JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

I’m gonna be in Chicago for a bit, and I’m extra-stoked to spend some time at rotofugi, one of the hottest spots for toy geeks on the planet.  They recently redesigned their site, and it’s great for hunting down little vinyl treasures.  Next time your in Chi-town make a point to stop by and peep their gallery, next door.  It’s really rad.  The whole rotofugi program is top notch!

Our pal Phu just doesn’t stop… customizing the shit outta some of the best toys around.  We can’t get enough of his work.  I frikin’ love it!  His incessantly updated site is pretty amazing too.  If you haven’t really dug in yet, you oughtta.   This time it’s a 9″ Bootleg Kaws Chum customized using acrylic paint, one bamboo stick, brass rivets, Phu’s signature zip ties, cloth, plastic bottle caps, and some screws… damn.  Creativity taken out on toys the way it should be.

cypher13 Design Studio just wrapped up their new boutique online store offering up their latest line of super limited edition tees. You can expect the addition of all sorts of new cypher13 products over the course of the summer, ranging from hand-made custom toys, to fonts, to apparel. Yea-ahhhhh!!!

Think before you speak… and think before you design. Introducing Ox, an electric concept vehicle from Norwegian company, Think. The upstart is plotting a U.S. invasion via pint-size, affordable electric cars. Think has been selling gas-free, Lilliputian city cars in Europe and will start peddling them to fuel-crunched Americans in 2009. To understand more about the politics of why we don’t see more of these vehicles on the road, watch Who Killed the Electric Car?

Week number one of the SOFT&FURRY™ logo comp was rad. Ton’s of logos rolled in from all over the globe. The first weeks winner was Ivan Pashenko with a super soft and furry mark. Some of our favorites are displayed below in order from left to right by designer, Kristian Kluver, 13runo, Derek F., Andreas Norrefjord, Pe, Brian Krezel, and Elsa Chaves.

 Jan Willem is Zeptonn.  He’s from the Netherlands and he’s awesome.  He’s an illustrator and much of his work revolves around designing t-shirts, wall-decals, stickersets, and (skate)board graphics for some heavy hitting clients.  His new book, entitled Black & White Freedrawings is a wicked collaborative endeavor between himself and 40 other internationally acclaimed artists, including Jon Burgerman, DGPH, Philip Tseng, Hello Brute, Hicalorie, Jawa, Mulheres Barbadas, Nick Deakin, Peskimo, Meomi, Von Glitschka, Shin Tanaka, Meni Tzima and many others.  The books illustrations were passed back and forth between artists with complete freedom resulting in some super creative shit.  To top it off the book was produced in an eco-friendly manner, using a waterless printing process that reduces environmental impact. Computer-to-plate technology and silicon plates eliminate the use of chemicals and water, and vegetable-based inks further reduce resource use and pollution. The paper used is FSC certified 100% recycled, and is produced in a climate neutral fashion. The project is sponsored by BührmannUbbens papier.  Brilliant!!!

YouWorkForThem has a nice poster with some recommended books for anyone wanting to bulk up their library.  Conveniently they also sell all of these books and have an extended recommended reading list here.

Here’s a wicked art crew we weren’t familiar with…  Thanks Mr. Cox.  JeanSpezial is a french collective of illustrators and they kick serious ass.  Check our their 180 custom Munny project for quartre agency.  There’s also a nice little accompanying animation.

Uh, this looks cool. Seems like any sort of fender bender would be disastrous… and expensive, but I’m sure they thought of that. via Signal vs. Noise

The first week of the SOFT&FURRY™ logo design competition seems to be shapin’ up. We’ve heard rumors that there’s logos steadily rollin’ in. We’ve also been privy to a sneak peek of the soon to be run of S&F™ handmade toys. Rad stuff happening!

Matt W. Moore’s latest hardcover illustration book, Vectorfunk, is now shipping through  ROJO.  Check it out.