Adam Paterson and Santi Tonsukha from the Royal College of Art Industrial Design Engineering created “GrowYourOwn” packaging for fruit and vegetable seeds for novice gardeners

: Simple, clear, natural, earthy, organic and approachable.

: A piece of 100% recycled corrugated cardboard is the package.

: Choose your seed type and peel back the re-sealable sticker.

: Sprinkle the seeds and wait...

: Measuring tape style seed dispenser

via:thedieline

Amazing amazing creative direction by Russian artists Alexandra Zaharova & Ilya Plotnikov for Doberman Studio of which they are founders. I can’t enough of it (women in fashion photography involving paper)!

via: Beautiful Decay

there are so many talented artists, how can I resist?

Johanthan Rowell, he freestyle a lot, which is great for us!

SCREW ME series:

Next year the Royal Mail will launch its stamp programme with a set of ten 1st class stamps designed by Studio Dempsey that celebrate classic British album covers - including Blur's Parklife (designed by Chris Thomson / Stylorouge. Photography: Bob Thomas), and New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies (designed by Peter Saville) - both shown above.

Deciding what album covers to include was no easy task. Royal Mail tell us that they began the process by trawling through various existing polls of Greatest Album Covers. They also enlisted the help of editors from various leading UK music publications along with graphic designers and design writers who were asked to list the most significant album sleeve artwork used on records by British artists. The final selection of ten sleeves (which perhaps oddly doesn't feature one of The Beatles' album covers) will appear on a set of 10 stamps that will launch on January 7, 2010 - and the stamps will be uniquely shaped, as shown in these images, to accommodate a glimpse of a vinyl disc poking out of each record sleeve.

Above left: Led Zeppelin IV (1971) sleeve was art directed by the band's Jimmy Page who wanted "total anonymity" hence no mention of the band's name on the sleeve. At the time, one executive at the band's label Atlantic described this move as "commercial suicide". 32 million people disagreed! Design by Graphreaks. Above right: Primal Scream's seminal 1991 album Screamadelica features a design by Paul Cannell inspired by Picasso

Above left: Rolling Stones' 1969 album Let It Bleed cover by Robert Brownjohn. Above right: David Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars sports this cover by Main Artery that features a photograph of Bowie in full stage costume taken by Brian Ward in Heddon Street in central London

Above left: The sleeve of London Calling by The Clash (1979) features a photograph of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his bass on stage - as shot by Pennie Smith. Designer Ray Lowry's design is apparently a homage to Elvis Presley's debut album layout. Above right: Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (1973) sleeve is by Trevor Key

Above left: Pink Floyd's 1994 album The Division Bell, art directed by Storm Thorgerson features sculptures by John Robertson which were shot in a field outside Ely in Cambridgeshire. Above right: Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002). Art directed by Blue Source and Coldplay. Cover image by Sølve Sundsbø

Stamp design by Studio Dempsey

the South African one is the Cookie Monster.

cute!

But now, his great great-granddaughter Carolin Fieber – a fashion designer and stylist trained in Milan, Paris and London – is completing the evolutionary pathway by putting the ancestral Kautsch to contemporary rebirth with new sofas, armchairs, stools, tables and rugs.

Hand made in Germany by Bretz.

I spent the last week thinking about the boring Martha Stewart lollipops, and how they could be made more scary.  I tried to brainstorm more gruesome fillings but it was just as boring as before.  Then I started thinking of what’s really scary.  Serial killers! I immediately thought of Dexter and his blood slides.

For any of you who aren’t familiar with the show, Dexter is about a serial killer of the same name, who works by day as a forensic analyst for the Miami police department, and by night, cleansing the city of the evil criminals who slip through the cracks of our faulty judicial system.  Every serial killer has to keep his mementos and Dexter’s trophy case, consists of a box of slides, each containing one drop of blood from each victim.

For this years gruesome Halloween treat, I decided to create a trophy case of my own.  I followed the same basic recipe as the Martha one, but I cut mine in half since the slides are much smaller and thinner then her lollipops. Here’s the recipe and directions with a few of my own small changes.

Biohazard Blood Slides

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 2 Tbs water
• red food dye
• bamboo skewer or tooth pic

Directions

1. Line a few baking sheets with Silpat nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.

2. Bring sugar, corn syrup, and 2 Tbs water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Don’t stir, but occasionally wash down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water to prevent crystals from forming; boil until mixture turns golden, 5 to 7 minutes.

3.  Pour the melted sugar mixture in a line down the center of the pan.  Using a skewer or the flat edge of a large knife, spread sugar into a thin flat sheet.  Glass slides are pretty thin, so the thinner the better.  It will also be easier to cut in the next steps.

4.  Once you have the mixture spread into a flat sheet, let it cool and harden for 5-10 minutes.  Once the mixture is hard, pull it away from the mat or parchment.  If its super thin, try not to crack it.

5.  Place the blade of a large knife (not necessarily your best) directly into your burner to heat.  If you have an electric stove, you can use a lighter.  Once the blade is hot, begin to cut your sheets of sugar into strips.  Cut edges to be the length of a real slide.  Its good to have a glass slide to use as a template.

This step can be a bit annoying.  Don’t worry if you break a few, it happens.  Reheat the blade for each cut.  Between each cut, wash your blade off with water to keep the sugar from burning to your blade.  I don’t suggest using your best knife, since this heating and cooling isn’t the best treatment for your chef’s blade.  If the edges are really rough, dip your finger and water and smooth them out.

6.  Lay your cut slides on your baking tray and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

7.  Take slides out of fridge.  Using a tooth pic or a bamboo skewer, paint on the blood circle in the center.  You don’t need too much.  A small droplet off the tip of your tooth pic will be enough.  If you put too much on, it will run all over the slide and make a huge mess. Refridgerate again until the dye is dry and you’re done!

You can serve these guys up with a pile of latex gloves to protect the hands while handling these dangerous items or you can serve with tweezers.  Either way, the point comes across clear (with a big bloody red spot in the center. Ha!).

I took a quick visit to the Science Surplus Store hoping to find a wooden slide box. No luck!  So I just got one of the cheesy slide kits which came with a cardboard box to display the slides at an angle.  Maybe for next year, I’ll try to find a box on ebay or something.

One way or the other, even if you don’t know about the show, blood slides are still gross.  You can tell people they are blood samples infected with ebola or something like that.  Biohazards are just scary.

Famed street artist Kaws has teamed up with nonprofit art initiative RxArt and highend beauty product manufacturer Kiehls. Kaws has lent some of his graphics to be carried on Kiehls skin products, profit generated from the limited edition moisturizers will be donated to the RxArt charity organization. The funds will be used to produce murals in children hospitals across the country.