Threadless Design Contest

For those of you who don't know the site already, Threadless is a 24-7-365 t-shirt design competition. Designs are submitted and scored by members—if your design wins, your t-shirt gets printed and is available for sale online, and you potentially win cash and prizes. An interesting idea that apparently many people are involved in. Check it out—not only is a good way to get your stuff out there but the whole member-voting system allows for some interesting feedback and constructive criticism. Plus, if you're good, you could win some money. And we all like money.
www.threadless.com

Colorstrology

Apparently Pantone has officially teamed up with an astrologist to deliver "color horoscopes". There is a color for 2005 (Violet Tulip #16-3823) and individual colors for every day of the year—I was surprised to discover that my birthday color is Nile Green #14-0121 and that it can help me "experience a constant flow of joy"... er, okay, thanks Pantone. But it's fun and well put-together— the website is really quite beautiful: www.colorstrology.com/.
(There is even a colorstrology widget.)

Free-Admission Hours at the Cooper-Hewitt

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128

Free admission from 5-9 pm on the following upcoming Tuesdays:
Tue, Aug 23
Tue, Aug 30
Tue, Sep 06
Tue, Sep 13

Optimizing Images for the Web

There is a comprehensive article we're passing around at work today:
http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/98/26/index0a_page3.html?tw=design
It explains the differences between gif, jpg and the enigmatic png formats, then goes on to lots of technical specifics like changing bit depth to save file size, etc. Very helpful if you work with the web, though you likely know a lot of it already.
In general, Webmonkey is a great site and resource for working with the web.

Cartoon Musicals

For those of you in need of some animated inspiration, you might want to check out I Love to Singa: Cartoon Musicals at The Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center, through Aug 31st. There are a number of short cartoons and films, which include "The Triplets of Belleville" and "Fantasia".

Check out the schedule on their website.

Letter magazine

We just published a zine, Letter. This is composed with the artworks created by 12 artists/designers from NY, Tokyo, and Milan. The Letter is currently available at:

New Museum of Contemporary Art (http://newmuseum.org/)
Zakka (http://www.zakkacorp.com/home.php)
Spoonbill & Sugartown, Booksellers@Bedford Ave. bet. N5 St. & N4 St. (http://www.spoonbillbooks.com/)
Clovis Press@Bedford Ave. & N4 St.

We are still trying to reach further places, so more will be coming.

Kenji@Letter magazine

Keith Haring Pop Shop Closing

Fans of Keith Haring, take note: the Pop Shop is closing its doors at the end of August. It's been in Soho since Haring opened it himself in 1986 (Haring died of AIDS in 1990).

The Pop Shop: 292 Lafayette Street (between Houston and Prince Streets) New York, NY 10012

Anime at MoMA

Some people claim that animation is Japan's greatest modern art form. I'm a fan—I find it extremely creative, unlimited and usually pretty inspiring. Some of the greats are showing (Akira, Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell) on the big screen. If you've never seen Akira in the theatre (or seen it at all, for that matter) then this is a rare chance!! The schedule:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_media/2005/anime.html