Holiday Kaleidoscope Cards For The Luxe Project Are Both Beautiful and Beneficial.

The Luxe Project is a new initiative that teams brilliant creatives with Luxe by MOO – and helps good causes as well. Their designs will be showcased for a month, and 100% of net proceeds will go to the designer's charity of choice.




This month's design is Holiday Kaleidoscope, a collection of postcards or notecards that feature Christmas and winter iconography as stylized snowflakes or mandelas. There is a different design on every Postcard or Notecard in a pack and they are available in various colors.





Designer Armin Vit of UnderConsideration tells Mohawk Papers that "I had just finished doing this faux redesign for Brand New where I did these funny “moustache mandalas“. I really liked the process of doing them and the result, so when MOO.com asked us to do the holiday card I thought it would be a good opportunity to keep flexing that idea. I asked my wife Bryony, who does these great charming illustrations, to do as many holiday “thingies” as she could. In about eight hours she had done about 20 or 30 of these things, then I obsessively arranged them in 12 different radial configurations, which became 25 different cards."



The Holiday Kaleidoscope collections benefit Blink Now, an organization that aims to do more than just make ‘quick fix’ donations – it empowers young people to come up with and achieve lasting solutions to poverty issues in their communities.





About the Designers:


Holiday Kaleidoscope was designed by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit. Born and raised in Mexico City both are graphic designers and co-founders of UnderConsideration, each with a decade of experience in various disciplines including corporate and brand identity, annual reports, business collateral, web design and programming, packaging, as well as magazine and book design.


About Luxe Cards:


Luxe are the gold standard of paper quality at 600gsm/32pt, everyone who receives one will experience a quality and weight like no other card.

Luxe, available as Business Cards, MiniCards, and Postcards, was designed by Product Designer Paul Thorogood to be the ultimate conversation starter. With that in mind, they invented a technology called Quadplex, (entirely unique to MOO) so that Luxe cards could look as spectacular as they feel.

UnderConsideration's set of ready-made 25 Greeting Cards is on sale right now and with their quick turnaround (about three days), you can still get them in time for Christmas.

Shop The Luxe Project here

Authors With Screwed Up Psyches Inspire A Wick[ed] Candle Collection.

So, what does a screwed author smell like?  Memoirs: The Negative Space Collection from Wick[ed] is said to be inspired by provocative authors of the past. From those addicted to alcohol to those addicted to love, each candle was inspired by an author who battled demons and fluctuated between positive and negative life experiences. The candles, in turn, have names that contain two juxtaposing words to illustrate the author's ups and downs.



Images that represent each author are etched on the container that illuminates through its black vessel when lit. Hand poured in Los Angeles and made from 100% vegetable palm wax with a double cotton wick, providing maximum illumination with an environmentally clean flame and unprecedented aromatic scent delivery. Each weighs 9 oz., has a burn time of 60 hrs and contains a “love note” from your secret admirer.



These make great gifts for the dark, troubled, intellectual in your life. Or the alcoholic bookworm.

Raging + Lull
[Inspired by the psyche of Edgar Allan Poe]:


A seductive yet crisp fragrance revenant of zesty blood orange, basil, and saffron blossom, captivated by warm notes of cinnamon bark, clove, and vanilla bean.

Despondent + Hope
[Inspired by the psyche of Anais Nin and Henry Miller]:


A nostalgic and magnetic fragrance reminiscent of fresh figs, sweet violet and citrus, bound by jasmine, rose water, vanilla, and sensuous musk.

Euphoric + Sorrow
[Inspired by the psyche of Ernest Hemingway]:


An addictive and sultry fragrance redolent of creamy Madagascar vanilla bean and aged bourbon, with an explosion of sweet anise.

Lethargic + Warmth
[Inspired by the psyche of Oscar Wilde]:


A melancholy fragrance eliciting hypnotic notes of camphor and bergamot wrapped in a melody of warm oak, vanilla and patchouli, with a hint of cedar.

Pure + Terrible
[Inspired by the psyche of Emily Dickinson]:


A sophisticated garden fragrance reminiscent of green leaves encompassing orange blossoms, while married to fresh gardenia and aromatic notes of spicy amber and wood.

Lovely + Decay
[Inspired by the psyche of Jane Austen]:


An angelic and fresh fragrance redolent of aromatic lavender, lily, and cassis, enveloped by dry herbal notes of white and black tea, laced with a woodsy aroma.

Blissful + Woe
[Inspired by the psyche of Virginia Woolf]:


A timeless fragrance memorialized in vintage gardenia and sandalwood, conjoined with the essence of orange blossom, jasmine, clove, cinnamon and invigorating grapefruit.


$32 each, buy them here

Hercules XIII - Classic Meets Cool In Scott Eaton's New Universal Tablet Stand

I thought it would be impossible for Scott Eaton to outdo the cleverness and aesthetic appeal of his Venus of Cupertino iPad docking station, but I was wrong. Behold, his new Hercules tablet holder/stand, a great counterpart to his functional female sculpture.



While Venus is an actual charging station for the iPad ($239.57), Hercules XIII  ($159.71) is designed as to be the perfect height and angle to browse all your media on your iPad, iPad Mini, Samsung, Google or Amazon tablets.  Available in matte white or glossy grey, the resin cast sculpture of the mythological son of Zeus cradles your tablets in a heroic pose that works in vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape) formats.






Each Hercules is hand-cast in museum-quality resin and costs $159.71 USD, but they have a pre-order special going on for 20% off.

EDITION: open
SHIPPING: worldwide
ARTIST/DESIGNER: Scott Eaton
PRE-ORDER estimated shipping in 8-10 weeks.

A shout out to my friend Bill Bowersock for bringing this to my attention!

Handcrafted Eco-Friendly Font Puzzles For Typophiles Hand Made in Italy.

above image is cropped

Fan of fonts? These beautifully designed and crafted painted plywood puzzles from Looodus are laser cut and hand-finished in the hills of Trivero in Piemonte, approximately two hour’s drive from Milan, Italy.



The puzzles are a true collaboration between designer and artisan, exploring the possibilities of computer aided design and hand finished products. A marriage of new technologies and pride in a craft handed down from father to son. Each puzzle goes through numerous checks to ensure a product which is precise and modern while being unmistakably artisanal.




Extreme care has been taken by Looodus to use a manufacturer who shares their values with attention to craft and quality while ensuring that the product is as environmentally friendly as possible. The process begins with the selection of wood used to create this beautiful piece. All the plywood is FSC (Forestal Stewardship Council) certified Poplar from the surrounding Padana Plane. This is where the majority of Poplar is grown for Italian paper and the carpentry sectors.




The concept for the Puzzle, like many of Looodus’ products, is born from observing the designer's baby daughter and her real life experience of being a first time parent. The Fonts were selected to be appropriate for their shape and size but also have a special place in the world of design. The colours have been checked and tested to offer a harmonious range across Green, Blue and Red.




“There are opportunities which arise every day to be creative and make quick fun toys for her, using the most rudimentary materials and sometimes these mini prototypes can become more refined products,” explains Kurt Stapelfeldt, Co-founder and Looodus Chief Designer.

NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THREE YEARS OLD



buy them here

House Industries and Hugo Guinness Goodies From Chronicle Books.

Chronicle Books has just released two terrific collections for lovers of typography and contemporary art. Affordable, functional notecards, notebooks, postcards and journals.

Uber Stylish Backgammon Set by Arik Ben Simhon and Ben Frankforter.

This lovely, easy-to-carry, modern backgammon set crafted of oak with wooden playing pieces comes in a self-contained case of either wood or a flocked finish.





Photos © Ori Ackerman

Price $440
Buy it here