My lovely friend Claudia Pearson, who lives in Brooklyn NYC, is an artist and illustrator. We were chatting during that cross over time, when one country awakes and the other is preparing for sleep, and got to talk about her new work. Pictured above are some of my favourite ‘alphabet’ illustrations.

We also got to talking about the credit crunch and how the homemade / craft movement is seemingly picking up, as people focus on their individual skills. I’d hazard a guess that Etsy.com is doing rather well at the moment. Has anyone seen evidence of this, more markets, more craft websites, Etsy accounts, other than mine and Claudia’s hunch?

To see more of Claudia’s ‘alphabet’ work (S is for Scooter, C is for Chopper) visit her Etsy shop.
…and continuing the theme check out her illustrated book, Tribal Alphabet, on Amazon.

It was raining, but it didn’t deter 20,000+ Sydneysiders from making a united stand on Global Warming. The national peaceful protest was organised by Climate Movement and through the Walk Against Warming website to get involved, visit these sites and sign the petition.

Its never to late, and lets face it – we can all help.

The secret’s out. Climate sceptics being funded by ExxonMobil can no longer hide behind the name of a front group. A new website – www.exxonsecrets.org – exposes the links between ExxonMobil money and the think tanks, associations and individuals denying global warming.

Don’t buy Mobil. Don’t buy Esso.

Via Greenpeace.org, attention drawn by information aesthetics, powered by They Rule

Leo and Moophias are back. Brilliant parody on the Matrix, that drills home the need for consumers to buy sustainably and not support factory farming through purchase. We all need to wake up to where our food comes from.

Check out The Meatrix 2 from Free Range Graphics and Sustainable Table.

If for some strange reason you never saw the first (award winning) Meatrix, I found it on YouTube and you can watch the stream below.

Sticky Question is the latest video promoting The Big Ask. It has one simple aim – getting people to ask difficult questions about climate change so the Government is persuaded to take action.

Many thanks to my friend Bruce in London, for the link.

What if energy saving products looked so good that people, well, just wanted them. RED invited five design teams to create products they think would make energy saving desirable. The responses included new products, for the home, and improvements to existing ones, plus some intriguing thoughts…

View all the responses at the Design Councils RED site.

I particularly like the ‘home pulse’ by Ideo and the EnergyLock and EnergyClock by More Associates – both great ideas to monitor / control your homes energy output.