Well hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a TumbleDryLow post, but here is something worthy of consumption!
My dear friend and bandmate, Miss Kristen Adam, has launched Rococonouveau Design.

She says:

For as long as I can remember I’ve felt a particular connection to things of the past: vintage and period fashions, early 20th century classic film, vintage erotica & pinup photography, art deco architecture, art nouveau textiles & jewelry, and the gilded splendour of the rococo era. The goal in all my work on this project is to merge the essence of these core inspirations with the modernity of the 21st century. Thereby preserving the beauty of these bygone styles in a way that is relevant to today’s aesthetics. Hence, the name rococonouveau!

She makes these super rad little collar accessories that are the perfect thing to dress up an outfit, or lack thereof!
I had the privilege of modeling a bunch of these collars, along with a whole bunch of my sassy ladyfriends.

You should go visit her shop and get one of these. They’re reversible and super well made.

Dear readers, go forth and consume!

I recently ordered 4 pairs of shoes from Melissa, and thought I’d give my Vinyl IIs a shot at work today.

Seriously, if anybody knows where I can find these in Red, let me know!! Blue or grey also accepted.

I was all ready to leave, when a package arrived from my dearest Wifey, Miss Marie!!

SWEET JESUS she got me the Zac Posen for Target leather Jacket!!

Dudes, I almost cried.

As you may or may not know, Target may as well not exist for the carless in San Francisco. It was so especially sweet of her to hook a sister up!

I love all the little details this thing has! Especially the safety pin hangtag.

AAH I LOVE YOU WIFEYPANTS!!
Thank you!!

As you guys know, I’m a big fan of iPhone camera app, CameraBag — So it may come as a surprise to you that I should be reviewing another Camera App.

Let me tell you, Hipstamatic is rapidly becoming my new favorite.

This app uses a cute, lomo-like interface, which is demonstrated in this youtube video.

The user chooses a lens, film, and “flash” before taking the picture.
Each combination produces a different effect.

The app comes with a small selection of lenses, film, and flashes, and there are others available as in-app purchases.

Check out the Hipstamatic photo pool on flickr for more examples.

What’s your current favorite app?

As you guys know, I am obsessed with anything and everything red.
As such, I needed a laptop case to be able to achieve optimal redness.

I bought a SeeThu case from Speck for my Macbook, and I liked it so much that I got one for my MacbookPro, as well.

My only complaint about this case is that, with it on, I can’t fit my Mac into my docking station at work.
This is a problem that I’d have with any case, really, so it’s not really a fair criticism.
Just know that if you use a docking station, you will have this problem–I just use the top half of the case on my work laptop.

Being basically thrilled with spek’s laptop cases, I went ahead and got one for my iphone, too.

However, I had a much different experience.
The rubber bumpers on the sides started coming looks within a month of purchase.
They sort of held on for a few weeks, only coming off halfway, resulting in the adhesive getting all over the sides of my phone & making everything sticky.
My hair would get caught in it, and I eventually just removed them entirely.
After that, the phone didn’t feel right in my hand anymore and I abandoned the case.

so, in conclusion–
for laptops: speck is awesome!
for your iphone: NO BUENO!

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a TumbleDryLow post, so here’s the jury dury edition coming at you straight from the courtroom wifi!
For the record, I didn’t wear this shirt to jury duty.

This most excellent “Sex, Drugs, Helvetica Bold” shirt is from Collapse.

You guys know by now that I’m a certified Helvetica FREAK, so when I saw this I immediately had to own it.

Even the packaging it came in was totally slick!

There are a couple things about the shirt that some folks might not like. First, the lowercase l in “bold” is tilted (which is a trademark of most collapse shirts, as well as their logo). I think it’s sort of neat, but it might offend some type purists out there. Also, they don’t make a girly fit version of their tees. All that said, I’m extremely happy with my purchase from them.

Next on my wishlist is their “Will Kern for Food” shirt!

A couple of you were asking where I got this fabulous dress, so here’s the lowdown!

It was a gift from the fabulous Mr. Tim, purchased at the wonderful Betty Page Store, in Las Vegas!

The staff there was incredible, fetching me different sizes, styles, and accessories.
I bought some other stuff there, but honestly I cannot stop wearing this particular dress.
You’re all going to see so many pictures of me wearing this dress that you’ll be sick of it.
That’s how much I love it.

If you’re in Vegas, go to this store.
There’s something for every body type, and the staff will make sure you leave with something fabulous.

You all may remember the last time I bought headphones.
About a year later, I found myself looking at my beloved but beat up & broken skullcandy ‘phones, wondering if I should get another pair with their awesome 50% off retail replacement deal.

This plan became flawed, however, when I realized that since I have an iPhone now, I should get something with a built-in mic type thing. There’s this one iPhone ad, where a girl is listening to her headphones and dancing down the street. She gets a call, and the music pauses while she gracefully pushes a button on her earbuds and answers without even taking her phone from her pocket. At this point, we notice that her shadow has continued to dance despite the lack of music. The call then ends, and she steps right back into step with her shadow, dancing down the street. Upon seeing this, I decided that I, too, wanted to give my shadow the opportunity to rock out while I was on the phone, but I wanted to do it in something more stylish than apple earbuds.

Enter Boosted Pequeño Rojo.

I originally saw these headphones at the Boost mobile booth at the treasure island music festival. I was immediately in lust with them because they’re red, but this is a common feeling I have for most red objects. I later found them again at Urban Outfitters, but decided I could probably find a better price for them online, with the added bonus of being able to read some reviews.

Unfortunately, at the time, I couldn’t find these headphones online anywhere. This shocked me, (wtf? who doesn’t have their stuff on Amazon) and I couldn’t find any reviews on sound quality or anything beyond the typical “They look really cool!”. Frustrated and no more educated than before, I returned to urban and made a blind purchase.

… & I am so glad I did. Not only do these sound better than my skullcandies, but the microphone system works great for calls. The one thing that’s a little unfortunate is that the cord needs an adapter on the end of the cord to fit your phone of choice (shown in first photo), but it fits snugly enough that having it come loose isn’t an issue.

I am so into these, am tempted to buy a backup pair.

Find them in Urban Outfitters stores nationwide, or from the only online retailer I could find, Zumiez.

Let’s talk about CameraBag, shall we?

CameraBag is an iphone camera app that applies effects to photos you’re taking, or photos in your library.
Many of the filters included emulate toy camera photography, vintage photos, and (you guessed it!) Polaroid.
Here’s the official list:

The cameras included in CameraBag:
-“Helga” — A square-format toy camera feel with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting.
-“1974” — This is your father’s camera. Faded, tinted, and hip.
-“Lolo” — Shoot from the hip and take life as it comes with vibrant, colorful shots.
-“Cinema” — Dramatic, moody, wide-screen stills from the movie of your life.
-“1962” — Dynamic black and whites from the photojournalists of a bygone era.
-“Mono” — Smooth gradation from black to white.
-“Infrared” — Simulation of the popular landscape photography technique.

I found The Lolo filter to be pretty inaccurate as a fake lomo effect, and the Fisheye & Cinema settings to be fairly silly…but all the rest of the stuff in this app’s bag of tricks is pure magic.

There are a lot of things about low-fi photos that I love, but let’s be honest, the iphone camera doesn’t really do it for me on it’s own. CameraBag changes all that, making this tiny camera the kind of gritty it should be.

Reasonably priced at $2.99, it gets the Cute Tech stamp of approval.

Check out my examples of “1962”, “Helga”, and “Instant” below:

For more examples, check out the CameraBag photo pool on Flickr.

Hey guys! Upper playground, who I’ve blogged about on here before, is celebrating their 10th anniversary.

To mark this momentous occasion,

everything they make is 50% off right now.

The sale lasts until tomorrow in their retail locations, and until the 25th in their online store.

I stopped by the store yesterday and got the sweet shirt and bandanna pictured above.

I was chosen to participate in Nokia’s mobile photoblogging project, The Nokia Chronicles. They gave me their new phone, the 6650, to try out for a couple weeks while I photoblogged for them.

Unfortunately, I’m having trouble sending images to them from the aforementioned phone, so my participation as been minimal. I’ll be reviewing the phone at the end of my trial period, so even if the kinks don’t get sorted out, I’ll be posting all the pics as part of that.

Fingers crossed that it gets worked out before that!

1. Deco New York Mini Journal — Fredflare
2. Lovebirds Tea Towel — Ferm Living
3. Large Slab Pillow — LetterSetter
4. Cutthroat tie — Cyberoptics tie company
5. Ratio M tee — Brooklyn industries
6. Asymmetric cadet jacket — Phillip Lim
7. Polaroid tee — Fredflare
8. Phonophone - Tristan Zimmermann
9. Key Ring — Kiel Mead
10. Type Trumps — Magma Books
11. Soda ring — D-LICIOUS
12. Red Fingerless Gloves — Fredflare
13. PANTONE® Flight Stool — PANTONE® Universe
14. Ice Cream Lamp — Fredflare

What’s on YOUR list?

As such, you’ve probably already read countless articles about twitter and what a great tool it is for networking, supplementing your blog, and killing time at the office…

But I want to talk about twitter in a different way.
I want to talk about twitter as a means for artistic expression.

I, myself, have been striving to use twitter in an artistic way…but it’s so very hard to do so when you’re also trying to use it to facilitate your social life.

However, there are some people who have pulled this off much better than I, and you should know who they are:

Who she is:

Jenny Holzer is a conceptual artist, best known for her use of profound text in prominent public spaces.

Why you should follow her:

Quite frankly, twitter is the perfect digital canvas for the work she’s been putting on billboards, posters, and bathroom stalls for the past several decades.
It’s unclear to me whether this is Holzer’s official twitter, or if someone is just republishing her work. This doesn’t matter much to me, because I just can’t get enough of what she has to say.

Sample Tweets:

“ROMANTIC LOVE WAS INVENTED TO MANIPULATE WOMEN“
“PEOPLE WON’T BEHAVE IF THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE“
“MYTH CAN MAKE REALITY MORE INTELLIGIBLE”

http://twitter.com/jennyholzer

Who he is:
Filmaker, Marxist, and leader of the Situationist International, best known for writing Society of the Spectacle and Comments on the Society of the Spectacle.

Why you should follow him:

Whoever is tweeting Mr. DeBord’s words from the grave (DeBord died in 1994), picks selections that relate to each other in succession. The things said are made more profound by what has been said before.
Unfortunately, this account has been inactive for several months…Perhaps new followers will make the DeBord ghostwriter pick it up again.

Sample Tweets:

“The spectacle within society corresponds to a concrete manufacture of alienation.“
“This is why the spectator feels at home nowhere, because the spectacle is everywhere.“
“What binds the spectators together is no more than an irreversible relation at the very center which maintains their isolation. ”

http://twitter.com/guydebord

Who he is:

Chip Zdarsky is a cartoonist from toronto who’s gritty take on life is nothing short of hilarious.

Why you should follow him:

If you’re like me, and enjoy dark humor, you will laugh until you spit your morning coffee out all over your keyboard.

Sample tweets:
“I’m going to tear you a new one, right next to the old one.“
“I find that a real conversation starter on a first date is a shovel. Bring one along and see!“
“I need to believe in something bigger than myself, like, say, a seven-foot version of me.”

http://twitter.com/zdarsky

What it is:
Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by musician Brian Eno, and artist Peter Schmidt. The cards are printed with odd and interesting methods to solve a conflict or dillemma.

Why you should follow:

Eno and Schmidt solve problems in ways I only think of in dreams.

Sample tweets:
“Take away as much mystery as possible. What is left?“
“Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it.“
“Question the heroic approach.”

http://twitter.com/Oblique_Chirps

Please let me know if you’re aware of other people using twitter in anything but the usual way!
Also, y’all can add me here: thisisstar on twitter.

First, this video amused me very much:

(via Laughingsquid)

Second, I love the guys at Turn Nocturnal.

Check out this shirt:

& Comic Book Tattoo is totally out tomorrow!! (for real this time!)
OMG!

After an epic weekend at the Renegade Craft Fair, I’ve returned with this t-shirt gem from SEIBEI.

Oh man, do I like this shirt.

Red white and black? Check.
Print runs all the way to the bottom of the shirt? Check.
Witty and clever? Check.
Bold sans serif font in all caps? DOUBLE CHECK.

I should mention that all the people I met from SEIBEI were really sweet and awesome…not to mention that my friend Hellen Jo designed some stuff for them.

It’s always great to buy stuff from nice people!

Vampire Career Fair — $20.00 from SEIBEI

I decided to check out the new regular sized business card service Moo.com is offering, and I was sadly disappointed.

At the moment, trying to make a set with more than 5 different cards causes the system to choke.
All you get is a screen with your cards forever trying to load (see above).
This is odd, considering that you should be able to make a set with up to 50 different images.

I have full confidence that they’ll eventually get this ironed out.…but in the meantime?
…I cannot haz business cards.

I totally bought one:

It’s really cool! It’s stiffer than I expected it to be, but I’m hoping that it will soften a bit as I wear it.

It also came with this note on the box:

Despite this, I am really happy with my purchase. The scarf is stunning…here’s hoping it holds up over time.

The simple snap clip.

Most long haired people I know have a couple of these lying around.
They are extremely handy for securing a cowlick, or subduing an errant flyaway.

What could possibly improve on the design of such a simple thing?

Making it giant, clearly.

My hair ‘aint going anywhere today. Thanks, H&M!

First, I’ve wanted to get a typewriter key ring with an asterisk on it for a while. I’ve seen a ton of people making these on e-bay or etsy, but I wasn’t into the settings that most of them use to hold the key in place. Also, the asterisk is a much harder thing to come by than the typical letter key rings.

After having basically given up on my quest for he perfect asterisk ring, I stumbled upon one at the Bazzar!

This little guy is from The Weekend Store.

(cameo by my lolita glasses and my 5 week old manicure. yikes!)

Another thing I had been looking for at the time was a new wallet.
I had been previously using the AA Shiny Coin Purse which quickly turned into the not-so-shiny-and-leaving-bits-of-formerly-shiny-crap-all-over-my-purse coin purse. yuck.

I remedied this by buying a new coin purse from Miss Alison.

She personally guaranteed it’s shininess, and so far it’s held up!

Have a great weekend everyone, and be sure to come back Monday to vote on the Helvetica Challenge!

I was immediately drawn to the ornamental design, but was taken aback by the deliberate censoring of the very information the design was supposed to be communicating.

This led me to flip it over, hoping the info I needed would be on the other side:

There was the info, but once again, there was something crossed out that I was unable to read.
This simultaneously intrigued and frustrated me.

At this point I realized that the show it was advertising had already happened, but I thought the flyer design was so odd, I took one home.
I eventually checked out the headlining band on myspace to find that I hate their music (sorry dudes!).

The whole experience made me ponder this concept of mystery design.
While I was frustrated that they made it difficult for me to know what I was looking at, the act of being forced to look further to find out made the design stick in my mind.
In fact, I was so intrigued that I kept the flyer, looked up the band, and made a blog post about it.…even when the specific event it was advertising had long since passed.

So is this brilliant or not?
I went so much farther down the path than I would have if it were all laid out in front of me, but I kind of hated it.
What do you guys think?

p.s. If you designed this flyer, let me know and I’ll credit you. Also, please feel free to weigh in on the discussion.

p.p.s. Any of you have other examples of ads like this?

The hoodie in question was designed by Tofu for Upper Playground, a cool clothing and housewares store that happens to be in my neighborhood.

They have a really wide selection of styles, work with a bunch of designers, and paint beautiful murals on and around their building, like the one above by Sam Flores.

I currently own 3 t-shirts and a hoodie from them, and I suspect that I will continue to buy more.
Especially since they recently started working with (brace yourself, Typophiles) my favorite grunge font designer, Eduardo Recife, aka Misprinted Type.

Check out this neat video of one of his designs in motion:

My favorite shirt from UP is of the BART map…

I suspect this is mostly because of the huge amount of Helvetica in play.

Extra:
Upper Playground Blog

p.s. If you design cool shirts, or know someone who does…let me know!
I am always looking for designers to feature on TumbleDryLow, so keep your eyes peeled!