Earlier this week we wrote about Instructables, and today, we decided that we should give a shout out to some other community-based web destinations that are just as fun and useful for producers and consumers of everything and anything. First off, Supermarket offers “Great stuff. Straight from designers.” The shop offers people the opportunity to sell things including apparel, jewelry, furniture, toys, prints and so much more. It’s trendy, unique, handmade, a bit more expensive, and sure to get you noticed.

Second on the slate, and another personal fave of HC2′s is Etsy. Now Etsy works the same way as Supermarket, carrying the say variety of items, but they go way beyond and sell things such as handmade soap, preserves, and even pet costumes. With a huge stress on handmade goods, Etsy also hits home with their gift guides for him, her, or by occasion, and even price range. They also have a very nifty application that lets you search for local craftspeople with items on Etsy, thereby allowing you to buy from and support locals. Check it.

Get in a time machine, and go pick up someone from 100 years ago, 500 years ago, or even further down the path of time, and bring them back to today (whenever you’re reading this). Now, go for a stroll in any major metropolis and you are guaranteed to blow their minds with the futuristic change in surroundings. With all the unbelievable feats of architecture we have today, it’s excitingly unfathomable to consider what reality might await us down the road. Enter Dutch architects NL, who presented a series of what-if images in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Admittedly, these images aren’t of buildings, but rather, they are of general land and cityscapes. I particularly like the matel-esque loop on the highway, the floating paradise on the aircraft carrier and 18 pairs of twin towers sprouting up from the trees, that seem to go as far as the eyes can see. The ultimate favorite is “trashberg”, an immense archipelago of trash that’s the size of Spain, France and Italy combined.

David Foldvari was born in Budapest, and has been living in the UK since 1986. Since graduating from the Royal College in London in 2001, his work has gained international recognition. Influenced by his Eastern European roots, his work often addresses subjects of alienation, identity and belonging; “Dealing with negative issues in my work helps to keep me balanced in real life”. Recently his work has become more monochromatic, stark and melancholy whilst still managing to retain its humanity and dark humour. David’s considered and energetic draftsmanship having led to a prolific output both personally and commercially. Some of his previous clients include the New York Times, Greenpeace, Random House, Penguin Books, Dazed & Confused and Island Records. In 2007 he earned a D&AD award for involvement on Nike Run London and for his input on Beck’s The Information. Peep his portfolio, you won’t be disappointed.

Like many kids of the 80′s, I was a He-Man-aholic. I had the Castle Greyskull and Horde playsets, a battalion of characters, accessories and vehicles. My parents spoiled me with that stuff, and it all ended up in a yard sale along with all sorts of gems including J.I. Joes, Transformers, and my beloved Star Wars characters. I am certain that had I held onto these things, they would be put on display in my home, and my friends would think that I am a big nerd. Then again, I suppose I am a nerd in other ways, so it really does not matter.

While exploring some retro inspired art, we came across the portfolio of Robert Burden, which shows off all the remnants of my toy box. The images are amazing, albeit limited edition and thus expensive, and there’s certainly something there for the older generation. We are particularly fond of the Battlecat print, which wouldn’t even look weird hanging above your fireplace. Okay, it would probably launch you into the nerd stratosphere, but it certainly wouldn’t be uncool to an 80′s kid. Check out the sweet links to other artists (and perhaps future features) on Burden’s site.

Mike and Katie are the cheery(o) British duo known as TADO (tay-doh). Their love of meat, puppies, and cute, spiky characters brought them together in their art school days and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Their work includes graphic design, illustration, animation, toy design, and everything in between. There newest release is a double feature, comprising a multiples critter series called the Littlest Cannibals, and a 7″ psycho little Miss Fixitby by the name of Tulip, thanks to Kid Robot. We had the pleasure of catching TADO and their touring show at Magic Pony in Toronto a few weeks ago.

We don’t typically come across collectives and partnerships in art, save for massive installations that no single person could pull off, so TADO is pretty unique in that way. Regarding the sharing of the workload, TADO says: “we pretty much work 50/50 on everything—we both do an equal share of the drawing etc, and most of our pieces will have input from the both of us. It’s very easy for us to work this way as we just pass files back and forth and chatter about ideas all the time. We’re continually taking stuff in all the time on a day to day basis—our ideas can come from anywhere really, from a funny looking dog in the park to vintage advertising.”

“Do You Matter? How great design will make people love your company” is a title that certainly isn’t afraid to demand your attention. All of the book’s details including the bright orange cover, monster san-serif titles, and obsessive grid-adherence just scream “I’ve been overdesigned to look simple!” Combined with the existentially accusatory title, it certainly succeeds in demanding audience participation, but it’s a book, not a graphic design experiment, and for it to matter to the audience, it needs to keep the reader’s attention too. So what’s it all about?

Robert Brunner, an industrial designer for some of Apple’s most iconic products, and Stewart Emery, author of Success Built to Last, pose a deceptively simple question: Do you (as a company) matter (to your customers)? Perhaps a more intuitive phrasing of their interrogative might be, “If you were gone tomorrow, would your customers miss you?” That’s nothing new in business circles. It’s just a retelling of product differentiation, a mainstay of marketing and competitive landscape analysis. The added value here is in the subtitle: “How great design will make people love your company,” and Brunner and Emery are here to explain the role design can play in the competitive arena. Well worth the read, for those in the design, marketing and business circles.

In the world of illegal, and oftentimes adored graffiti art, there is a name that strikes fear in the hearts of city officials, while it sparks inspiration and admiration amongst his supporters. The well-known pseudo-anonymous, thought to be UK-native known only as Banksy has a resume of work that is celebrated, loathed, and copied on worldwide scale. He’s akin to the Ronald McDonald of street art, the poster boy (assuming he’s a he) of a niche sub-culture.

So what does the worlds greatest graffiti artist do next? According to The World’s Best Ever, Banksy is responsible for a huge rat wearing an I love NY t-shirt, which appears on the side of a building near Wooster and Grand in Soho. The piece was painted by professional sign painters Colossal, and I have to agree with TBWE’s comment that they must be fighting over the Banksy’s original sketch.

Rain rain on my parade. A year ago, I had this amazing vision of an umbrella with LED lights. Just imagine how it would look. A variety of twinkly lights glowing on the ends of the canopy. My idea was quashed when I saw that someone else out there came up with a similar idea. So here’s a free one, how about an umbrella with a lightsaber-esque handle? You know it would sell (update: okay, I have to act quicker on the production/patent aspect of my ideas as ThinkGeek has a lightsaber umbrella already). That’s the thing. Most anything will sell, even the f*ck the rain umbrella by Art Lebedev. The same minds that brough you the Optimus keyboard, and many other tasty design treats. It’s a nice way to say screw you to the eye in the sky. That said, I’m not sure I want to piss off the seagulls.

The average replacement cycle of the home computer lasts 5 years, and in recent years, families of 4 or more have begun to purchase 2 computers. We are increasingly becoming a digital world, but the downside of our obsession is a mess of obsolete processors, peripherals and e-waste. We’ve featured installations here before that were created out of e-waste, but “Mauritian Sunset” by Sandy Smith has us buzzing. It’s essentially a wall of expired computers and monitors, that have been modified to show off a different, eerie colour on one side. I just love the door cut into the mess, which could serve as a metaphor on so many different levels. What do you think?

I was the milk man for my class back in Grade 4. My duties required me to go to the milk room, and pick up the order for the entire class. One of the benefits is that I was often able to swipe my classmates’ chocolate milk, and replace it with my white. One of the downfalls is that my table would mess with my lunch. I can remember one such occasion where I returned from the milk run, and sat down to eat my peanut butter sandwich. The first bites were delicious, however those at my round table began to laugh, and asked if my crunchy PB sandwich was good. I thought nothing of it, but later found out that they had loaded my sandwich with crushed crackers and chips to give it the crunchy PB feel.

At the time, and in retrospect it really wasn’t a big deal. I found it rather humorous that I couldn’t tell the difference. Fortunately my class did not have any incidents where people stole the lunches of others, as we were more about meal modification. But, in case you are worried about the class glut stealing your tasty meal, you can always pick up some anti-theft lunch bags. These bags have green blotches all over them to make your lunch look unappealing, as though it’s been there for ages. Be careful though, as I’d hate to confuse a mouldy meal with one that is simply being concealed by these bags of tricks.

Save for some designer discovering a new paint colour, we typically don’t feature the world of home decor. We do however follow the goings on in this very personal design genre, by reading our fave blogs: Apartment Therapy, Decor8, Design*Sponge and re-Nest. If you’re ever looking for quick and easy weekend projects, non-commercialized / DIY design ideas or up and coming trends, these places are the best of the best. Recently a story caught our eye, which related to an exhibition with Marimekko in Tokyo. This unique display was more than simply home decor, or furniture as it specifically delved into the world of stool design.

Who knew stools could be so much fun! From three-legged seats that look like swiss cheese to cartoon Betty Boops serving as the chair back, the exhibit in Marimekko is stool-erific. One of the most grandiose displays at this exhibit is the semi-circle of stacked stools, that towers over the rest of the showcase pieces. It really is a spectacular sight that reminds me of the Roman Colosseum. Be sure to check out Spiral Web for more info on this show.

It feels like forever since we actually delved into the world of graphic design, as we’ve lately been doing a lot of community and architectural posts. Without further adieau, enter into the fantastical world of Dmitry Maksimov. It pains me to say this, but at 21 years of age, he is already better than most other digital designers I have come across. His pictures are often populated by amorphous sprites, blobby monsters, human-shaped fairies that merge the imaginary with the real, reminding the feeling of most of the work of Master Miyazaki, like Totoro, Mononoke Hime, Sen to Chihiro, or Nausicäa. They are masterfully shaped to convey such emotion and feeling, that make it so easily to get caught up in his work.

Using effects of scaling or “tilt-shift”as I read before (focusing a reduced area of the picture so that it feels like a miniature), Dmitry photoshops this fantastic world from inside his head to beautiful background pictures (I don’t think he takes all of the original background photos, case in point: view of earth from outterspace), such as a park in the winter, or aerial views of snow-covered fields or the earth seen from space. The result is a beautiful fantasy image the show us how illustrations can be smoothly combined with photography.