Finding cuteness in unexpected places is always a delight. When that cuteness is found on the walls of a Zambian preschool, even better! Hop on over to Tokyo Bunnie and read the story of Brazilian illustrator Zeh Palito who brought his adorably vibrant kawaii-style friends to the Kwacha House Preschool in Zambia, Africa. I was also surprised and delighted to discover these bizarre and fantastic drawings on the side of a box of Oat Heads oatmeal. Twitter bird Japan-based British designer Simon Oxley took the normally bland package design of bland breakfast cereal and turned it into a wonderland of crazy creatures, happy spoons and aliens blasting off into space. This kind of magical stuff happens when the business folks let designers actually design.
Strolling the aisles of Target a month or so ago, I came across this awesomely adorable Bingo game, adorned with happy dinosaurs in love and sweet little frogs in a naive style. The colors and drawings are so great, I’m gonna need to find an excuse to play bingo. I wish I knew who designed this so I could give the artist full credit — anybody know?
Archive for February, 2011
Kawaii Report
Posted: Thursday, February 24th, 2011Guts @ Museum
Posted: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Recent adventures in our new town included a visit to the National Museum of American History (can we propose to drop the words “National Museum” from all museums here? I’m not trying to be un-American, I’m just sayin’ it gets redundant after a while. National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of Health and Medicine, National Museum of the American Indian, etc., it takes three whole words to hop over and see what museum it is and I am lazy. But I digress.). Of interest to our guts — the stomach was particularly fascinated with Julia Child’s kitchen, which was moved from Cambridge, Mass., and set up here in D.C., with every pot, pan and knife lovingly hung and restored. It is awesome. The uterus enjoyed an exhibit on the birth control pill (which turned 50 last year), which included lift-and-look windows to quiz visitors on their knowledge of the menstrual cycle, hormones, ovulation and so on (see above for “How does the pill affect the pituitary gland?”).
Brick Ticker
Posted: Friday, February 18th, 2011Heart by artist Nathan Sawaya. Photo courtesy of www.brickartist.com.
Kidney Cross Section by Medical Illustrator Maya Shoemaker.
Wow, this anatomically correct Lego heart by Nathan Sawaya is so heart-wrenchingly real, you almost expect it start thumping away. Almost, except with detail like that, you know it’s gotta be huge. In the same vein, a medical illustrator named Maya Shoemaker made and notated this fantastic Lego kidney. Searches for Lego lungs, Lego liver and Lego uterus turned up nothing — anyone up to the challenge?
Block Head
Posted: Friday, February 18th, 2011
Artist and fellow anatomy nerd Jason Freeny has taken time out designing the inner workings of Hello Kitty, Ugly Dolls and others to create what may very well be his vinyl masterwork — a Rubik’s Cube sculpted to look like a small square brain. Take a fascinating look at how he made this brain here. You’ll need plenty of neurons to solve it, too.
Rock the Body
Posted: Monday, February 14th, 2011
Last weekend our heart led us to “Exploring the Heart: A Valentine’s Day Program” at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington DC, and boy did we have fun! It was a nerd paradise as the museum’s super-wonderful and super-bright staff did everything from dissect ostrich hearts (see below, man that thing is BIG, look at the purple gloved hand to see what a monster — it looked like a beef heart) to describe the way fetus hearts grow using 3D computer models. We also got down and dirty with glue sticks and construction paper to make anatomically correct valentine’s (see my son hard at work, below). One stamp was made out of an actual animal heart — the kind of animal shall remain nameless to protect the donor) — giving the stamp a pretty raw, carnal, punk-rock edge (below right). We also had fun just checking out the museum’s regular collection of awesomely gross and fascinating body parts!
Liver’s the Winner!
Posted: Thursday, February 10th, 2011
Thanks to everyone who entered our Valentine’s Day contest, it was super difficult to choose among the many thoughtful and hilarious entries, but in the end we went with Michael Parmley’s suggestion to replace the heart with the liver as the official organ for Valentine’s Day. This West Virginia medical student made the great point that the liver is the organ of unconditional love seeing as it gives all its energy to the body. You can read the rest of his reply here. He also once had open-heart surgery the day after Valentine’s Day many moons ago to replace a faulty valve, though he jokes it was to fix his broken heart. Congrats, Michael, and thank you to everyone else who participated! Okay, gotta go get this box of guts ready to ship.
I Spleen You!
Posted: Friday, February 4th, 2011
Anybody out there tired of the heart as Valentine’s Day’s official mascot? Ever wonder why not the brain or pancreas? Tell us what organ should replace the tired ol’ heart for Valentine’s Day and why and the best answer wins a fun box of gutsy treats! Post your reply here or on the I Heart Guts Facebook page by Feb 9th!
Paper Brains
Posted: Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Super beautiful pink paper brain illustration by Jordan Gray, done while he worked at Design Ranch for an article on obesity and the brain for Kansas University Medical Journal. Looks like Jordan had a good time folding those neural folds. {Thanks, Chuva!}































