Developed by 2D Boy, a two-person team, World of Goo is a puzzle game with a simple mechanic—assembling minimal physics-simulated structures so your Goo-balls can exit the level, Lemmings-style. More than this, it has great production values (made with open source software!) and a lot of heart. If you’re in need of some fun, we encourage you to check out the demo.

Don’t just take our word for it. The critics totally dig the full game.

When you’re ready to take the plunge, you can purchase it on Steam (which we also like), or from WiiWare. ((I may go the Wii route over Christmas because I like waggle controls and it seems to be a bit more reasonably priced than the PC version ($15 vs. $20)))

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See—this is why Google is going to take over the world.

I ask the search engine where I’m supposed to vote in two weeks and this comes up.

Just tell Google your address and it gives you a map to your polling location. What is more, the side panel delivers timely information about how to register and vote absentee in your state.

Maybe I’m late to the party with this one, but I figured it was worth drawing some attention to a.) because people might find it useful and b.) it’s another great example of how Google gets information right. Sure, I can find the same thing on my state’s voter website, but it asks me for personal information and the interface is nowhere near as nice.

Some people say Google will be dethroned one day because their minimalism betrays a lack of design. I say, so long as the connections are this perfect (what Godin calls the architecture), they will continue to lead the way in search.

Caveats

Now, we’ve all got way too many tools in our lives—software, email, and now things like Twitter and delicious, so this may seem like a whole lot more from a couple of guys who proclaim the virtue of less. I’ll try to counter that by saying these are “little” tools: simple, one-shot smart bombs for solving specific problems -- nothing new to learn, no lifelong commitments to maintenance. (Alton Brown would probably shoot me for pitching unitaskers, but, whatever. Software is different.)

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I love her use of bright colors and marker as a medium. The texture, combined with the repetition of shapes makes this series of illustrations simple, yet rich.

(This particular piece is my Twitter background, until I can find the time to make a huge version of the DLB guillotine)

Via.

Via.

Every time Nick and I come up with a design, a strategy, or a campaign to pitch to a client, we have a meeting where we apply ourselves to this question: "Is this design ethical?"

When we first started DLB, one of our guiding principles was that we weren't going to take any jobs in which we thought we might be aiding or abetting something that was going to make our world worse. More than that, we wanted to focus on developing white-hat design and advertising techniques for a technological environment that makes it so easy to cut corners, to use ugly or unwholesome technical or psychological techniques.

Of course, this is a battle that gets won or lost anew every day, and the best you can hope for is that over time, you can load up the right side of the scale. But enough sentimental rambling. I promised you homework:

Screen capture from Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru.

Go out and get a copy of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece, Ikiru. Watch it. Learn an important lesson about life, courage, humility and making your own happiness — but above all about doing ethical work. Then apply it to your own work; get out there and design better.

Tiny Showcase usually showcases (and sells limited editions of) tiny works of art. However, recently "inspired by the posters on classroom walls, but free from any commitment to reality," TS has a giant poster created by Ray Fenwick – Life of Mystery — An Illustrated Guide – on offer.

The thing about KEYS is that they're incomplete...

Besides being pithy, mirthful and incredibly well typeset, has as its centerpiece a sort of "Life of Mystery" manifesto, which I'll paraphrase for you now:

Life holds plenty of mystery, but it often seems like the wrong kind of mystery. Life's mysteries are usually either depressing or bland. Fortunately, there's another kind of mystery, the fun kind, the kind that "leaves you spun out in the most amazing ways." This mystery is a feeling, a vague sense of mysteriousness. We can create a life of mysteriousness: We can feel like that forever!

I think this addresses something that designers often forget: Sometimes the best parts of our experience with stuff in the world is getting "spun out" in a cool way. Think about how cool early viral marketing could feel, or even think about the infamous ATHF incident in Boston, and then ask yourself, when you're setting off to design something: Is there some way I can make this engage people in that fun kind of mystery?

It's important! And we know it's important, because it's exactly why we're designers. Designing stuff is a way of coming into work every day and addressing the fun kind of mysteries in life.

So here's a mentality shift to ponder for your manifesto: Don't even try to address the loose ends out of existence; design the loose ends!

Illustrator and author Cristoph Niemann, in his New York Times blog on Thursday, unveiled his incredible journey through pixelated modern art, in his attempt to — get ready — tile his bathroom. We strongly encourage you to read the entire process.

For my part, I must say, I think I might have chosen Hockney's Pool with Two Figures for the shower:

Portrait of an Artist: Pool with two figures by David Hockney, as rendered in pixels by Cristoph Niemann

That said, I unequivocally applaud his shower choice, which he brilliantly reappropriates from one of my all-time favorite artists, Joseph Beuys:

Fettecke by Joseph Beuys, as rendered in pixels by Cristoph Niemann.