New Jonathan Adler mug with love on one side and hate on the other. It seems like a steal at $24.

Posted by Megan

Fast Company just published it lists of the best jobs to have now and in the future. On that list: Interaction Designer.

Interaction designers don't just design. They work with executives to define goals for the products and systems they help develop. And they mix reporting, psychology, and anthropology to see how people actually use what they design.

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• This week, Corel intro'd CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4—apparently a significant update with more than 50 new and enhanced features, including live text formatting, a font-identification tool integrated with WhatTheFont, independent page layers and interactive tables. The full suite includes CorelDraw, PHOTO-PAINT, PowerTRACE and CAPTURE, plus a handbook, two hours of video training and access to the CorelDRAW.com online community.

• Monotype Imaging has developed an eight-font typeface family, in both scalable and bitmap versions, for display on Verizon Wireless phones. New York City-based interactive shop R/GA partnered on the project; Monotype says the fonts will allow manufacturers to create user interfaces for Verizon Wireless phones with type optimized for legibility on the small screen.
 
• In AIGA San Francisco's recent Cause/Affect competition, students from Academy of Art University took top honors. First place winners were Jeanette Karthaus, Tomohiro Kaji, Judy Hsu, Andrew Johnson, Cristian Butcovich, Kim Nelson, Chu Poh Tiong and Emily Lemmer. Tiffany Ricardo took second place and Tomohiro Kaji received an honorable mention.

• InSource, the organization for in-house creatives, has announced its February event: “Thinking Inside the Box—How Design Innovation Comes From Within” with speakers Tim Cox (Publix), Marianne Klimchuk (FIT) and InSource president Martin Shova. The event is February 20 from 8:30 to 12:30 at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ.

IdeasonIdeas has a great interview with Stefan Sagmeister about everything from design celebrity to fruit.

Eric: Although it may seem somewhat odd that designers concern themselves with publicity, it helps attract new work. How important is this? Should designers dedicate part of their time to self-promotion?

Stefan: If you have fun doing so, yes. If not, no. See, I do get a kick out of doing public talks and don’t mind answering your questions in this interview, both tasks connected with publicity. If these things would be a chore for me, I would not do them. I sometimes (like, right now for example) use them as an excuse so that I don’t have to do actual work, which is much harder, of course.

Posted by Megan

Just as the Hurricane Poster Project raised money for Katrina victims, the new So-Cal Fire Poster Project aims to provide relief to the vicitims of the California fires. You can donate posters to the project or score some great looking art while helping a good cause.

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Friend of HOW Grace Dobush (who once was an intern here) just started a new blog to chronicle her obsession with Friz Quadrata a.k.a. the Law & Order font. It all started with a chicken-flavored seasoning packet, now she can't be stopped. Dun Dun

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From Apple Insider:

Axiotron, Inc., together with distribution partner Other World Computing, is drawing huge crowds at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this week, as attendees flock to take its new Mac OS X-based "ModBook" tablet computer for a test run. Unveiled on Tuesday, the $2,279 device is an after-market hardware modification to Apple's MacBook notebook line. The companies claim it's the "first ever Mac OS X tablet computer solution." Each ModBook starts off as a MacBook Core 2 Duo but undergoes a surgical operation where its original display and keyboard are severed, then replaced with a new 13.3-inch Wacom pen enabled widescreen display set in a chrome-plated magnesium top shell.

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I get a great email newsletter called Design Arts Daily from American Illustration and American Photography. Today it featured the work of photographer Sara Pickering. Her most recent work consists of images of burning homes taken as part of her work as the artist in residence at the UK Fire Service College. The pictures are mysterious and haunting and beautiful.

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My best friend just forwarded me this website, www.design-police.org, where you can download different templates that notify people of any and all design crimes they've committed, whether it's "Microsoft Word is not a design tool" or "Helvetica was an unimaginative choice" or "Turn off the CAPS LOCK." And in bright pink, how can you resist poking fun and brightening up an otherwise boring project?

Theispot.com, which links designers to stock and assignment illustration, just unveiled its new site design. It features more and better ways to search portfolios and stock, including by multiple keywords, artist’s name and most recent uploads; plus art director accounts to save searches and lightboxes, license stock illustration, track new uploads by their favorite artists and review licensing history.

Posted by Megan

We're absolutely lovin' the poster that Clifford Stoltze and his team in Boston have created for this year's HOW Conference. Keep an eye out in the March/April issue for a full-size pull out.

Designer Malena Grosz recently won a small grant from Toyota to put together a show of vector art to raise money for worldwildlife.org, conservation.org and directrelief.org. The submission deadline for the show is January 30 and details can be found at Art for the Earth.

Posted by Megan

Pantone and the color experts at X-Rite Color Services today announced the 2008 release of the company’s popular seminar “Color Control Freak”.  With a completely revised curriculum, Color Control Freak 08 offers an in-depth understanding of color, its value in the design process, and techniques for proper reproduction. The seminar travels to 24 cities from March until May including stops in Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Seattle.

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With 2008 being the big Presidential election year, The Art of Politics "is a dynamic and innovative way to engage Americans this election year by fusing the political issues that people are passionate about with stylized artistic posters in a nationwide contest. The result is a visual expression of issues reflecting the diversity of our country," according to its website. They are inviting creatives from around the country to enter poster designs that reflect their political thoughts and feelings.

If you were lucky enough to get an iPhone for Christmas, Veer has a treat for you: a selection of design and type-inspired wallpapers for your shiny new gadget.

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Strathmore's Quarterly Letterhead Contest is now accepting entries. The first deadline for 2008 is March 31. Each quarter, the first 25 designers who enter the letterhead contest receive a special gift.   The gift for Q1 2008 entries is an iPod nano. Three quarterly winners will recieve $150 (bronze), $300 (silver) or $500 (gold) and the four gold winners will be eligible for the $1,000 annual grand prize.

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Illo is a new quarterly magazine dedicated to illustration. The first issue can be ordered from the Illo website and the second issue is set to debut soon.


via Boing Boing

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CSA Images just announced a new collection of mod art called Mexlore, which are as weird as they are wonderful.

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Leave it to Design*Sponge to give as a great sneak peak inside the home of design vets Ellen Lupton and Abbot Miller. The space has a great sense of color and style without sacrificing comfort and livability.

Posted by Megan