Liquid Treat

If you approach gift wrapping as a mini package design project, you'll geek out when you see the new Hammerpress gift bags. The Kansas City letterpress studio teamed up with Chronicle Books on a provocatively patterned set of 12 mix-and-match gift bags. There are sizes to cover most of your standard gift-giving occasions, plus a sticker sheet to let you add your own texture. Just don't cry when your niece tears one to shreds. (Check out the equally sublime accompanying gift items like notebooks and stationery in Chronicle's new Hammerpress collection.)

by Michelle Taute

In his role at Austin design shop The Decoder Ring, Christian Helms creates work for a hit list of hipster bands that includes The Hold Steady, Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Death Cab for Cutie and more. Now he's put his cultural prowess to work for a political star: Barack Obama. To help get out the youth vote, Helms designed three visually clever posters for the Vote for Change campaign. They skip the sucker punches in favor of a subtler approach—like turning the Q in Iraq into a hamster wheel.

by Michelle Taute

Yes, you'd get hammered on the exchange rate if you flew all the way to England for the Hello Digital festival this October. But following the event's blog gives you a free tour of some astonishing projects. Just watch the video of the 9-ft.-tall robot with a sense of humor—and penchant for Sinatra—making an appearance at a shopping center. It's like walking onto a movie set where the special effects are real. Then scroll through the older posts to discover some unfamiliar faces making amazing work in everything from digital animation to digital music.

by Michelle Taute

Sandrine Pelletier's work somehow manages to be eerie and whimsical at the same time. The Swiss artist and designer's first solo show in Los Angeles opened last week, and it's filled with embroideries and sculptures that mix childlike touches with a healthy dose of Edgar Allan Poe. There's a winged skeleton whose body resembles a delicate antique doily and a nature scene with police tape and an apparent crime scene snaking through the landscape. Pelletier appeared in STEP inside design magazine's 2006 Guide to Emerging Talent, so we knew she was destined for great things.

by Michelle Taute

Unlike the leaders of Iran and the U.S., the two countries' graphic designers seem to have found a meaningful connection. The Seattle-Tehran Poster Show features 50 posters from designers in each city, and together these works form a sort of visual olive branch. As the show's cocurator, Daniel R. Smith, puts it, "The exoticness of Persian typography is strange, seductive and utterly fascinating to an outsider." So flip right past the posters by Modern Dog and Ames Bros (we love them, too) to see what graphic design looks like on the other side of the world.

by Michelle Taute

Illustrator Ray Fenwick's new poster is the kind of self-help advice even James Bond might get behind. Life of Mystery: An Illustrated Guide outlines all the crucial elements for shaking off the everyday malaise in favor of adventure. If you want to start following the program right now, go find yourself an ornate key, preferably skull-shaped, and hang it around your neck. Then plunk down the $12 for this 22 x 28-inch poster and bring more crime novel suspense into your life as you marvel at Fenwick's wit and talent.

by Michelle Taute