Liquid Treat

Ah, the mighty ampersand. It's hard not to love such an elegant, shapely replacement for the letters a, n & d … & now you can rejoice with other diehard ampersand lovers at a blog, aptly titled The Ampersand, devoted entirely to the symbol. You'll find leads on fan gear, including an ampersand pin, T-shirt and bookends, & keep up with the mark's appearances in advertising, design & real life. It's a sort of typographically obsessed version of stalker paparazzi.

by Michelle Taute

Design annuals are great and all, but sometimes the work seems like a sea of sameness. To keep your eyes from glazing over, put down those magazines and head to the Center for Arabic Typography. You'll find design projects from the Middle East and North Africa that show off a distinctive visual language by unfamiliar talent. It's an irresistible peek into an active design community halfway around the world. One project, for instance, challenged Arab-Dutch design teams to create Arabic versions of Latin fonts.

by Michelle Taute

There's plenty of great work over at advertising archive Coloribus, but a recent print project creates a more immersive experience than most Flash websites. Leo Burnett Germany created round stickers for UNICEF that blend in with the ground, but since there's adhesive on top, they also stick to the bottoms of people's shoes. The message hits home when you bend down to remove the sticker—you'll find a picture of a landmine on the bottom and a reminder that in another country you might have just lost a limb.

by Michelle Taute

Break out the pin money. It's time to add some flair to your laptop bag or bulletin board and unmistakably brand yourself as a designer. Choose from a set of four CMYK buttons—with 100 percent of each shade—or opt for the type-centric set, with buttons that make proclamations in the style of a children's book. Just seeing "B like Bodoni" every day might make the deadlines go down easier. There's just one downside: These gems come from Europe, so you'll take a hit on the euro/dollar exchange rate.

by Michelle Taute

It's inevitable. You're going to procrastinate. So stop trying to change your bad habits and start maximizing the fun. At Great Moments in Procrastination, you'll find a video library filled with world-class ways to kill time. Learn how to "surf ball" in the office—just make sure your health insurance is up-to-date first—or consider rolling down a hill inside an inner tube. If you're less adventurous, there's a short tutorial on starting a rubber band ball. For additional time-investing with no possibility of payback, you can also upload your own tactics for avoiding work.

by Michelle Taute

Were you unceremoniously turned down by Real World at some point? Now your design skills may garner you a second shot at MTV reality-show fame: An open casting call for a new show called Engine Room will run until June 30. Sixteen lucky digital artists will head to New York to compete in teams of four. Rather than eating bugs or backstabbing their roommates, they'll create animations, websites, short films and sound mixes. There has to be a catch, right? No Macs allowed—this competition runs on HP.

by Michelle Taute