toy box

White Capri

Beautifully crafted bag White Capri from Germany. Absolutely admire their subtle details.
via: the style files

Wire Button

Simple yet clever solution around unavoidable wire issues (till everything becomes wireless) designed by Jaehyung Hong
via: Yanko Design

Edible coffe cup lid

'moderme [bite me] coffee cup lid' by chris bowsher from the university college falmouth.
Via: designboom

Regeneration in Eagle Rock

If you're in Eagle Rock area, swing by the eco-friendly store Regeneration. A lot of what they have is hand-made out of recycled materials. Because their collection is little bit too niche, it's hard for us to imagine that it will become a go-to-place to find sustainable everyday products but will be a good place to shop for gifts or one of the kind items.

Jelly!: Casual co-working

Came across this idea Jelly!-casual co-working. It could be GREAT for freelancers who don't have a lot of face-to-face interaction with other creative people. Opportunity for expanding net works and get stimulating conversations. There is one in Burbank, CA. Thinking of checking it out.
What is Jelly? from Amit Gupta on Vimeo.

Refused: Return to Waster

One reader who commented on our previous blog Matt from greenUPGRADER took the Return to Waster stamp to the next level. Original designer, Frido was not planning to sell the stamp but share how to make the same stamp with whomever was interested. It was an open source design. Matt felt strong about this stamp so wanted to make the stamp more accessible for everyone. He did some calling and made an arrangement with online stamp shop. Now it is available for $11 (instead of original price of $14) and with the revised line "Refused: Return to Waster". This is a great example of how culture of open and collaborative individuals adding additional values to the original idea to make something even more desirable.

Return to Waster

What do you do with your junk mails? You didn't ask for these information to be sent but they still do resulting 100 million trees wasted in process. We've always mailed them back so that we make it clear to the companies that we don't want/need these type of advertisement. Now we have extra added effect. "Return to Waster" stamp with "You are contributing to the 100 million trees wasted in creating junk mail!" stated on the bottom. What we want is for these companies to be more creative in communicating with their customers. Junk mails might have worked for a long time... but time is changing and we need new thinking that is more considerate to the environment. It's a small voice trying to bring awareness in the bigger system... but collection of small voice can sometimes make a big echo to bring some changes.

If you're interested in the stamp, contact Fridolin Beisert.

Serious Trash by Nathan Cook

Art Center College of Design  student/blogger Nathan Cook has written a provocative post on his blog. He raises his concerns expressing the frustration toward school. Especially the frustration in not seeing enough commitments to stay as a competitive design school in its own behaviors. He makes a great point in comparing/contrasting two conferences Art Center has hosted in last three months, Sustainability Summit & Serious Play.

Instead of paraphrasing his contents (because we think you will enjoy reading his original article), we like to say one thing.

We would strongly stand behind Nathan's point of view and support the voice that is truly coming from the source of Art Center. It's not just about the tuition raise, sustainability (or un-sustainability) nor president's salary. It is about the need for Art Center community to come together to do the right thing as a entity. Who else is in it?

Chemicals are not coming back to style!

I had an opportunity to attend Beauty and Sustainability panel discussion last night hosted by Opportunity Green (Thank you Laura for being the date:) The event was hosted at Lululemon athletica in Beverly Hills.

Did you know 60% of lipstick contains lead?? It was one of many number that were discussed in the speech given by Stacy Maulkan the author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. Societies (especially women) are cultured to pay a lot of money to look beautiful but none of the cosmetic products are regulated by FDA. So cosmetic company can slip the toxic industrial chemical into some of their products and advertise them as the most wonderful thing women can purchase (skin whitening, shampoo, lotion, anti-aging... you name it) causing cancer and other serious illness. Even some of the baby products are highly toxic... 

These numbers are so real that it's impossible to reevaluate some of the existing habits we all have.

At the same time many of the audiences realized that we have a choice. Choice to look carefully into what we put on our skin, choice to proactively research these cosmetic products (Check out Skin Deep Cosmetic Database), and choice to avoid unnecessary pain caused by the price of beauty.

The audiences were mix of people who came for the free manicure and people who were there to learn about this issue and make some actions.  Many of them seemed very involved in the cosmetic market. (as consumers). Felt that there was great signs of awareness toward beauty and eco. Like one of the panelist Reneta Helfman says, "Chemicals are not coming back to style!"

Concrete beauty

Design studio Transparent House came up with the very cool ornamental application on polished concrete. They say that it could be applied during of after concrete is poured/cured. Curious to find learn more about how they apply the motif after the material is cured...