Photo by Sebastien LABAN

Being in a wedding recently, the quality of design involved in the whole process of a wedding is very disappointing. People are still using golden cards with very standard "design" everywhere. You are only going to get married once, why do the same as everyone else?

Photo by Alan Chao

It's christmas time again! Everyone is screaming about "feel good to gift" on the radio, on TV, and everywhere on the web. Before you going for Christmas shopping, here are few tips you might want to consider.

Make your own cards or wrapping paper.
I was really disappointed when browsing through the collections in gift stores, they are so ourdated, waste of paper and not cheap! Ever wonder what you gonna do with all those pretty old magazines, art show invites and newspaper with the most trendy illustrations or nice photographs on? I use them to make the cards and wrapping. Some independant designer offers cards that use recycled materials, they are good if you are really out of time.

Gift a plant.
Plants are great, they give fruits, flowers, or just being there and green your space. It's much more meaningful when you are giving a plant, it'll remind your friend about you everytime they water it. Even if your friend is not a garden person, a small strawberry plant will not be hard to grow and it'll "grow" the greens in their heart too.

DIY your gift.
If you do have time to play around (like me), making a gift is fun and meaningful. Be creative, exercise your brain and hands. There are many diy tutorials/ideas online about home made gifts, just hit the search button!

Buy unique and well designed gift.
And at last, if you are really out of time, buy gifts that will last and kind to the environment. Always buy things that's nicely designed and unique, it'll stand out from the crowd, and it'll be loved by your friends. Support local designers, shop places like independant designer store.

We have done quite a lot of work for this new water safety campaign called "read the beach". You can check out the design from logo, print to web here.

If you are a small business owner and running on a tight budget, look out for this one! We offer premium tailored design in very "skinny" price.

Want to be the first to know about it?
Send us an email to info [at] m-c.com.au or contact us!

Mystique Creations is ready for a complete new design. I've been put up with the old design for a while now and finally I made the move to revamp the whole branding for MC! You can check out the project details here.

After 3 years of operating, business is progressing enough so I can work on it full time. Mystique Creations is much more professional now. Many projects are happening at the moment, I'll keep you posted once they are launched.

Also, MC's sister studio Cokoon has launched its own website: cokoon.com.au The difference between Cokoon & MC is, Cokoon works on projects with larger scales & more diversities. (motion graphics, games & other services are available thanks to Hody & Peter)

Email me if you have any ideas & suggestions. We give discount price to new clients so feel free to contact me for more details.

Another 50 free high-quality icon sets showcased by smashing magazine

20 Brilliant TV Show Title Sequences, via smashing magazine

 I love pinup girls! Some guys think the make up is too much for modern photographs ... What?! Aren't girls 100 times more sexy like this? More photos can be found in Beth Cocuzzi's flickr account

Surprisingly, I found some great photo from my best friend's flickr account, taking photographs is just a hobby for her at the moment but I think she is getting somewhere. Love the colour by the way, good work apple!

Some yummy pictures here! more photos from design sponge

The image at left fascinates me! "why didn't I thought about that ...", check out more photos by French photographer Gregoire Alexandre on Trend Land

shine kong: adagio for springs
april 9 – june 7, 2009
arario gallery, cheonan, south korea

I found more of the artist's oil painting works from designboom but I really prefer his/her installation / sculpture works.

Painting by Australian artist Melissa Haslam

I love these underwater shots from sugarock99

Some vintage love here, via well medicated

Check out this hilarious identity guideline by Christopher Doyle

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.Did I share this before? Well it still worths sharing for the second time if I already did. Check out Crisis of Credit Visualized!

This would be so nice on my garage floor! check out the painted lace floor designed by royal design studio

Great music video with awesome motion graphics! directed by So Me for Kid Cudi.

(please visit the blog for embed video)

Every one is talking about it! "Let the right one in" is a vampire love story. It's not just another vampire story with fake teeths and glowing eyes, it has "more subtle and brutal forms of emotional violence". The director has worked more on "establishing compelling characters and intricate relationships". I'm so looking forward to see it!

Hand Made Font rocks! I've seen their work before, and they have made so many more fonts now!

cosmetic - Tiffany Parbs Craft ACT Gallery One: 26 March to 2 May 2009

Chairman Mao, 2004Blast, 2006Mauro Peruccheti’s work is a mixture of Minimalism and Pop Art fused together with an elegance and ironic touch. These works are political statement but the idiom is resolutely Pop. via TrendLand

Cocoa stuff identity project show case, via Behance Network

Gonzalo Bénard - The Awakening of the Self, via Fabrik Project

This post is part of our weekly series of posts showing the most inspiring images, videos & resourses we came across during the week.

Bovey Lee is a HongKong Artist who makes these incredible papercut out of rice paper, most of her works have folklore or celestial animals, with a blend of images drawing from her background in art. via colectiva.tv

Yue Min Jun is one of the most mentioned Chinese artists, his art is brave & honest.

'basin' by xue tao, 2007, from 'flight number ten' exhibition, via design boom. Using newspaper rolls to form a traditional "Ding".

I love this one, "without a university degree or academic learning, chinese farmer, wu yulu has managed to build himself an army or 26 robots over the last 30 years made from scrap materials." There are so many talented people in China. Imagine if he did get more education! via design boom

Chinese artist Liu Jianhua has built a model of the Shanghai skyline using just poker chips and dice. via lostateminor

This is really what we did in a Chinese school back then! a lot of information in a small class, all written on a black board so we can write them down on our own exercise book. usually the teacher has to clean the black board at least 3 times in a 45 mins class. More images over colectiva.tv

Design for Chinese New Year: 20+ Images, Brushes, Wallpapers and Fonts 

Zhong Biao - Modern Chinese Art, via trendland Some of his works reminds me of my early years in China, some of them are quite different from what I saw as a teenager then, the night side of the big cities.

 “microknitting” with Althea Crome as knitter of Coraline’s tiny sweater and gloves in the new movie. via dancing with wools. get the pattern for the coraline sweater to knit for real people.

French Luxury brand, Akillis's new collection seems to be inpired by James Bond, deadly sexy and dangerous, via TrendLand

I want this puzzle! from art + commerce

1984 apple commercial

Beautiful design by Martijn, found on Abduzeedo

Sand drawing by Jim Denevan, via Abduzeedo

Beautiful illustration, not sure by whom though (after chasing link by link), found on Abduzeedo

well medicated has an excellent collections of Saul Bass's work, check it out here