Travel and vintage design are both high on my list of things that make me happy.  Check out this fantastic collection by Art of the Luggage Label if they make you happy too.  You can thank me later.

It’s true.  I’m an Eames fanboy.  The couple and their productions were revolutionary in their approach to life and design, and their Case Study No. 8 house is no exception.  Now, House Industries (of typography fame) has produced a set of children’s blocks that puts that wonderful piece of architecture in your hands.  Screen printed by hand on basswood, these blocks are exactly the kind of toys I love.

You can purchase a set in a few weeks over at House Industries’ online store.

It seems I just can’t get enough of cool wooden block toys.  My kids are going to be spoiled.  These 12 educational and artsy blocks are designed by House Industries and stamped with typefaces from their Neutraface set.  Manufactured in the United States out of kiln-dried basswood, they’re even printed with non-toxic, kid-friendly inks.

Get your set at House Industries’ online store.

Update: This typeface was mistakenly credited earlier to the wrong firm.  It is now correctly linked to The Butler Bros.

Below is a gas pump near my house. Contrast that with the station shown on the right.

I’ve stopped filling up at the gas station on the left, even though it’s closer to where I live. Why? This kind of maintenance (or lack of maintenance) leaves me unwilling to trust them with my credit card information. Clearly, appearance does affect trust.

Read the entire article over at A List Apart.

(via I Love Typography)

Buy the poster at Lure Design.

Usually I’m the last to go to bed in the household.  Late nights spent reading have long been a personal habit, but over the course of the last year many of those evenings have seen a common theme: design.  Taking in as much information as I could get my hands on about the ins and outs of making things.  As a teen I was keenly aware of my interest in design, doing a couple of freelance jobs here and there until finally landing a position at a small ad agency.  This role let me focus on my talents, but also revealed to me an inner fear of losing my creative touch.  You mean I have to design things on command?  What if I have no ideas? As a result, I let the designer in me fade away.

Until now.  The last year was one of volatility and change for both me and the world, but I was able to find a constant desire to rediscover myself and my interest in all things man made.  You see, man made things by definition have a designer; they’re just mostly bad ones.  After watching the movie Helvetica and reading about typography again, I began to look at the world with those same eyes I thought I lost.  Just like a composer hears every note in the music, I began to see street signs and advertisements not as a message but as a collection of decisions to kern this letter, choose that color, etc.  Everywhere I looked, I saw not just the product but imagined the thoughts behind it.  My surroundings would never quite look the same.

My friends started to notice and I was afraid of coming across as anal retentive, pedantic or, even worse, obsessed.  However, Ben Terrett, a designer out of London, has shown me that my problem is out of my hands; it is a disease.  The Design Disease.

As if pop-up tricks weren’t enough, the new book ABC3D combines them with typography.  You really do have to see this for yourself.

You can pick up the book at Amazon.