sassy. Pretty dangerous.

BONUS: since we got our BIGTIME gallery going, we re-uploaded the photos from this project as full-sized. Take a peek through the gallery below for some hotness.

Now like when we get any set of anonymously submitted photos, you’ve gotta note that we DO NOT know who took them. I’m certain that it’s trespassing being inside this building, so the photographer more than likely does not want to be tied directly to these photos. That doesn’t mean you can go around taking credit for them, but it does mean you’ve got free reign over using them. Feel free to print them out, for example, if that’s your bag, but be respectful. Even illegal work is still someone’s work.

NOTE that we do not advocate the taking of any photos where you’ve got to be somewhere where it’s illegal for you to stand, and will not post anything of the sort (unless, of course, they’re submitted anonymously.) Stay safe! And don’t go out at dark. Be smart.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies dirty 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!

It puts the lotion on the skin? No. Put shoe on head? Yes. The following is a set of selections from graphic design group Akatre‘s photo project “Mains d’Œuvres” – Series pictures for annual communication. They take these photos, yes, then they print them up and mail them out as “mailers” – communication papers to their former and current clients, friends, and maybe even family. This is not only a perfect example of taking the basics of one’s life to an extraordinary level, it’s also just the sort of pie anyone could make to fly over the pages of the entire internet overnight.

What pie, what? I’m talking about modern internet skateboarding. Getting around, getting up, getting to the eyeballs of people for your own personal purposes. Get up and get noticed so you can get a job, get up and get noticed so you can have a popular blog.

Here’s the formula:

1. Base, understandable canvas.

2. Slight tweak of color OR mix with another canvas.

3. Repeat, repeat.

4. Collect into one set.

5. Proliferate.

Now this canvas thing could be anything from a set of photos to a wildly popular film series to an actual canvas. Sometimes all you’ve got to do is the collecting. In the project you’re looking at right now here in this post, it’s two canvases mixed together. You’ve got the portrait and you’ve got the coverup. Smashed together, simply, they get hot, so hot.

It’s a set to be admired and shucks about. Modern art, as I’ve read about a billion times is: “I could do that” “yeah, but you didn’t.” Ain’t that the truth?

To contact Akatre, email them at akatre@akatre.com or visit their portfolio site: http://akatre.com/. They’re really quite brilliant. Lots of projects. Lots of brilliance. Lots of professional amazingness.

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

BONUSSS experience our new GALLERY VIEW by clicking any thumbnail here!

Hello everyone, it’s me, your humble narrator in this epic story called World Famous Design Junkies. In this post I present a project of my own. In addition to being a writer on the topic of design futures and pasts, I like to make my own things from time to time. Projects I do generally end up being flat, but today I’ve got a 3D item for you: some customized sneakers. This is the first pair I’ve ever worked on, painting them using leather paints and working off an iconic car model by the name “General Lee.”

They burn so much rubber.

These sneakers are size US MAN size 10 and use the original sneakers, sole pads, and are painted with Angelus brand leather paints. Angelus paints are the hot stuff. Super sexy.

Above and below you’ll see detail shots from every essential angle, plus a few inessential angles also.

Ideally, eventually, the tongues will play this tune upon pressing:

Enjoi.

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

In honor of Portugal beating North Korea in their latest world cup game 7-0, oh my god, here is an image of Kim Jong-il as illustrated by Sakkan (サッカン). I want Jong-il to see this and change his mind about his more than likely plausible decision to murder the entire N.Korean football team. I joke, but also seriously hope they don’t end up missing. The image above, by that wild illustrator Sakkan, depicts Kim as a Pokemon hunter, the characters around him referring to North Korean abduction of Japanese citizens. Weird! But look, the idea that Kim is a Pokemon master makes it all make sense. Gotta Catch Em All!

The following information comes from the crowd at BoingBoing from when they discovered the Kim image a few days ago:

The red text in the lower left hand corner seems to read
“Rocket Monster Kim (Gold)” And the Pikachu rockets are labeled “pika-don” which I think means “Boom!” The blue text looks like “Let’s go kidnapping!”, a reference to the North Korean abduction of Japanese citizens over the years. – gmoke

More specifically, pika-don is a reference to the bright flash (pika) and explosive noise (don) of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. – oepn

Fabulous. Now let’s also look at the extended works of Sakkan. He’s a humorist in his illustrations, basically all of them, a wild and crazy sensibility that generally comes standard with the anime-style way of executing stories and people and situations. Look at how cute! Also take another peek at how excellent Sakkan is at portraiture. That’s definitely Kim up there, and down in the gallery you won’t be mistaking Bruce, Sam, and a couple other sassy fellas and ladies. And don’t forget his take on the Twitter Overload image.

To contact Sakkan, visit him at his Sakkan webpage, a page full of Sakkan illustrations and lists and lists of his accomplishments. If you happen to find out more about him in the way of screenprinted posters, let me know, must have!

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

Over at one of the most wonderful places on Earth, the Happy Seamstress Pattern Company, they are having a fabulous little contest for whose best at crafting. The subject matter? Mario. Or everything in the Nintendo universe. And even that rule is broken sometimes. But it’s all in excellent fun, and in most cases, thread and needle bliss! So take a peek, all ye crafty peoples, for below we’ve got not just the future winners, but the entire contest entry bin! Everything, including the terrible ones!

JK there are no terrible ones. Just some that… just can’t win.

The Happy Seamstress holds contests every once in a while, and they’re not the crappy kind where the company basically rips you off by paying you squat for what you could get lots more cash for, no! The H.S. holds contests for fun fantastic items you’ve made for yourself, or in many cases, for your kids, and congratulates you on a job well done, no more, no less! That’s how design contests SHOULD be run.

Remember folks, work for full pay or work for free, NEVER work for cheap. Discounts are for the people who sell the items, not for the transaction between designer and corp. Happy Seamstress seems to understand this well, and I congratulate them!

Also they’re getting prepared to have a pattern store to run alongside their very excellent blog, and I bet it’s going to be just chock full of wonderful products so everyone go buy!

Also I should mention that not only is there cross-stitching and knitting going on in this contest, it’s limited only to the word “craft” basically so it’s everything. Clay to iron-together beads. There’s a Tri-Force earring and Space Invader magnets.

Love it all. All of it love.

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