FEATUREDFun to see the design/inspiration behind the new Nike Free Running Shoes. There is awesomely glowing photography of them (they remind me of nudibranchs!) as well as videos with designer Mike Miner.

A fun travel shade idea - dreamstate's neoprene sleepmasks were inspired by vintage frames and come in 10+ colors ...

Uncontrol :: Disc from creative coder Manny Tan is a beautifully simple browser based music visualizer.

The Crane Lamp, by ever inventive - former LEGO concept designer, Sweden-based Charlie Davidson.

Surreal limited edition design prints of cities around the world by Reinhard Krug.

The Radiant Floor Lamp, designed by Steve Faletti, features an array of lamp elements, modeled after standard-sized fluorescent U-bulbs.

FEATUREDNatalya Zahn's amazing natural illustrations up close, a peek at her book, Tropical Forest, and the stunning packaging it arrived in!

based on the concept of Dazzle Camouflage, Matthew Parker Events created this mural from over 10000 black and pink drinking straws on view at the Viking Gallery at Western Washington University.

Paper Puppets by Héctor Serrano for NPW. Let your fingers do the talking...Just bend a finger to open and close the mouth! Each puppet is printed and pre-cut from card. Easy to assemble.

French 'Urban Hacktivist' Florian Rivière's works in Strasbourg, Berlin and soon in London and Dublin.

The triangulation series of Zhang Zhoujie uses parametric mathematics to create digital formed furniture pieces

"The Blue Trees", beautiful project by Konstantin Dimopoulos for Vancouver Biennale 2011 that involved dyeing the trunks and branches of trees blue.

The Brooklyn mini bar from the Portuguese - based company Boca do Lobo's "Soho Collection".

Lovely photos of the Rare, Beautiful and Disturbing Objects From the National Library of Medicine from Wired Science.

Francis Ooi's "What I see When I run", captures beautiful botanical portraits of plants and fungi encountered as he jogs in Singapore.

'Gustave Courbet' Museum in Ornans - France by 2/3/4 Architecture.

VIDEOCute ad campaign encouraging people to take buses rather than walk alone from De Lijn, the Flemish public bus company in Belgium. Concept by Duval Guillaume Modem in Antwerp, 3-D production by CC (Creative Conspiracy).

Hockerbank, or “stool-bench” by Johanna Dehio.

VIDEO"A Strat is Born" takes you on a high-speed ride through the creation of a Fender Stratocaster guitar at Fender's U.S. manufacturing facility in Corona, California.

Paperself now even has under the sea and peacock false eyelashes

VIDEOThe Ubi-Camera concept developed by a research group at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences will allow you to take photos by framing targets with your hands.

The 38 series Planter Chandelier by Omer Arbel.

Casey Key Guest House in Casey Key, Florida by TOTeMS Architecture.

Luzinterruptus' Mutant Weeds take over Madrid.

Do you want to see how hand made glass is done? Product development behind HRUSKA SET by designer Martin Žampach in pictures.

The NYtimes on the controversial practice of dyeing chicks for Easter.

VIDEOBBH's new campaign for the Audi A5 with a bit of ugly duckling inspiration.

Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad? You can never tell with ThinkGeek ~ "The original Hunger Game returns."

VIDEOGiorgio Biscaro's YaLog experiment with blown glass and wood molding it has a beautiful and fascinating video sharing the process and story behind the project.

FEATUREDGreat giftset packaging from the Savory Spice Shop, and a peek into the new OC Mart Mix, an interesting interiors/fashion/foodie space in Costa Mesa.

One of the nature's more bizarre looking baby mammals, a little aardvark has arrived at Busch Gardens.

A set of fun and fluffy images made by stupid to celebrate Easter.

FEATUREDKBL Eyewear ~ fell in love with a few of their sunglasses at Alexander Gray. Fun to see their inspiration for collections like sea glass and guitars!

Timbuk2 Apron! Interesting variation on their usual messenger bag materials!

'The Histrionic Wayfarer (After Bosch)' by Tim Storrier wins the Archibold prize for his faceless self-portrait, inspired by Hieronymus Bosch.

Luxirare makes a mini adidas tracksuit for their dog, Rocky.

Poster series featuring Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Peter and Wendy and The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Torani did a whole April Fool's Campaign around a Chicken n' Waffles flavor and are saying if enough people want them to "Make It Real" they just might.

Killspencer Dopp Kits - It can swap from a box like dopp shape to a flat folio shape.

Imajen Exploration Tools. Sustainable tools for children, to cultivate their imagination, connect with and appreciate nature. By Kenji Huang.

You've heard of dressing the table but what about dressing the plates ? This new project from artist Sonia Rentsch presents plates in their formal attire.

The Working Proof's My Home and the City print by Judy Kaufmann

Elecom U2H-Z10S 10 Port USB Hub - super sleek and simple with a hidden magnet so you can easily attach it to a metal desk/etc.

Cuisine R-Evolution: Molecular Gastronomy Kit! It teaches you how to transform liquids, like honey, into jelly-like cubes, spherify chopped produce into flavor-packed beads, or even morph melted chocolate into a delicate powder or spaghetti-like strands.

Yasuaki Onishi was commissioned by Rice University Art Gallery to create a site-specific installation to coincide with the opening of the Asia Society Texas Center's new Houston headquarters designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.

Opening Celebration:
Friday, 13 April 5:00- 7:00pm
Gallery talk by Yasuaki Onishi at 6:00 pm

Reception and Gallery Talk:
Saturday, 14 April at 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Gallery talk by Yasuaki Onishi at noon

Photo
reverse of volume (detail), 2009
Aomori Contemporary Art Centre
Aomori, Japan

VIDEOIGNITE CHANGE! Stop-motion video made with 11,400 matches for Green Sheep.

VIDEODream Machines - New Syfy tv show where the Parker Brothers are building dream machines, which you thought only could exist in your dreams! (Think the craziest movie automobiles...) Show package and video by Onesize.

As the cake pop trend continues to spread (and get more commercialized) Nordic Ware now has a Cake Pop Pan! Instead of crumbling cake and mixing with frosting... you can just bake spherical mini cakes!

Amazing elephant on a trampoline animated gif will make you smile... and stare...

FEATUREDGoogle Maps now in 8-Bit QUEST View! Everything from giant Androids to t-rex skeletons and flamingos to eames houses and more… pixelated! And an adorable intro video to go with it as well.

VIDEOMusic video for the song "Skyscrapers" by OK Go.

Burger King ad in the Netherlands ~ eye makeup burger

Joe Doucet's 'One Sense' concept headphones are designed to block out the world.

FEATUREDMystical Antelope Canyon, stunning Chilean national parks and Roman ruins in Morocco are all part of this week’s roundup from NotVentures.

OLO (seen as #42252) has been updated! This is a simple and addictive social game of skill and strategy for iPad developed by London-based interactive design studio, Sennep.

The Serpentarium - snakes in a new skin. New entrance and shop of the reptile zoo by Mojo design.

"Real artists ship" Steve Jobs. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and products don’t make an impact until they get out of the lab and into people’s hands.

FEATUREDA look at some of the incredible biodiversity of the Amazon. Check out this bizarre and beautiful selection of insects we encountered on the Rio Negro.

P is for PIE... A is for ABECEDARIUM. This is the debut project of Wieden+Kennedy's new class of W+K 12. (Portland, OR)

Concrete - Parametric Design - Craft - Geometric Beauty....Clocks that are about material, method, and infinite forms.

Impossible Project by Nigo Edition PX70 Colorshades - yellow, orange, red, pink, lilac, dark blue, light blue, green, black and white featuring the logo of Nigo

Travel Humidifier - "Just add your own water bottle, plug the unit in and enjoy clean, moist air. Fits most standard PET bottles (max 17 oz). Features an automatic shut off and emits no sound."

'Cantine' vases by Véronique Maire.

SpinUp is a frenetic neo-arcade game for iPad with subtle yet striking dark-humorous take on possible tragic consequences of planned obsolescence and product waste.

This mean looking Bruce Lee toy with his nose above his hollow eyes is created by Beijing based designer Qiu Dechun from Nothing Studio. Only 90 units of this limited edition are available.

An old Bronx mansion in NYC is being revitalized by 32 artists including street artists Crash and Daze, curated by No Longer Empty. The exhibit 'This Side of Paradise' opens April 4th.

Beaumaris Dental is located in Victoria, Australia, and designed by Demaine Partnership.

Medical illustrator Maya Shoemaker created this Lego kidney cross section as her “first anatomical Lego study.”

DLKW Lowe London have built tiny LEGO billboards to stub toes and promote LEGOland's resort.

TAT7’s iPhone Scuba Case makes underwater iPhoneography possible, with your phone waterproof at up to 100 feet, and having mechanical buttons that let you access your phone's camera features.

Stunning diffusion spectrum imaging to infer the position of nerve fibers in the living human brain.

OXO Good Grips POP Jars are now in cookie jar form!

Love the street art of Paige Smith of A Common Name that consists of geodes in unexpected places all around los angeles.

SmartMix is the fusion of a measuring cup, digital scale and mixing bowl designed by J. Ryan Eder & Chris Daniels of Priority Designs.

Neuland IndustrieDesign's Park Chair.

The Linnear House by Architects EAT on Australia's southwest coast.

VIDEOTrailer for The Dark Knight Rises in LEGO by ParanickFilmz.

Located in a wooded and mountainous terrain of Guatemala, Casa Corallo stands tall with its forest surroundings. The home, which is designed by PAZ Arquitectura, was built to introduce the language of the architecture into the forest.

Zhang Yu's Fingerprint Series: paintings, installations, and books with thousands of overlapping inked fingerprints creating an infinite effect.

SolarLed by Luz Difusion. A complete power production kit that transforms the sun’s light into electricity. A daytime charge on sunny or cloudy days will light each Led for 8 hours.

Architect Ole Scheeren designs a floating cinema for the final day of the Film on the Rocks Yao Noi Festival in Thailand.

The iconic look of the 1940's comes to your iPhone with the 'Military' Edition of the iCa iPhone Case. Turn your phone into a vintage rangefinder camera.

This multifunctional OBJEKT from German based designer Katarzyna Pawlik combines too many possibilities to mention. What else do you need?

Q&A interview with international award winning photographer Mark Mawson.

Adorable paper people models by Philippa Rice.

What do the LITTLES carry inside their bags? A nosy parker in all of them! Launching new nosy parker accessories.

Blue Ant Studio's carbo axe, with direct input from the military EOD community, made of hardened titanium core with a carbide-tungsten edge, sandwiched between two layers of carbon fiber, and fastened via titanium hardware.

Hotel Tonight just launched their iPad app ~ and the images and UI on the iPad (esp with the retina display) are stunning!!!

Bold Works by Barbara Kruger and Bernard Tschumi from Storefront for Art and Architecture Benefit at the Woolworth building.

The newest speaker system from Bowers & Wilkins delivers a sizable punch for smaller home theater applications.

Rennholz gives new meaning to sustainably built vehicles.

A 2012 end of the world-themed, Gil Elvgren-inspired calendar by Russian artist Andrew Tarusov.

OXO's new salad dressing shaker!

Altaeros Energies, wind energy company formed out of MIT, has been able to generate high altitude power from a prototype of its floating wind turbine in Maine.

Clark is a compact desk from Llot llov with working area and an excellent solution for those who like to pile documents and papers.

VIDEORethink Canada partnered with Untitled Films to create this animated PSA for the Alzheimer Society of BC.

Parramyd system for plants by kawamura-ganjavian.

How An Aeron Chair Gets Built Every 17 Seconds.

Adorable little pygmy hippo, a new addition at the Cango Wildlife Ranch in South Africa.

Cute dog and fire hydrant bookend set from Knob Creek Metal Arts.

A look at a gigantic Solar Tornado five times the size of Earth.

Gorgeous RP Guitar by Derek Manson. A 3D printed instrument composed of suspended polycarbonate polymer 'tendons'.

River Bank House in Big Sky, Montana by Balance Associates Architects.

Savoring Time In The Kitchen has a recipe for adorable Devilish CHICKS! Quite the twist on deviled eggs!

Wind Map by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg of Hint.fm is a beautiful visualization of historic wind data across the US.

Kiska co-designed the new concept bike Opel RAD e with Pedelec drive.

Adam Oehlers, illustrator and sculptor, describes his work as 'all part of a world that is not so different from ours, a grim, cobbled place that is trapped in its own time, with some little elements of odd magic which creep in at the edges.'

Fire Design merges fire safety and design with decorative fire extinguishers. Beautiful logo. wooden boxes, and packaged like a bottle of wine.

Kerf Design's clever magazine/coffee cup shelf for the bathroom.

MakerLab, the creative group from Berlin, will be in Milan for the fourth edition of Public Design Festival with a new project of collaborative design.

VIDEO'Birth of a Book', beautiful short film by Glen Milner capturing the creation of a book at Smith-Settle Printers in Leeds, England.

'Alcoholidays' is One Trick Pony’s annual holiday self-promotion. This year they sent clients tequila bottles concealed in a hollowed wooden log, with a custom wooden label and shot glass.

Nomad - a portable solar rechargeable lamp designed for developing countries. By Alain Gilles.

The Apollon camera by Gordon Tiemstra allows camera combinations, different perspectives, and ways of processing photos into innovative media.

'Cutline' furniture series by Alessandro Busana.

VIDEOWes Anderson directed this amazing stop motion animated TV spot for Sony Xperia smartphone.

Milan 2012 preview: ‘Stack’ occasional table by Nathan Yong for Living Divani.

Hark prints and paper totems created by Audrey Roger and Andy Macgregor.

Parents make a real 'Narnia' wardrobe for their 9-year-old daughter that leads into a Narnia themed play area.

Trestle table and benches from Jennifer Newman.

Converse and the Chuck Taylor All Star's recent ad campaign, launched around Germany, discovers cities transformed by vibrant street art representative of Converses creative motif.

Gibbon Street House in Brisbane by Shaun Lockyer Architects.

Designer Ollie Palmer has spent two years studying control systems and insect navigation in a bid to develop a machine that makes ants move in a choreographed fashion, dubbed the Ant Ballet.

Jer Thorp's Kepler Visualization Source Code.

Cool Hunting take a look at the new version of Little Paper Planes by Kelly Lynne Jones.

'My Soul' by Katharine Dowson is a laser-etched lead crystal glass formation in the shape of a brain, created using the artist's own MRI scan.

The first and only Cookbook you can actually read, cook and eat. Made out of 100% fresh pasta it can be opened, filled with ingredients and finally be cooked. Lovely pilot project for the Gerstenberg Publishing House.

Wired looks at bioluminescence ahead of an exciting new exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History.

BoxVox has a fun look at the 20's Milk & Package Receivers... an insulated compartment in the side of the house that could be accessed from both sides!

VIDEOSamsung Portugal's latest ad from Excentric, projection mapper Oskar e Gaspar and video agency Droid I.D. called 'Explore Your Dual World' using Human Face Video Mapping.

Kosplay Porcelain by Ajee x K.Olin tribu

Reversible Celestial Tote ~ Wren Celestial print inside Clare Vivier (cognac or green) leather tote!

James Perse Limited Edition Skateboard - Made in Los Angeles, each is unique and individually handcrafted from select solid walnut planks accented with solid wenge strips for added stability

Designed by Partners & Spade in conjunction with VSTR, the Nomadic Pack includes a detachable laptop bag, and a lightweight stowable hammock. Not sure about having the laptop on the unzipable front... but interesting concept.

Russell Wrankle makes some Wonderfully intriguing clay scuptures. These rabbits are just in time for Easter.

The 9/11 Memorial "Empty Sky" honoring the victims from New Jersey who lost their lives at the Twin Towers, directly across the river from the World Trade Center. Simple and striking.

FAKASAKA skull sculpture - table lamp in bronze - Fakasaka is a design-oriented company dedicated to making innovative and exclusive furniture, lightings, decoration objects and jewelry.

FEATUREDElderflower Gimlets, Easter egg cupcakes and noisy jelly all feature in this week’s roundup from Tasteologie and Liqurious.

Stacks Monster Cruiser - Complete cruiser board with Kevin Lyons art, 4 different colored wheels and die cut grip tape with Stacks logo.

Freitag's new F60 JOAN bag - "Bicyclable thanks to two Velcro Straps that allow mounting the bag to your handlebars"

The future of fabrication- behind the scenes at the membership-based, high-tech workshop and prototyping center that is NextFab Studios in Philadelphia.

David Rockefeller Award for MoMA by Harry Allen Design.

The Facto Royale, a sleek white salon designed by architect Igor Ferreira just opened up on the streets of Libson.

VIDEOLe vent directed by Simon Iannelli & Johannes Berger captures Marina Kanno and Giacomo Bevilaqua from Staatsballett Berlin at 1000 frames per second set to Radiohead.