I recently found the book  ’Unuseless Japanese Inventions’ by Kenji Kawakami. You have to admire the absurdity and creativity of  some of these  inventions:  Cat dusters, grass toilet seats, high heel training wheels.  I’ve picked out some of my favorites from the book to share with you.

UMBRELLA TIE

Its a tie… and an umbrella… at the same time! As much as it rains here I should invest in this!

TRAINING WHEELS FOR HIGH HEELS

If I were to ever wear high heels… I would need these. They kind of make think of those ‘wheelie’ shoes… but for adults.

PANORAMIC HEAD CAMERA

This invention cracks me up…not only because its ridiculous… but I could actually see a tourist near MIT using this very device…

FINGER BRUSH

This one looks like a cross between a toothbrush and a thimble. Can you imagine whipping this thing out to do a post-meal brush up?

CAT DUSTER

Too lazy to do housework? Strap these dusting mits on your cat, give it some catnip and watch your house instantly be cleaned! I’m sure my cat would LOVE this! (Also see kittens in mittens)

CAMERA UMBRELLA

I have to admit that this invention is actually kind of clever.  I could use one of these for my iPhone.

BUTTER STICK

Short on time to make that toast for breakfast? Try the butter stick:  it’s kind of like a gluestick but edible… (well…some would argue that gluesticks are edible as well)

CLEAN AIR

Tired of that polluted and nasty city air? Try taking a whif of this plant and enjoy the clean air!

GRASS TOILET SEAT

Last but not least the best invention of all is the grass toilet seat… so you can can get that outdoorsy feel when you…well… have to go.

HAVE  YOU SPOTTED ANY WACKY INVENTIONS LATELY?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

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I’m starting a new regular weekly post so you guys don’t miss out on the best of the random cool stuff I find on the interwebs! I’m picking 5 of my favorite finds from the past week that inspired me, made me smile or are just worthy of your attention! If you like what you see head on over to Daily Design Bits and grab the feed!

Meatscapes!

Landscapes are boring… check out this meatscape by Carl Warner.

Clever Paper Logo

Clever logo – Recycled paper printing. Just in case you don’t see it – its a piece of paper curled at the corner to form an R

Beardhead!!!!

Beardhead! http://beardhead.com/ – i’m totally getting one of these this winter…

Plant Lamp

Plant Lamp by Ana Chillida. Made me smile

Line Lamp

Another interesting lamp concept by Dima Loginoff. Love the emphasis on the line!

Design Store Poster

I believe this is the original ‘Mouse’ character that I designed… He’s really more of a spy mouse with a headset. I’m not exactly sure what a mouse has to do with advertising for the design store, but hey people recognized the sign and knew where the store was! Also – notice the contents of the vending machines – mt dew, cheese and dr pepper.

El Lissitzky Book Cover

Remember when I told you that I had a design crush on El Lissitzky? I wasn’t lying… This was an assignment from one of my first design classes. We had to pick a designer and make a book cover in their style of design. Pretty awesome?!?!??! My Photoshop skills really shine through with this design. Cyrillic text, shapes, blending modes oh my!

BAAAA Business Card

This design was something that I half-assed at the last minute… right before class. We were supposed to design a fold-able business card. So I thought I would take my tried and true ‘smart-ass’ approach to design.

Halloween Sign

Next up we have of my lovely first forays into illustration. This is a sign I designed for the children’s section of the bookstore I worked at. While I still enjoy the basic theme of this illustration my execution still makes me laugh. I love that my personality started to show in my designs back then

Typography Assignment

One of those typographic assignments that everyone goes through… find a subject matter and then combine text and image in meaningful ways. I of course chose the book 1984 and made this design to go with the quote. Check out my mad blending mode skills in Photoshop.

Icon Design + Book Layout

This project was titled “A day in the life of a graphic design student the day before a project is due”… I was quite the copywriter I know We were assigned to design icons based on a grid and then write a story and design a book with the icons. If you are up for it… you can download a ‘work in progress’ PDF (4.6mb) version.

T-Shirt Design

An idea for a t-shirt I had… not bad!

Logo Design

Superb logo design for a friends church group. Check out the hand drawn type and AWESOME gradients!

Hair????

Last but not least I thought I would mention that even my uh… grooming skills evolved over the time I was in school. I think my hair was going through a ‘design phase’.

I want to see your first attempts at design!

I know I’m not the only one out there that has committed heinous typographic sins…I’d like to gather a bunch of design work from other designers and blog about it!  Fill out the form below and send me some of your AWESOME design work

Looking for more entertainment?

Check out “Ghosts of design work past” over at VelvetAnt.net!

*big thanks to Brian Klepper who sent this link my way – you totally made my day!!!!

Next up on my ‘list of side projects’ is Fuel Your Cheese – a one stop shop website for all your cheese related information and inspiration! Check the site out and let me know what you think!

What website should I ‘cheesify’ next? Leave a comment and let me know!

Sometimes brilliance hits us in the middle of the night (or early evening in my case). Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of  creating a new social voting site where designers could vote on their favorite Graphic & Web Design articles. Since i’m obsessed with little cheese eating creatures (also known as mice) I thought I’d give the site a mouse theme.

So here it is guys. Click the link and go try it out. Submit your articles and let me know what you think!

Design Squeak: http://design-squeak.com

*note i’m just poking fun at Designmoo. I had a random idea last night and decided to run with it. In all seriousness it was nice to do something completely unplanned and fun in the realm of design. I forget that design can be fun. So go ahead…give yourself an hour and make something instead of browsing blogs for ‘inspiration’. THE END

Most 404 pages are dull and boring and lack that little pizzaz that makes web design fun and clever. I was happily surfing the web the other day when I found the 404 page on Astuteo.com and I literally LoL’d and spit my coffee out all over my desk… I thought there have to be more great 404 pages out there like this! Read on for some laughs and a chance to show me your 404 page!

CSS-Tricks

So after a little searching I remembered Chris Coyer’s CSS-Tricks site had a funny (well funny nerdy) 404 page:

http://css-tricks.com

Creattica Daily

Crettica Daily’s 404 page says this can’t be – which gives me a chuckle…

http://daily.creattica.com

Nikibrown.com

Then there’s always my 404 page with a mouse sleeping on a banana

http://nikibrown.com/404

But Wait, There’s more!

Smashing magazine has a great roundup of different types of 404 pages.

And theres also a gallery site dedicated to 404 pages: Fab 404

Web Designer Depo also did a post on 50 creative 404 pages

What Does Your 404 Page Look like?

If you think you have a good 404 page and want it featured in my next blog post fill out the form below!

So I randomly stumbled upon a few commercials last night while watching CNN. Both commercials are very interesting in…their own way. I love seeing bananas being used in advertising . Click read more to view the videos!

The first is a Sprint commercial with tons of lovely data-info-facts. I think this is a really well done commercial that throws a lot of facts at you but is still memorable. What do you guys think?

The second video is a crazy Japanese commercial for Dole featuring the Banana Man! Not really anything of substance here, just thought I’d throw this in for laughs. Although, this commercial did prompt me to go out and buy bananas!

Check out Scanwiches: a blog dedidated to a daily sandwich that the author eats, and scans. I’m in love with this obsessive compulsive keeping track of strange things