Today we’re learning about Banksy-style marketing, honoring baseball greats, and how just about anything can have a QR code.

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Take a break and go on a quick interactive adventure. (via Quipsologies)

Immortalizing baseball’s greats.

The New Zealand Police Department’s unique Banksy-style marketing efforts.

Track the evolution of famous logos (future incarnations included!).

The inspiration behind Fast Company’s four United States of Design covers.

Exchanging phone numbers too complicated? Just scan your new friend’s QR Code.

The artist behind the Starbucks logo.

Image: Scanz bracelets. A smartphone user can scan a person’s QR code to learn select personal information about them. Image from The New York Times.

We’ve spent this sunny week brushing up on our Heavy Metals, checking out Ferrari designs, and tweeting doodles.

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How would you redesign the Ferrari?

Noma Bar’s minimalist negative space portraits capture the personality of famous figures from Einstein to Shakespeare to Kim Jong-Il.

Chemistry class would have been way cooler if we’d studied the Periodic Table of Heavy Metals.

A great collection of the artwork of record centers labels that definitely deserve to be the Center of Attention.

Tired of trying to express yourself in 140 characters? Try doodling instead.

Keep those Parmesan pencils sharp.

The London Olympic medals are revealed.

Image: Noma Bar’s Albert Einstein portrait for The Economist (via Brain Pickings).

Heading into the long weekend, we’re getting a glimpse of the weird world of circus art, enjoying celebrities’ personal letterheads, and learning about creating campaign logos. Happy 4th of July!

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Designing campaign logos is more than just writing candidates’ names in red, white, and blue.

The dying art of sideshow banners.

Creating good pictures is about to get easier with this new technology that lets you focus images after you’ve taken them.

A great collection of letterheads, from Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural design to Ozzy Osbourne’s surprisingly tame one.

From a redesigned boom box to a purifying water bottle, check out the clever designs of the 2011 IDEA Awards winners.

Image: Johnny Meah’s “Human Blockhead” banner at the Meadowlands State Fair (photo: Phil Patton) via AIGA

This week we learned how to print synthetic money, how horrific most detergents are on clothes, and the history of the Oreo.

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Rob Zombie shows us the horrors of harsh detergents.

Canada rolls out poylmer banknotes. (Not sure what the heck that is? Check out this infographic of the “painstaking and high-tech affair” that is printing synthetic money.)

We’re loving the retro feel of these posters and the way they capture the personalities of the players and their teams. Goooooooooal!

No need to create your own drinking game for Checkers, this new board’s one step ahead of you.

Why Oreo might be connected to the Knights Templar and how it beats Hydrox — it’s all in the emboss.

A new generation of artists growing up with Sister Corita Kent, the silkscreening activist nun. 

Image: Sucker for Soccer, by Zoran Lucic.

Movie tie-in book covers that break the mold, parkour classes, off-beat industrial design, and the other news we’ve been enjoying this week.

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Dominic Wilcox’s industrial designs may not be all that practical, but they sure make you look at everyday objects in a new way. Also: they’re hilarious. (Be sure to scroll down to the sketches.)

Penguin’s new edition of Little Red Riding Hood gets a perfectly sinister typographic cover design.

Just try to tell us watching this doesn’t make you want to take up parkour. Impossible.

Creative Review polled designers for their favorite logos. Did your favorites make anyone’s list?

Sick of all the Royal Wedding hullabaloo? Lydia Leith has you covered.

Beyonce joins the fight against childhood obesity. Now that’s what we call a lunch break.

Image: ‘Throne Up’ sick bags from Lydia Leith.

Spoofing ad agencies, infographics overload, close-ups of famous paintings, and the other stories that caught our eye this week.

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Portlandia visits Wieden + Kennedy.

Pepsi creates a 100% plant-based soda bottle.

Wheat fields look pretty crazy from space.

Are we getting carried away with infographics that don’t really tell us anything?

Shigeru Ban Architects is providing low-cost, easy-to-assemble partition systems to emergency shelters in Japan.

Try looking at a painting from the painter’s perspective.

This week we’ve been impressed with beautiful typography that’s selling shoes, a minimalist album cover design that’s winning Grammys, and a Monster Supplies shop that’s encouraging kids to write imaginatively.

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These typographic videos really capture the experience of learning a new language in a foreign country.

Louboutin created a pretty fabulous window display, eliciting longing glances at the beautiful typography. Oh, and probably the shoes, too. 

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies isn’t just full of fun products with clever messaging, but it’s also the site of kids’ writing center — the magical-sounding Ministry of Stories.

Banksy’s getting ready for the Oscars with two new walls in LA.

Grammy-winner Michael Carney on his graffiti education, font design, and the value of great album covers (additional album pics here).

Google Streetview has captured some pretty wild images. 

“Great design has to be holistic, it has to be human, it has to speak to us.” - Pattie Moore.

This week we’ve got cool gift ideas, Santa’s Brand Book, Emotional Spell Check, and more. Happy Holidays!

If a tattoo’s too permanent for you, how about getting one on paper?

From ceiling height to wall color, the many ways design can affect your mood.

Ever wonder how Santa manages to uphold his brand image year after year? He follows the brand guidelines, of course.

Emotional Spell Check would probably come in handy from time to time.

Starbucks coffee sleeves make pretty good canvases.

We’d probably be even worse at solving this Rubik’s Cube than the regular one, but what a cool idea!

A great holiday gift: these new Fiskars scissors do just about everything.

Image: Tattoo art by Jacob Dahlstrup

This week we pondered the typographic tattoos we could get, learned about how the Empire State Building was built, and enjoyed a billboard with a unique message.

Seattle’s Lead Pencil Studio created a billboard (above) on the US-Canada border that advertises nothing but clean air.

Clearly this is how you show that you really love typography. 

Redesigning cookware for a new generation.

Did you know it only took about a year to build the Empire State Building?

These designers put the typographic “t” in T-shirt.

Photo: Lead Pencil Studio