QR Code Greeting Cards Become the New "Mix Tapes" and Send You to Spotify Playlists.

above: A series of greetings cards that when scanned with a QR code reader direct people to themed music playlists within their Spotify Premium smart phone app.

Once upon a time, the "mix tape" was an overture of intimacy, of sharing, a gesture to show you cared by sending someone your own personal musical playlist as a message. Now, Stupid, a collective of young creatives in the UK, have designed greeting cards with customized artful versions of QR codes (they call them QR Images) that when scanned, lead you to specific playlists on Spotify, making them the mix tapes of the new Millenium.

How it works:


The Cards:

above: Music for art lovers

above left: Music for Cooks; above right: Music for Monsters

above left: Music for Geeks; above right: Music for Love

Stupid is presently in talk with various UK companies about producing the cards en masse, but for now, if you'd like one contact them directly here.

About Stupid:
A collective of young creatives who want to work on interesting and challenging projects. With their mix of creative disciplines they hope to do most projects entirely in house allowing them control over the entire creative process. However when they do use outside specialist talent they make sure it's someone very special with an inherent ability to think stupid.



WTF are QR Codes and what is Spotify?
If you're not at all familiar with QR Codes or Spotify, and the above post sounded like a foreign language to you, learn about both at the links below:

• How QR Codes work
• About Spotify

Turn Your Facebook Activity into a Book of Infographics with Social Memories.

Social Memories is a Facebook app (and 2011 Red Dot Design Winner) from Deutsche Post DHL and Cosalux that allows you to create a 28 page glossy bound hardcover book of your Facebook social activity. The super easy application creates your custom book in minutes.




You choose the date range from which you want them to pull the statistics. Pick from 3 choices of color schemes and your choice from 5 languages and voila! After a few seconds, your activity is analyzed and then organized into tastefully designed infographics available to view online or to purchase.



In a matter of moments I learned that I have more male friends than female friends (amongst those who listed their gender), the majority of my friends (who chose to share their birthdates) are Capricorns, I post about 7 times more photos than I do updates and I'm most socially active on Fridays. And more useless but fun and enlightening facts.

Here's some screen grabs of a sample book from my own facebook activity:














A video of the concept and product:


Price: 19€ plus worldwide shipping



Create yours now here

A Talented Mom Designs An iPad App. Drum Roll Please....

Imani Powell-Razat, a designer/illustrator by trade (see Spye Design Studio) is also a mom who has designed and created an entertaining and informative application for the iPad that is a multicultural celebration of the world's drums.


above: Imani Powell-Razat of Spye Design and her son, Orion, playing with his iPad



Drum Circle Kids is a colorfully animated app that allows your child to engage in and create unique jam sessions by tapping five colorfully animated drummers that represent various types of drums found throughout the world.



The American Trap Set, Caribbean Steel Pan, Chinese Drum, Cuban Conga and the West African Djembe (with more drums to come) can be easily turned on and off with the tap of a finger and combined for dozens of possible musical and sound combinations.



Adding to the fun, is the possibility of discovering ambient sounds hidden in the scenery.



In the learn section, kids can swipe from one drum to the next and touch to play each drum while learning fun drum facts.


Intended for toddlers, age 18 month +
Buy it in the itunes store here

Echoism, Your Left Side Vs. Your Right Side.

Above: one of the subjects in Wolkenstein's photography study of facial asymmetry

Do you have a good side? Most people do. Rarely are faces symmetrical and more often than not, features are misaligned and various facial characteristics make one side of your face appear very different from the other.



I first introduced you to the work of Julian Wolkenstein three years ago. Echoism, a recent project of his, plays with the notion of your own identity as expressed through your features. What do you look like? What are the things that make you look like you? If you are made symmetrical, do you consider yourself more beautiful, less so, or is it just weird? Or is it you at all? Do you have a best side? What is to be said of left and right brain dominance?



The process is a face-to-camera portrait, after which the image is split into a left and a right section, then one side is horizontally flipped and placed against that same side to make up two separate portraits of the right side and left side of a human face.

In photographer Julian Wolkenstein's initial project, the subjects were specifically cast for their individual facial features. They were photographed front to camera and in the same position. They were asked not to express emotions or character.

Below are images from the study:









Echoism is now available for you to try via an online website or with an app you can buy in the itunes app store. If you've got a built in camera on your computer, you can visit the website, have your image immediately taken and upload it to the site.

Echoism.org is a project by artist and photographer Julian Wolkenstein.
via Trendland via Notcot