Good news on this dreary Monday morning, as I’m finally allowed to announce this: good friend/killer illustrator (killustrator?) Noah MacMillan and I have been selected to collaborate on a print from the upcoming 2011 St. Louis edition of Artcrank. Among the other 29 contributors are numerous friends and role models: Dan Zettwoch, Amy Thompson of Paper Boat, former CDes-er Sam Washburn, Alexn Inhen of NextSTL, and of course, fellow TOKYs and friends Jamie Banks-George, Katy Fischer, and Kirsten O’Loughlin. What?! That’s not even half of the lineup.

The show runs May 12th–14th at Atomic Cowboy, and supports the exceedingly wonderful St. Louis BicycleWORKS. You can bet you’ll hear from me again on this.

‘I Was A Teenage Cyclist,’ or How Anti-Bike-Lane Arguments Echo the Tea Party

All of which is to note: The discussion over cycling policy in New York has now taken on the tone (on both sides, sadly) of our culture wars: passion first, reason later (or, in most cases, never).

I encourage you to read this article, which also contains this gem:

Or, if this all seems too strenuous or, you know, long-winded, you can simply reduce your argument to its four essential words: “I have been inconvenienced.”

Thought, empathy and selflessness are severely lacking in American culture—as is empiricism. Even occasional cycling makes one a more careful driver. Streets aren’t the sole property of cars. Current political battles and rhetoric stems from a certain stubbornness of view—a refusal to accept another’s way of life as anything but inferior or a threat. The Golden Rule still rings true, people.

Albert Einstein once said, “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them…” and he was right. In the next century, our job as designers will be to evaluate accepted solutions through a different lens. For a solution to be truly sustainable and good it must have a positive return to the environment and society. At the heart of any design problem is a question: Are we trying to make something less bad or are we trying to make things better?

It’s pieces like this that get me really excited about design.

The Copenhagen Wheel

The how.

This is also relevant.

Whoa. Dinosaur Jr., tearing it up.