We’re giving away 5 hardback PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn books to a few very lucky readers. Want to enter? Lets do it Twitter Re-tweet contest style. Tweet the following and I’ll pick 5 winners Friday: RT Contest: I want to win the PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn Book from @joshspear

Good luck!

The Split Ring Key: Another great product from Scott Amron, the designer behind the New Soap Old Bottle we covered a few months ago. Carry your keys on your other key. Real working key blank. Key blank can be cut by any key cutter to fit KW1 or SC1 keyways.

He’s also selling a 30% stake in his “Split Ring Key Blank Patent”… I inquired to find out how much he is looking for. Via PSFK

All this chatter of Mos Def and his album on a t-shirt makes us happy. Music Tee’s we spotted last week are coming out in full force. My next question is simple though: What stops people from taking a camera phone picture of the download code on the t-shirt without purchasing it? Similar to the days kids used to bring razor-blades into the record store and slide out the CD quick and undetected. I hope we don’t ever have t-shirts locked up behind security as records and other hard media (DVD’s etc) have now.  I’m excited to watch for sales figures of the Mos Def T-shirt ($40) to see if it has legs.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and despite the fact Thanksgiving has yet to hit our friends at PSFK are already looking to next year. The always prescient Piers and company have gotten a head start on the new year with their “Good Ideas in 2009 Report”. The 80-page book aimed at those whose interests lie in branding, marketing, and business strategy, focuses on nine innovative ideas and just how they’re being carried out. Available on Blurb.com, the volume takes a look at everything from socially conscious companies that make use of new technology to a ping pong haven/art gallery/drive-in theater on New York’s Lower East Side. For a closer look at the future, you can waste your time inventing a time machine or you could just pony up a few bucks for the book.

Grab your passports, put your seats and tray tables in their upright and locked position, and get ready for PSFK’s Conference in Asia. Piers and crew are headed to tax-haven and very international city of Singapore to help spread the gospel of good design, marketing, advertising, communication and so forth.

The conference agenda “Creativity for Change, Ideas To Make Things Better” looks to be one of the tastiest I’ve seen yet, speakers include:

My pal Jeff Staple who will talk about how his great ‘accidental career path’ landed him at the help of an international company, Piers (the PF in PSFK) talks about “making things better” and a handful of others from places like W+K, NASA, Mindshare, Panasonic and MTV will be taking the stage (full list here). Also, Mark Dytha of Pecha Kucha fame will speak– that should be interesting. Tickets are on sale now, with the even happening on Friday, October 10 is the day. Say hi to everyone for me, I’m sorry I’ll miss it.

When most people are asked to name three people they’d love to have dinner with, living or dead, usually go with the some holy trifecta along the lines of Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi. While All Day Buffet might never be able to deliver on that type of panel, they’ve generously compiled quite the lineup of lively innovators for The Feast. On October 16th at NYC’s Scandinavia House, they’ll gather 150 of the world’s most inventive minds to discuss prevalent issues and galvanize a movement for socially conscious change in arenas ranging from business to science. Speakers will include Piers Fawkes of PSFK, Scott Belsky of Behance, and Ecopop’s Chad Rea amongst others. While we have no idea if any meal is actually being served, the conversation is sure to be riveting. So get yourself a ticket pronto before they run out.

Do you like to spend your mornings discussing trends and inspiration while saving your afternoons to ruminate on creative ideas? Then the PSFK Conference in San Francisco sounds right up your alley. Following on the heels of successful conferences in NYC, London and L.A., the trendspotter’s fifth meeting of the minds taking place at the Fort Mason Center this Thursday July 17th and will feature some truly innovative speakers and panelists who run the gamut from NASA to FunnyOrDie.com. The lineup is packed with Spear favorites like Amit Gupta and Jen Bekman. Bay Area JS.com readers, go forth and learn!

Site pal and PSFK man-in-charge Piers Fawkes is at it again, this time with his Snapshot San Francisco book series. His team has taken to the streets to put together a snapshot report of what they call the most unique when it comes to events, businesses, organizations and ideas in the most inspirational cities in the world– and they’re starting with San Francisco. Grab one for your nearest coffee table in Softcover for $30, Hardcover for lifetimes to come for $60.

Our trendy-spotting pals over at PSFK are having a conference Tuesday, March 6th at Regal Cinemas Union Square, NYC. It’ll be a morning of trends and ideas and an afternoon of new marketing inspiration. Speakers like Sascha Lewis from Flavorpill, Mike Byrne of Anomaly and Peter Rojas of Engadget will bless the audience with their ninja-like know how. Discounted early bird tickets are on sale for a few more days for $300, pop by the event page for more info. If I were free, I’d be at this event– more on where I’m going soon– Full flyer after the jump.

READ MORE…

I encourage you to view this short film, produced by Christopher Bronsart and Daniel Migg, that re-conceptualizes environmental problems by analyzing the problem from a standpoint humans can grasp: by using the concept of nutrition. The film argues for a new type of industrial revolution based on the production of goods that figuratively feed the environment rather than deplete it (as we see with current extractive practices). The film denounces recycling as a viable solution to the problem of resource depletion, arguing that the inputs to recycling were never meant to be reused and that the chemicals and other process factors associated with recycling only exacerbate environmental problems. The final call to action is that you should strive to “design your products to be nutrition,” which I took to mean that we should be producing products that (without further processing) can be used again an a later cycle of production. The concept is simple in theory, but a little difficult to conceptualize in a real and practical sense– I thought it was a novel and thoughtful way to think about a huge and threatening issue.

Via PSFK

The new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album, ‘Some Loud Thunder,’ hasn’t been officially released yet (it’s due out Jan. 30th), but the band has orchestrated a deal for all of you die hard fans. You can download the album today before 3 p.m. (EST) for free. Well, it isn’t exactly free– you basically pay $13.00 to pre-order the album, and they will email you a ’secret link’ where you can download the album today. It’s a good deal if you ask me; you’ll be one of the first people out there to get the new tunes, and you will also be supporting a great band that has made ballsy strides to employ independent distribution tactics and has thus far sidestepped major label representation. If you haven’t heard Clap Your Hands before, go to their website and sample two songs from the new album on their website, ‘Love Song #7′ and ‘Underwater (You and Me).’ Hurry up!

Via PSFK

I don’t know about anyone else out there, but I am sick and tired of paying so much for car insurance. I rarely drive, I have an impeccable driving record, and I am a careful and defensive driver. So why do I have to pay so much? I wish that American car insurance companies would follow the lead of U.K.-based Norwich Union, who had created a new car insurance policy that charges drivers based on actual miles travelled. The system works by transmitting a signal — via a satellite navigation system — to Norwich Union that tells them the car usage of each policyholder. Policyholders are charged a low, flat rate monthly charge as well as a incremental per-mile charge, and are billed via a monthly itemized statement. Norwich Union even throws in a satellite navigation system and a speed camera detection system when you sign up. This car insurance pricing structure creates great incentives– it rewards drivers who choose not to drive as much, leading to environmental benefits and providing a mitigating factor for traffic jams.

Via PSFK

After growing tiresome of traditional academia and journalism's narrow view of the blogsphere, Josh Spear took it upon himself to create his own bog, Joshspear.com. In barely two years, his blog has become a daily destination for inspiration for industry execs and culture junkies alike. PSFK had the opportunity to chat with Josh and get his take on the current state of independent publishing and here more about his new consulting agency called Spear Creative Group and its digital marketing counterpart SparkMedium. Click here to read the full interview.