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Six incredible original designs delivered to your  door, once a month, for just $99. Whenever a month passes? That shirt  goes out of print, period. It's gone. So get 'em while they're fresh:  truly limited edition Plazm Thread t-shirts.

We're kicking off with a special alien abduction theme, designed by  Art Chantry. Orders for shirt No. 1 close June 1, 2009. Subscribe now and also receive one-of-a-kind shirts from Kate Moross, Ed Fella, Hannah Stouffer and two more artists to be announced soon.

Posted by Megan

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Re-purposed from a recycled (fair trade) coffee sack these amazing buckets are as unique as the sacks they came from. Beautifully crafted by Maya from Mayamade they are lined with a soft unbleached cotton that have a linen-like weave. We love the worn and typographic look of these extremely sturdy and versatile buckets.

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Posted by Megan

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Based on a Girard carpet design found in the project archive of Saarinen’s Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. The design was never used in the landmark home, but we couldn’t let this folksy menagerie sit in the archive without letting it see the light of day.

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The card was printed by the always impeccable Pistachio Press on an antique Vandercook letterpress with hand-mixed fuchsia ink. Card is a 5x7 flat, made from Crane's Lettra 100% cotton paper. The personalized note will be inscribed on the back in navy ink, hand-mixed from gouache. The envelope is Crane's 100% cotton in navy, with the address inscribed in metallic gold ink.

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via Craft

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Table your passion for type with these laser-etched bamboo type coasters. Bundled in a family of four, each 4" by 1/4" coaster features a unique jumble of characters from Baskerville Semibold.

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What began as a never-produced poster idea has propagated itself into a series of 9 mock OPEN/CLOSED signs. Double-sided yet possibly commercially-useless, these signs will relay to passers-by and potential customers that you're not really into categorizing your availability in such limited definitions like "open" or "closed."

Posted by Megan

PANTONE cufflinks designed to resemble the iconic PANTONE chip are made from stainless steel for everlasting wear and feature coloured enamel in seasonal PANTONE colors. Each set of PANTONE cufflinks comes in a high gloss beautiful black signature box with white leather interior and a PANTONE leaflet showing the colors in that seasonal collection.

Posted by Megan

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The newest addition to the Moleskine family of notebooks is a fresh, colorful collection! The Volant collection introduces a brand new format in an array of four colors and three sizes, infused with the Moleskine brand philosophy:
• a very neat and simple design;
• a soft Moleskine cover, light but resistant;
• the quality of the paper

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Ugmonk was established in 2008 by designer Jeff Sheldon. As the market continues to become saturated with overly complex, cluttered designs, Ugmonk’s mission is to provide high-quality products with simple, yet fresh graphics.

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this set of five fold-over cards features a digitally illustrated pattern of chairs. each chair is highly detailed. they are all a subtle gray-scale, printed on a textured paper. the paper is a very pale gray with a tiny hint of mint green.

included are five minty-leaf green envelopes.
cards are 3.5" x 5" when folded.

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via Poppytalk

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A wise man once said that you're only as creative as the obscurity of your sources. In general social circles you don't get much more obscure than House Industries, and this obscurity is compounded by a House Industries shirt that doesn't say House Industries anywhere but on the label. So you'll be walking down the street with one of these shirts draped just right to hide your slightly flabenning middle, and this random hot designer chick will come up to you, grab the back of your collar to see who exactly made such a simple but elegant garment. What an icebreaker. We can't guarantee that this is going to happen and we can't assume that you even want it to happen, but it's a nice shirt nonetheless.

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An octopus made entirely on the typeface Avenir will float atop the green waters of your chest with glee for all to see.

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British illustrator Si Scott is the master of gorgeous, swirly, insanely intricate typography. And, unbelievably enough, it’s all drawn by hand with fineliners. Si has taken his whorls and flourishes and moulded them into a series of striking sea creatures for his Infectious car art. He imagines them bubbling down the side of a car, like a moving aquarium.

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Each camera set is packaged within a custom gift box and contains a treasure-trove of accessories. Pricing is $180 and 150 EUR per set. Purchases are limited to 1 JACK Holga set and 1 MEG Diana+ set per customer.

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I also like the simplicity of this Klean Kanteen.



And finally, this New Wave Enviro bottle comes with a nifty hook you could clip to a bag or at least dangle from a couple of fingers when you're trying to carry a bunch of stuff to a meeting.

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Yesterday, the HOW staff spent the day at our favorite brainstorm hideaway thinking about the magazine and how to keep making it better. Whenever we have a big brainstorm, we bring a box of toys with us. It's full of fun things like MadLibs and Silly Putty. But lately, the toy that's captured everyone's attention is a maddening little plastic puzzle that's nearly impossible to solve (though both Bryn and Susan finally cracked it yesterday). Nobody remembers where the puzzle came from in the first place, but I found something similar on Amazon. So the next time you want to get your brain moving in a new direction, try the IQ Bock puzzle. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

The Load-Ding Device Orangizer ships flat, then folds to form a tray to cradle power hungry devices like cameras and iPods while they charge. The white plastic is flocked on the inside, in red, pink or black, to protect your gadgets. At only $15 from the A+R Store, it's a good deal on a useful item.

If you're looking for a cool, unique gift check out Trunkt, a website where you can buy directly from more than 200 artists and designers in 9 countries. Product categories include paper, jewelry, handbags, home accents and more, like these notecards from Mew Paper Arts, jewelry from Metalicious or mugs from Circa Ceramics.

One of my favorite illustrators/creative thinkers, Keri Smith, just released a new book edited by one of my very best friends, Meg Leder of Perigee Press. Wreck This Journal is for anyone who's ever needed a little nudge to keep up with their journaling or sketchbook-keeping. Apparently, there's already one in the mail to me : ) I can't wait!

Veer, fine purveyor of fonts and photos, recently added a new T-shirt to their Creatives Care collection. The shirt, with an illustration by Niklaus Troxler, can be had for $22. Proceeds benefit the New Orleans nonprofit Common Ground Collective.

via Not Cot

The Dot Grid Book was developed as an alternative to traditional lines and boxes. The light geometric dot matrix serves as a subtle guide for your notations and sketches. ($14)

Via NotCot.org

The secret of this perpetual calendar from Better Living Through Design lies in the magnetic frames that come with it—simply roll them over the black markings to discover the dates.

The HOW staff has adopted another stuffed monkey. He is a handcrafted amigurumi critter from Etsy sent to my by my dear friend Meg. (Oh, according to the handwritten tag, his name is Tommy.)

In the category of "how cool is that," is the design your own tissue box feature from Kleenex. You can actually buy a box with your design for $4.99 plus shipping.

On the recommendation of design blog Oh Joy!, I decided to check out the A+R online store today and see what they had to offer. When I visit expensive looking sites, my first stop is always on the sale page, so I clicked. And there were the exact shelves I'd been looking for. I didn't realize that what I wanted were the Massie Flying V Shelves, but when I saw them, I knew. So I order two sets of 5 shelves to construct the wall display of my dreams. (Plus I got free shipping!)

Fine Cell Work is an organization that teaches prisoners in the UK fine needlework skills and helps them earn money to send to their families by selling their creations. You can buy gorgeous, handmade pillows, bags, rugs and quilts and help a good cause at the same time.

Recently, one of my coworkers received an interesting Thank You note in the form of a can of dirt. It turned out to be a Message Bean. Just add water, wait a while, and the message grows into pretty green plant.

If dogs can have sweaters, then why not laptops? These protective sleeves are knit from fine merino wool.

We've been seeing more and more owl motifs lately. It's a trend we're liking. Here are a few faves:

Letterpress card

For Valentines Day, my husband bought me the graphic novel version of The Fountain, which is also a movie that I loved. The story is terribly romantic and the illustrations in the book are stunning. Much better than a box of chocolates!

Designer Brian Sooy just sent me a fun link to The Onion store. These fake boxes were designed by Arik Nordby, who has his own humerous golf-merch site called Bogeypro.com. The idea behind the boxes is that you put a real present inside, but when the recipient first unwraps the gift, they'll wonder what kind of drug you were smoking while Christmas shopping this year.

HOW Books editor Amy Schell just forwarded me this adorable bicycle she found on Daily Candy. Popular in Holland, the jorg & olif bike is now available stateside. You can learn all about it at the pretty jorg & olif website.

We spend so much time sitting in front of the computer, typing on our white or beige keyboards and moving the mouse around until our wrists ache, that any chance we get to liven up our work stations is welcome. Enter Keyboard-Characters: a line of super-fun cut-out illustrations meant to be propped up on the back row of your keyboard to keep you company. Each of the 10 characters is illustrated by Von Glitschka, aka the Vonster.

If you prefer your holiday celebrations with a healthy dose of sarcasm thrown in, then The Party's Over wrapping paper is the perfect thing for you. Designed by Pure Products USA, the paper comes in gold or silver and is printed with "festive facsimiles from Jack Abramoff's American Express expense records and emails; indictments of reporter Judith Miller and Vice President chief of staff Scooter Libby, email correspondence from Michael 'Brownie' Brown, checks from Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay and many others." The perky paper is sure to spark heated debate around the Christmas fire this year!

Design and branding blog Brandflakes for Breakfast just launched a holiday gift guide section where they promise to add cool (and silly) gear for designers throughout the season.

If you're a fan of indie rock, tshirt design AND helping out a charity, then this site is just for you. Bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Rilo Kiley, Hayden, Stars and others have each contributed tshirt designs to the Yellow Bird Project, a Montreal-based, non-profit initiative. Their mission is simple. They collaborate with musicians in designing a T-shirt, then print and sell them on their website, and all of the money they make goes to charity. Which charity? Each of the artists gets to choose their own.

I'm in the market for a new cordless hand-vac and this Karim Rashid-designed model from Black and Decker is going on my Christmas list right now!

Angolz.com offers hard-to-find toys and accessories from Japan and carries my favorite thing in the world: a line of miniature replicas of famous chairs at a price I can actually afford. I have the first three chair collections, and I got an email this morning that Angolz will begin selling Volume 4 this month. Nelson Marshmallow Sofa, here I come!

Have a coworker with less than fresh breath? Give them a hint with mints packaged in cool tins illustrated by Gary Baseman. Maybe, they'll thank you (instead of punching you in the face).

Full Circle Press and A Day In May just released their 2006 holiday greeting card line. The cards may be ordered in boxed sets or customized for your family or corporate needs. Fifty cents from each holiday card and twenty cents from each gift tag ordered will go to the WATOTO FUND, helping provide Masai women and children in Kenya's Great Rift Valley with an education, daily living expenses and a safe haven.

Mahar Drygoods provide a highly curated selection of clothes, toys, book and more for classy kids. Look here for hand-printed books by Ayumi Piland like Smelly and Animal ABC Book.

I'm always looking for new and unsual greetings. This series of all occasion cards from Firecracker Press certainly fits the bill. A set of 4 super cool cards, printed on thick kraft paper and packaged with envelopes, can be purchased for $16.

When Netherlands-based designer/illustrator Jan Willem Wennekes (aka Stinger) sent us an email about his new book "Stingermania," I thought his style looked familiar.

It took me a few mintutes to realize that he was one of the winners in the Blik/Threadless contest. So now you can buy his work in book form or as a graphic for your wall.

The new designs for November are up and ready for purchase at the D*S Shop.

As always, 100% of the profits go directly to the designers and 10% of the shop's ad revenue will go to charity. This month's donation will be split between 826NYC and 826Valencia, both of which offer tutoring for children age 8-18 to help them develop writing skills.

November artists are:
1. Camilla Engman (limited edition print)
2. Ryan Kundrat (modern martini picks)
3. Alyson Fox (limited edition drawings)
4. Sesame Letterpress (coaster pack)
5. Good on Paper Design (notepad set)
6. Esque Design (recycled glass bud vases)