Things things things! The best things sent to us by good old fashioned post

The area around our desk has all but been taken over by all the great stuff everyone sends us. It’s been really tough picking out the best bits and pieces but the situation was fast becoming something of a health and safety hazard and imminent danger has a way of making everything much clearer. This month there’s everything from a card game to a photography magazine to a loo roll of design criticism (what?). Here’s Things!

Henry Thomas Lloyd: Hot Air

Chelsea grad Henry Thomas Lloyd has found a way to turn cliched design chat into a great trump card game. For Hot Air he asked an impressive roster of creatives (including It’s Nice That’s own Alistair Hanson) “What’s the most annoying phrase in the industry?” It’s all very tongue-in-cheek and you can wrack up points in Jargon, Insult, Time Wasted, Budget Impact and Annoyance whilst vying to out-bullshit your opponent. Nice work.
www.henrythomaslloyd.co.uk

Splash and Grab: Issue 2

Photography mag Splash & Grab is back with their second issue. Put together by photography and graphic design graduates Max, Sydney, Dan and Finbar, this nice little biannual champions young and emerging talent . There’s some really impressive and weighty stuff inside, like the series taken at an American juvenile detention centre and the one of gay Iranian refugees from which the amazing cover is taken.
www.splashandgrab.co.uk

Luke Drozd: Alternative Scouting for Girls & Boys Merit Badges

London-based illustrator Luke Drozd sent us these brilliant prankster scouting badges that range from mischievous to imprisonable. They’re a fun take on a nostalgia and Luke sounds like an upstanding guy. When I got in touch to say thank you he was quick to answer, “Please ensure they are given to people only after proving they have successfully completed the relevant task.” I can’t say I’ll be robbing any graves in the near future but we’ll hold on to them just in case.
www.lukedrozd.com

Nick Pearce: Carrier Typeface

Nick Pearce seems like a bit of a print freak so we already like him. We got a really nice bundle from his Riso printing studio Note Well Press in Norwich, including his typeface Carrier. He also sent a great series of red and blue postcards he has made with 14 illustrators and designers but it was Carrier that stood out; it’s clean and simple and it’s used for his fledgling studio’s very own identity.
www.notewellpress.co.uk

Kim Walker: Leftovers

Christmas is a long way off but Leftovers is Kim Walker’s little photo zine documenting the abandoned Christmas trees of London. His iPhone snaps of the forlorn and abandoned evergreens left scattered around the city were taken earlier this year between January and March and are Riso printed for a nice DIY effect. And to make it better he included a little piece of these Christmas trees with each copy.
www.walker.kim
www.theleftovers.co

Tor Weibull: Demolition Blues

Zurich-based designer and illustrator Tor Weibull sent in this linoleum printed poster for a concert which has a really nice vintage feel. It’s sort of brooding and although Tor is Swedish it makes me think of a 1930s German speakeasy straight out of Christopher Isherwood’s classic Goodbye to Berlin. Sold.
www.torweibull.tumblr.com

Jane Mai: Soft

This comic from New York comic artist Jane Mai is absolutely mad. It’s a teenage lesbian vampire romance set in Hong Kong as a wave of mysterious teenage deaths sweep the city. “Sweet, precious Laura who fears death,” reads the back cover. Jane’s off-kilter mix of sad girl humour is all her own and we’re loving it.
www.janemai.co

Merrick & Mackay: NV/AZ/CA

This jazzy T-Shirt from Merrick & Mackay illustrates a collection of people and things the creative duo Robert Hill and Andrew Baird saw on what looks like an incredible trip through Nevada, Arizona and California. There are buffalo and old men on Choppers on the back but the pièce de résistance is the Hulk Hogan lookalike over the breast. Nice.
www.merrickandmackay.co.uk

RM&CO: Eat Good Design Shit Bad Design

A roll of toilet paper professing design wisdom sends a slightly mixed message, but Pete Rossi did it anyway. It’s part of the art direction for the studio he runs with Alfio Mazzei between the UK and Switzerland, RM&CO and is sure to ruffle a few feathers.
www.rossimazzei.com

Sarah Nicholls: Prisms and Shamrocks

The word pamphleteer just rolls off the tongue. That’s what Sarah Nicholls calls herself, and her conspiratorial little pamphlet looks at the history of cryptography and secret communication. Prisms and Shamrocks is part of her bigger series Brain Washing From Phone Towers Informational Pamphlets. It’s cool and a little weird, but above all it’s just really well designed.
www.sarahnicholls.com