Let us explain ourselves a bit here. We just brought out a 1986 Mac in our office the other day, sort as a fun reminder of time's past, also as an Oregon Trail time-wasting activity. So when we saw Chris McVeigh's original Apple Macintosh, the 29-year old version, created out of LEGOs, we felt a bit on the same page with Mr McVeigh.

It may hurt your feet, but the design and formation is incredible. The collective, We Make Carpets, consisting of Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg, "mix traditional skills and a critical view of the consumer society in unusual carpets." In this instance, they made a carpet out of plastic green and gold toy soldiers, in conjunction with Dutch Design Week 2010.

As part of a book from Rizzoli, Shortology is a graphic collection of 101 mini-stories for "those who have no time to lose." Aka, using almost restroom iconography, creative studio H-57 has created this simple graphics to explain complex cultural icons and films. Did you know it only takes two graphics to explain Lord of the Rings? And only 20 seconds to explain the Beatles? It is, in fact, that easy.

These gorgeously ornate letterforms were designed in the mid-1600s by the Polish goldsmith, Jan Christian Bierpfaff in the 1600's. He apprenticed with the Mackensen family of metalworkers in Cracow who introduced the Dutch auricular style of ornament into the Polish gold and silver workshops.

A nice little design from Italian studio, DoKC Lab, the Game Over Chair takes the look of the iconic Space Invaders game and makes it a household item. The best part? The interlocking design means no screws, no nails, no hassle, no swearing, no frustration.

Andy Ralph is a San Diego-based artist that also sings in the band Writer. We first encountered his lawn chair sculptures in the Musuem of Contemporary Art, San Diego at their La Jolla location. In the gallery space that overlooks the surrounding reefs, coves, and beaches, these lawn chairs seemed perfectly placed in the grotesquely affluent and perfectly scenic coast side of La Jolla.

This is how we like to kick off the year, with a series of Out of Place objects constructed by a very clever Robert Rickhoff. Playground slides that lead you to oncoming traffic, volleyball courts on the autobahn, skate ramp crosswalks, all situations that are going to lead you to some sort of disaster. Rickhoff is based in Germany, and works as an allaround creative.

Terrence Payne’s archetypal oil pastel portraits combine narrative elements, refined organic forms, along with delicate and bold lines to suggest movement and evolution in his subject’s character. The earnest beauty ensuing from the clumsy actions of his subjects as they stumble through life in pursuit of their ideal existence inspire him. Whether or not they ever reach their prescribed potential is irrelevant to Terrence, it is the fleeting and universal experiences that happen...

"Although seemingly these masks tell stories, this again started out as a material experiment. I wanted to find out if by stitching a rope together I could make a large flat carpet. Instead of flat, the samples got curvy. When I was about to give up on the carpet, Vladi came up with the idea of ??shaping the rope into masks. The possibilities are endless, I’m meeting new faces every day."

The Ace Hotel in NYC just opened a great exhibition, Fifty and Fifty State Mottos Project, where 50 talented graphic artists and illustrators reimagine their home state mottos. The Fifty and Fifty State Mottos Project, curated by Dan Cassaro takes fifty designers, one per state, have illustrated their state motto, creating something steeped in history yet modern and unique — a kind of designer's atlas. Now, do you know the state capitals?