THE XO LAPTOP.

Can a laptop change the world? This is genius. A laptop can now be purchased for the price of USD 100.  The creative organization behind this, the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child: http://laptop.org/en/index.shtml), claims that this is not a laptop project but rather and education project.  They believe that children do not lack the capability, only the opportunity and resources. The XO is the key. WOW.

BARE PROJECT.

Here's an interesting initiative from am i collective (http://www.amicollective.com), a great illustration house in Cape Town. They've commissioned their in-house artists along with a select few of outside artists to design these Bares. The Bares will be sent to various galleries all over the world and will be auctioned off online to invited individuals (like moi...). The proceeds go to child welfare.

Because Bares Care!

I must say, these are fantastic. The Bares are beautifully designed. This is art for good. You can see them yourself here: http://bare.amicollective.com

MICROSOFT'S SEADRAGON AND PHOTOSYNTH.

Microsoft labs has revolutionized imagery through Seadragon and Photosynth. Don't ask me how it works but Seadragon has the capability of taking any image, no matter what size, on the internet and turns it into a hi-resolution image; allowing you to pan and zoom deep into the picture.

Photosynth takes any subject of choice, say the Eiffel Tower, and creates a 3D rendering of it through the compilation and stitching of available images on the internet! It's almost like piecing puzzle. What's even better is you can zoom into a portion and see the original image. It's hard to explain so have a look below at the images. It's quite amazing.

Start your own Seadragon now!

http://seadragon.com

http://photosynth.net/

IF YOU'RE NOT FAILING NOW AND AGAIN, IT'S A SIGN YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING INNOVATIVE.

This is could be one of the most important videos I've ever seen - a very insightful, interesting and entertaining case about the importance of creativity in schools by Sir Ken Robinson. We must have the capacity to be wrong in order to come up with something original.

It's okay to be wrong.

THE DYNAMIC DUO OF DESIGN.

I give you Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss - the Frodo and Sam (from the Lord of the Rings...) of graphic design, illustration and custom typography. You can drool over their embarrassingly good portfolio here: http://www.non-format.com/profile/

Have a look at the FAQ section for some juicy interviews with Kjell and Jon, along with some tips and secrets.

Here's some of their work:

DESIGN BIBLE.

This is one sexy sketch book. It was passed around between 4 artists (2 in Brooklyn, 2 in Belfast) over a span of 36 weeks. Each artist was given 5 days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it. Such a simple idea with beautiful results.

You can visit the website at: http://www.lookatbook.com - it's full of great artwork plus the artist's commentary on each spread. Here's a peek:

BIG IDEA. CHEAP TO MAKE.

MIT students launch camera into space for only $148.