We’ve mentioned scrubbles's Syd Mead obsession before, but we're also fond of their campus cuties, plastic dolls that evoke a certain era (with, strangely, no real indication of their scale. Life-size? Palm-size?). More glamour, this time with former model Jennifer O'Neill. We'll admit to nothaving heard of her either, but her gallery has a nice selection of magazine covers and ads from times past (see I, II, III). Steven Heller's book Counter Culture evokes a similar period feel. We've often pondered whether there's a whole aesthetic ably conjured up by the words 'blurry photos of small plastic toys.'

To explain. There's something simultaneously edgy and strangely beautiful about this style. Some websites (notably Harrumph) manage to capture it beautifully, while commercial agencies produce whole volumes dedicated to glossy layouts composed of toys, the focus alternating between hard and soft, the colours vivid, the details alive. These pictures frequently turn up in company reports and on the business pages. Doug Coupland's Spike project takes the aesthetic as one of it's starting points, using the device of scale (again, scale?) to perhaps ponder why we're so fond of pseudo-juvenile imagery to convey adult points.

Photojunkie is launching the Photobloggies on Monday. We'll steer clear, I think, after our last foray into website rankings (at Photoblogs, now improved to the extent that we can see we have four votes. Four!). The excellent Popculturejunkmail (who pointed out to us that we're not alone in gathering some stray 'poseuers' from the Enetation system) shows us the way to the Foreign Groceries Museum. After several weeks of exposure to foodstuffs created by this sinister corporation, especially this wholly repellent concoction, these look eminently edible.

Elsewhere. Assemble your own VW beetle from these slightly grainy workshop manual scans. The haddock-derived Pepys Diary project has garnered a lot of impressed comment since it launched at the start of the year. We'll still link, because it's a wonderful idea, beautifully realised. posted by things at 15:02 / 0 comments