gift idea #5

in the style of good ol' siskel & ebert on their movie reviews, the Like & Dislike Stamps emphatically announce your thumbs up or thumbs down.  what started out as a rubber stamp to attack each others' paperwork at the Nation Studio became a hot item selling to people all over the world, "including one to the man himself, Mark Zuckerberg".

available at jailbreak toys for $12.99 a set.

i have to say however, that the old prototype (when the product was purely a studio joke) in the old fashioned rubber stamp with a wooden handle was much nicer.  the thumb was more digitized, not smoothened out.

it's actually a good and economical project to design your own rubber stamp with a funny, quirky message or image.

TJS

whoever is responsible for trader joe's graphics has a good eye for the retro, a whimsical sense of humor, and a simple, effective way to communicate the message.  i certainly find myself at times buying more for the graphics than the food themselves.

one day i saw a young woman carrying this tote walking across the street.  it struck me how fashionable she looked with this bag of grocery.  though i find the graphics nostalgic and quirky (a woman licking the plate, a guy pretending to pass a drink to the lady but actually grabbing her hand), i'm not a huge fan of this style of graphics.  what works for me is the shape of the bag, its utility, the color palette and the ease of pairing with my wardrobe.