I Want It!

I’ve come across a number of cool things over the past couple weeks. So I’ve decided to share. Most of these things appeal to my design eye/aesthetic/intrigue/geekery. Without further ado:

Show Me How

I came across this book on swissmiss and instantly knew I’d love it. It’s a fully-illustrated book that shows you how to do over 500 useful things. Tina at swissmiss describes the how-to’s as “fascinating and important and sometimes downright bizarre.” I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Anyone looking for a Christmas gift for moi? Look no further. It’s also surprisingly cheap on Amazon.

Magnetic Curtains

“WTF” you say? Yeah. Magnetic curtains. Absolutely brilliant. I generally dislike curtains because they're a pain to get in the “proper form” (regardless of type, e.g. straight-valence, balloon-valence, swags, and just plain old curtains) and even harder to keep looking nice. On top of that, they generally look too proper and stuffy. That’s why this brilliant design from Florian Kräutli makes me happy. In her words, it’s “a curtain which you can shape to any form. Through the incorporated structure and magnets, it stays in the shape you push and pull it to.” Possibly the easiest way to change a room with your mood. Where did I find this? Swissmiss, of course.

2009: Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar

Poetry of sorts. One short stanza for each month of 2009. I saw this calendar about this time last year for 2008. The text and colors are updated, but the design is almost entirely the same. I can’t say I loved it last year when I saw it for the first time, but I’ve come around. I appreciate it’s quirkiness and fun design. Not sure how I feel about having two weeks on each line in the actual calendar. But, then again, who’s looking at the calendar part?

Air Lines—Literally

Last, but certainly not least. This is one of my favorites. If we didn’t have far more prints and posters than we need, I would have bought this within minutes of seeing it. I still may, but I’ll have to come up with a good reason for it. If you haven’t already figured it out, it’s a map of the world made up of lines representing “every single scheduled flight on any given day.” I’ve seen some stuff like this before, but never anything so clean and crisp. I definitely prefer the ones without the land outlines. Tina prefers white; I love the black.

As an aside, you may have noticed that three of the above four items I found on swissmiss. Tina Roth Eisenberg is the curator of that blog and self-described as “a Swiss designer gone NYC.” She has some amazing finds and I’m never bored of her posts, even if they’re not for me. I highly encourage you to check swissmiss regularly or subscribe to her RSS feed. Oh, she was also in this week’s Time Out New York helping find cool things in Boerum Hill.