The-Lefthander

Restarchitektur translates to 'remainder architecture'. At least, that's what Babelfish tells me. in his Restarchitektur series, German photographer Marcus Buck shows disappeared buildings through the marks they left behind. His photos remind me of a clip from Architecture School, where an architect 'reads' the foundation of a home swept away by Hurricane Katrina. (To watch the video, click here and then choose web extras.) He calls it a living floor plan, but the idea is the same. Who knew the traces of missing architecture could be this fascinating and full of stories?

You might love this. We had some iPads customized by the folks at ColorWare and one of them is up for grabs this week. All you have to do is enter the Where Did You Take Your Activity Book? contest, ending September 7, 2010. Grab your copy of the Super Incredible Activity Book for Creatives, or open the PDF on your laptop or mobile device, or just print the cover. Then head somewhere interesting and take a photo of yourself enjoying the book. E-mail your photo to ideas@veer.com to enter. The most amazing photo (as judged by our in-house panel of Amazingness Enthusiasts) will win the iPad, and ten runners-up will win fabulous merch prizes. Good luck!

If you didn't get your hands on a printed copy of the Super-Incredible Activity Book for Creatives in our latest mail-out, we've got you covered. There are plenty of other ways to enjoy Veer's seventh annual activity book – including printable PDFs and a special iPad version (with drawing tools!). Get your copy of 100 pages of images, fonts, and amusements!

We've posted about Lizette Greco before - she's the artist/mom behind the fantastical stuffed creatures based on her children's drawings. Here, the trio has created their very own butcher shop, with childish renditions of cuts of meat, cleavers, and handmade signs. Welcome to South Park Quality Meats, as imagined by 7-year old Enzo and 9-year old Sophia. via she is king

An interactive piece by Qubibi on the theme of India for the magazine Pen. I tried translating through babelfish and this is part of what I got ->...it accumulates [karuma] by the fact that the rolling and the child are made, falls eventually to Ganges and death is purified to visit, with new caste is born and changes - I'll do no better than that. On a side note Qubibi also recently created this screensaver titled hello world which couples nicely with Qubibi's India.

Nate Williams put together this submissions based letter interpretation project kind of like Word it but nice and trim, one letter at a time...I've been trolling through these for a while now...not sure how long it's been up but it's great, see for yourself.

August 28th is International Read Comics in Public Day. This event was organized by a small group of radicals aiming to overthrow the novel-and-newspaper hegemony we've suffered under for too long. Or maybe they just want to hang out and read cool stuff on the weekend. Either way, it's time to head down to your local comics shoppe or library and get some suitable reading material. Pick up anything by Ariel Schrag, Jessica Abel or the late, great Harvey Pekar, and you'll be set for a perfect day of public reading.

Lisa Brawn makes woodcuts from salvaged wood. She paints the woodcuts and her colour choices seem to suit each piece perfectly. I saw some of these at Art Central a few months back and they are darn good looking in person. I am with want. She uses Phaeton on her website, too. Nice.

The antediluvian art of the album cover doesn't get much love these days, which makes it even more exciting to come across something special. Biffy Clyro hasn't yet set the world on fire, but the art for their 2009 release Only Revolutions is striking and dramatic. And it has a good pedigree, too: designed by Storm Thorgerson, the man responsible for, well, pretty much any trippy album cover you can think of. Nice to see that the hoary old album cover still has devotees thinking bigger than thumbnail size.

Inspired by stock photography's clichéd inauthentic 'stock' look Carl Burgess did up this great video Drugs by Ratatat. I must admit my first impression in the first few seconds was...this is sort of creepy but also kind of crappy...what the hell is this! - but it kept getting better and better. See Ratatat - Drugs by Carl Burgess and check out other great pieces on Blickart.

You asked, you were terribly patient, and we've delivered... three new wallpapers for every modern device – including versions that look sharp on the iPhone 4's retina display. We'll be updating all of the older iPhone wallpapers as time permits. Take your pick of two designs from the DIY Masterpiece campaign or our summer intern Morgan's reassuring Hang In There Kitty.

Industrial designer Eric Askin has created an unusual cigarette pack prototype, designed to frustrate and discourage users. Where conventional packages are convenient, his is cumbersome. With an odd diamond shape and narrow opening, Askin's package transforms the act of pulling out a cigarette from classic movie-cool into an awkward fumble. Who needs extravagantly dire warning labels when we could just aggravate smokers into submission?

Running away, runway, airplane, birds flying, a fly... let your eyes and mind wander over Words, a short film of visual word association by Everynone.

Photographer Janette Beckman has a talent for finding the epicenter of cultural movements. She photographs music and fashion subcultures at the height of their relevance and energy. The Project Space gallery in Los Angeles has a retrospective of her work opening August 12th and running to early September. It's worth checking out just for her fascinating early images of hip hop legends, like the impossibly cool LL Cool J.

This video is one of a series created by Parks Canada in the 1970s and 1980s to celebrate the country's national parks. They aired for years on publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television, burrowing their way into the collective unconscious alongside other gems like the inescapable Hinterland's Who's Who. (Thanks, Jon.)

For fans of yetis, zombies, robots, and opening containers to find a smaller one inside… these hand-painted matryoshkas are a side project of Vancouver-based animator Andrew Ford. They are not animated… but would look nice sitting very still on your desk or shelf. Don't think about underestimating the little green one, either. It may be only the size of a pinky finger, but it is still a killer robot.

You already know how to Travel In Your Tribe and stay with like-minded professionals and enthusiasts during your travels. Now the folks at Swap Your Shop have posed the question “Why not take your work with you?”. It's a new community site that helps you find creatives in far flung places who are willing to trade living spaces and work spaces so you can completely relocate for an agreed upon period. Check out the available swaps and follow the blog posts of the first two swappers, who have exchanged Brooklyn, New York for Valencia, Spain.

What did you think when you saw the image above? That's a nice watercolour? Quite pleasing on the eye? Your view of it might change slightly when you realise that the artist is just seven years old. Kieron Williamson's first exhibition recently opened in the North Norfolk town of Holt, and his entire oeuvre sold out within half an hour for a total of £150,000. He started drawing and painting when he was just five, on holiday in Cornwall. Read about it on the BBC here.

What's 7" x 5.75", 100 pages long, and packed full of diversions? Keep an eye on your mailboxes and inboxes next week for something super-incredible.

Do not ask why this man is alone in the woods with a giant bubble wand. Nor should you worry about the trials bound to be had by someone bringing several gallons of bubble mixture out into the wilderness. Rather, just sit back, look at all the pretty colors and listen to the tinkling piano. See? Relaxation achieved. (thanks, Beau!)