Ale used to have an image problem but times have changed. Brewers who know their rock as well as their hops are naming beers after their favourite bands and songs. It’s time to say cheers to drinks that are full of punk spirit.

alcohol · beer · bier · brands · brewery · brewing · drinks · fmcg · hops · labeling · labels · lables · micro brewery · packaging

British designer Patrick Smith created these posters that attempt to depict a particular mental disorder using only minimal vector shapes.

The project started when Smith was researching mental health and came across a list of mental disorders. “I chose a few, starting with OCD, and set myself the challenge of defining each in a minimal style,” he wrote on his blog.

design · disorder · mental · minimalist · posters

Why settle for one form of renewable energy when you can produce power with two? That’s exactly what scientists from the University of Liverpool have done by upgrading an everyday wind turbine with a new set of spinning solar blades. The team, led by Dr. Joe King, came up with the innovative solution to stymie critics who say wind turbines are “only useful when the wind is blowing” — their design doubles the functionality of traditional turbines by incorporating photovoltaic technology.

via Scientists Develop Solar-Powered Wind Turbine for Ultimate Energy Generation | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.

eco · environment · environmental · panel · pannel · solar · turbine · wind · windturbines

Looking very much like photo-realistic paintings, these are actually photographs from the brilliantly talented Parisian, Alain Delorme… whether these are elegantly photoshopped or have been rather impressively staged, the one thing that’s a dead-cert is that their alluring beauty is wonderfully mystifying. Evolving from the photographer’s fascination with Chinese workers and their uneasily stacked delivery bikes, this magical collection of images from Shanghai is currently showing at Paris’ Magda Danysz gallery, running until the 25th of this month…

via Alain Delorme, Manufactured Totems | The Import Design Blog.

china · chinese · funny · heavy · load · mass transport · workers

A funny venn diagram about graphic design. I saw it somewhere and had to recreate it so I could use it as wallpaper.

design · infographic · vector · venn

advert · cat · licking · skittles · weird

Your tweet about Kraft’s Macaroni & Cheese could be on TV tonight if the brand picks it up for a new initiative converting tweets into TV ads.The marketing minds behind the brand, along with agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, are trolling Twitter right now looking for just the right tweet. The only qualification is that the message mentions Mac & Cheese. Kraft and the agency will then pick five tweets, and write and shoot ads based on them this afternoon.

Downside: All the filming is taking place in a studio with multiple sets in Los Angeles… Where’s my ticket?

cheese · MAc · twitter · viral

A nice inforgraphic about freelancers from Freshbooks.

freelancer · freelancers · graphi design · infographic

A very interesting design concept is the +-Water meter. Easily slotted onto your tap, this design doesn’t just tell you how much water you’ve used but converts it into how much money each splash will cost you. Measuring water usage in terms of pounds rather than litres is so much easier to comprehend and much more likely to get you saving not only your pennies but also the planet, one hand wash at a time.

consumption · creative · design · eco · green · measuring · meter · nemo · sink · tap · taps · water

What an inspiring site:

Inspired by Lev Manovich’s definition of “information aesthetics”, this weblog explores the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization. More specifically, it collects projects that represent data or information in original or intriguing ways.

information aesthetics – Information Visualization & Visual Communication.

creative · data visualization · design · infographics · infosthetics