After reading Walt's post, and then Trevor's post, a project I found while parousing the internet came to mind.

The Dollar ReDe$ign Project. And, it's accompanying blog.

Currency is, in a way, brand collateral for a country. Right now, our dollar is weak. When your current brand is failing, you reinvent it.

The Dollar ReDe$ign Project is doing exactly that. It's interesting to see how people are envisioning America through it's currency design.

Here's one example:

Our current currency looks towards the past in rembrance of our forefathers. As our current leader has said many times, it's time to look to the future. I wonder how that could shape a new currency design.

The administration released these new logos for two projects that have been established:American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) & U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) team.

I think government design IS getting better, but I find the Tiger logo a bit confusing. However, I do like the type treatment.

What do you think of the logos? 

Other new additions to the design pile would be the whitehouse.gov site (launched at inauguration). I'm very happy that the government embraced web 2.0 standards. It kinda makes my heart warm.

What happens if you mix the collection and adoration of images with the concept of crowd sourcing? You'd get dropular.net. There are many sites that are similar, like ffffound.com, but I choose to collect images on this site. Under dropular's concept, you drop images into the site and they will naturally create pools of similar images through tagging. Through this process, you can start to see the development of trends, categorization of design styles, and the comparision of different media. This site is different in that you can bookmark or "drop" images, videos, and links, all in one place. Also, the navigation is intuitive. You can simply use the arrow keys to scroll down or go to the next page, which is awesome for users like me who tend to zoom through images quickly, too impatient to even use the scroll bar.

I love images. Well, media really. Sites like this are like my little box where I keep them and bring them out when I want inspiration. I guess some people collect stamps, coins, or shells... I collect media. It's one of the things I love to do.

Here's my collection: http://dropular.net/user/free_

I am a big fan of anything on the web that breaks conventional rules.  That's why I love this cool menu on the 'Screenvader website.' 

Is it simple to use, probably not, does it follow UI best practices, no way - so why do I like it?  The answer is - because it's different, yes it's a menu but it is drastically different than any other I have come across.  It makes me want to interact, play, and discover. 

I say hats off to the boys and girls that created this site.  It's a delight to play with and is a new experience for me on the web.  It is a challenge when creating something new and different but given all the tools at our disposal, more fool us if we make everything in the digital space look, feel, and work the same way.

Sometimes you break a constraint in the design of a product or experience and the focus of simplicty shifts.

Think about coins.

Coins are wicked simple - small descrete objects that we (and vending machines and toll booth buckets, among other things) can easily recognize by touch and sight. Discrete is the key word here - each object an indivudual one, its size and especially design representing a single concept like a state's brand or a central event. 

Now check out these winning coin designs from the Royal Mint. Wow. Coins as puzzle pieces. 

But there is still simplicty here. The Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom, the completed picture within the puzzle, becomes the unit of simplicity.

Neat.