Zeitgeist Toys: Gorgeous toys made from porcelain and precious metals. More pictures at Beautiful Life.

What do woodworms sound like? Live sound installation artist Zimoun from Switzerland found out. Video here. VIa FormFitfyFive

Common Projects makes shoes. Really sexy ones. Or do they do more? The black nappa leather duffle bag would look good filled with a weekends worth of clothes for a getaway. Bag available for $600. Via Hypebeast

Good little collaboration between California skateboard legend Buddy Carr and New York based graphic designer Antonio Carusone. A Skateboard and T-shirt combo. Limited to 100 pieces. Looks fun, thanks Anthony!

New Victionary book about retro design and how it’s appearing in contemporary graphical work. Looks good as both inspiration and a reference tool.

Emerged today as the perfect marriage between old and new, retrospective designs are deemed to be an inevitable phrase in the design cycle when designers begin to look back and find inspirations for new graphic styles in the depressive pixel age. Some think these designs has cheered the digital era with the lost enthusiasm for new findings and the future, others reckon it as a tribute to the prominent art and design movements between 1920 and 1990. Taking a trip down memory lane, Flashback unveils how the epoch persists to be an enduring spring with a bold and pronounced application of colour, shapes, typefaces and illustration works in contemporary graphic art.

Totally rad music video by Tin Spider Studio.  It’s the new single from Black Noise feat. Lex One, taken from Black Noise ‘EP.02′ on Southern Fried Records.  Just watch it, you’ll see.

Artist and designer Eric Testroete, in his own words: I made this as my costume for Halloween 2009. It was kind of inspired by big-head mode seen in videogames. I really wanted to get the faceted geosphere look with wireframe.

So awesome.  Check out his site for more photographs and more information on how he made it.

Well, I’m impressed. Thanks Ben!

Perhaps a competitor to the Geneva Sound System (I’ve got one in my house and I LOVE it), is the Reverb Solar Powered iPod Dock (it stands 3 feet tall, so that’s some dock).

It has built in solar panels so it can be used outside your home power-cord free! It fits a majority of iPhones and iPods but also comes with a 3.5mm audio jack so you can use it with just about anything. It goes on sale April 2010 for $2,299 and you can pre-order now with a deposit of $500 (a serious leap of faith that it sounds as good as it looks). Looks great though!

What happens when you make a hoodie out of Merino wool? New York based clothing company Outlier knows the answer in one word: Awesome.  They’re durable, warm, wicking. Originally built for cycling, these look fantastic. Check them out.

Nice top motion music video for 1970’s punk band The Johnny 7 Combo and their song “I Wipe My Nose On You”.

Artist Andy Martin Says:

I created an animated handmade poster using a tub of black paint, a tub of white paint, photocopied images of the band, lots of newspaper pages and a flattened cardboard box. The strict rules I imposed on myself also included the use of only natural light and avoiding any fancy computer effects or short cuts. This made me concentrate purely on the stop motion and give the piece a punk spirit an energy that I think suits the song and the band.

If I had pets in NYC, they’d be eating and drinking out of bowls that looked this good from Doca Pet.

Initially shown back in April, Nike announces a wider launch for November from its Paris Bastille by 180g campaign, focused on three simple sneaker styles, including the Tennis Classic, Air Flytop, and Flash. All three receive unique 180g treatments, a process which allows some of the brand’s classic product to be custom dyed, achieving a tailor-made type of aesthetic amongst various premium textiles and custom detailing. A release event is slated for November 5th, 2009 at 180g in Paris.

I’m loving the Tennis Classic shown above. More pictures over at HypeBeast

Legendary New York street artist Craig “KR” Costello customized a Mini Cooper S with his signature KRINK aesthetic. The car was shown today at Erste Liebe Bar in Hamburg, Germany. A vernissage takes place at Vicious Gallery on October 31st.

Want.

Vicious Gallery

Kleine Freiheit 46
22767 Hamburg

Via High Snobiety

Great merino wool bobble hats by Alessia Giovanni in Italy. And a damn cute kid!

The NNew Can, designed by Jiwoon Park & Kwenyoung Choi. Interesting, but are we creating a solution in search of a problem? Via Yanko Design

Two crazy (and crazy interesting) books from Gestalten showed up on my desk this week. Both are worth checking out!

The first is called Papercraft: Design and Art with Paper (top) and is all about the crazy and ingenious projects people have managed to do with paper and some serious time and dedication. The second book is admittedly bizarre but still awesome. It’s called Hair’em Scare’em and shows a collection of photographs exploring the inventive possibilities of hair as a medium for artistic expression. Yes, there are some crazy hair styles inside. Inspiration for the next time I hit the salon? Perhaps.

Like live shows? Sick of the old-school ways to find them and buy tickets? Me too. Check out GigLocator. I’m impressed by the work of James Proud and his partner Miles in London. Keep up the good work guys!

Some great t-shirts by Robatabrand. And as a bonus to Josh Spear readers, enter “JOSHSPEAR” at check out to get 10% off! Thanks Mark!

This year’s 99% Conference was a huge success. So, why not register for next year way ahead of time? For a limited time they’re offering $300 off the regular ticket price of $699. A steal. Go, do it, now!