Here we go again: another retailer accused of ripping off yet another independent artist without permission, and without offering any kind of payment. This time, a T-shirt sold by Lane Bryant is at the center of the brouhaha. [More]
design
New Airbnb Project Seeks To Boost Small Town Tourism
By 8.3.16
Airbnb is moving beyond assisting homeowners in renting out their properties, and is expanding into small town tourism with a new initiative that’s aimed at inventing new projects to draw in more hosts and renters in smaller, less-traveled communities.
[More]
IRS Wants Your Help To Make Its Website Better
By 3.31.16
Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service announced that its website was used as an avenue for hackers to get their hands on nearly 500,000 stolen Social Security Numbers. While those ne’er-do-wells apparently didn’t have a difficult time traversing the site, consumers who actually head to the portal for help during tax time aren’t so lucky. For that reason, the agency is asking for help in revamping its online presence — and a chance to win $10,000. [More]
BlackBerry Suing Makers Of Slip-On iPhone Keyboard Again, Claiming New Version Is Infringement
By 2.17.15
BlackBerry has a bone to pick with Typo, the makers of a slip-on iPhone keyboard that the mobile phone company already sued once with claims that the case infringes on its patents, and it’s not ready to let that bone go anytime soon. A new lawsuit against Typo is now on the books, this time aimed at the company’s second iteration of slip-on accessories [More]
Simplified Shopping: How Costco Tricks You Into Buying More
By 1.27.14
The vast warehouse landscape that is Costco knows how suck you in and how to maximize the amount of goods you purchase on each visit. It’s what makes Costco so successful — a tried and true design focused on simplicity. [More]
Consider The Mighty Coffee Cup Lid
By 5.11.11
For an item so ubiquitous, tossed without a care, and that costs only pennies to make, a ton of engineering and thought has poured into the design of the plastic coffee cup lid. Take a moment to look down the next time you grab a cup of Joe and see which sort you have before you, as there are all manner of species for all manner of purposes. [More]
Instead Of Returning Stuff That Doesn't Fit In, We Buy More
By 4.11.11
We’ve all been there. That purple end table that looked so fetch in the store is woefully out of place when you bring it back to your abode. The rational thing to do would be to return the item. According to a new study, instead, what we do is go out and buy more things like it to make it fit in. [More]
Gold Pills Makes You Poop Gold
By 12.14.10
Now you can make your own Golden Poo trophies at home with the line of Gold Pills by Citizen:Citizen. For just $425, these 24k gold leaf filled capsules will “turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth.” [More]
Smart Wallets Get Harder To Open As You Spend More
By 12.7.10
An MIT Media Lab team has developed a series of wallets that physically react when you electronically spend. [More]
Hide Lunch From Office Thieves In Healthy Meal Boxes
By 9.30.10
Here’s a potentially even better idea for protecting your lunch from thieves in the office than the fake moldy ziploc bags. Commenter Snaptastic suggests that you stash it inside a box of “healthy,” i.e. “gross,” food like a Weight Watchers, or, as commenter Murph1908 recommended, a Hot Pockets. [More]
Anti-Theft Lunch Bags Make Thieves Think Your Sandwich Is Moldy
By 9.29.10
You’ve gone to the trouble of being frugal and making your brown bag sandwich at home, then you open the fridge to discover some scoundrel has snatched it. Now thieves will pass over your food if you put it inside an Anti-Theft Lunch Bag, a ziplock bag with green splotches printed on the side. The bandits will think you sandwich is moldy and move on to the next prey. The website says they’re out of stock, but they don’t look too hard to make at home. [More]
To Make A Good Lady Logo, Choose A Squiggle, Tree, Ribbon, Or Spiral
By 9.22.10
If you’re going to make a logo for some kind of lady group, you have four leitmotifs to choose from: squiggle, tree, ribbon or spiral. In her entirely .jpg-based essay, artist Shana Moutlon looks at how we reinforce gender stereotypes through bad logo design. [More]
American Airlines Fires Web Designer For Helping Customer
By 11.17.09
Dustin Curtis complained to American Airlines about its poor website user interface. A designer within the company reached out to him to apologize, say how it was hard sometime to design well at a large company, but that better designs were coming down the pike. American Airlines then fired the designer. Authenticity can be a hazard to your job health.
Copycat Company Sues Original Artist To Void Copyright Claims
By 10.28.09
It’s a natural impulse to want to support the little guy, the David who faces down a powerful Goliath. That’s why it’s easy to get behind this guy’s claims that a copycat business is suing him to force him to abandon his own copyrights. Wtf!, you might say when you read something like that. Is that even possible? It is, and the story is more nuanced when you look at both sides, which makes it a good example of why it’s sometimes hard to be a “good consumer” when deciding where to spend your money.
World's Worst Logos
By 10.2.09
As part of our stand against Christmas Creep, we want to celebrate the actual upcoming holiday by lobbing some pretty frightening images at you from the website Your Logo Makes Me Barf. Take this alarm sign, for instance. The obvious chills come from recognizing what they’re walking into, but then you notice the kid figure and the term “young alarm” and, wait, wtf?
50 Cool Billboards
By 9.29.09
Most billboards are either ugly jumbles of giant text, or unfortunately memorable things like this. Here’s a list of 50 mostly cool ones (we think the Texas one is ‘shopped, and the anti-American one can suck it). Hey, if you’re gonna advertise on a billboard, you may as well make it entertaining.
Do We Really Need To Market Beds Specifically To Guys?
By 9.24.09
The Wall Street Journal has some ridiculous looking photos of beds designed for the male shopper. Apparently guys want built-in coolers, safes, TVs, and iPod docks in their beds. Sorry, we mean “man caves.”
iPod Shuffle And Your Sweat Don't Mix
By 8.3.09
Reader Michael writes to let us know that the latest iPod shuffle, an mp3 player whose small size makes it an attractive exercise companion, tends to break when used as an exercise companion.
