As a graphic designer, I can appreciate when something is well designed. Design that meets the needs of the user or anticipates it.  This is especially true of tools, I don’t know how many tools I’ve tossed  because of bad design. Here’s a website that searches out the coolest new tools to do the things you do.

If you like stickers, and well … who doesn’t, this company has what you want. They can make custom die-cut VINYL stickers in about a week. The cost is pretty reasonable too. I wonder what reason I could come up with for decals?

Here are the 10 first place winners in the International Pun Contest:

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons The stewardess looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger:’
2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall.The one turns to the other and says “Dam!”
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.
4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says ” I’ve lost my electron:’The other says “Are you sure?” The first replies “Yes, I’m positive:’
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?’; they asked, as they moved off. “Because;’ he said;’ I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer:’
7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Ahmal:’ The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him” Juan:’ Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal:’
8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to “persuade” them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

I was in the Glenbow Museum sketching the Art of Asia exhibit. I saw this mask, it’s a Japanese Kagura mask. Kagura was initially only for the imperial court, but became a folk tradition over the years. This mask is from Daikaigura (I believe) where priests would help peasants drive evil spirits away. The sketch is a Pilot marker sketch, I think it took about 15 minutes. It struck me how much it looks like batman and is such a studied expression of rage.

Design can help a company become more competitive in this economy. It’s funny because when belts get tightened, design and advertising are the first things to go for a lot of companies. They’re seen as frivolous or  as a luxury. Showing clients a strong identity and keeping them thinking about you works. We all see it everyday—quick!—name two local builders or trades. I can only name a couple, but there are hundreds, I remember the ones that put an effort into looking professional and getting noticed.

This one is from Jimmy Carr, stop me if you heard it before. There is a remote tribe that worships the number zero, is nothing sacred? And from Stephen Wright, How young can you die from old age?

I remember checking this guys site out a few years ago after seeing a music video he did the animation for. Definitely the weirdest Flash designer in the world. What’s weirder is how much time you can spend seeing what will happen with your next click. Be warned, the guy is a bit … well, dark.

I came across this interesting book the other day, I liked the period typography and the spot illustrations inside were really cute. What really got me was the condition of the book. This book must have educated about a thousand kids looking at it’s taped and torn pages. There are hand notations inside that are in many different hands, and it still hasn’t outlived it’s usefulness yet. It’s publication date is 1936, not in bad shape for a seventy-four year old.

I love jokes, no, REALLY love jokes. Years ago I started a file of all the jokes friends have sent me or told me—well not all—but as many as I can compile. Here’s a couple of short ones that someone sent me—attributed to a survey of jokes by Laughlab and the British Association for the Advancement of Science:

A guy phones the hospital and is screaming “You’ve got to send help, My wife’s in labour!’ The nurse says “Calm down, Is this her first child?” He replies “No, this is her HUSBAND!”

Two hunters from New Jersey are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing. The other whips out his mobile phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps out to the operator: “My friend is dead. What can I do?”

The operator in a calm soothing voice says “Just take it easy. First let’s make sure he’s dead.”

There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”

I’d love to say my sketchbooks are always with me, but that’s not the case. It seems like whenever I get a great idea for a drawing, my sketchbook is nowhere close. I think it purposely avoids me. I heard that DaVinci had his tied around his waist with a red rope, and was seen with it so much, he was known as the man with the red rope. Try that nowadays and you’d be explaining yourself to a  a magistrate. Every now and then I get to spend some time in my sketchbook, and get lost in it for awhile.