Liquid Treat

There's a whole community of devoted scribblers sprouting up around Field Notes. These small memo books, created by Coudal Partners and Draplin Design Co., fit neatly into your shirt pocket for any spur-of-the-moment note-taking needs. The suggested uses include: crop predictions, phone numbers, shady transactions, big ideas/insights and escape routes. If you're still stumped for ideas, head to the blog or Flickr group to see how everyone else puts them to use. Or just plunk down $9.95 for a three-pack and let nature take its course.

by Michelle Taute

Remember those movie and TV ransom notes? The ones with each letter ripped from a newspaper and pasted together to protect the criminal's identity? The Chicago Tribune plays with this classic device with its "Test Your Typographic Awareness quiz." You eye 25 different letters—each ripped from a different magazine's cover logo—then match them with the correct periodicals. Rolling Stone's iconic face gives itself away, but Women's Health, Cottage Living and Seed separate the wannabes from the true typophiles … stakes much higher than the SAT.

by Michelle Taute

Frank Warren's PostSecret blog and books expose tantalizing truths on tiny postcards, but the authors always wrap themselves in the comfort of anonymity. The project's live tour, however, promises to toss aside that security blanket long enough for Warren to expose his own secret. It's one he kept for more than three decades and that inspired his popular interactive art project in the first place. Check the event dates for the next few months to find out when he's coming to a college campus near you.

by Michelle Taute

Running across a piece of Linda Zacks' work is like having a troop of ninjas drop from the sky and start fighting right in front of you. Her design, illustration and artwork create a visual assault that commands every ounce of your attention. If you're not afraid to be hit by a stray punch, check out her revamped website, which features work for Sony, Nickelodeon, Adobe and others. Then head over to her new blog to figure out where all this fire comes from.

by Michelle Taute

There's some scary stuff in the scrapbooking aisle—cutesy papers, flowered borders and tacky stickers galore. But designer Jessica Helfand looks beyond the contemporary readymade to discover the art form's purer roots in her upcoming book Scrapbooks: An American History. It explores why we're compelled to document our lives and peers inside decades-old scrapbooks—before all the pre-made stuff—to find out what they tell us about history. There's even a peek into a scrapbook the poet Anne Sexton created to capture memories of the year after she eloped.

by Michelle Taute

It's hard not to have a design crush on Marian Bantjes, and her latest poster merely fans the flames. Instead of ink, she relies on laser cutting to create an intricate pattern from a white sheet of paper: Think antique lace crossed with hand-drawn calligraphy. This see-through design reads "Design Ignites Change," and much like a chameleon, it adopts characteristics from its environment. A lucky few can buy their own from the Academy for Educational Development for $55, with proceeds benefiting Kenyan children who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

by Michelle Taute