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Today, 11.21.09 (1)
Partly Sunny (2)
Our Design Decade (2)
FLAP Bag (6)
Paul Schuitema Collection (1)

OBSERVED

The George W. Bush Presidential Library by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Says Laura Bush: "We're very aware that the presidents are men. They are people. We wanted it to be human in scale." [MB]

Today, thanks to the nonprofit Publicolor, which brightens New York City public schools with coats of paint, Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia is painting the walls of Albert Einstein Intermediate School in the Bronx, having lost a World Series wager with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. [JL]

Jeanne-Claude, who with her husband Christo’ created memorable installations around the world including The Gates (2005), dies at 74. "We will do only what we want, how we want, where we want...but you know, not always when we want." [MB]

A new blog visual theme, Basic Math, has been launched for WordPress. It's designed and developed by Khoi Vinh (of Subtraction) with Allan Cole (of fthrwght). For sale here for $45. We bought our copy today for a new Winterhouse travel blog, so we are clearly fans. [WD]

No kidding, it's World Toilet Day. (Thanks to Cameron Sinclair.) [JL]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Baltimore, SF, Helsinki, NYC, Barcelona, Blacksburg, Chicago, Savannah and Philadelphia. Companies hiring include Maryland College of Art, Wagic, Nokia, Smart Design, Steelcase Inc., Ziba, Modea, Shure Inc., Acer and Webb Scarlett deVlam. Post your job today. [JSC]

DesigNYC is a new pro-bono design resource with leading designers committing time and resources to a single project. November 30 is deadline for non-profits to apply, according to Architect's Newspaper. [WD]

Early Christmas Shopping Alert: Pop-Up Flea Market this weekend in New York City, with vintage objects by designer/collector extraordinaire JP Williams, and others. [JH]

The Social Impact Business Plan Competition "identifies social sector scaling initiatives with demonstrated impact and readiness to grow and supports them with up to $100,000 of financial and consulting awards." Open to U.S.-based nonprofit organizations with a focus in education, youth development, health, poverty alleviation or community economic development. Go here for more information. [JL]

IMM Cologne releases its annual book of international interior design trends, as judged by Marcus Fairs, Johanna Grawunder, Cecilie Manz, Bertjan Pot and Giulio Ridolfo. [JL]

Courtship lego-style, a love story. (Thanks to Drew Davies.) [DM]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Columbus, NYC, Charlotte, Chicago, Sarasota, SF, Shanghai, Chicago and Seoul. Companies hiring include Microsoft, 3M, Miles Media, Abercrombie & Fitch, Kohler Co., Hongik University, Erwin-Penland, YFY Jupiter and Shecky's Media. Post your job today. [JSC]

Global materials consultancy Material ConneXion opens “Bits ‘n Pieces," “an interactive traveling exhibition exploring the rapidly advancing technologies and new materials transforming the world of design.” Curators: byAMT Studio, UNFOLD, Lucas Maassen and Studio Jan Habraken. In New York through December 4, 2009. [JL]

If you missed Halloween: vintage Halloween spookiness! (Thanks to Victoria Brown.) [JH]

Former House and Garden editor-in-chief Dominique Browning goes greener, starts writing monthly column for the Environmental Defense Fund. [JL]

A new website, Sight Unseen, unveils the creative processes (and über-cool studios) of designers and artists. [JL]

Font nerdiness, and then some! [JH]

Happy 103rd birthday, Eva Zeisel. [MB]

Gunther Kilsheimer, designer of the Toys R Us logo, dies at 86. (Thanks to Craig Welsh.) [MB]

David Lloyd, writer of the most perfect 30 minutes of situation comedy in the history of television, dies at 75. [MB]

"A lot of people hear the word design and think 'expensive' and 'fancy.' But that's not actually what it's about. It's about a capacity to shape the world." Bruce Mau returns to his home town to help its citizens imagine Sudbury. See also: Glimmer. [MB]

Josh Harris, the experimental film artist and creator of pseudo.com, is the subject of the new documentary We Live in Public, that opens today. [JSC]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Minneapolis, SF, Shanghai, Chicago, NYC, Savannah, Bangkok, Berkeley and LA. Companies hiring include IDEO, Worrell, Stella & Dot, Emmis Interactive, Grace, Quirky Inc., Fluid, Idle Games and Savannah College of Art and Design. Post your job today. [JSC]

GreenBlue, a nonprofit that works at improving the environmental practices of corporations and whose efforts include the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and CleanGredients (greener cleaning products) has acquired Metafore, an organization dedicated to sustainable forestry practices and “environmentally preferable” wood and paper products. [JL]

Nabokov mania continues! For the posthumous publication of Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished novel The Original of Laura, the 92nd Street Y hosts an evening with writer Martin Amis, biographer Brian Boyd, and book designer Chip Kidd. A dozen of Nabokov's handwritten 138 notecards — which are the centerpiece of Kidd's design — will be on display for one night only, this Monday, November 16th. Wow. [MB]

Beautifully designed barcodes from — where else? — Japan! (Thanks to Clement Mok.) [JH]

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