Image retoucher Steve Bland (a.k.a The Great Blandini) and Interbrand Australia got together to create this attractive and informative brochure, showcasing Bland’s mad photoshop manipulation skillz. The whole booklet is hand drawn in ink, including the text and includes ten tricks as well some advanced level wizardry in the form of the sawn in half woman and Lion face man. Printed on recycled card and stitched on a sewing machine, this is an incredible piece if design. More at CR blog.

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Good enough to eat (Don’t, it’s a book), Victionary publishers based in Hong Kong have created this book, Eat Me: Appetite for Design, focusing on restaurant, food and product design. The content itself is superb; innovative products, cleverly constructed brand identities with the book itself available in chocolate or vanilla wafer form, bite included.

Everything about this has been lovingly put together from typeface to photography. Amazon sells it Stateside. Via CR.

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A little more Japan house envy for a Friday afternoon. This incredible open plan building, all bamboo, wood and sheet upon sheet of glass, is a reminder that great design can make you happy.

We’d be even happier if we actually lived there but sadly wishing does not make it so. “The space was considered first in terms of the light from the outside, the flow of air, and the planning of art. Each level, having four clear seasons with different light and feelings.” More at Knstrct.

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We were tempted to fill this post with loosely related Velvet Underground references. But then we realised that’d be as silly as waiting for the man on a sunday morning and then run, run, running to all tomorrow’s parties in a coat borrowed from a femme fatale. So, yeah, we decided against making any Velvet Underground references in this post. (Someday)

Design studio culdesac have created what they call a ‘paint evolution’ and what we call some very nice paint brushes. Made for paint company Valentine, they’re the sort of brushes we wished we had when we were badly painting our houses. (Designboom)

Architect Ryue Nishizawa recently completed this building in Tokyo. Built to fit in between two tall buildings, it’s invisible from the main road by ingenious use of plants and vases, making it look like an (extremely fancy) garden instead of a house. It’s the sort of thing we’d build if we had the space. Or the money. (Domus)

Take a leap to see more images.

‘Hidden Heroes’ is the ongoing exhibition at the London Science museum that celebrates the everyday design objects that we overlook.

More furniture here. Crap=Good lets us know about the Loop Stand collection, a range designed by Leif Jorgensen for Hay. The collection is a coffee table, dining table, high table and a wardrobe stand available in three heights. And, most importantly, it looks really nice.

Made by Haiko Cornelissen Archtecten, this PicNYC table is designed for the urban farmer in you. Or maybe it’ll inspire the urban farmer in you, it’d be hard to ignore it with grass on your table. The grass is meant to offer the experience of picnicking inside, and you’ll have to do upkeep on the grass  – which will be fun depending on how green your fingers are. (Architizer)

Designboom lets us know about this interactive lighting project by Vancouver based group tangible interaction. Made from 94 laser cut Tyvek jellies that’s hand cut by origami Joseph Wu, it’s installed at the Vancouver aquarium. Obviously if you’re in town, you should give it a visit. If not, take a leap to see more.