Even though I’m told there isn’t a word for entrepreneur in Arabic, there is certainly a good amount of “from the ground up” spirit happening from within a new generation of people living in Dubai. I had the pleasure of visiting one such project called The Shelter, a wonderful workspace, cafe, store, screening room type place.  It’s situated in an old warehouse in an industrial part of Dubai, off the beaten path. If you’re in town and need a place to work (or just want to see something that makes you feel good), I highly encourage you to stop in and see this place.

The Shelter is a first of its kind community workspace that allows individuals from various creative disciplines to engage in an environment that nurtures entrepreneurial small businesses. The Shelter is a medium for forward thinkers, creatives and intellectuals to connect and exchange ideas; converting those interactions into commercial services and products through subsidized work spaces.

If I was in London, I’d absolutely be checking out the Dieter Rams “Less and More” exhibition at the Design Museum. If you don’t know who Dieter is, he was the director at the German electronics company Braun for 30+ years. No question he was a visionary.

“My aim is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential s shown to the possible advantage…”

I’m headed to Dubai for the Summit on the Global Agenda (a World Economic Forum event), as I’ve been serving on the Marketing and Branding council. I’ll let you know how it goes. Excited to see the tallest building in the world, having previously gone up the Taipei 101 as well.

Tips on Dubai? See you on the other side…

The Kinetic Lights system allows for a flexible arrangement of remote controllable light modules. Awesome. Check it out lighting nerds.

My friend Jeremy Somers has gone on and produced a range of women’s swimwear called We Are Handsome which is very unique. Okay, it’s totally unique. Check it out ladies. What do you think?

Damien Hirst and Supreme are back together again. I love this version of the artist skate deck collaboration at least twice as much as the last work they did together. I had one of those boards for a little bit but it never stuck in my collection.

These ones probably will, big fan of them.

The collection releases in-store in the US on November 19th and online on November 23rd. Japan will see a release on November 21st.

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and becoming friends with Jonathan Harris through all sorts of different avenues, projects he has done, and more recently the times we’ve found ourselves in the desert in Jordan together. He’s truly one of the most thoughtful, inspiring, and talented folks I know. And I meet a lot of people.

And he has a book. And I’m so excited for him!

The book is called We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion. It’s based on the extraordinary site with the same title. You can pre-order the book on Amazon for just under $20 and have it in time for the holidays to give it to everyone you know! Congrats Jonathan and Sep!

MOMO, the artist responsible for one of the newest (and certainly brightest) Y3 shoe collaborations has just released this short film: He did a video of the 5 art shapes, which are included in the shoe box and came up with 3520 different art hanging possibilities. He documented them all in stop motion + also made a poster out of it. the video is pretty amazing.

Kind of spooky, very bizare yet interesting video for the Nokia N900 phone that comes out today.

I covered some wild Japanese barcodes a few years ago. The Dieline has a nice roundup of some new ones I’ve never seen before. Awesome!

UNPLUG: The Painting: The UNPLUG painting and its companion blog are simple reminders that my existence is a modest part of a greater whole. I do not seek an entirely unplugged life but I do seek a soul enriching connection with our little planet’s natural wonders.

I could use a little more of that.

Some new releases from Adidas in the Rod Laver collection, available at HUF in SF, orders by phone accepted. The first one looks cozy for winter.

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!