David Choe, Mister Cartoon, and SA Studios have recently joined forces to create promotional artwork for Robert Rodriguez’ Machete, starring Danny Trejo. The art really grasps the intensity that is felt throughout the movie, and it’s easy to see that David Choe was a great choice for the job . A behind the scenes video was also released and it dives into the inspiration behind the project. You can check the video out here.

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A look at the neat head office and showroom for Cheap Monday by design and architecture firm Uglycute based in Stockholm, Sweden. Have a look here. Photographs by Mikael Olsson.

American designer and illustrator Mark Weaver has been a favorite of ours for some time, consistently churning out pieces that are always distinguishably brilliant. Whether you see his work in Rolling Stone, Wired or the New York Times, you instantly recognize his 70s-inspired designs. His newest limited edition series entitled North American Wildlife continues the tradition of stellar work, showcasing his talent in capturing the animals typically found mounted on the walls of Montana log cabins. Limited to 100 of each screen print, they are available on his online shop.

Buying well made and well packaged items should seemingly go well hand in hand even though men’s skincare products often miss the mark. Such is not the case however with Portland General Store’s old-fashioned shave soap formula which they describe as, “It is not a scent for every man – this is a powerfully masculine scent. Elegance, strength, and charisma describe the fragrance of this shaving soap . . . a deep woodsy and amber fragrance with a surprising hint of spice that reveals itself over the hours . . . notes include vetiver, labdanum, vanilla, woods and fruit.” While that all sounds nice and well,  we’re drawn to the the old-fashioned packaging that screams grandpa’s medicine cabinet. Available here.

This isn’t an announcement of Murakami’s interview in Interview Magazine so much as this is an announcement that the magazine has been putting together some terrific interviews as of late. Beyond pop culture icons like Murakami, N.E.R.D., Hiroshi Fujiwara and A.P.C.’s Jean Touitou, they manage to humanize Mike Tyson, and arrange for some colorful interviewers whether it be Tobey Maguire interviewing Kaws or Iggy Pop interviewing Shepard Fairey. Each interview is carefully crafted, creatively executed and well considered. Among the finer quotes delivered from Murakami, “I’m very sad to be compared with Warhol and The Factory, because I have no drugs, you know. We have no drug culture in Japan! Maybe it’s because our attitude toward labor is totally different.” Read this interview and others at Interview Magazine.

The myth behind the Twinkie is epic. One of the world’s most famous unhealthy eats, it has been around since the 30s when James Dewar came up with the recipe for a Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling snack for the Hostess brand. It’s been in Television, Films, and a part of American culture for years. It has now been completely deconstructed, ingredient by ingredient. Perhaps it’s because we love this type of minimalist photography, but photographer Dwight Eschliman takes his intriguing disassembling style to the Twinkie: showcasing the 37 or so ingredients that go into making that delicious snack from your childhood. The real question is, will you be eating any more Twinkies after seeing what goes in them? The Photographic Book is available to order here.

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San Francisco artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon is bringing us a daily dose of the simple becoming the sublime through her “A Collection A Day, 2010″ online art project.  Every day of this year, Congdon has and will post a picture, drawing, or painting of a collection.  The majority of the collections on display in the blog-style project are photographs of actual personal collections from her home and studio.  The rest, which are drawn or painted, are imagined.  While we do enjoy Congdon’s idiosyncratic illustrations, the photographs, presented with a real sense of devotion, are the definite hit here.  The unique history of collections of vintage crayons (picture above), Italian stamps, dice, or prayer cards, leaps from the page and brings an instant sense of wonder to the viewer.   Keep it bookmarked as Congdon stacks up more of the wistful and the treasured through December 31st.

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Few kicks have aged as well as Nike’s Air Max line. After almost 25 years, countless models accompanied by that signature cushioned heel have kept Air Max at the forefront of sneaker freakdom. Everyone has their favourite, be it Charles Barkley’s CB 34 or the infamous Air Stab, but most will agree that the O.G. model is second to none. Among those in accordance would be Matt Stevens. The Creative Director and Senior Designer at HAWSE has taken his affection to new, interesting heights with the Air Max 1-a-Day Gallery, an ongoing project featuring a daily reinterpretation of the Nike model. Each entry showcases both Stevens’ skills and the AM1′s endless potential for design opportunity and aesthetic appeal. The highlight is the ‘Tribute Series’ he put together as a shout-out to his “favorite and most personally inspiring designers, illustrators and thinkers.” Pictured above is his homage to The Small Stakes’ Jason Munn; more after the jump.

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If you’ve seen Paul McGuigan’s Gangster No. 1 you know of the ruthlessness and violence often associated with the British underworld. Even a pre-Madonna Guy Ritchie film does a decent job in capturing that gritty essence of the organized crime world of the UK. A world so vicious, yet where a strict code of conduct is imposed on all. Documentary photographer Jocelyn Bain Hogg’s first photographic book, The Firm, sheds a brilliantly intimate light on the real life of these criminals, to whom violence is a mere means to an end. First released a few years back, and after winning international acclaim and awards, the project is currently being revisited 10 years later. The images are enthralling, ruthless, aggressive and searing -leaving you unable to look away.

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Like all major sporting events, the 2010 FIFA World Cup is a media circus. Between egos, injuries and trophy wives, the scoreline isn’t the only thing grabbing the headlines. Also detracting our attention from the beautiful game: the uniforms. Internationally, soccer is both a lucrative and competitive industry, with the likes of Nike, Adidas and Puma vying for the monopoly. To put things in perspective, almost 30% of Nike’s total revenue in 2009 came out of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, where soccer culture is as big as baseball in the US. In 2008, Nike purchased Umbro, arguably the O.G. of soccer apparel; their sales have since increased over 200% to $174 million annually.

Unlike the NFL or NBA, where the entire league sticks to one shirt sponsor, FIFA is fair game. From Japan to Slovenia to Honduras, each soccer ‘kit’ is a who’s who of all the prominent sporting brands. Where some brands don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, like Adidas for Argentina, others are content to reinvent the wheel as they see it fit, like Nike for the USA. There are varying degrees of success – we’ve seen our share of stinkers – but here are a few that we feel deserve a shout out after the jump.

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Nike78 is a design project initiated by soon-to-be LCC graduate Paul Jenkins, who has given 78 pairs of Nike shoes out to designers and creatives internationally and asked them to “challenge the function of a pair of Nike shoes”. The results are now up in an online gallery. Among our favorites: Knitted trainers, one made from cake and the one above from Wieden + Kennedy TokyoLAB, which sees a Nike shoe reconfigured as a fish tank (see it in action after the jump).

“The project came about after the LCC was offered a selection of shoes by Nike that were leftover from its 1948 concept store, for a student to use in a project. Jenkins came up with the idea to use the shoes to encourage new design ideas. In devising the list of collaborators, he drew on the knowledge he attained while interning in Berlin as part of the LCC ‘year in industry’ that selected students on the BA Graphic and Media Design take part in. ‘Whilst I was interning in Berlin, my night job was sourcing creative talent worldwide,” says Jenkins. “I didn’t want Nike78 to be just another creative project with the same people and the same styles of work produced. Instead I invited people who from their style/work/projects I could see had a touch of conceptual excellence.”

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Oliver Spencer has been putting out some of the finest UK-made utilitarian clothing and desert boots for the past few seasons and it’s easy to fawn over each and every piece, like their Wayfaring Jacket, what’s really of interest is the illustrations on the Spencer site. For those who aren’t close to the first brick and mortar shop, which incidentally was in partnership with Odin, in New York or the second shop in London, the website is all you might have and what a website it is. Shop the men’s collection here.