Did you ever wish you could create the chocolate of your dreams? A German company named chocri allows people like you and me to customize chocolate bars, not only by determining which name is printed on the packaging, but more importantly by combining a base chocolate (dark, milk or white) with your choice of more than 90 toppings. The toppings can be dried fruit and nuts (what we would expect), but can also be crazy, like chive rolls, jalapenos or real gold flakes. The chocolate is fair trade, organic, and sales benefit kids on the Ivory Coast.

One percentage of our revenues goes directly to the organization DIV Kinder, which supports and protects children on the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast is the biggest exporter of cocoa beans on this planet. Our customers also get a chance to donate a small amount at checkout. Together, we’ve already raised thousands of Euros to benefit the children.

Chocri is expanding their sales into the United States beginning in January. Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by papillonc.

This clever candy is packaged to look like our favorite lucky cat, Maneki Neko! But open the cellophane and all you get are two white balls of candy. The cellophane is where the cat is at -in fact there are several wrappers with different cat expressions. Link -via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

An Amazon search brought me to Ivan Bunin’s Collected Stories.  The first story is called “The Scent of Apples,” and I learn on the first page that antonovka means autumn apple:

“I remember a fresh and quiet morning…The big garden, its dry and thinned out leaves turning golden in the early light.  I remember the avenue of maples, the delicate smell of the fallen leaves, and the scent of autumn apples — antonovkas –that mix of honey and fall freshness. The air’s so clear it seems there is no air at all…”

There is a long  history of miniature books in Russia, and you can read more about it here.

Via Nag On The Lake.

List of cool bandage designs including bacon, beef, comics, duct tape and more.

Next time you have to dress a wound why not dress it up? They say that laughter is the best medicine so why not cheer yourself up with a cool band-aid design the next time you get a cut or scrape? Besides, we can’t think of a better conversation starter than bacon bandages. Check out these incredible bandages designs that will help you cover up your pain with a smile.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by tj241.

Photo by Peter Korrak

For a hundred years or so, Vienna invested in coal/gas energy, but when the plant was decommissioned there were four large gasometers remaining.  The imposing structures sat idly, appearing in the James Bond movie, The Living Daylights and hosting rave parties.

Rather than tear them down, architects designed them to be converted into apartment style housing.  First, they gutted the structures.

Each gasometer was divided into several zones for living (apartments in the top), working (offices in the middle floors) and entertainment and shopping (shopping malls in the ground floors). The shopping mall levels in each gasometer are connected to the others by skybridges.

Additional features:
Over 70 restaurants/bars/cafes
A multiplex cinema with 12 screens
4200 person capacity events hall
Daycare center
The Vienna National Archive
11,000 square meters (118,403 sq ft) of office space
615 apartments
230-bed student dorm

Link with many cool photos.

Posters by Matt Needle

Remembering to keep it simple, Alfred Hitchcock fan/artist Matt Needle re-imagined a series of posters for the films of Hitch.  As you can see, the only differences are an iconic image from each movie placed in the director’s famous profile, and the titles.

Link

Car design has gotten a lot more uniform and bland over the years, so it’s tough to find any truly outrageously ugly cars of late. Which is a shame as the ugly cars of old had tons of character and added to our shared experience. How many people who grew up pre-90’s don’t have a tale of their first hideously ugly car? Take the VW Thing:

This compact SUV started official production in 1969 and continued civilian sales through 1980. Designed for German soldiers during the war, the first prototype continued to be improved upon, eventually resulting in this Jeep-like car. Probably one of the safest and most reliable vehicles on this list, that doesn’t stop the VW Thing from being one of the ugliest.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by redsfaithful.

One late summer night in the studio I was thinking about the design of shoes in general.  I wondered why there was the need for a foot plate in shoes such as high heels…With a high heel providing the heel is supported, even by standing on a wooden block the foot naturally ’spans’ the gap…with bones and tendons.

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The Oops Awards (previously at Neatorama) are given to the ugliest, silliest, and most useless household products of the year. This year’s winners include the skin collection by designer Nacho Carbonell, which won first prize for the ugliest product. The rest of the winners are …interesting. Link -via the Presurfer

These visually striking eggs are produced by hard-boiling an egg, cracking the shell, and then steeping the egg in a flavored tea or broth.  The batik-like marbling effect is more prominent when teas with high levels of tannin are used; the duration of the second boiling will influence both the color of the marbling and the degree to which the tea or broth flavor penetrates the egg.

Link (and photo credit), via Sharp as Teeth and Stars.

Nänni confirmed my theory: “You are absolutely right. A rectangle with sharp edges takes indeed a little bit more cognitive visible effort than for example an ellipse of the same size. Our “fovea-eye” is even faster in recording a circle. Edges involve additional neuronal image tools. The process is therefore slowed down.”

Professor Nänni is saying that rounded rectangles are literally easier on the eye. Put another way, compared to square-edged rectangles, rounded rectangles are more computationally efficient for the human brain. To me, this is a revelation. An idea that at the very least demands more investigation.

Link – via twitter

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Lee.

Web Urbanist just put up a nice collection of art installations on buildings. They’re all great designs, particularly the tentacle piece above:

An artist calling himself ‘FilthyLuker’ installed inflatable octopus tentacles in the windows of an unnamed building in June of 2009, making it appear as if the building is being devoured by a bright green kraken that somehow emerged from the sea and got stuck inside.

Does anyone know where this building is?

Link

This latch hook rug was obviously made by a computer nerd. On the page is an image of the circuit board it is based on -it’s amazingly well-replicated.

Link Via CraftZine

This stunning castle was created by Japanese art student Wataru Itou. It took four years of dedication to bring to fruition. It is complete with electric lights and a working train. The exhibit is called “A Castle On The Ocean” and is on display in Tokyo.

Link Via BoingBoing

In a way, typography has come full circle – what started as a physical process of setting type in machines has been rediscovered as a physical art by a number of creative photographers and designers. Some of these unusual real-life alphabetic collections were found and photographed in nature while others were acted out, constructed or assembled from bodies and objects but all ten sets of type yield compelling images.

Link

The trio cover a wide range of design principles including how to encourage users to do something; guide them as to how to do it properly; and how to reduce errors by limiting choices and so on. There are even ways to subtly or not-so_subtly discourage users from doing what you don’t want them to do.

You may think as some of these principles as obvious and common-sensical, but the hallmark of a great product is exactly that it can be used by people armed only with common sense.

Take, for instance, the way to influence user’s behavior through the use of segmentation, spacing, and orientation:

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by tj241.

Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa made a line of interesting fruit juice boxes that explicitly showed what its contents are made from. Not only are the boxes designed to look like the juice source, but they are also made to imitate its texture.

“I imagined that if the surface of the package imitated the colour and texture of the fruit skin, then the object would reproduce the feeling of the real skin.”

Link – via yumsugar

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by winnow.

Well, the market has fallen out from under everyone but it is still nice to dream, right? And who knows, with housing prices plummeting maybe you too will be able to afford one of these awesomely luxurious modern house designs. Part of what makes them so great is the variety of ways in which they take the limitations of a given site and turn them into incredible design opportunities.

Many designers must content themselves with imagining and drawing things that may never be built – very few can realize ultramodern home visions in the real world. Like a blast from the future, these ten architects have brought to life incredible houses that most of us could not even dream of – let alone afford.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Urbanist.

Someone told me there was a canoe in this picture … but I have to admit I got distracted and did not see it right away. Regardless, the canoes are great but the kayaks are even better: they are light-weight, easy-to-collapse and therefore not only entertaining in the water but highly manageable on the shore compared to their conventional and opaque counterparts.

The only question is: what do you do when it gets dirty? Hopefully each dunk back in the water cleans it off. OK, one other question: what else can we make transparent? Cars, maybe even planes, or are the skies the limit in this case?

Glass-bottom boats are nothing new on scenic tours, but with a see-through canoe you can go wherever you want and have a personal up-close view of whatever is below you. Lighter than a wood or aluminum canoe, tough as bullet-proof glass and entirely transparent on the bottom, these designs provide a completely new way to experience water life around you.

link

Green roofs have become about more than just sustainable architecture – they have become new, long-unused canvasses for artistic expression and creative design.

This collection of green roof designs shows the possibilities of not only environmental architecture but of making something beautiful out of one of the most ubiquitous bare surfaces in the world – the roof – as we move into the future of sustainable design.

We’ve always thought we had roofs covered. They had to be barren, hostile places the rain and the wildlife slid from before they could do any damage. Nature had no place on our roofs. Except…we couldn’t have been more wrong. A green roof may required a little extra engineering behind the scenes, but it’s far better than its non-living counterparts for regulating house temperature, filtering out pollutants, scrubbing the surrounding air, controlling stormwater run-off, absorbing sound and many more factors that impact our quality of life. A green roof is a healthy roof.

link

The concept is driven by the ‘enchanted’ site which is raised above an open meadow and meandering stream on the edge of the woods.

The tree-house concept is reminiscent of childhood dreams and playtime, fairy stories of enchantment and imagination . It’s inspired through many forms found in nature -the chrysalis/cocoon protecting the emerging butterfly/moth, perhaps an onion/garlic clove form hung out to dry.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by blimp66.

This egg shell art is truly stunning. InventorSpot has more pictures of these lovely, detailed art pieces by artist Ron Cheruka.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

Link – via boingboing

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

You can get a better look of the cases by visiting the artist’s website. The site’s in French, so if you speak the language you’re in luck. But if you’re like me and speak only two languages – English and bad English – there are plenty of pretty-shiny designs and pictures to look at.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

The frame becomes the framework for the chair – and the possibilities of adapting and customizing the classic image are endless. Next up: Van Gogh benches?

The Shakers used to hang their chairs on the wall to get them out of the way when they needed to shake. We have also previously shown Dror Benshetrit’s neat cantilevered chair that flattened out and hung on the wall. Now Korean designer Kwang Hoo Lee does them one better by turning the chair into a work of art.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Urbanist.

From ancient to postmodern, these spiral staircases span the spectrum from wonderfully worn to pristinely perfect. Warning: viewing so many in a row from above can have a dizzying impact on the onlooker. Don’t trip!

Watch where you tread: some of these stairs have been climbed by kings and princes, prime ministers and presidents. Viewed from above, a spiral staircase can appear as an ominous eye, an infinite fractal shell or a bottomless work of abstract art. Amazing staircases can be found in incredibly varied forms – including circular, triangular and square – and are made of myriad materials from stone and wood to concrete and metal.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Urbanist.