Dr. Lyndel Meinhardt, Lead Researcher and Dr. Dapeng Zhang, Lead Geneticist from the USDA Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland were in charge of analyzing the plant. Meinhardt notes: “The international cacao database has 5,300 entries. None are Pure Nacional with white beans. Cacao pods with 40% and 100% white Pure Nacional beans are an unprecedented discovery.”

The location at which the beans were discovered is between 3,500 and 4,100 feet, the highest altitudes EVER reported as hospitable for cacao. Since shortly after the beans were confirmed to be rarities, Horsley has lived with the farmers, helping them turn their cacao into chocolate, working with them to strike a deal with Maranon Chocolate to sell the product to the world.

Pearson got a move on to visit Switzerland where he’s having the beans made into unique chocolate by an unnamed yet renowned chocolate maker recommended to him by Franz Ziegler of Ziegler Consulting and Paul Edward of Chef Rubber. Ziegler a renowned pastry chef and his colleague Rubber said of the beans, “In our combined 50 years of working with chocolate, we have never tasted flavors like this. We had to experience this ourselves, so we both traveled to Peru, met the farm families, saw the trees, the white beans, the genetics tests and then watched the next evolution in post-harvest processing that they developed. We saw the past and the future of chocolate.”

Yum yum! Feel free to send me some to review! Check out the full press release below:

NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Pure Nacional, a variety of cacao, the plant used to make chocolate, that was once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in Peru. Pure Nacional, with its complex fruit and floral flavors, once dominated the fine chocolate market worldwide. In 1916, diseases struck the Pure Nacional population in Ecuador and within three years 95% of the trees were destroyed. The prized chocolate was thought to be lost, until now. The chocolate has been rediscovered growing in Peru. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the world’s foremost genetics laboratory for the DNA testing of cacao, confirmed this discovery and after two years of hard work chocolate is being produced from these precious plants.

Late in 2007, Dan Pearson and Brian Horsley were sourcing fruit in Peru’s Maranon Canyon when they discovered cacao trees growing on small isolated farms in a remote horseshoe-shaped canyon surrounded by 6,000-feet canyon walls. The trees were growing football-shaped pods filled with a rare mix of 40% white beans and 60% purple beans in the same pods, or in some cases, the pods were completely filled with white beans. Familiar with only purple beans, they were curious about the rare white beans and sent leaf samples to the USDA for testing. “When they called with genetic test results and asked, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I knew we had found something special,” said Pearson.

Dr. Lyndel Meinhardt, Lead Researcher and Dr. Dapeng Zhang, Lead Geneticist from the USDA Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, analyzed the genetic structure of the beans and found that they were Pure Nacional plants native to Peru. “The international cacao database has 5,300 entries. None are Pure Nacional with white beans. Cacao pods with 40% and 100% white Pure Nacional beans are an unprecedented discovery,” said Meinhardt. They tested random leaf samples from various trees throughout the Maranon Canyon and confirmed that the Pure Nacional plants were growing throughout the valley. Dapeng said, “We are excited about this confirmation. It means that these cacao trees were indigenous to Peru. They are not exotic introductions from somewhere else.”

The high canyon walls in the Maranon Canyon created a unique microclimate for the trees. The trees thrive at some of the highest altitudes ever reported for cacao, between 3,500 and 4,100 feet. Horsley lives with the farmers and worked with them to turn the unique cacao into chocolate. The beans needed to be transported first by foot, then burro, then motorcycle and finally by all-terrain vehicle. Horsley said, “The small farmers and I had to learn quality practices together. White beans must be fermented and dried differently than purple beans, but it is unknowable in advance which is which,” said Horsley. After two years, several site visits by fermenting and drying specialists, independent laboratory testing and 81 fermenting and drying trials, they found the answers to processing the rare beans and founded Maranon Chocolate to offer their exclusive product to chefs and consumers.

Pearson traveled to Switzerland to have the beans made into one-of-a-kind chocolate by a renowned Swiss chocolate maker who found the white beans added a nutty flavor to the Nacional fruit and flora profile. The chocolate maker was recommended by Franz Ziegler of Ziegler Consulting and Paul Edward of Chef Rubber. Ziegler is an award-winning author and was named Pastry Chef of the Year in 2008 by the World Pastry Team Championship, where he has served as head judge since 2006. Ziegler and his colleague Paul Edward of Chef Rubber said, “In our combined 50 years of working with chocolate, we have never tasted flavors like this. We had to experience this ourselves, so we both traveled to Peru, met the farm families, saw the trees, the white beans, the genetics tests and then watched the next evolution in post-harvest processing that they developed. We saw the past and the future of chocolate.”

The team will assemble at The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City on January 11, 2011 to announce the launch of the chocolate. ICE Chef Instructor Michelle Tampakis, a respected chocolate expert who was named one of Dessert Professional’s Top Ten Pastry Chefs for 2010, will be on hand with Ziegler, to guide a tasting of the unique flavor profile of this precious chocolate. Pearson, Meinhardt and Edward will present the story of the discovery of the chocolate in their own words and discuss the road to bringing this chocolate back from extinction. Pearson said, “The rediscovery of Pure Nacional and the first ever discovery of white beans in this pure thought-to-be-extinct variety opens peoples eyes. However, it is the remarkable delicate flavors, aromas and unique tastes that open the hearts of those who are passionate about chocolate.”

For more stories of discovering Pure Nacional, visit www.maranoncacao.com.
About Maranon Chocolate

Dan Pearson and Brian Horsley and their Peruvian family members have been working in Peru since 2002. While sourcing fruit in the remote Maranon Canyon, they saw pods resembling small footballs growing from the trunks of trees. Told that the beans inside are used to make chocolate and curious about the 40% white beans, Pearson sent leaf samples to the USDA lab for testing and confirmed the beans were Pure Nacional. Now they make these rare beans into their signature Fortunato No.4 chocolate, named after the farmer who owned the land where the trees were first discovered. Pearson runs U.S. operations, while Horsley runs operations in Peru, living with his wife and daughter with the farmers in the canyon. They pay premium pricing and a percentage of the profits to the farmers, being sure the farmers receive a fair price for their work cultivating this rare and precious cacao. For more information, please visit www.maranoncacao.com.
About ICE

The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE®) is New York City’s award-winning center for culinary education. Founded in 1975 by Peter Kump, the school offers highly regarded 8- to 12-month career training programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, Culinary Management and Hospitality Management. With an intensive curriculum, dedicated Chef Instructors, a strong record in externship placements and a clear entrepreneurial focus, ICE is widely regarded as a great pathway to begin or continue a culinary career. ICE also runs one of the largest programs of hands-on recreational cooking classes and wine education courses in the country, with more than 26,000 enthusiasts taking any of the 1,500 classes offered each year. In 2008, ICE was named the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ (IACP) Culinary School of the Year and a School of Distinction by the ACCSCT in 2006. ICE’s 42,000 square-foot facility is open seven days and nights a week, 350 days a year and is located at 50 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010. More information can be found at www.iceculinary.com.

Holy crap would you look at this? Look at this right now. This is a Nutella handheld snack that features a snack and a drink. It’s called “Nutella Snack and Drink” and I must have one. Scratch that, I must have an entire case. Everyone in the world knows that Nutella is the greatest and most tasty spread you can apply to any sort of thing that can be spread on. And everyone in the world also knows that the best thing that goes with a tasty snack is a little bit of Esta Thé iced tea that’s been dispensed through a little straw you’ve just stuck violently through a plastic package. It’s Kid Snacks 101. But this is it. This is the epitome of greatness right here. It’s all here at once. This is the greatest snack.

The image you see above (and if you’d like larger, by clicking in the gallery below,) is provided by an anon on Reddit. Apparently, according to a random commenter there, it’s available in some areas around Europe, but I can tell you right doggone now that it’s not in my part of the USA. I’d like to rally so hard that it be, that it is! I’d like it ready to go by the time my kids can have it.

Deadline!

Make it go!

Nutella!

Now go, go do it, come on buddy!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies food 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.

I might have to start a “moments in brilliance” category for this package cause there’s only one pic, but it’s magfantriffic! Made by the designer Daniel Costas over in Guarda-Pontevedra, Spain. It’s a package of chocolates! Employing the excellent concept of one whole being made up of a bunch of delicious parts, this box is smart AND pleasing in a bunch of ways. It’s made for the Visual Trans group, a company that focuses on… business… software… solutions? Idunno. Something like that. Chocolate!

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

A little under a year ago was the last time I or we wrote anything about the artist / designer / wild animal known as AJ Fosik. Well I’m here to tell you: AJ Fosik rain in blood wasn’t over. It isn’t done. Last time you saw AJ Fosik there were mass amounts of beasts made in bright colors of painted wood over at White Walls. This time there are no walls. There are only bodies covered in what I can only describe as the most kitschtastic sweaters ever knitted. Each of them represents it’s own classic brand of beer. What a collection.

Fosik is slightly unclear on how these were attained, but each of them seems to have been a real in-production sweater knitted for the company by the company. For the beer drinker.

A word or two from the artist:

Promotional knit beer sweaters from the 70s and 80s. All of these sweaters were unearthed by me, rescued from moldy basements, plucked from dingy backwaters and ripped from the backs of greasy shitleopards. Unfortunately none of these trophies are for sale.

Please take a moment to inspect these massively appropriate for nowhere sweaters. They are fabulous, they are miraculous. To promote one’s favorite beer with their own clothing is one thing, wearing a bit of promotional material in which each stitch had to be well-layed-out in order for the logo and message to be clear, well, that’s a devoted fan of the genre.

I credit AJ Fosik at this moment to be one of the greatest design collectors I have ever seen. This collection of sweaters is fantastic, and shall go down in the record books as one of the most excellent design collections there ever was. Truly AJ Fosik is a design junkie if ever have I seen one.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies bad taste category. Also this post can be found in the vintage, wearable, and Pizza Party categories. Go hang out at any of these and you will have a genuine time.

Holy carp. I would eat anything off this menu just to say I did. Look at the starkness! Designed by design duo “The Empty Page” aka Ross Teperek and Paul Robinson, this menu is made for a Leeds-based bar by the name of Nation Of Shopkeepers. Seems like an alright place to eat, yes? I do love being surrounded by artworks when I’m chowing down, that’s for sure. Design works are even better when they’re not overbearing. And if this menu is any indication, they’re not. They’re friggin fantastic and perfect all at the same time. Red. White. Bright. Lovin it.

Also included below are a couple more pages out of this menu the boys’ve designed, plus a small set of posters and etcetera they’ve got under their belt as well. They’ve got a nice sense to them, ay? I think they certainly do. They are based in Leeds in the UK, just incase you’re the type of person who likes to work in person with their designers and live right on over there amongst the gorillaz and sheep for shearing.

If you want to get in contact with team, email them at paul@theemptypage.co.uk or ross@theemptypage.co.uk and tell them you’ve got a wad of money just sitting around that you’d love to give them in exchange for their priceless design skills. I think they’ll be apt to keep some contact going, yes?

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

First, right above, the first picture you see here, is one of my very favorite works of graffiti art. It was executed by master painter Deuce Seven (27) sometime before 2007, photographed on October 12, 2007 by 14-2-1. This is the most visually exciting way I can introduce you to a concept I thought of this morning: fruit in graffiti. I saw a spraypainted picture of a strawberry and it sparked my imagination. What’s going down with pieces of food, especially fruits, sitting there in the middle of an epic street art piece? Looking rather fruity! Looking rather juicy, colored to please the eye to the max, made to stimulate the eyeballs and the tastebuds and the jaw full of drool. And not only that, once I started my search for a collection, I found graffiti of fruit, containing fruit, ABOUT fruit and even ON fruit. Take a peekie!

NOTE: I/We’ve done collection posts before, but I’m trying here to be a bit more thorough than in the past about connecting which of the many pictures are connected to which photographer, so there’s going to be a huge-assed list for people who want to use images for college essays and stuff.

NOTE NOTE: If you write a college essay about fruit in graffiti, PLEASE tell me so I can publish it here on WFDJ in full. That would be utterly fantastic.

The big fat list: V and O shape samon uair01, junior league yewenyi, banana writer chango blanco, sun and plum + extended mural West Coast Frog, chinatown mural Quinn Anya, SAME Western Fruit car True 2 Death, banana shrink (Banksy@Cans Festival)David J Lowe, Lunch Wheelmaker, mango face Andy Brooks, melon and lime ξαβλ, dense banana bingolittle, nyc peach antoined, these are not limes Just Uptown, Save on Meats Victoria Potter, a million bananas Chris P, Death Face Becki Fuller, Berok Fruit Berok, ripe for revolution inga, Specter “Eat Fruit and Die” mikeion, kiwi Luna Lunita, chalk lemon Big Bozo, 1000 Nana itiz3, cyclops apples Sylvain Bourdos, cactus graffiti anjeelou, 3 red fruit Daquella Manera, Banana Sprayer (found!) Mulberry Street, snow cones banana boat Toban Black, eat fruit and die text Sreed99342, eat fruit and die apple UltraClay, pac man fruits JBtiv, crazy rat Georgie Grrl, banana icecream cop t.wat, chateubriand torganiel, cherry eyes Lalis, fruit friends Completely Lost, Manav erenkumcuoglu, eat fruit little big joe, mosaic fruit bowl Johanna Hobbs, grapes rmwhittaker1012000, watermelon cement Rock Creek, d.price normko, banana man Steamin Junk, happy tagged fruits her madjesty, fruit van gotthefix, shrek PuppyboysUkk, strawberries and graffiti Swim Parallel, big orange slices Marie-Marthe Gagnon, Banksy Purple Fiction Bananas (Old Street Tube Station) Stefz, graffiti in green fruit Swinkey, purple fruit store Matheiuginod, bad fruit evilrobot6, LA sun 4D7, blurry fruit Signal Station, Fruits United Sam Beckwith, Jebbia’s Market Carolina Willow, Cherry Letter Liquid Night, and green blue strawberry Shunzan.

See what you’ve got here, lots of juicy colors, lots of tasty flavors.

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

I know you love burgers. Even if you hate the idea of chopped up cows, the burger is an idea that’s permeated this United States culture in a way that’s only rivaled by the hot dog. Lucky for you, there’s hotdogs in this project as well! This is a font called “Burgerlove” made by a few friendly designers that wanted to have fun with food and fun with fonts. Hand made fonts are generally what I would call a rudimentary sort of exercise, but here you see the time and effort and learning that comes with smashing bits of dead animal into letterforms. You’d better believe it! Those burgers aren’t mooing anymore!

This typeface was conceived in collaboration with Sarah Lamonde and Pascal Asseleh. We were looking at typical Québecois casse-croûte vernacular but wanted to created a handmade font while having fun and food.

This project is done in part by Denise Santillan Moreno, Sarah Lamonde, and Pascal Asseleh. They smashed the burgers, they took the pics. All hail the use of meat for the greater goodness of graphic design!

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

Oh yipee! That one company that’s got some good graphics and all that all over their tea, “Damn Fine Tea”, has collaborated again with the Minneapolis graphics superteam Aesthetic Apparatus for this fabulous tin. This tin is made for the Chinese New Year, and has adorned upon it a big fat happy tiger in celebration! Each of these 50 tins (50 tins ONLY) was printed in MPLS by Aesthetic Apparatus and with each tin comes a super kawaii cute prettyfaced sticker. Scoopy! Oh and inside the tin is the extra-strong Yunnan tea, one of the original teas known for it’s super powers.

Buy these tins at the shop itself. Although, when I write this post they’re down to five tins left out of 50, so good luck on that. While you’re crying, look at the rest of this Aesthetic Apparatus work. UPDATE: all gone, too bad!

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

Hey so you know about new combinations, right? Taking one thing you love, putting it with something that it doesn’t usually go with, in a creative way, and it’s interesting. That’s what seems to be up, right? Yes and no! No matter how much the design and art world is trending, you’ve gotta be good at what you’re doing. As for Laut Rosenbaum, the ink from the pen doth naught ever run out. Rosenbaum takes the pen to the beer coaster and flips out an assortment of lovely portraits. How pretty!

Laut Rosenbaum is known for the drawings and the doodlings, but these are in the intriguing spectrum of the whole sharing world. Not only because they are nice drawings, but because people’s attention turns almost instantly to what they can do with it, and how amazing it would be to draw only people from a single bar with that bar’s coasters. What a fab idea! I gotta go do that! Copywrite’d!

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

If you’ve got some amazing idea, or pop culture crush, or fantastic set of images that you’ve just GOT to apply to as many mediums as possible, consider this: cookie cutters. Especially around and in the holidays, these are always going to be big sellers, even the lesser-holidays love cookies! I believe today that designer Beverly Hsu’s hit a bit of a jackpot, provided she slides through the font-ownership rules like a breeze, with these cutters made to produce cookies in perfect Helvetica letterforms!

About hand sized, made of metal, produced in limited quantities. For more information on when these will be produced again, contact Beverly Hsu through her webpage link next.

Designed by : Beverly Hsu
Produced by : Greg Saul
Photographed by : Drew

These remind me of the “A” cookies that were given away to hungry mouths free at that one Aesthetic Apparatus super big music and poster party when they first opened their new shop (see below, the pic with only “A” cookies.)

Dew wawnt!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies food 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.

Enlarge your mind with these vague old testament references. You Noah’s Ark wannabe. These are brand new, made for a meat market / deli in Toronto. A bunch of people worked together to bring this together, including a designer, a creative director, an art director, an illustrator, and to the most important degree(?), the client. Maybe the Bible had a little bit to do with it.

If you’re looking for a source, or some direction in the world, you’d me smart to peek at some of the most gorgeous religious illustrations in history: the Lindisfarne Gospels of northern England. I’ve included a couple down there in the gallery, take a peek at the full pages and a little bit of detail. Of course nothing is compared to seeing them irl.

The illustrations done for this Caplansky’s triad are by Toronto resident illustrator Geoff Donovan. He’s currently got a twitter account but no portfolio site. What a crime!

Design: Bensimon Byrne, Toronto
Creative Director: David Rosenberg
Art Director: Glen D’souza
Illustrator: Geoff Donovan
Client: Caplansky’s
Date: 2009

The tip for these illustrations came from none other than that best resource for Canadian design, the Canadian Design Resource. This post you’re looking at is part of the World Famous Design Junkies food 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.

It’s west side so you know we won’t bow down to no man. And we’re gonna stay cool with some popsicles. Some of those ghetto pops. Sold straight from the Desert Eskimo cart on the beech. This collection of amalgamations is straight custom from designer Gary Garay. And be careful what you poppin.

The Paleta Cart you see there for distribution is a real appropriated popsicle cart, lacquer and enamel on fiberglass 36″ x 46″ x 33″, while the popsicles are slightly different dimensions, all around 6″ x 2.5″ x 3/4″ with frozen fruit juice.

Burlesque Design where you at?

This post is melting in the World Famous Design Junkies food category.

HERO: a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Typically caped. I just made that up. I stole a little bit from the Apple dictionary. But it’s all true. What we’ve got here is a project on heroes by photographer Dulce Pinzon. This project projects the fantastic nature of the Mexican Immigrant Worker as a true hero. What makes the project spectacular is the costumes (duh), but more importantly: attached to each photo of a hero is their occupation and the amount of money they send back home each week (from the USA to their family in Mexico.)

Above: Bernabe Mendez from the state of Guerrero works as a professional window cleaner in New York. He sends 500 dollars a month.

This is a super amazing set. Pinzon hits the nail on the head with the perfectly direct message. Her original inspiration came way back in 2001 after the WTC attacks in NYC – it took a while to come to fruition, but she’s got it right: heroes are working all the time. In events of catastrophe as well as in events of long, drawn out hardship.

Big ups for those who do well for others.

SUPERHEROES

This project consists of 20 color photographs of Mexican and Latino immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Each photo pictures the worker/superhero in their work environment, and is accompanied by a short text including the worker’s name, their hometown, the number of years they have been working in New York, and the amount of money they send to their families each week. — Full Statement

This post bursts through brick walls and flips over giant buildings in the World Famous Design Junkies photography category.

OSCAR GONZALEZ from the state of Oaxaca works as a cook in New York. He Sends 350 dollars a week.

ALVARO CRUZ from the state of Mexico works as a cook and runs with Los Compadres team. He Sends 300 dollars a month.

LUIS HERNANDEZ from the State of Veracruz works in demolition in New York. He sends 200 dollars a week.

Hot dogs! Oh my goodness hotdogs! Coney Island Dogs. That’s what’s up. We’ve got a place around here (Minneapolis, Minnesota) called Uncle Frankey’s. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. They make amazing Coney Island Dogs. Supposedly they’re better on the REAL island, but who knows! These people do. And when I say these people, I mean all the people who took the photos included in the super insanely huge World Famous Design Junkies Coney Island Sign Explorer Collection. Oh wow the signs. Look at them all!

Ah yes, the island. All of these photos are straight off the island. Coney Island was the biggest park in the USA between 1880 and World War II, but now it’s sorta… fading… but that’s alright! It’s still insane! It’s a fast collection of fantastically clean painted signs and erratic, calculated oddities. And of course, the lights at night, or as we love to call signs of just this nature: Night Type.

BEHOLD, and be held… by the excellence.

Ironically, “Coney Island hot dog” describes a product that is unknown in its namesake, Coney Island, New York, where hot dogs (usually called “franks” from frankfurter) are traditionally made only from beef and served plain or with sauerkraut on a bun without other adornment except the availability of mustard, which at Nathan’s was applied by the customer. The only reason for the name is the generic hot dog’s origins in Coney Island, where it said to have been invented by Charles Feltman in 1867, who put a Vienna sausage in a roll and called it “Coney Island Red Hots.” Some people, unsure of its ingredients, called it a hot dog. Different references claim that the locals thought the sandwiches reminded them of Feltman’s ever-present companion, a dachshund, called a wiener dog even back then,and the term hot dog became a popular term. – WEEKII

The photos you see in this post are from the following contributors: I Follow, Brooklyn Bridge Baby, Maisa NYC, hut234, Mattron, Whiskey Gone Bad, Matt Daniels, Megga Llucci, Brunocerous, NB Photo Flash, Charles le Brigand, Andy Brannan, Nauga Style, PSLove1982, Me-Myself-I, Tucker Photography, Lost in Brooklyn, Coney Island History Project, Gordon Gattsek, and a couple others I cannot yet identify. Thanks to yew all!

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

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

ALSO ALSO SAVE CONEY ISLAND!

Photographer David Sykes specializes in the iconic and the odd. He’s an inanimate man, photographing mostly objects that basically don’t move on their own, placing them in compromising situations for the greater good of the end user. The following is a hand picked collection from David Sykes personal photos made for the greater good of the future enjoyers and employers of David Sykes. Chew nicely!

Contact Information
For bookings and portfolio requests please contact:
UK: Swerve Photography +44(0)7967 628 769
Email: lucy@swervephotography.com
USA: Judith Miller Inc. +01 212.564.0216
Email: judy@judithmillerinc.com or ashley@judithmillerinc.com
Or directly at:
david@davidsykes.com

David Sykes “Personal Collection” is part of the World Famous Design Junkies destruction category because, as I’m sure you’ll see, the insides of some objects are more interesting than the outsides.

Design Museum London recently celebrated its 20th anniversary by sponsoring a bakeoff. Contestants, including Airside, karlsson/ullman, and Cupcakes To Go, were instructed to bake a cake inspired by design. Here are some of the fabulous entries (taken from Design Museum’s Facebook page).

I might also mention here that this is a bona-fide guest post! Aside from this short paragraph, this post is line-for-line submitted using our Submit Content feature. Get on top o dis! Also note that this particular submission was made anonymously, but if you’d like, you can get cred, too! Just note it!

LOVE, CHRIS

Design by Airside.

Harry Beck’s London tube map by karlsson/ullman.

RUNNER UP!! A Classic London Routemaster by Ellie Atkins.

And finally, the winner of Design Museum London’s Birthday Bakeoff?

THE WINNER!!! GPO 746 Mark one, circa 1967 by Holly Gilbert.

Yumm!! Congratulations on 20 years Design Museum!!

+BONUS another note from Chris: I love cake and I love this contest!

Sometimes it’s just time for a stroll down the street with the camera in your hand. You’ve got that designer eyeball and you’re looking to capture some sharp lines and pretty pretty patterns. That’s what Matthew Lapiska did the other day.

And oh my goodness here it is.

Queens Boulevard by Matthew Lapiska

Exploration is of supreme importance to a designer, especially one that hopes to avoid anonymity in today’s world of nickle-a-dozen design firms and world-wide access. You live on Queens Boulevard? You should photograph Queens Boulevard.

This post is straight outta the World Famous Design Junkies photography department, and boy wouldn’t you know it indubitably.

I was just sitting there, minding my own business, when bam, there it was, crab candy. This bag is amazing. It’s a bag of tiny crabs, made bite-sized for your Japanese candy pleasure. It’s aesthetically pleasing, and crabtastic enough to be called Party Time!

This candy was included in the mystery prize package I received from Burlesque Design. I reccomend it to anyone. Lots of serious business going on in those packages.

This package I dare not open. This package a bit of the ol’ World Famous Design Junkies bad taste category – yucky! You can smell the crab-stuff from outside the bag. Also as you can imagine, this is in the packaging department as well.

This napkin right here is a convenience towel. It’s from a place called “Eddy’s,” it’s a lake resort along Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota. It’s got a reel good idea, or had a real good idea a while ago. This particular towel is from the vast archives of “free stuff” my dad owns. This he brings with in his “hotel kit” which is brought along when it’s time to stay overnight at the casino with a free room or whatever he’s happened to win this month.

Check this lovely thang out. Hella type.

It reads as thus:

CONVENIENCE TOWEL
PROVIDED TO…
-REMOVE MAKEUP
& LIPSTICK
-CLEAN…
EYEGLASSES
SHOES
LUGGAGE
WINDSHIELD
HEADLIGHTS

COMPLIMENTS OF…
EDDY’S
LAKE MILLE LACS RESORT

Blue on white. I cannot resist a good illustration of a boat. Especially when it’s Eddy’s. This post is truly from the World Famous Design Junkies ephemera category. Don’t throw it away if it’s good stuff!

These are OF not ON. Just a couple of these paintings are actually containing said balloons, but they’re all getting really high. High up on quality, made of oil paints. And then there’s another thing before you read the rest of this entry and peek at the pics: the painter of these paintings’ name is Robin F Williams. He’s not Miss Doubtfire. He is a freaking painter fantastic. Look up in this.

NOTE check out the paintings below. For most of them, even though they were painted a couple years ago (or since), they’ve only very recently been available on these internets. Joy to the world and infinite distribution for your eyes!

Also mister Williams is scheduled to be in a show “SOON” -details forthcoming.

robinwilliamsart at gmail.com for inquiries

*Due to the high volume of calls and emails I’ve received, I must point out that I am NOT THE ACTOR, nor am I affiliated with him in any way. Do not contact me with questions or comments regarding the comedian. Thank you. NO SOY ROBIN WILLIAMS!!!

Take a peek especially at the oddities, because you know that’s what we’re all about. Prayer circle of butters on platters, water balloon headrest, and Christmas tree ornament necklace. That’s what’s up.

This post is out the World Famous Design Junkies painting category.

Yes, oh yes. Vinyl is given the courtesy it deserves. The one true format, the gorgeous, the perfect, the giant: the 12″ record album. The following is a photo collection made by the wild-eyed artist Horacio Salinas. He has draped the cloth, added the apples, and slipped on the shoe. Glare at the elegance of this collection of your favorite rock and roll music.

Pinpointed! You know here at World Famous Design Junkies we’re so very extremely info-oriented, detail oriented, and slap-happy-fact oriented. So what’ve we got here! A shipload of album covers photographed in lovely ways, yes, but which ones?

Bob Dylan’s explosive pop-art “Shout of Love” shot up!

The Greatful Dead’s untitled live album aka “Skullf***” draped in drapery.

Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic godliness wrapped in underpants “Axis Bold as Love.”

All four KISS solo records “Ace, Paul, Peter, and Gene” all hooved up.

Queen’s promiscuous ladies of the “Fat Bottomed Girls” guild.

The Rolling Stones “Hot Rocks” with a hat on.

The Beatles “White Album” with the very very very literal translation of the four.

And the Yarbirds?

Fear not! You collectors of albums. Even though this set of photos will certainly shoot the popularity of classic rock albums through the roof, you can rest easy knowing I already own most of them. I hope you do, too.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies album art collection.

Oh my goodness look at the terrifying monsters of the corporate world. The weirdness and the wildness of these bits of graphic pleasure come from a restaurant. A bar. A multi-talented house of amazement! It’s called The Goodfoot and it’s in Portland. And you know who else is in portland? The artist of this gruesome candy-coated fun — Ripper1331, the artist who is definitely on display up in the house. Portland and Ripper together forever. With ink.

Ripper is definitely on display at The Goodfoot. That’s what I found out. And right before that, I found out about this insanely fantastically perfect grotesque artwork about the state of the economy. These works are made primarily of recycled images from the back pages of comic books and Sears Roebuck catalogues – I’m sure you’ve seen them.

The majority of these works are on metal or on wood, and they’re made with hand-painted embellishments and screenprint ink. And if you’d like to take a peek at the way to get your hands on these, ask yourself an invite over to the The Goodfoot for a drink, some music, and nicely tinted artworks.

From the darkened halls of the World Famous Design Junkies Screenprinting category.

There I was. On the internet. On the most hidden page of the Burlesque Design intarwebs. And I see it! The “Mystery Grab Bag.” I had to have it. And so I did. Soon after I clicked the button, (probably like 4 seconds later because Burlesque secret headquarters is basically a mile away from where I was living at the time in Minneapolis,) I had the box in my hands. It was a Mystery Box. And in it were graphically conscious treasures beyond my wildest type-setting sticker-ordering t-shirt-wearing weird-ass-junk-collecting dreamz…

MYSTERY GRAB BAG

Have you ever seen our office? It’s filled with all sorts of magical, amazing things. Send us ten dollars and we’ll send you a generous sampling of some of the stickers, doodles, flyers, magazines, CDs, and other weird crap we have up here. By ordering the Mystery Grab Bag, you agree to accept whatever we send you. No complaints, no returns.

Discover for yourself the sticker and Japanese candy fantasy before you. Be sure to check out the custom-made Chris hat made just for me because Chris Burns is my name. Shield your eyes from the brand new Burlesque Clown Posse sticker set. And be ware of the children when you sift through the Dre Day sticker pack.

And look at that AT&T answering machine. Yes.

This post is a part of the World Famous Design Junkies Pizza Party category.

Discover the magic!