Liquid Treat

Add a dose of reality to your cache of stock images with Citizen Stock, a new library of rights-managed photography that is free of suspiciously attractive professional models. Husband-and-wife team David Katzenstein and Sherrie Nickol, both commercial photographers, founded Citizen Stock to build a library of images of real people, from chefs and artists to skateboarders and grandpas. "We noticed through extensive research that there was a need for high caliber imagery that also had a more real-life sensibility," says Katzenstein, who has marshalled people of all shapes, sizes, and colors into his Manhattan photo studio and posed them against a pure white background. "Our favorite images usually have a great story connected to them," he adds. "In general, the people we photograph are fascinating, and our goal is to bring out their true character."

Join us in counting down to the imminent launch of UCODO, a site that will soon allow users to view, customize, and (of course) buy a variety of products -- all in a 3D environment. An initiative of U.K.-based design company Digital Forming, UCODO is an acronym of "User Co-Designed Objects" and among the objects on offer will be sunglasses, jewelry, pens, and lamps, all of which users will be able to modify (stretch, twist, emboss, assemble) with the move of a mouse. How much to tweak an object's form, color, and material is all up to the user. Designs can be saved in an online library or purchased on the spot for prices not usually associated with rapid prototyping technology. (We hear they'll start at around $25.) Creations will ship within two weeks. Join UCODO's mailing list to get first crack at this innovative design on demand platform.

If your time management skills could use some work, ditch the reminder apps and invest in Alessi's elegant analog solution: the Blank Wall Clock. Designed by Barcelona-born Martí Guixé, the circle of white aluminum is ripe for customization. Each clock includes a dry-erase marker (those who conquer Sunday crosswords in ink can substitute a Sharpie), allowing users to "write, draw, and erase it easily according to your perception of time and graphics," explains Guixé. Among his other recent creations for the Italian design juggernaut are fruit bowls-cum-message boards and a cubic sugar bowl -- sleek stuff that invites and facilitates interaction. Now that's an idea whose time has come.

Sick of flat type? Go deep with 3D Typography (Mark Batty Publisher), a new book compiled by Jeanette Abbink and Emily CM Anderson. There's no need for 3-D glasses when paging through this stimulating collection, which showcases the work of more than 100 international designers, typographers, and artists. The works trade pixels, screens, and paper for new materials including human skin, neon, and meticulously trimmed moss. "If you're anything like us, you may never look at letters in quite the same way—and may even be inspired to undertake a project of your own," say Abbink and Anderson. "As we learned, potential letterforms are everywhere, just waiting to be cut, carved, knitted, grown, spun, melted, molded, hammered, flown—and otherwise reclaimed."

About 10 years ago, Chris Sammartano (whose nom de paint brush is Eddie Breen) stumbled upon a "horrible" painting at a flea market. He bought it for a dollar, picked up some art supplies, and got to work transforming the staid church scene into his own vibrant vision. An hour or so later, he had created "Piggyback Art," an exuberantly surreal style that reimagines found works with layers of text, color, and offbeat graphic elements. "I take incomplete paintings and insert nuns, flying Jesuses, flame people, politicians, or death elephants and change the meaning of the compositions in ways to suit my visions, to co-opt the elements, and create my own worlds," explains Breen, who has used the Internet to build an enthusiastic following of collectors from Antarctica to Texas. "I'm the guy in school who would sit in the library and deface photos of fashion models and politicians in magazines. I'd black out their teeth, white out their eyes, and scribble in devil horns and beards," notes Breen. "I guess I'm still doing it."

Many decades from now, when the rapid pace of technological change has rendered all of our circa 2010 digital files unreadable and our grandchildren chuckle when we try to explain floppy disks, we'll still have flipbooks. The original motion pictures meet the YouTube age thanks to FlipClips, a Los Angeles-based company that creates custom flipbooks from digital videos. Simply upload six to 30 seconds of video footage (up to 25 MB worth) and choose from an array of size and design options. In a week or so, you'll be mesmerized by the sturdy pages of your own flipbook. At just $8.99 each, they're memorable alternatives to conventional greeting cards, invitations, or even business cards. Recipients will flip for their analog charm.