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It's New. It's Chic. It's in Brooklyn: The Nu Hotel in BoCoCa




Looking for a new place to stay in Brooklyn, NY?

Then check out the chic little NU Hotel. Recently opened in July 2008, NU Hotel offers a smart, clean, fresh design along with expert service.



The 93-room, newly built hotel was designed by Datumzero Design Office and has guest rooms in three styles; the Nu Standard, the Nu Friends Suite, and the Nu Urban Suite.





The Nu Friends Suites are equipped with bunk beds and modular furniture and Nu Urban Suites feature a cozy bed niche with leather surroundings, a sitting area and custom hammocks. Rooms have cork flooring, organic bedding materials and custom furnishings crafted from FSC- certified, sustainably harvested teak wood. Rooms also include 32" flat-screen televisions with "jack packs" to dock audio, video and computer electronics and complementary wifi access.





Nestled at the corner of Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue, NU Hotel conjures up a fresh blend of modern chic. 93 loft-inspired rooms offer a level of exclusivity reserved for private clubs.






The bathrooms have stone and glass showers, rain head showers, Aveda bath products and chalkboard walls where guests can jot notes for housekeeping, travel companions or themselves.




NU hotel is about authenticity and comfort for the business traveler. Feel a genuine sense of place in the unique touches, such as stenciled quotes from famous Brooklynites, found objects from old local landmarks, and scattered paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Chalkboards in the bathrooms add to the unique ambience.



Enjoy WiFi access throughout our Brooklyn accommodations, allowing you to work from the quiet business center or even the hammock in your room. Complimentary continental breakfast provides a morning boost, while evening tapas and cocktails at NU Bar set the perfect tone for a big night out. For a complete body and mind experience, retreat to the 24-hour fitness center – equipped for cardio, weight training, Pilates, and Yoga.



NU Hotel is in Downtown Brooklyn, which is the northern tip of BoCoCa, an umbrella term for three neighborhoods in Brooklyn - Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens. BoCoCa is a relatively new name for this area and not widely used, but is gaining greater currency, even outside the United States. BoCoCa is only a few short walking blocks from other distinct and authentic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, such as DUMBO (a loft-inspired neighborhood "down under the Brooklyn Bridge") and Brooklyn Heights (picturesque row houses and a few mansions directly across the East River from Manhattan).

Rates start at 200.$ per night

Nu Hotel

NU HOTEL 85 SMITH STREET BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11201
phone: 718-852-8585
fax: 718-852-8558

10 Hip Stocking Stuffers For Under $10.00




Given the many people I know who opted not to exchange gifts during this painful economic downturn, I wanted to post a few very cool items that won't cost you much more than 10 bucks. Because what's Christmas or Chanukah without any gifts? Not nearly as much fun, that's what.

iBend; the world's thinnest iPhone stand

They come two to a pack, one black and one white. A flexible but sturdy stand so you can watch videos and movies on your iphone.

$4.99 - Buy them here.

The Gangsta Rap Coloring book


48 pages of line drawings of "Gangsta" rappers, done with the thick black line we all remember from the coloring books of our youth.
$8.95 buy it here.

Bone Chillers Ice Cube Trays

About as cool as cubes can get.
$5.95- buy them here.

Little Uglys


David Horvath's line of famous plush dolls are also available in miniature. They make great pet toys, too! $9.89 each, choose from the full line here.

Blue Q Tin Savings Banks
BlueQ has a bunch of great and hilarious items for under ten dollars. Some of my favorites are their tin banks with great sarcastic imagery and sayings:


Tons to choose from and only $7.99 each. Buy them here.

Punctuation Page Marks

Set of 5 pads. 50 pages each. Super cute way to bookmark anything of interest.
Each pad is about 1"x 3”

$10.00 - buy them here

Fill Me Up Flower Vases:


Reusable plastic vases that come in various patterns.
$8.oo each- buy them here

Ouch Comic Strip Bandages:

No better way to heal a boo boo.
$4.99 - buy them here

Guitar Key Blanks
available in 2 styles, both come in black or pink


Any hardware store can cut them to your needs.
$4.95 each. Buy them here.

Tattoo-inspired Collar Stays by Collar Ink

Tattoo inspired collar stays that come in a little glass vial.
  • 2 1/2" x 3/8" (the industry’s most common size)
  • thicker than many other plastic collar stays
  • comes with a glass storage vial
  • 14 collar stays in each vial—7 pairs
  • won’t set off metal detectors
some samples:

Okay, this last one is a little more than ten bucks, but you get 7 pairs of them! So, you could actually split them up and give them to 2 people!
$12.99 for 7 pairs- see more and buy them here

So, if you need to get some little gifts on the cheap and you don't want to do a lip balm or a Starbucks gift card, then go for the above little finds. They will hardly cost you any coin, but will make most recipients smile.

Graphic Designers Gave Us 30 Reasons To Elect Obama & Hundreds More


Above: by Adam Snetman, New York

I know you've all seen the Shepard Fairey poster for Obama:

Above: Shepard Fairey's popular Obama Poster

But he certainly wasn't the only one who designed a beautiful poster in support of Barack Obama. Nor the best poster. Tons of graphic artists, illustrators, painters, typographers and more have done so, just take a glance below:





However, I'm singling out "30 reasons" in this post because I liked the use of their 'email' campaign as a way of communicating the support for Obama. And their artwork was more communicating the 'reason' to vote for the Democratic candidate rather than just a poster of him.


30 Reasons was a 30-day email and internet campaign to encourage people to vote for Barack Obama. Their goal was simple: Use design to build a logical, multi-faceted argument for Obama and make it easy to share each reason with another person.



They enlisted 30 graphic designers to create posters that represented a reason to vote for Obama. Starting on the October 5th, they posted a new poster online each day and emailed it to those signed up on their list. Recipients could easily share the email with other supporters and friends who were undecided.

Here are a few of them:

Above: by John Klotnia, New York

Above: by Scott Thares, Minnesota

Above: by Milton Glaser, New York

Above: by Julia Zimmerman, New York

Above: by Chris Thomas, New York

Above: by Chaz Maviyane, Massachusetts

Above: by Matt Dorfman, New York

Above: by Luba Lukova, New York

30 Reasons featured posters designed by these designers:
Andrio Abero, Elizabeth Amorose
Jesse Arneson, Seymour Chwast
Frank Chimero, Andrew Degraff
Neil Donnelly, Matt Dorfman
Megan Forb, Milton Glaser
Dan Ibarra, Melissa Jun
Jason Kenevich, John Klotnia
Andrew Lewis , Luba Lukova
Chaz Maviyane-Davies, Lenny Naar
Woody Pirtle, Adam Snetman
Scott Stowell, Michael Strassburger
Dustin Summers, Scott Thares
Chris Thomas, Brett Traylor
Rick Valicenti, Ryan Waller
Larkin Werner , JP Williams
Brett Yasko, Julia Zimmerman


Curated by Julia Zimmerman, Chris Thomas, and Jesse Arneson. Go look at all 30 of them. They are all worth seeing and available to download as pdfs here.

Like to see Obama posters? well, the you MUST check out Design/ers for Obama, where all the amazing work on here is visible as well as links to various sites with artwork for Obama.



Design/ers for Obama was created when Design Observer essentially asked the question, “how can graphic designers best support Barack Obama?” The answer ended up extending the question to cover visual communicators at all levels. In addition to supporting Obama for America they jumped at the opportunity to bring the spirit of grassroots style organizing and collaboration to poster design which, to them, meant not only forming communal bonds but sharing the fruits of their efforts equally and in such a way that anyone can enjoy and benefit from (because most of us do not own our own printing presses).

Design for Obama was created by Aaron Perry-Zucker, a senior studying graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and was built by Adam Meyer, a senior studying industrial design at said school. The site was inspired and is supported by Design Observer.

Design/ers for Obama


30 reasons

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