Collections Collected

Lots of new listings and exhibits have been posted for the spring at our Museum of Online Museums. The MoOM was featured on All Things Considered and in the NY Times. It was also selected as one of Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites and was discussed on a recent episode of NPR's Hello Beautiful! Consider joining our Museum Board, a subscription comes with a coffee mug but none of the snootiness so often associated with the patronage of cultural institutions.

A One Day Conference In Chicago

Seed Three

The third edition of our one-day conference on design, entrepreneurship and inspiration is set for Friday, June 6th and includes a new venue in Chicago, a modified and more ambitious format and some very smart guest presenters. Details have been posted and registration is open.

Making Book The Final Tally

5076 New Books
For Kids

Every spring when The Morning News announces the novels that will compete in their annual Tournament of Books we handicap the field and post the "Morning Line" odds for the event. This year we stretched the gambling metaphor a bit further and encouraged readers to wager on which book would win "The Rooster." With the help of 37signals, Metafilter, Happy Cog, Iconfactory, Core77, Daring Fireball, Emma, Business Brickyard, eight6 and skinnyCorp we raised enough money to buy over 5000 books for underprivileged kids. The winners have now been posted.

Layer Tennis The Final Fiasco

Forth and Back

It's super Monday here at Layer Tennis HQ, and we're happy to declare winners in a tightly-contested pair of Layer Tennis finals. Shaun Inman's message of change was more popular than Chris Glass' message of change, and Inman won the first match. We're just getting word that the polls are closed and Jason Koxvold narrowly edged out the 17-0 James Hutchinson in the last period of second match.

It was a long, fun Layer Tennis Season, relive it here while we start planning the next one. The matches were presented by Adobe® Creative Suite® 3, the weapon of choice for creative people and Layer Tennis players everywhere.

An Infrequent Mailing Contest

The Song Does Not Remain The Same

Selections from the hundreds of entries we received to our Cover Me contest that was part of last month's Infrequent Mailing. Our readers demonstrate their ability to find fab stuff once again. Enjoy.

Making An Endorsement

From The Committee To Reelect Our Greatest President Ever

We don't often jump into the political muck here at the site but Hillary Clinton's latest television spot asks a pretty serious question and we thought it was our patriotic duty to give it an equally serious response.

It Started In the Washroom

Abba Karenina

A while ago we hosted a quick contest called Booking Bands in which we asked people to combine the name of a book with the name of a band. We received thousands of entries, posted a ton of them and then randomly selected three and sent those people the book and a CD from the band that they mashed together. The process of coming up with funny or unexpected associations in this contest became a central part of JC's recent presentation at SXSW, A General Theory of Creative Relativity.

How Do You Spell Courage?

Inaction Heroes

For the proper effect, check the trailer first and then please take a few minutes (eleven actually) to watch our short feature film, Copy Goes Here. In case you missed it, here's what our home page looked like when we debuted the movie.

Field Notes The Shipping News

The Shipping News

Our newest brand was created in combination with the unstoppable Draplin Design Company of Portland Oregon. The first offering from Field Notes Brand is a super durable made-in-the-USA memo book inspired by vintage farmers' planting books and other practical, historic, mostly-midwestern American design. Now shipping in handy 3packs $9.95 each.

72° A Film Project

Plus a Share of
the Glory, If Ever
There Is Any

EMILY: Nothing exciting will happen, I suppose. There aren't any bells or whistles or fireworks. It'll just happen and... there aren't bells and whistles or fireworks, are there? ALAN: No.

The first draft of the script for our film project, 72° has gone out to our Producers. As with Copy Goes Here, we're posting about the film as we go along and also looking for a title sponsor and a roster of Executive Producers. Unlike CGH, this time we really started at the beginning. When we began, all we had was an archival photo for inspiration and a lot of enthusiasm. Check the weblog here and scroll down to see the very first entry for details. We're forever in debt to those who are coming along for the ride, like the most recent additions to our Executive Producer credits, Pierre Mai, Kevin Hamm and Andre Torrez.

scott smith's Ten

Thou Shall

In case you missed it, we're proud to be hosting Scott's stylish short film Ten, in which a man breaks all ten commandments before breakfast.

December Guest Kevin Cornell

Bear With Us

Alissa Walker (alw) is a freelance writer, design enthusiast, and social butterfly. She runs the site Gelatobaby which chronicles her travels through the design industry, writing pieces for magazines like Print, Fast Company, ReadyMade and nearly everything in between. When she isn't appearing as a panelist at events across the country, Alissa hosts a monthly-ish party for designers in called de LaB, is regularly featured as a "guest expert" on HGTV's Small Space, Big Style, and she is the one person in Los Angeles who doesn't drive a car.

A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.

Other recent features are listed on Page Two.

Fresh Signals

The rise of cell-phone novels in -- where else? -- Japan. alw-today

Slap Chop!. Skip to 1:45 to solve your onion issues, then pop back to :54 and 2:28 for more larfs. Bless you, Vince. bb-yesterday

Next time you make salsa, don't cry for me. Wear these onion goggles instead. Via The Moment. alw-yesterday

Couldn't have come at a better time as I try and figure out how to build a better home office: Where We Do What We Do, shots of people's work spaces. sd-yesterday

Objectified trailer. jc-yesterday

"Congratulations! You now have time for lunch. (Somewhere cheap, of course.)" Michael Bierut on weathering a recession. alw-yesterday

Almost seven minutes of Thom Andersen's brilliant Los Angeles Plays Itself. This sections is about Hollywood's war on modernism. Via Daily Dose. sd-yesterday

The Ultimate House, clips and photos of some of the world's most impressive examples of modern residential architecture. sd-yesterday

Opening this Thursday in NY: A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production. alw-yesterday

Lego Steampunk. ms-yesterday

Dumpster Hot Tub: Yea or Nay? You decide at The Design Vote. alw-yesterday

Great packaging for a cafe and catering company with a fabulous name, Harried and Hungry. Yes, I am. ms-yesterday

Photos from the 2007-8 Harbin Snow Sculpture Art Fair. The 2009 festival starts tomorrow. sd-yesterday

Cindy LaFerle's short personal story of restoring Frank Lloyd Wright's Carl Schultz house in western Michigan. sd-yesterday

Fascinating article over at Wired, One Hacker's Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards. ms-yesterday

Photos of an abandoned London. dw-yesterday

The story of Stanley Kubrick's unmade Aryan Papers will be told through an art installation at the BFI. Via Mr. Hudson who has moved from Greencine to IFC's The Daily and we, of course, follow. jc-yesterday

My Day, Yesterday. jc-yesterday

'I now have over 2,500 songs on my iTunes at work, but they don't seem like they're mine so much as my computer's. And that somehow bothers me." How Dave Segal lost his vinyl. Via TMN. jc-yesterday

As you polish off those gift baskets you may be wondering: How salt and caramel came together. alw-yesterday

Lovely, Le Ballon. Via DRB. ms-yesterday

Amazing typographic mobiles from artist Ebon Heath, Stereo.Type. Via NotCot. ms-01.04

Hyper real paintings from Roberto Bernardi. ms-01.04

So you know. The Internet Pinball Machine Database. Comprehensive. Illustrated. Amazing. Thanks to Roderick of Whip & Grind. jc-01.04

Lovely photos of books at an Indian street market. Via Grow a Brain. ms-01.03

Thanks much to Michael Surtees (mst) of Design Notes for his terrific posts in December. Our Guest Editor for January is Ms. Gelatobaby herself, Alissa Walker (alw). sd-01.02

Sadly this is the last of my quick link drops for Fresh Signals, thanks Steve and Coudal Partners for letting me try some things out. Photo: Untitled. Via Chris Glass. mst-01.02

And to go along with the last, a re-post: Dinner for One, the filmed stage piece from 1963 that has become a regular staple of New Year's Eve broadcasts in Germany and Denmark for years. More info here. sd-01.02

Because I will forever be associated with anything ABBA related because of this, Jamie at 37signals just sent me what airs after the fireworks on nearly every network in Sweden on New Years. sd-01.02

From The Big Picture, Israel and Gaza. ms-01.02

"After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well." A font that uses 20% less ink and available for free, the Eco-Font. ms-01.02

Alone on the road and this way to Field Notes. Plus, what Mig did with his first set. jc-01.02

Brilliant video retrospect of movies from last year; 2008: The Cinescape. Via Slashfilm. ms-01.02

RIP PingMag. ms-01.02

So you know. Kurumi's field guide to interchanges and related vocabulary. Excellent. Thanks Marshall. jc-01.01

Page Two contains the previous 20 Fresh Signals, a key to the icons, Depth of Field, the categorical archives and more.

Grab our blended RSS feed here.

Translate

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15 minutes

Aaron Evans [?]

The Producers

Claire Zulkey
Howard Mann
Carlos Parrilla
Damien Newman
Drew Myler
Grant Hutchinson
Skipintro
R.BIRD
Karen Labenz
Andrew Figgins
Mark Powell
Mike Keen
Chet Yeary II
Greg Storey
Matt Lee
Jeremy Quinn
Grant Unrau
Debbie Millman
David Demaree
Charles Adler
Paul Joyce
S.J. Barlament
Stephen Vance
Sam Potts
John Tolva
Cameron Moll
J. Thomas Lowell
Hillman Curtis
Gridiron Software
Loyd Boldman
Heidi J Nyburg
William N. Kilarjian
Mario Van der Meulen
Simon Angling
Colin Scroggins
Inline Studio
Witold Riedel
Alan Hawkins
Marko Dugonjic
Chris Bernard
Matt Mullenweg
Alexander Muse
Dan Rubin
Thomas Mackechney
Dan Cederholm
Eric Mersmann
Ben Edwards
Brian Seethaler
Lightburn
Matt Haughey
Bill Keaggy
Pierre Mai
Kevin Hamm
Andre Torrez
Greg Hoy
Issa Breibish
Drew Stauffer
Abby Urban
Christopher Ebmeyer
Jeffrey Rutzky
Robert D. Whitson
Hunter Weeks

Your Name Here

the pitch

You can be an Executive Producer of our new short feature film, 72°. If you've always wanted to be a hotshot Hollywood player, or you just want to lend a hand to the project here's your chance.

A Thing We Made:
Jewelboxing

We hated the options available for custom packaging DVDs and CDs so we created a brand that gives creative professionals and hobbyists the tools to make great stuff. Here's a bit from the latest Jewelboxing weblog entry:

"If all the snow we got last night is any indication, winter is officially here. And with winter comes the..." Read the entire post.

Another Thing We Made: The Show

Limited-edition, professionally mixed and mastered, custom-designed live performances on CD. That's The Show. With partners like The Pixies and Dead Can Dance. More news soon.

Lowercase Tees
New designs for politically and otherwise active kids, coming soon.

We actually do
stuff beside
updating this site.

Find out what.

infrequent mail

For a quick note when these features go live and other sporadic updates, which always include a way to win free stuff, enter your email here. We won't ever abuse the privilege. Period.