This past January, John Rambo (as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone), descended upon the borders of Myanmar to dole out “aid” in the form of explosions and plenty of collateral damage. Presently, that kind of “assistance” isn’t going to be of much benefit. Fortunately, the folks at Create/Reject have a more inventive, less violent idea for a way to assist the nation’s one million plus people still suffering from the effects of the May 2nd cyclone. Rather than relying on the use of force, they’re relying on the sale of fonts. Their simple response for the request for relief was to put together a book titled Fifty Designers Current Favorite Typefaces, featuring ideas from talents such as Stefan Sagmeister and Experimental Jetset. The best part of the whole deal is that all proceeds from the sale go directly to UNICEF. At the dirt cheap cost of nearly $6, it’s worth much more.

We know from past experience that Barcelona-based Actar Publishing puts out some of the best books around on cutting edge design and architecture. That’s why we’re super psyched for two of their most recent releases that celebrate the most compelling samples of graphic design in recent memory from two of our favorite foreign lands. Super Holland Design is a stunning compendium that delves into the work of Dutch designers such as Experimental Jetset and Sander Plug, amongst others, that have forced us to re-think the meaning of design through their use of new techniques and technologies. The second volume we’re touting is ESC: Enter Spanish Creativity, which displays some of the finest graphic design talent to come out of (you guessed it) Spain, including works by Basedesign and Ipsum Planet. The primer explores the “visual seduction by new and experimental formulas” as “the defining concept of emergent Spanish Design”. We’re certain both books will provide your design crazy mind with a compelling read as well as a feast for your eyes.

When it comes to music, most of us now deal solely with digital-only formats: mp3, mp4, wav, acc, and the like (CD’s are even becoming obsolete), but the people at Experimental Jetset do not want all of the old music formats to be forever-forgotton. That’s why they formed the Lost Formats Preservation Society in the year 2000. The Society currently houses 64 formats– mini disc, cassette tape, 4 track, SyJet, VecTrex, Travan, and the list goes on. I have to admit, I had never heard of 90% of these formats; that’s probably why it was so fun for me peruse the list. Which music format will bring the list up to 65? I am interested in your (our readers’) ideas.

Via thetripwire