*** From the Archives ***

This article is from May 11, 2011, and is no longer current.

The Lust List: Goods to Get You Going

Every November or December, CreativePro.com publishes a gift guide. But with so many noteworthy products coming out all the time, it seems a shame to limit coverage of “I don’t need it but I want it” items to once a year. Welcome to our first seasonal “Lust List”.
Satisfy Camera Cravings
Spring and summer are splendid times to head outdoors and capture nature’s glory. If you want something a bit more unusual than your standard (albeit beautiful) photos of tulip fields and robin’s nests, we’ve got the goods.
There’s renewed interest in old-fashioned photographic techniques, most likely as a backlash to our technocentric culture. Pinhole photography is undergoing a revival. These simple cameras—basically, a box with a tiny aperture (pinhole) that replaces the lens—produce photos that are less sharp than their lensed counterparts, resulting in a dreamy, old-fashioned look.


Because exposures can take hours or even days, long summer days are perfect for pinhole photography. Here are two make-it-yourself pinhole cameras: the Pin-hole Solargraphy Camera ($10) and the Pinhole Art DIY Camera ($50).


You can also get the pinhole effect by attaching one of these specialized lenses to your DSLR: the Pinwide ($40) for Micro 4/3 cameras and the SLR Pinhole Lens for Canon or Nikon cameras ($50 each). (Is it just me, or does it seem a bit counter-intuitive to add a lens that mimics a lensless camera to a camera with a lens?)

For more adventure, do as pioneering photographers did and carry your darkroom with you wherever you go. The Stenoflex Darkroom in a Box ($50) is a black box that serves as both a pinhole camera and a darkroom for developing your pinhole film.

You’ll look like Ansel Adams or Edward Weston if you carry the wood expedition tripod ($290) with you.

For a full-size, collapsible tripod, Tamrac TR406 ZipShot Compact, Ultra-Light Tripod ($49.95) may be a welcome portable alternative to tripods that are wrapped on banisters or screwed into bottle tops.


Many people don’t even use cameras anymore, opting instead to snap with their smart phones. Make your iPhone look like a camera by slapping on an Instant Camera iPhone Decal ($6) or slipping it into a Retro Camera iPhone Case ($20).


You can wear your passion for photography on your sleeve—well, wrist—with these two bracelets. Australian Craig Arnold takes discarded camera lenses and fashions them into modern bangles ($226-$277). A silicone bracelet designed to look like a focusing ring ($10) is a less expensive alternative.
Quench Your Passion for Print


With birthdays, graduations, and weddings, the next few months may find you searching for the right giftwrap. Instead of several rolls of paper for different occasions, keep Wordless Wrap on hand. Based on familiar word-search games, this all-purpose giftwrap includes phrases for 20 occasions hidden among a seemingly random display of letters. All you need to do is find the appropriate phrase and circle it. Top it off with a gift bow repurposed from old paperback books ($6 for 10).

If you enjoy doing word puzzles, you may also like a Crossword Puzzle Tote Bag from the National Museum of Singapore ($50 Singapore which is approximately $41 US). It presents an extra challenge because all the words relate to museum galleries.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York offers a shopping tote that’s dripping with color ($22). Jot down your shopping list in a matching notebook ($3.95).


Those paint-drip journals would be a good place to write down drink recipes you concoct in an ingenious and hilarious Graffiti Cocktail Shaker ($20). Serve non-drinkers in the Easy Pitcher ($30) that’s made in Turkey as a MOMA-exclusive limited edition.

Ink-on-paper people will get a kick out of a CMYK Color Bar Mighty Wallet ($15). Because the wallet interior includes an RGB diagram, both additive and subtractive colors are represented. Perhaps that’s a subtle message about what happens to your money.


These graphic design buttons ($4 for 4) would be a fun way to divide players into teams at an office picnic. Wonder who’d win in a tug-of-war between the RGBs and the CMYKs? For party favors, give designers buttons made from old magazines ($4 for 4). Created by the AIGA Baltimore chapter, the buttons are designed to look harmonious when worn together or fabulous when worn singly.

With summer weather coming, watches that lie heavy on the wrist seem at odds with tank tops and flip flops. Switch to a lightweight paper watch ($14). The digital timepiece is encased in tear-resistant paper that’s deliberately left blank so you can draw or scrawl on it any way you want. Take that, Swatch!
Indulge a Hankering for Home Goods


As an organized office is my personal bugaboo, I’m always searching for items so appealing that they’ll make me want to keep things tidy. These cable ties shaped like leaves do the trick. MOMA carries them in green ($8 for 7). The designer Tsunho Wang’s website has other colors, such as olive green and espresso ($7 for 12).


In a similar vein, I’m also loving these leaf-shaped sticky notes ($19). Recently added to the collection are notes shaped like gingko leaves ($19).


But remember that while tying down cables and writing notes is important to your work, those tasks can get in the way of play. Hang one or both of these letterpress prints in the office as a reminder to stop and smell the roses—or compost: a WPA-inspired poster encouraging urban gardening ($25) and a delicate print calling on you to Pull your Weeds, Plant Good Seeds ($45).
Enjoy the season!
 

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