August 8th 2011
Kevin should __________.
There are times when you work on a project and you find yourself with that rich, solid feeling in the pit of your stomach that what you’re doing has the potential to really affect someone. This was not one of those times.
Kevin should _____. is one of those little ideas with highly-questionable worth that inevitably bring me so much joy. The site sports an ultra sophisticated AI response engine that says things like “That’s bad for your back,” or “Maybe after dinner.”
Some of the favorite requests thus far include:
Kevin should jump rope to Mars.
Kevin should dougie.
Kevin should promote kitty litter.
Kevin should get Jay-Z’s “Watch the Throne” album.
Kevin should host a Harry Potter marathon.
Tell me other things I should do at kevinshould.com
August 2nd 2011
Words Just Being Words
I hear it’s a classic assignment for graphic design students: depict a word as what it describes.
Kind of my guilty pleasure, I really like these little typographic experiments. They can be so simple yet so clever, giving a word so much character and animation.
As part of my Create Every Day blog I started putting a few together myself and eventually decided to let them live on in their very own big boy tumblr.
I call it “Words Being Words: Nothing fancy, just words doing their thing… minding their own business.”
P.S. For a few more, check out some by Ji Lee (now Creative Director at Facebook) here.
July 18th 2011
The Best Week My Arms Have Ever Had
On Tuesday, the killer gang (and new friends) at swissmiss studio launched Tattly, an online shop for “Designy Temporary Tattoos.” Fed up with applying often hideous, Clip Art-esque temporary tattoos to her daughter’s arm, Tina Roth Eisenberg took matters into her own hands.
The store, built by next door studiomates, Oak, now offers tatts from an all-star cast of contributing designers including Jason Santa Maria, Jessica Hische, Frank Chimero, and James Victore just to name a few.
Twas a pleasure joining the studio just before launch to be able help the talented peeps behind Tattly where I could (i.e. moonlighting as a temporary tattoo arm model.) Plus, a big congrats to Rusty, Yoko, and Tina for bringing Tattly into the world. Designy children everywhere will be forever indebted.
Tattly offers its tattoos in pairs as well in a complete set for the first two weeks with the Launch Special Everything Pack.
As Tina puts it, “Life is too short to drink bad wine and wear ugly temporary tattoos. Right?”
Join the typographic, design, temporary body art revolution at tatt.ly
As featured in: FastCompany, Gizmodo, Gawker, Cool Hunting, Design Sponge, Laughing Squid, Design Milk
July 10th 2011
Stayin’ Full While Gettin’ Light
It was a sunny Sunday afternoon amidst great conversation, and I had the biggest smile on my face. My shoes were off, my stomach full, and my car was sneakily parked at the nearby grocery store. It was a feeling of ultimate satisfaction…one you would only get from trading a full size IKEA foam mattress and Costco TempurPedic topper for a Gregoire’s Fried Chicken Sandwich with a side of Potato Puffs.
A month ago, I was on a mission to stay full while getting light. In preparation for my move to Brooklyn, I had one week to get rid of a bunch of stuff I had accumulated throughout college so I could board my plane with no more than two oversized suitcases. Hence, Food For Stuff was born.
It was pretty simple. Once I arrived in the Bay Area and cracked open my storage unit, I photographed and listed a wide array of things on a tumblr I hastily put up. I would give away anything on the blog in exchange for simply some good conversation and food. That’s all.
Photo by ghirson
Within minutes of posting the link on Facebook, I had requests left and right for everything from the mattress to three half-finished bottles of detergent (totally useful). Food and friendship just seemed to be a better type of currency. Over the next week, I scheduled meals and made deliveries around the Bay Area (in a car I would soon give to my brother in exchange for a Sonic corndog and Taco Bell).
I largely attribute this little experiment to very recently finishing Rachel Botsman’s “What’s Mine Is Yours,” a great read on Collaborative Consumption and a great motivation to not only have less stuff but also smartly share the stuff you own.
Food and friendship just seemed to be a better type of currency.
What I dreaded would be a painful experience of hustling on Craigslist and trashing too many useful things, became an incredibly enjoyable send-off to savor some of my favorite local foods and converse with many fantastic people. From the Salvadoran Pupusas in the SF Mission, to the homemade Persian meal, to the feast at China Village, I’m sincerely grateful to all of the lovely people who transformed what I thought would be a chore into a delicious, social experience.
In hindsight, it would’ve been a good idea to photograph everything I ate and the people I ate with…but to be honest, I was way too busy stuffing my face.
Food For Stuff has since finished, but if anybody else would like to give it a shot, don’t hesitate to drop me a line. I have a feeling the tumblr’s single post is probably hungry for a little lovin’.