I’ve never been interested in vinyl toys. I mean, they’re cute and everything, but I can’t rationalize paying $50 for a toy. I play with toys in the bathtub (yes, seriously), so why would I want something that’s so expensive I can’t even play with it? Books go on shelves, toys are meant to play. But I might have to reconsider my stance on collector toys thanks to Peskimo and their BambooZoo figures. Peskimo is a UK-based design firm whose character driven illustrations were just begging for toydom. I love their work, and dammit if I don’t love their toys. I’m not hyped on them being sold in the blind though. If I’m paying for it then just let me pick which one I want. Probably the toast guy. Or the weird, sad, blue monster. Or all of them. The good news: for $7.95 each I won’t have any problem playing with them in the bathtub. They are gonna kick my lego guys’ asses.

Peskimo

I don’t want to spend a year talking about how fantastic and clean the work of Australian transplant design couple Mia and Jem is. You can see that for yourself if you aren’t extremely visually impaired. Hell you blind bastards could probably even feel it through your braille interface. I unwittingly stole their bathroom symbols for my own bathroom door at home many years ago. They’re identity work is my favorite. Just so goddamn good. They’re Bay Area locals now, so maybe I should see if they need an intern. I’m a little old, and not in school, but i do make good coffee and like long walks on the beach. Who doesn’t like long walks on the beach? People in wheelchairs probably. Damn, I’ve insulted the visually and physically handicapped in this post. Only ones left now are the retards. Check.</p> <p><a href=” target=”_blank” />Mia and Jem

Co-ed duo Pillowhead caught my eye this morning with their fantastic skatedecks. In case you haven’t noticed I have a soft spot for skate related art. You might even call it an addiction. The judge did after the last “incident”. But, upon further inspection, the rest of Pillowhead’s work turned out to be just as spectacular. If Murakami’s Superflat brain exploded all over my favorite comics the result would be close to their epileptic abstractions. Is pop abstraction a genre? If it wasn’t before, it is now. The problem I’m faced with is one I’ve dealt with for years: How can you skate something so beautiful? Sometimes I just have to sacrifice beauty on the alter of skateboarding. The Gods will be pleased.

Pillowhead

I generally shy away from all the vector based art/illustration that’s floating around out there. I am drawn more to art that I can touch. But on this gloomy-ass Friday, faced with a weekend spent deep cleaning my old apartment, the brightly colored, character-based vector work of Jonathan Ball (Pokedstudio) was just the ticket. It turned everything around. Literally. Five minutes after I looked at Ball’s illustrations the clouds broke a little and I found out I was having lots of free pizza for lunch. Coincidence? I say no. Jonathan’s got every digital style under the sun in his arsenal, and they all look clean and deadly in his hands. Clearly the universe was peering over my shoulder and took notice of the skills. Top that off with the healthy does of inspiration I got from all that vector kung fu mastery, and voila, the day turns positive.

Jonathan Ball

Oh Robert Mars, Robert Mars. Creating works that could sidle up alongside any Tarantino soundtrack and make me go back to tightrolling my cigarette pack in my sleeve. Muscle cars and angular design sing me a gentle ephemera lullaby. It’s better to look at the past and remember what they thought the future would be than it is to know what the future is like. Mars’ work helps me settle back into that hopefulness and idealism that used to be a part of the big, colorful, endless American Dream. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Robert Mars

Tin&Ed is an Australian design/illustration powerhouse. I hate to use a generic term like powerhouse, but they honestly fit the bill. Their work spans several genres without ever losing style or quality, both of which they have in abundance. Seriously guys, why don’t you leave a little room for the rest of us to work? Take a vacation sometime, give everyone else a chance. It’s not fair all you talented bastards making everyone else look bad. Maybe it’s the lack of Flouride in foreign water. The government here has been slowly poisoning my creative talent so that I can have nice teeth. Thanks, Uncle Sam, thanks a lot.

Tin&Ed

The UK’s Sam Perkins, aka The Cubb, makes me feel old and useless. Dude is just barely 18 and already he’s got his own style, a brand, good type control, and complete runaway momentum. At 18 I had just mastered rolling conical blunts. That skill and the result of its mastery might be the reason I wasn’t super productive at that age. Sam’s geometric chaos even has a subtle balance of color and negative space. I mean, damn, that is pure talent right there. Anyone want to help me design a Fantasy League Designer’s football website? I call dibs on Perkins, though.

Sam Perkins

Trademark™ is the work of designer Tim Lahan, who has swooped in and taken the top spot amongst all the graphic design work I’ve seen so far this month. And a bigger nod to his new web design, which is simple, really well structured, and clever. A middle finger to Mr. Lahan, because there are some design ideas that I was using for the re-design of this site that are already at work on his page. And I really need to finish that re-design, because this piece of crap has never worked for me. My problems aside, Lahan’s work makes his page design almost moot, because it’s just that good. Witty, well executed, simple, and just a little weird, this stuff is right up my alley. It is the building block of my alley. The phrase “my alley” sounds like some dirty prison slang. Seriously though, Lahan’s work is fantastic enough that I would probably ask him to be my friend. Hell, I would probably give him a nickname. Diesel. His nickname is Diesel.
Tim Lahan

Texas designer Ben Barry is messing me up with his great sense of color, style and communication. I even noticed that he’s gotten his hands dirty with a bit of backend web coding. As someone who spends a lot of time figuring out how best to implement designer’s ideas as virtual space, I really appreciate any designer who will dive right into the code regardless of his skill level. Shit almost brought a tear to my eye. But these peepers were too busy absorbing the retinal delights that make up Ben’s portfolio to worry about weeping. There is some damn fine graphic design here.

Ben Barry

I lived in Florida for a couple of years when I was younger, down Miami way, and the only thing that I can remember about it is that drivers would swerve to try and hit pedestrians and people would pay me a lot of money to remove reptiles, amphibians, spiders and scorpions from their outdoor trashcans. Overall it’s not a bad memory, but it’s not great either. That’s fine. There are a lot of people who aren’t me that love Florida. I’m a little more fond of America’s schlong since coming across the illustration work of Mark Malazarte. Dude lives in Tampa, but is originally from the Philippines, and is part of the Calavera Comics crew. That’s a talented group of misfits and rebels if ever I’ve seen one, which I have, like all the time. Mark’s illustration work dazzles my eyes because of his tight type control and color palettes, especially when throwing down with his illustrative counterweight Alexis Ziritt. Since Mark’s website isn’t up and running, yet I’m just gonna throw you into his Flickr stream. Sink or swim, bitches.

Mark Malazarte