STYLE BUZZ: A designy alternative to those regular bulbs that look like glowing pears. They may still be incandescent, but flat lightbulbs look like they're from some perfectly designed future.

Contribute: Add an image, link, video or comment »

The Best Links:

1. Worth Showing Off Without A Lampshade
2. Yes It Still Burns a Wasteful Amount of Juice, But at Least the Darn Thing Won’t Roll Away from You When You Set It Down.

Here’s reason one. Check back every day until the election for a new poster illustrating a different reason to vote for Barack. (via)

Contribute: Add an image, link, video or comment »

POLITICS BUZZ: AIGA offers some good advice for election ballot designers. Hopefully this advice will be heeded and we can avoid some of the problems that have plagued our past elections. You’d think it would be obvious that confusing design and language like “Vote For Not More Than One” should be avoided, but apparently not.

Contribute: Add an image, link, video or comment »

The Best Links:

1. Ballot Design Problems and Solutions (Interactive Feature)
2. NY Times Blog Post from AIGA’s Richard Grefé and Jessica Friedman Hewitt
3. Top 10 Election Design Guidelines
4. AIGA’s Design for Democracy Initiative

SPORTS BUZZ: Each logo has a short description giving some needed context. Personal faves include 1908 London, 1964 Tokyo, and 1968 Mexico City, which totally blows my mind makes my eyes hurt at the same time.

Contribute: Add an image, link, video or comment »

The Best Links:

1. Design and Branding Trends: Olympic Games
2. The Best and the Worst Olympic Mascots
3. The Top 10 Coolest Olympic Mascots
4. Rebranding The Olympics
5. Interactive Olympic Medal map

SPORTS BUZZ: Lego enthusiasts from Hong Kong have created a miniature Beijing Olympics! Made up of 300,000 Lego bricks and over 4,500 Lego people, the miniature Lego city includes the infamous Bird’s Nest Stadium, Michael Phelps’ Water Cube, and George W. Bush’s favorite Olympic hot spot, Beach Volleyball! All in all, it measures an impressive 10ft by 26ft.

Contribute: Add an image, link, video or comment »

The Best Links:

1. Where Everyone’s Quick Off the Blocks
2. Olympics For The Geeks
3. Lighting Inside Water Cube Not By Stock Legos
4. HKLUG Design
5. Nobody Could Protest The Lego Olympics
6. The Lego Store
7. Lego Album Covers
8. Lego Movies

TECH BUZZ: A practical, recyclable alternative to those awful Port-A-Potties. Lightweight, re-usable, folds down flat for shipping: What can’t the Shit Box do? Use it as a toilet or a stool, the choice is yours!

The Best Links:

1. Introducing the Amazing…Shit Box
2. This Is Actually A Great Idea
3. This Actually Seems Like A Real Pain In The Ass
4. I Guess It’s Practical

POLITICS BUZZ: A safe-for-work gallery of America’s prettiest Presidential candidate. Is it because all the best designers and photographers are change-loving liberals? Or because he’s the Antichrist? Either way, Barack Obama has replaced Steve Jobs as the President Of Pretty.

The Best Links:

1. Obama Porn
2. Designers for Obama
3. Photos of the Obama Campaign
4. Obama is the Antichrist
5. Visual Map of Words Used by Obama and McCain
6. Obama Porn Much More Searched-For Than McCain Porn

STYLE BUZZ: Krispy Kreme designed the world’s first grass flip flops to relax city workers by giving them their own mini-park to walk around in. Krispy Kreme going into the shoe design business seems really random, like if Burger King decided they were going to start making hearing aids or something.

The Best Links:

1. The Perfect Accessory for the Chronically Stressed
2. So Far, They’re Only Available in London
3. These Are Ugly. We Are Confused by Them.
4. These Last up to 4 Months with Proper Care

MOVIE BUZZ: An new documentary about industrial design from the guy who brought you Helvetica. Gary Hustwit turns his eye for design on the importance of manmade objects in our everyday lives. Design nerds, rejoice.

The Best Links:

1. Objectified: The Blog For The Film
2. T-Shirt For the Film is Already Available
3. Look Forward to Interviews With Some Design Greats
4. Like “Helvetica” For ID Dorks
5. “I can’t wait to see this!”

STYLE BUZZ: These napkins adorned with neckties will instantly class-up your dinner party. There is no reason these have to be relegated to the dinner table either. I dare you to wear one to work under a blazer.

The Best Links:

1. “Dress For Dinner Napkins”
2. Buy the Dress For Dinner Napkins $5.95
3. “the lil man at the table”
4. Dress For Dinner Napkins Makes Any Meal a Formal Affair