Sweet! The Tweet Towel Dries With 140 Custom Characters.

The other day I received a great little gift in the mail. A Tweet Towel from We Are What We Do, a global movement that inspires people to use their everyday behavior to affect big environmental and social issues.



The woven white dish towel had a personal embroidered Tweet to me from the folks at the London-based We Are What We Do, which showed through the clear window of the mailer:




When unboxed, I saw that the 42 X 60 cm absorbent white woven cotton towel had a diagonal hanging hook on reverse corner and embroidered detailing along with the personalized or custom "tweet".




I cannot deny it. It is hip, fun and functional. And a brilliant idea for marketing and branding a company or product. Not to mention that the proceeds from the affordable and clever gift go to fund a worthy cause.



The idea came from mashing up traditional crafts and digital communication. For those less tech-savvy, a "tweet" is a 140 character message that you can send via the website Twitter. And a tea towel is... well you probably know what they are.



All profits go to the We Are What We Do Charitable Foundation, funding their digital inclusion projects to get different generations talking more, sharing more and spending more time together.



Tea towel details:
* 42 X 60 cm
* Absorbent white woven cotton
* Diagonal hanging hook on reverse corner
* Satin taffeta label
* Packaged in an A4 gift box with clear panel to view personal messages

Machine wash at 40 degrees max. Do not tumble dry. The tea towel is shipped from their responsible suppliers in Turkey and is embroidered in the UK. All the packaging 100% recyclable and they ask that you recycle it as well :)


Get your own Tweet Towel (and one for a friend) here.

Learn about We Are What We Do here.
Shop for their other products here

Kiehl's X Koons Limited Edition Collection Benefits Kids And Dry Skin.

Kiehl's has collaborated with world-recognized contemporary artist Jeff Koons (again*) to raise awareness - and funds- for kids in need.




Jeff Koons is using his creative genius and Kiehl's is using their brilliant body lotion (I kid you not, it's one of the greatest products ever made) to help children in need around the world. With the shared vision of creating safer, more sustainable environments for children, the partnership is raising awareness and funds through the sale of the 2010 Limited Edition Creme de Corps Holiday Collection, a four-product collection that includes 3 sizes of their awesome body lotion, each with a colorful Koons label and their newest formulation, Creme de Corps Whipped Body Butter.

The Jeff Koons painting used for the Keihl's limited edition collection labels:

above: Tulips, oil on canvas, 111 5/16 x 130 11/16 inches, 282.7 x 331.9 cm, 1995–1998

1 Liter ($70) and 16.9 oz ($45) pump bottles :

8.4 oz size ($27) and the new Whipped Body Butter ($35):


Buy the products here

Keihl's has collaborated with artists several times before. Below is their 2009 Creme de Corps Holiday Collection with labels by KAWS:



100% of Kiehl’s net profits from the sale of each product will benefit The Koons Family Institute, an initiative of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC).

*This is not the first time Koons has lent his creative talents to Kiehl's. This past March, in celebration of Earth Day, Jeff Koons, along with Pharell Williams, Julianne Moore and Malia Jones created special edition labels for Kiehl's Acai Damage-Protecting Mist.

images and information courtesy of Kiehl's

This Little Piggy Cried "Humanitarian" All the Way Home.

above: A philanthropic Piggy Bank set for children

Michigan-based Materious, in an effort to teach future generations about compassion and to help parents raise future humanitarians (Lord knows, we could use more), has designed a great-looking, fun and educational way to save money and turn your little ones into caring citizens.


above: the set shown in glossy pale pink (also available in white)

In an effort to teach their own child about compassion, kindness and caring, Stephanie and Bruce, the talented couple behind the design firm, came up with Piggy, a set of beautifully designed savings banks, in glossy white or pale pink, that nest together.

The larger “Momma” Piggy bank is for a child’s personal savings, and the smaller "Little Piggy" bank is for the child's charitable savings.





PIGGY FEATURES
* Hand-cast ceramic
* Set of banks: one ‘momma’ and one ‘baby’
* Modern, minimal design
* Glazed in pale pink or bright white
* Small pig nests with the large ‘momma’
* Removable bottom plugs on each
* Ships safely in fun “quote box”

The box in which the adorable nesting Piggies are packaged is covered with great quotes about compassion:


Quotes that embellish the box:
•If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. - The Dalai Lama
•We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill
•I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. - Maya Angelou
•It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it. - Albert Einstein
•Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. - Mahatma Gandhi
•No one has ever become poor by giving. - Anne Frank
•Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival. - Dalai Lama
•A good heart is better than all the heads in the world. - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
•In separateness lies the world’s great misery, in compassion lies the world’s true strength. - Buddha
•To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one’s own, is ever the beginning of one’s real ethical development. - Felix Adler
•The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THE POWER OF PIGGY
This simple product, Piggy, can truly make the world a better and more compassionate place. Piggy helps teach kids about charitable giving, with the hopes of inspiring new generations of caring, sharing, philanthropic citizens. With 12,000 children born each day in the US, imagine the social impact if just a fraction of them learned powerful lessons of gratefulness and kindness to others.

USING PIGGY

Materious suggests that children learn to set aside 10% of their income to charity. Parents can discuss with their kids about who they would want to help most. When the baby bank is filled, a special event can be planned to deliver the money to the charity, or a trip to the bank and post office to mail a check.

The goal is to create positive feelings of doing good will make an indelible mark upon their character and place philanthropy as an important and intrinsic aspect of their life.


Buy the Piggy Nesting banks here (They donate 3% of the profits to charity)

For resources on possible charities, go to the 'Charity' tab of their site.
The designers want to know your own inspiring story, send it to them here.


above: Stephanie of Materious, with her inspiration.

Materious is also the company who brought us the fabulous Samurai Umbrella.

all images and info courtesy of Materious and special thanks to Stilsucht for bringing this to my attention.

Bionic Skulls Series by Roberto + Colleen Crivello For Botanist

Over two years ago, I introduced my readers to the Designer Series of Botanist Benches in a post titled Botanist Designer Series: Benches That Give Back. Each designed by a different internationally renowned designer and whose proceeds benefited various charities.

Since then the company has increased their collection by adding clocks, lanterns and trays by various designers and again, part of the proceeds go to various charitable organizations.

One of the collections, the Bionic Skulls Series by Roberto + Colleen Crivello, benefits the Scleroderma Society of Ontario and features graphic skulls and line art similar to classic pinstriping.



Bionic Clocks (16L x 16W in) :




Bionic Lanterns, available in small, medium or large:


Bionic Trays (available in small or large):



The objects are made of powder coated steel and the trays and lanterns both have clear silicone feet to protect surfaces. Each item also features the authentic signature medallion.


More information about the Bionic Skulls for Botanist as well as many other collections can be found here.

Manymals. Sterling Silver Necklaces By Markus Diebel Benefit WildAid.

I absolutely love these modern and fluid looking sterling silver animal pendants that hang from snake chains by jewelry designer Markus Diebel!

He’s artfully rendered a dog, a sloth, a gorilla and a bat in 100% sterling silver in his San Francisco studio and to make them even more desirable, 5% of sales of each piece benefit WildAid, a nonprofit dedicated to ending illegal wildlife trade within our lifetimes.

Images of each Manymal are shown from front and back below:

The SF-based organization has chapters worldwide, including Galapagos and China. Details on Markus’s creatures —Sloth, Bat, Gorilla and Pug— are detailed on the backside of his innovative black bubble packaging. Solid silver on a sterling chain.

• Packaging: Innovative black card bubble pack.
• Size: Chain (from clasp to charm) 13.5"
• This item normally ships in 3-4 days.

Exclusive to the A+R store, $260.00 each. Buy them here.

New Orleans Jeweler Designs Collection To Help Gulf Coast Oil Spill Cleanup

Mignon Faget, a jewelry designer based in New Orleans, has introduced a new collection dedicated to raising awareness and funds for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.



Now considered to be the largest offshore spill in U.S. history, the disaster has already had an extensive impact on marine and wildlife habitats. For Faget, the impacts of the spill and the cause of restoration in the area are especially close to her heart. The designer's very first collection was one inspired by the nature of the Gulf Coast region.




The new collection, dubbed "In Mourning," features pieces that Faget selected and redesigned from her earlier collections. Redfish, speckled trout, oysters and pelicans are presented as sterling silver or 14-karat gold pins backed with black ribbons or as pendants on black cords. The designs are meant to be worn in the tradition of mourning jewelry and so the collection evokes a somber mood, yet it also carries a spirit of hope.




"It is a heartbreaking statement to make with jewelry originally designed to celebrate the abundant gifts of our coast, but the reality is that we need to make people aware of this disaster and the long-term effects on this region," Faget said in a media release.




Designs in the In Mourning collection retail from $65 to $300, with proceeds benefiting the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (http://www.crcl.org/), a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the Louisiana coast. The collection is available in Mignon Faget galleries in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., as well as through the designer's Web site, MignonFaget.com.