I.D. magazine presents the results of the 2006 Annual Design Review.

Low prices meet high design, or blatant Wal-Mart ripoff? I've always had a love affair with Sebastian Wong's Spun floor lamp produced by Flos and sold thru Design Within Reach, but at $1400 it's never moved past being a schoolboy crush. Now it appears that Wal-Mart has blatantly ripped off Mr. Wong and put out their own version of the Spun floor lamp for (drumroll, please)...$70 bucks. I've never considered buying anything from Wal-Mart before, and I certainly disagree with ripping off other designs, but at a paltry $70 I am beginning to understand how people can be seduced by the values offered at by the world's largest, and arguably most evil retailer.

LA Robots, mark your calendar for August 16th when Droid Behavior presents a performance by legendary Electro pioneer Alexander Robotnick. More details to come soon.

This Saturday. Downtown LA.

A group of designers (National Design Award finalists and winners) recently declined to be honored at a White House breakfast:

We understand that politics often involves high rhetoric and the shading of language for political ends. However it is our belief that the current administration of George W. Bush has used the mass communication of words and images in ways that have seriously harmed the political discourse in America. We therefore feel it would be inconsistent with those values previously stated to accept an award celebrating language and communication, from a representative of an administration that has engaged in a prolonged assault on meaning.