We spend a lot of time on this blog showing our readers what other great designers are doing. From time to time we think it’s necessary to show what we do. As you can tell, we’re not an ordinary design firm. We launch inventive products, we create events, we do new types of websites with cool brand identities.  A lot of this comes from our enthusiasm to use a genuine grass-roots approach that is as dedicated to our community as it is to great design. Overall we believe our efforts come together in a way that make the unfamiliar familiar and that our efforts are both from the people that it’s for. When is our work for the community? When is it for our selves? When is it for our clients? For us it’s hard to get that separation. That’s what makes our work “sticky.”

Some of my personal favorite blogs made the list including…

#40 Chez Larsson a Swedish blog written by Benita Larsson on Design/Organizing/DIY blog

#36 Oh So Beautiful Paper Invitation/Stationary/Everything else paper blog written by Nole in Washington, DC

#31 Making it Lovely Chicagoan Nicole Balch, a woman who LOVES pink everything, writes about her house to home renovation style & journey

#2 Design*Sponge Brooklyn writer Grace Bonney features reader projects, artists home interiors and so much more

Last night the nomination list for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards was announced. The album by David Byrne & Brian Eno  “Everything that Happens will Happen Today” has received 3 nominations. The nominations were for Best Alternative Music Album, Best Recording Package and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.

Gamil Design worked with Stefan Sagmeister to bring to life the deluxe CD package for the album. Check out our post (with video of the package) and our writeup on the project.

below is a full list of the nominations per category:

Best Alternative Music Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
David Byrne & Brian Eno [Yep Roc Records]

The Open Door
Death Cab For Cutie [Atlantic]

Sounds Of The Universe
Depeche Mode [Capitol]

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix [Loyaute/Glassnote Records]

It’s Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs [DGC Records/Interscope]

Best Recording Package

Back From The Dead
Brian Porizek, art director (Spinal Tap) [The Label Industry/Artist2Market Distribution]

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Stefan Sagmeister, art director (David Byrne & Brian Eno) [Todomundo/Opal]

Middle Cyclone
Neko Case & Judge, art directors (Neko Case) [ANTI]

Splitting Adam
Jeff Harrison, art director (Splitting Adam) [Independent]

Tathagata
Szu Wei Cheng & Hui Chen Huang, art directors (Various Artists) [Wind Music]

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package

A Cabinet Of Curiosities
Mathieu Bitton & Scott Webber, art directors (Jane’s Addiction) [Warner Bros./Rhino]

The Clifford Ball
Masaki Koike, art director (Phish) [Rhino]

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Stefan Sagmeister, art director (David Byrne & Brian Eno) [Todomundo/Opal]

Lost In The Sound Of Separation (Deluxe Edition)
Jordan Butcher, art director (Underoath) [Tooth & Nail Records]

Neil Young Archives Vol. I (1963–1972)
Gary Burden, Jenice Heo & Neil Young, art directors (Neil Young) [Reprise]

I Often Dream of Trains in New York DELUXE EDITION

Gamil Design worked with Yep Roc and Robyn Hitchcock to create a deluxe CD package for a limited Deluxe Edition of “I Often Dream of Trains in New York”. The classic looking CD package unfolds and transforms into a phenakistoscope, or moving picture machine. Original CD and DVD artwork can be viewed as animations through the included viewer. Gamil developed and produced the package concept, design and artwork. Each part of this deluxe package was made in the USA. This Deluxe Edition can be purchased at Yep Roc!

Robyn Hitchcock Deluxe Edition

Robyn Hitchcock Phenakistoscope Assembled

Check out the video below that Yep Roc put together showing the phenakistoscope in action!

Last year, we had the pleasure of working with Stefan Sagmeister to realize the deluxe CD package for David Byrne & Brian Eno’s album: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

It was truly a labor of love, as we here at Gamil Design are big fans of both David Byrne and Sagmeister, Inc. We were elated to find this video posted by Topspin CEO Ian Rogers with his personal unveiling of the deluxe CD package as it arrived at his home.

Also check out the interview with designer Stefan Sagmeister and his description of the concept behind the unique deluxe package design.

My most common reaction to the sea of products was : Really?

It is always apparent when a good company runs into pressure to design without inspiration… baguette ‘bag’ anyone?

Sometimes I think we should spend more time drinking and eating rather than carrying around all this design baggage. Thanks Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee.

It’s beautiful, in color AND it opens and closes! I would assume it sounds good but, really, who cares?
Vestalife will be launching it at MacWorld this month. “Stay tuned.”

via MocoLoco

The pain reliever, Motrin, lost a major bonding opportunity by poking fun at new moms who use baby slings and other “close to the body” carriers. A new online and magazine ad was pulled Monday with an apology on their home page due to thousands and thousands of twitter comments by outraged moms and blogs around the world analyzing the intent of the ad. From there, the big guys then had to pay attention and report on it as well. Check out Advertising Age article on it.

Designed by Taxi to possibly follow (or knock off) the look and humor of “The Baby Owner’s Manual,” the ad, instead sounds like a snide and snarky “I’m too cool to be a mom, but I do have a baby,” woman who generally looks down on the very idea of bonding or closeness. One line in the ad even uses the “s” word, the one word definition of cynicism: “Supposedly it’s a real bonding experience…”

I’d bet too that Motrin has incured the ire of every baby carrier brand out there, as the ad is flat out insulting to them. We all know many many ergonomic studies are done, safety studies and R&D development in order to design baby slings and alleviate or reduce fatigue and pain from repetitive hours of carrying a baby (a wriggling extra 10-20lbs) each day. The ad negates that honest intention and declares the slings themselves as the reason for back pain.

And, yes, Mom’s are “supposedly” a huge market. But the ad could only appeal to that niche market segment, as motherhood is everything to mothers but not really an empathetic or understood state of being for others. So the only people who truly understand the ad are pissed off. AND, the ad was supposed to coincide with International baby wearing month! Now that’s funny.

Ultimately, it’s an interesting study— what makes sense to a design team might not hit the target market the same way. And the incredible power of social media will amplify the resulting consumer tantrum to a level that makes the ad agency wish they’d never left the house.

Similar to the BMW fabric car Aly wrote about a few days ago, these Lamp Girls by Marianne Maric combine textiles with product design to give structure to the fabrics. Fortunately in this case, artistry and iconic culture are also added in.

Kind of the sexual inverse of “where the sun don’t shine.”

source: elitalice.com

I couldn’t remember the url to this site about the new TOTO Washlet toilet, but I googled “toto ass face” and immediately found it. The above pic doesn’t do the site justice…We are talking about toilets here and a buncha smiley-face bums literally turn into smiling faces. Is that the most disturbing possible transition for a message about “clean?”

The site is the most horrifying cultish brain-washlet thing I have ever seen.

“welcome to clean is happy”
“the washlet elevates the process to a whole nutha level”
“what is ordinarily an ordinary activity is turned into an opportunity to refresh yourself, to restore yourself, to pamper yourself”
“I never thought my toilet could be an oasis of happiness.”
“clean is comfortable. clean is confident. clean is happy.”

Will they still be there watching you when you use the Washlet? That old dude is especially creepy…”How’s it goin?” he asks- and hold your mouse over him to see his Porky’s “I-can-see-girls-going-to -the-bathroom” leer…

I think the only way these people could be this “happy” about their toilet is that they stopped by their medicine cabinet before they sat down…