Hasta La Ideas

The free-spirited photography, fashion and graphic design group Vicolo Paglia Corta’s amusing jewelry, comprised of computer parts and Lego pieces, has been slowly gaining notoriety.

The accessories speak to the motto of the Bologna-based studio—a quote from famed Italian designer Bruno Munari, “da cosa nasce cosa”—from something is born something.

The inventive Lego assemblages make for desirably colorful rings, brooches and necklaces that span Lomo-inspired cameras, hearts with windows, protruding flowers and aquatic creatures.

For a personalized look, Vicolo Paglia Corta’s Spille Personalizzate pieces together letters from a Mac keyboard to spell out a favorite idea or name in the form of a brooch. They accept requests but ask that customers keep in mind aesthetic, ethics and a five-letter limit.

Many of these items are available from Far Fetch and Wok, where prices vary but generally range from €25-45. Cameras and keyboard rings sell on Farfetch. See the website for more conceptual pieces, like their vampires or circuit board brooches.

See more images of their eccentric jewelry after the jump.

Matthew Carter‘s plummy Yale typeface continues its serifed march through New Haven. It’s latest convert? The distinctive Yale University Press logo, designed in 1985 by Paul Rand. As reported yesterday by The Yale Daily News and noted by Armin Vit on Brand New, the Yale University Press has begun phasing out the distinctive Rand logo in favor of a straight-up “Yale” (in the Yale typeface). It’s reportedly an effort to unite the university and the press, which were once separate entities. If the goal is truly one of institutional harmony, Chris Rubino has devised an even better solution with the design compromise pictured at right. “I was disappointed to see the old Paul Rand logo replaced with the innocuous Yale logo,” the designer tells us. “So I decided to Frankenstein them together to give a little nod to history. I hate seeing these things vanish.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tom Anjello of Poke New York (check out their live agency webcam here) raised an intriguing idea here at Click New York: that commenting online has become a competitive activity

So you know how people will comment ferociously on YouTube, then end up arguing with one another over whether or not Coldplay sucks, that activity is increasingly becoming competitive. People go on YouTube spoiling for a fight, looking to emerge victorious over their fellow commenters. Commenting has become a game and people are playing to win.

Look at how people delight in being the first to post a comment on, say, a newspaper story online. And now that papers like The Guardian provide data on commenters such as how many posts they’ve made or how many of their comments have been recommended, we can all compare one to the other and soon find the identity of the most prolific – the champion commenters.

Likewise, people have begun to talk about “winning” Facebook. Getting more friends than anyone else. I know that even here, at CR, there’s some healthy competition over whose stories get the most comments here on the blog.

So the whole aspect of social media is becoming competitive – something that is being exploited by Tengaged, an online game based on Big Brother: “Tengaged allows you to play a less invasive version of Big Brother with other people online. Each game involves ten people and lasts seven days, each day one member of the group getting voted off starting from day 2. People are nominated for eviction based on the comments that they submit to the group and their amount of activity participating in the game on a regular basis.”

Expect savvy brands to start exploiting this soon too – in a way, Crispin already touched on it with Whopper Sacrifice.

Anjello also made the point that one of the few constants in digital work right now is a gaming aspect, however that plays out. Some kind of game or competition holds a fundamental appeal to us as humans. He pointed out that some things work as games even though we may not have thought of them as such eg Weight Watchers. Anjello pointed out that Weight Watchers actually shares many of the characteristics of role playing games – transformation (in this case into a thinner version of yourself); winning points; specialist tools and competition between participants.

So losing weight, instead of being a daily grind, becomes a series of small, intriguing challenges.