Good morning from Dieline’s editor-in-chief, Bill McCool. Here’s your daily side serving of design news, short musings, brand stuff, and forgotten ephemera.
Give me all the weird little coffee cup-eye guy mascots, but especially when it’s for a compostable single-serve pour-over brand.
Ballerina Farms just launched Bone Broth Hot Cocoa, and now it just sounds like we’re using Mad Libs to make disgusting drinks that no one actually wants.
You gotta crack a few eggs to make a toxic, environmentally spiteful omelet, am I right, Sammy boy?
Created to celebrate its Signature Blend line, Blue Bottle Coffee has released Notes in Repose, its first-ever jazz compilation. Featuring tracks from greats like Makaya McCraven, Jeff Parker, Angel Bat Dawid, and the Kyoto Jazz Sextet, the 11 tunes invite everyone to slow down, brew some coffee, and take a listen. Oddly enough, Blue Bottle founder James Freeman was a working clarinetist before he launched his coffee company, and I’ll go out on a limb and assume he’d agree with me that the best version of “Autumn Leaves” comes courtesy of Buddy DeFranco. Just this morning, I made myself a cup of Giant Steps (Coltrane reference, ‘natch, and member of Signature Blend club ) that was included with my press kit, and that was mighty tasty.
And speaking of all things caffeine, this is absolutely worth a gander, because coffee house style in the 90s went hard.
All hail Orifice the Awebot. I’m here for commentary on the ubiquity of Uber Eats bots and drivers, so good on you, Madison Polidoro.
I actually can’t wait to see Digger. When was the last time we got the full Gonzo-Cruise?
At a DIELINE Awards party a few years ago, I had an immensely awesome conversation with a Swedish designer about the benefits of a regular sauna, and I have thought about it ever since. Maybe this is the year I do my own homemade version?
Brace yourselves: people love dressing up as superheroes and horror movie characters on Halloween. This is all to say that nothing is more useless than a Spirit Halloween Costume Trend Report.
Regular readers of the Salad have likely encountered posts where I swear up and down about the value of physical media (i.e., you don’t own that digital copy of National Treasure; you “licensed” it for an indeterminate period at the media empire’s discretion) and jumping ship from streaming. Over the past year, I have been steadily raiding thrift stores and eBay for stupid-cheap DVDs and Blu-Rays and rebuilding my movie collection, as I had previously sold half the video library when the family moved across the country. Turns out you have a lot of downtime when you’re nursing a running injury. Anywho, I was mostly joking when I told a friend I was opening my own personal rental library called “BillBuster,” and that I was going to make laminated membership cards and everything (sort of like the Video Garage but, you know, without any real presence and only distributed amongst friends). And lo, I don’t have to do this now, because my good pal Jim Malloy already did it for me. Anywho, my not-so-secret dream is to open a video rental store with a screening room, and I promise it wouldn’t just showcase the collected works of the great Eric Roberts.
-Bill