99 Rooms; An interactive website which is a good excuse for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

I must confess that I love websites where you simply "click around' and see what happens. And I've come across one on which you can spend a ridiculous amount of time exploring. A hauntingly mesmerizing site, 99 Rooms was created in Germany by ROSTLAB (see credits below).

99 Rooms is a unique internet art project that interweaves wall painting, photography, animation and sound in a manner entirely unknown until now. Shortly after its launch in June 2004, more than two million individuals throughout the world have already visited this interdisciplinary composite work of art.


Above: Room 68 before pressing on the little knob on the wall to the right

Above: Room 68 once the knob has been pressed flashes with light and sound

99rooms stemmed from the mystical, often apolocalyptically charming pictures created by Berlin artist Kim Köster within the countless vacated premises of East Berlin‘s industrial sector. Photos of these paintings were initially produced in digital form and then animated through a cooperative effort between Richard Schumann & Stephan Schulz and then subsequently complemented through a personal sounddesign from Johannes Buenemann. The final product of this year long effort is a scintillating intermediary world which invites the observer into an journey through its morbidly-beautiful rooms.

above: another room in which the cow's nose bleeds

ROSTLAUB Gbr
Mainzer Strasse 1,
10247 Berlin, Germany

Email: wir@rostlaub.com

Kim Köster (The Artist)
Richard Schumann (Art Direction)
Johannes Bünemann (Sounddesign)
Stephan Schulz (Flash / Programming)

Trade in An Old Habit for a New One

With the introduction of Absolut's Pear Vodka comes a fun series of videos encouraging you to get rid of an old habit by blowing it up.

Whether you're addicted to Caffeine or Shoes (or as in my case, both), the videos are a fun visceral way to introduce this product.

Send A Virtual Mix Tape for Vday!

Genius execution and idea! Thanks to Kim Genkinger for bringing this fun interactive valentine by Exopolis to my attention!

Pick a song from lots of fun ones (I prefer the Pixies song), label the tape and send it cyber.

Right here, baby.

Art with Heart (free downloads)

Free Photoshop Brushes for Valentine's Day from some super talented and generous designers!

Jason Gaylor of Designfruit commissioned some folks at Blacksuits Creative to help out on some designs for this Valentine set. There is quite a mix of ideas here. Thanks to Katie Canada, Dan Spencer, and Erik Rothrock for helping Jason put these together.


There are 15 Brushes in this set. The brushes work with Photoshop CS and above. Anything before CS will require using the PNG files also available here.

Thanks guys..and Happy Valentine's Day!

Do It Yourself, But Do It Right.

Want to have complete graphic and design control over your world? Well, the following products and sites make it easy for you to design everything from your own postage stamps to the badging on your car to your athletic shoes.

Just click on the images below for more information and direct links to the sites or products.

Once upon time, the only creative DIY stuff available was for kids. Coloring books, mainly. But now, for those of us who fancy ourselves "creative", there are a million cool things on the market to which we can add our own sense of design.

From customizing your laptops with Mac Styles to creating your own messenger bag online with Re:load Bags. Stamps, placemats, nite lights, pillows, they can all reflect your own style or your own art and design.

Now you can be that complete control freak you always wanted to be.

See more of my DIY stuff for Frustrated Artists list at ThisNext.

Send A Custom Singing Telegram Via Altoids.

Altoids has always had a wonderfully fun website. If you haven't clicked your way around it before, you ought to. Filled with creativity and fun, you could spend a good hour on there!


And now, in honor of valentine's day, you can send a 'personalized' singing telegram to your loved one for free. Whether it's from a male or female and to a male or female, you can customize it (to a degree).

They actually sing the 'name' of your loved one, as long as it's on their list. If your significant other has a super unusual name, you can choose from Snookums, or Sweetheart.