Mixtape Coffee Table by Jeff Skierka (via Design Milk)

Until seeing Melvin The Travelling Mini Machine in action in this video, I had no idea what a Rube Goldberg machine was. According to Wikipedia, it’s a 

deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction

and this one is wonderfully enchanting. It’s the kind of contrivance that reaffirms my faith in human creativity.

These tiles, designed by Mut Design Studio + Atelier and designed by Entic Designs, depict a traditional Japanese fish pond as rain drops fall on the surface.  (via Design Boom)

It took photographer and dog lover, Martin Usborne, two years to assemble this collection of beautifully shot photographs of Dogs In Cars. There’s a lot of soul in these images, at least in part down to the naturally unpretentious, unselfconscious nature of the models. At the time of posting, you have 14 days to support Martin’s Kickstarter campaign and be one of the first to get your hands on the book.

I’m intensely jealous of the owners of this New Zealand holiday retreat by Crosson Clarke Carnachan architects. For me, it’s what all small living spaces should aspire to: beautiful to look at and beautifully functional to live in. While not everyone can have such a stunning location to wake up in every morning, I cannot understand why more city-based apartments don’t take cues from designs like this. Surely it is not much more expensive and difficult to build something to obviously pleasurable and functional? I suppose I’ll just have to keep dreaming on or build my own… (via Arch Daily)

Starwars: The Blueprints is a weighty (ie. fecking huge) book containing the most comprehensive collection of drawings and architectural plans that were used as the basis for the space ships, vehicles, robots, installations, space stations, planets, buildings and infrastructure from the Star Wars universe. (via Architizer)

Part of Belgian art festival, TRACK, in Ghent, Castle of Vooruit is a helium-filled balloon sculpure that references Magritte’s La Chateau Des Pyrenees, but featuring Ghent’s Vooruit art complex building (via Design Boom)

Trunk House in Victoria, Austrailia, by Paul Morgan Architects (via Design Milk)

These images are from a website called Pussies on Parade and I’m not writing any more for fear of incriminating myself.

Taiwanese airline, EVA Air, has taken the interesting decision to decorate three of their A330-300 Airbus aeroplanes with Hello Kitty graphics. Not only are the exteriors of the planes now frighteningly kawai*, the designers went raj on the insides, with Hello Kitty graphics plastering everything from baggage tags and head rest covers to the cabin crew’s uniform. (via Design Boom)

*Kawai is Japanese for cute. It’s apparently very easy to mispronounce and say the word for ‘scary’ instead, which could explain why the project got past the briefing stage.

The Brixton Pound is Britain’s first urban local currency and features notable cultural icons from the area. How long till you hear people asking you to lend them a Ziggy? (via Creative Review)

Employees at Rockwell International Corporations Space Division take a look at a 1:1 scale prototype model of the 1975 space shuttle (via Berg Blog)

The grainy noir aesthetic and dark, dark humour of Limbo, a game for Mac and XBox, will have you alternately laughing, crying and gaping in disbelief.

Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Hanagawa. Reimagined. With bunnies.

By husband and wife art studio, Koyndan. Available for purchase alongside other subversive Japanese themed art from kozyndan.com.

(by the way, in case you’re confused, the Kozyndan version is the one at the top. With the bunnies)

Tree coat stand by Katrin Petursdottir and Brit Michael Young for Swedish furniture brand, Swedese. Available to buy online at Huset.

It looks great, but it’ll set you back a handsome $855 (yes, really!) for the large floor standing model. Which is as opposed to the £30 or so it’ll cost you to get some MDF, borrow your mate’s jig saw and knock up your own copy.

I feel a wee project coming on…