Couch Surfing Around the World

Couch Surfing is a site which connects people who are willing to put fellow travellers up for a night or two on their couch. A site for people whose idea of a good travel experience is connecting with people from different cultures and who are maybe limited by money.

Omnivorous.org

Excellent design inspirations for the visually hungry - via rebecky

Olympic Watercube - designed by Australians

An Australian company, PTW, has just won a competition to design the swimming pool complex for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Wow! This design is awesome. It has to be seen to be believed. They are calling it "the watercube" which is a good way to describe the rectangular mass of transparent crystal-like shapes. You really have to respect the guts of the Chinese to select such an "out there" design. Too many times the safe route is chosen but I have a feeling this building will stick in many peoples minds and become a landmark even beyond the Olymics.

I found the link while browsing Core77 an excellent design magazine. I will definitely be visiting this one on a regular basis.

Island Lotus Bribie Island Giftware, Furniture and Homewares

I've just finished designing the website for Island Lotus Bribie Island who sell Giftware, Furniture and Homewares. It's a very funky shop as you can probably see by their range.

Art, advertising or vandalism

I just read this article at Reason on Paul Curtis (company name Symbollix) who creates art and advertising by cleaning select bits off grimy walls around cities using just a shoe brush and water. For my mind this is a great idea but apparently has upset local authorities. You couldn't really call it vandalism as he is just cleaning the surface, selectively. Personally I have more of a problem with skywriting than I have with this. He seems to be getting some clients already who are hiring him to help promote themselves. NPR have also done this story on him which includes a photo gallery.

del.icio.us links

A while back I had a quick look at del.icio.us but I'd put it to the back of my mind until today when I saw the link again at at blog called 43 Folders. To cut a long story short I think this is a great way to manage bookmarks and I've set up an account on del.icio.us and the links will appear at the following address :- http://del.icio.us/redkettledesigns.

Brisbane City Council Website Nominated for Webby Award

I realise that I'm mentioning this a little late but I just found out that the Brisbane City Council website was nominated for a 2004 Webby Award in the Government and Law category. For those not familiar the Webby Awards are like the Acadamy Awards for websites. I always thought that the council website was pretty good but I hadn't realised the full extent of it.