On the #1 thing i'm looking forward to at Comi-con (is it silly if i day trip to SD just for these?) ~ Rocket World's Insurgents Wilderness Gruppo ~ super armed yet oh so adorable creatures in the tiniest form yet! As blindbox zipper pulls and parachuters! The Zipper Pull Series will be about 1" tall, and including the original three I.W.G. members, there will also be human skulls, for a total of 17 colorways, two of which will be mystery chase figures! The Airborne Series of parachuters will be about 1.5" tall with high quality parachutes, and a total 15 colorways between the three characters, including TWO mystery chase figures! Anyhow, these are just a peek at what is to come at sdcc this year! More pictures on the next page, as well as pics of the making of...

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Today is truly a beautiful, possibly cliche, Los Angeles beachy summer's day ~ and as i wandered the few blocks to pick things up for the party tomorrow... it was great to see the whole town (yes, Pacific Palisades, totally feels like a town!) out and about, setting up chairs on the sidewalk for tomorrow's parade, kids running around in packs and swinging in their yards, tons of dogs and strollers being walked... and then i checked my email and saw the preview for Edwin Ushiro's first solo show, "While Tides Guide You Back Home" ~ which so perfectly captures that glowingly carefree summer day moment, and his use of textures is just breathtaking!

"While Tides Guide You Back Home", will be opening at the Project:Gallery in Culver City on July 12th, and they were nice enough to let me share the show preview ~ so on the next page you can see some of my favorites! (If you're looking to purchase, act FAST, i hear many are sold or on hold already!)

A bit of background on Edwin Ushiro: "Aloha. My name is Edwin Ushiro. Transplanted from Maui to California, I attended the Art Center College of Design and attained a BFA in Illustration with Honors. Since then, I have been working in the amazing world of entertainment as a Cinematographer, Production Designer, Visual Consultant, Art Director, Storyboard Artist, and Concept Designer." This should come as no surprise once you see his works! Also, check out some of his corporate work on his site as well - beautiful! I can't wait to see what else he produces.

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I was just introduced to Prairie Vodka this morning via email, and although i have yet to try this supposed organic goodness, i'm absolutely smitten with the photography, website, and branding! It's gorgeous! So they really run with the Prairie meets the City theme ~ and have these breathtaking images of a woman on her NY patio with the city behind and the wolves at her side... and then the gentleman in his plush red chair at the fireplace with his bison... and then the subtle details and styling of the logo and site... *swoon*... and then you must see the actual bottle design as well, so sleek and simple. Even the transitions... to have the wolf walk up, and breathe on the screen till it gets foggy and fades into the next page... little silly, but an interesting approach! Is it any wonder that Prairie recently received a gold medal at the 2008 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirit Awards, as well as "Best Overall Design" and "Best Package of Show"? See more screenshots and imagery on the next page... and read more on Prairie Vodka at their site.

P.S. i'm so distracted by the prettiness of the visuals, that i'm saving discussing the organic and kosher aspects of it and the unique partnership between Phillips Distilling Company and a co-op of over 900 Minnesota farmers who are stakeholders in the brand - for a product review to come!

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NOTCOT Note: Here's the latest discovery from Anna (Sub-Studio) ~ these cheese/cutting boards would be SO perfect for fourth of july picnics and bbqs!

I saw Lotte van Laatum's work on Bloesem recently and fell in love with it. Lotte is a designer and recent graduate from the Design Academy Eindhoven. In her graduate program she specialized in the social-cultural and ecological aspects of design, an interest you can see permeate through her design collection. Much of her work references other cultures, and even employs craftsmen from those cultures, such as her Bloei! sofa, Tulipa vases (after the jump), and the Made in Peru cushions. Lotte's Dutch Wood project attempts to create awareness about the sustainable use of local resources by keying the shape of each cutting board back to the geographical region it was harvested from. The cutting boards come from the regions of Veluwe, Noordoostpolder and Salland, and are made of three different types of wood - beech, ash and maple.

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You know the drill ~ click the images to find out more! I'm kind of kicking into SUPERearly long weekend mode ~ yay for 4th of July coming up on Friday (seriously, is it just me, or doesn't today just feel like a Friday?)... and as a result, i'm consuming info and images like no other, yet i can't seem to focus enough to sit down, photoshop, make proper posts, or respond to emails well... SO, that naturally leads to much .org-ing ~ so here is a selection of my personal post obsessions the last few days!

American Apparel Thermochromatic Sheer Jersey T-Shirt!!! I know this is going to sound pretty silly, but first i went over to American Apparel because i was in disbelief that they are making Oxford Shirts... and quickly got distracted by the idea of heat-colorchanging/mood shirts! At which point, Linhchi quickly caught me up that they were bringing the 80s/90s back - and somehow i totally missed that trend as a little kid... but i want one! To play with? Work out in?

And then we hit up Wikipedia - so, catch up on Hypercolor: "Hypercolor was a line of clothing, mainly T-shirts and shorts, that changed color with heat. They were manufactured by Generra (now a division of Public Clothing Company) and marketed in the United States as Generra Hypercolor or Generra Hypergrafix and outside the US as Global Hypercolor. They contained a thermochromic (temperature sensitive) pigment made by Matsui Shikiso Chemical of Japan, that changed between two colors-one when cold, one when warm. The shirts were produced with several color change choices from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. Unfortunately the effect could easily be permanently damaged, particularly when the clothing was placed in a hotter than recommended wash." and on vaguer research, read about Thermochromism (think mood ring tech)...

OH - and see the video of the AA girl microwaving the shirt to white, then wearing it into the freezer!

How beautiful are these "hand-foiled plant labels" that design*sponge received from The Modern Gardener? They are the most darling popsicle sticks i've ever seen! Handmade by London artist, Kim Jenkins, they come in 10 packs for 5 pounds a pack.

Just noticed over at Acquire that Tumi has given in and joined the polycarbonate suitcase trend ~ which i've definitely been quite obsessed with the last few years - there's just something about that sleek lightweight glossy polycarbonate i can't resist in black and silver - so far i've indulged in a carry-on Hideo Wakamatsu and Zero Halliburton check in... and i've lusted after Rimowa and also even checked out the Samsonite Black Label X-Lite Collection... And now to add to the list is the Tumi T-Tech Polycarbonate collection - noteworthy details (see close ups on next page) are the twisted zipper locks and the foot brake.

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The rumors (and guesses) have been flying around about Mimoco launching their 3rd series of Star Wars Mimobots, and we're excited to have the exclusive to show you the first of this new series! So, here is Darth Sidious! How crazy are his hands? With all the lightning shooting out? Reminders of the rest of the series so far on the next page...

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NOTCOT Note: This is the first in my series of Ultimate Accessories posts which have been sponsored by the new Infiniti G Sedan! Don't worry, as with any sponsored content ~ they basically give me an excuse to do a fun series of posts - my way - my product choices, my content, and they help keep the site free! And in all honesty, i'm kind of excited to be sponsored by Infiniti's new G Sedan... i've been lusting after the G Coupe for years...

So to kick off this new series, here is a product review i've saved specially for this occasion! The sleek, sexy, new Acuity office chair from Allsteel! It is the first chair design by Design Continuum Italia, the Milan-based product innovation firm headed by founding partner Bruce Fifield, and from the look of the video on the design story (embedded on the next page), they really put the users first and designed around the needs of your body.

First impressions? Out of the box, the luscious white leather and the gorgeous metal curves looked incredible ~ and on my first spin, i instantly felt more productive - it gave me this Dr. Evil meets retro first class airplane seat feeling. And then i looked down and saw the controls, simple, adorable icons just where you needed them, allowing you to shift up/down, forwards/back, and a variable lever for the level of resistance tilting back. And the CASTERS! Looking closely, the icons and the caster are my favorite design details of this chair... Skip ahead and you can see many a product shot as well as close-ups of my favorite details on the next page - including the buttoning system used to attach/remove the leather jacket.

P.S. Can you believe this gorgeous chair is also Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver by MBDC? No PVC, Recycled content above 45%, more then 90% (by weight) recyclable, fair labor practices and socially responsible initiatives are followed...

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Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs came out last week, and i only just had time to grab a copy of the DVD today, perfect for lazy sunday watching while working. This is the second of 4 feature length epic DVDs (the first was Bender's Big Score, Bender's Game is coming Nov 2008, and The Wild Green Yonder in April 2009)... what struck be besides how fun the cartoons always are, were the great DVD packaging design and poster graphics of The Beast with a Billion Backs - in perfect retro sci-fi fashion, particularly loving the Metropolis poster parody for Bender's Big Score! Also cute are the "Carbon Neutral" Stickers on both this one as well as the first... see all the pieces in high res on the next page!

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NotCouture Roundup! You know the drill, click the images to find out more!

4th of July weekend is coming up, so we thought we'd pick some stuff that you can wear to all those upcoming backyard pool parties and BBQs. From cute poolside attire to lightweight shirts and jackets, we've got you covered!

We can't go Whaleless! The Strychnin Gallery London will be opening the international group show, Whaleless, on July 11th! It contains a fun selection of pieces all reminding us how much we love whales, and that we need to help save them ~ a portion of the sales will be donated to Greenpeace. I've rounded up some of my favorites from the show on the next page for you to preview!

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When at the Wall-E midnight showing on Thurs ~ walking out at nearly 3am, i felt like we were nearly venturing into the world of Wall-E as we lined up to feed the ticket in the machine to validate, then lined up in our cars again, sitting, idling, waiting to get out... and the other thing that stuck in my mind was ~ enough cross over Apple placement, Pixar? From the sound every time Wall-E had to reboot, to the ipod he played his movies on... and why was i SO drawn to Eve? And then i was reminded... Eve is a product of Jonathan Ives... Apple helped design the robots of the future... and remember the Automator icon? How cute is he? He looks like he might be Eve's grandpa, they certainly have quite a few things in common ~ that glossy white skin, and that face looks like she could definitely have evolved from him! See many more images of them all on the next page ~ as well as some Eve icons for Adium.

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SPORE! SPORN [nsfw]! And all the madness that has flown around the internets over the launch of the Spore Creature Creator. Since the Spore folks asked us to make a creature for the Spore Vote site - no, i'm no Sporelebrity, just a mere More Spore if i ever get my creatures sorted out and sent in to them. On a side note, how funny are their Sporelebrities? You have the webby kids from Digg, Arrington, iJustine, Scoble, Veronica Belmont - and then tv actors like the OC guy, Alias guy, Sabrina the teenage witch, old saved by the bell guy... and stan lee and emeril... Yes yes, i know they have names, but just surveying the group made me laugh this lazy Saturday.

SO, back to the Spore Creatures ~ dan started challenging me to make "cute" ones that weren't what nightmares were made of... and then creatures with "fewest vertebrae possible" (turns out that is 2)... and other silly tasks, so in trying out the high res picture taking and video capturing... check out a few of my silly creatures (and vid!) on the next page... i've also added the video of the f*ck slug, which is a great example of Spore Typography!

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