On May 1st, Selfridges, the high-end UK department store, celebrates its 100th birthday in style. Over the last century, Selfridges has remained on the edge of fashion and culture by collaborating with luminaries like John and Yoko, Salvador Dali and Vivienne Westwood. In October of last year, they opened a designer toy lounge in conjunction with Kidrobot.

For their 100th birthday, Selfridges commissioned exclusive apparel, accessories and products in signature Pantone 109 yellow. The collection, which will be sold in the store throughout May, features pieces by Ralph Lauren, Levi's, Converse, Simon Carter, Fender and Moleskine. In addition, the Big Yellow Festival (including music, fashion, cabaret and gay bingo) kicks off May 1st. If you’re in the old city, be sure to stop by!

San Francisco’s Rickshaw Bagworks (whose zero waste messenger bag was previously featured) is now creating customizable folios for Moleskine journals. The $50 folios include space for four pens and business cards and have a protected pocket perfect for receipts or maps. Each is made to order in the City by the Bay, and, should you feel stuck trying to pick a color combination, there’s a Flickr gallery chock full of customized fabrics to delight even the most hardcore Moleskinerie fan. Sustainable, awesome.

OHSO Presto: Read JS Review | Buy It ($7-$9)
The world’s sexiest toothbrush gets a colorful remake in bright, see-through colors. It’s a good idea to give it to a girlfriend or regular couch-crasher who gets creeped out by your slimy toothpaste tube. The OHSO Presto comes out after the holidays, but their other equally brilliant brushes are on sale now.

Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase: Read JS Review | Buy It ($220)
This Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase might possibly be the perfect laptop bag. It makes the airport security process a bit less painful with a removable, clear pocket for a laptop and a separate compartment for everything else.

Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected ($27)
From what you’ve read from my reports on JoshSpear.com about Sao Paulo, this fascinating city is becoming a hot South American destination. Total Sao Paulo: A Guide to the Unexpected (Unhinged Jaw Press) is a guidebook written by yours truly and presents the metropolis’ best gems, from hidden bars to a church full of wax skulls. It comes out April 2009 — a perfect raincheck present.

Modofly Moleskines: Read JS Review | Buy It ($36)
A Moleskine is a necessary part of any traveler’s tool kit. Modofly ups the ante with their neat, laser-etched Moleskine notebooks in multiple sizes with hot new cover art.

Urbane Nomads: Read JS Review | Buy It
For those who’ve traveled to every corner of the earth, Urbane Nomads promises to put together an itinerary that will blow away minds — from a safari in Burma to tasting cheesecake in a bakery owned by a Malaysian ex-premier. Hands down, there is no better gift than one of adventure … if you can afford it, that is.

Muji To Go @ JFK: Read JS Review | Buy It
So you just flew in on the international red eye and realized it’s Christmas Eve day. First, it’s probably time for a vacation. Second, there’s Japan’s favorite minimalist necessity store in Terminal 5 of JFK in New York. Now you can fill your son/daughter/nephew’s stocking without them being the wiser. But be prepared to answer questions about Japanese Santa.

Ah, Chuck Anderson. Fresh, brave, and brilliant from all angles, we turned our sights towards this self-taught, Michigan-based designer in 2005, when the then 20-year old's portfolio was already competitive with those of players twice his age.

Since then, Chuck (aka NoPattern) has been filling his time with work for clients like Burton, Dolce and Gabbana, and Microsoft, and his light-filled designs have had us seeing stars all along. Graphic designer, digital illustrator, 23-year old basking in the glow he drew up himself; whatever he is, he's good at it, and we can't wait to see what's next.

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The artist collective Modofly is all about creating products that inspire other artists. Their new series of laser-etched Moleskines give beautiful covers to already classic books. We’ve talked a lot about Moleskines and the people who have created some amazing works on the insides. The Modofly covers look good enough to let you write/draw anything and still appear to be carrying around a masterpiece that would make Picasso or Hemingway jealous.

The Saint Petersburg, Russia design team Indeepop demonstrates their expertise in character design with their Japanese Moleskine Project. The team presents a unique set of characters, meticulously and continuously illustrated from cover to cover in a traditional Moleskine notebook. Indeepop is a truly diverse team that has ventured as far as custom Converse shoes and toy design, and their Moleskine project emphasizes just how imaginative they are.

Each week, JoshSpear.com explores the latest projects by top creative professionals in the Behance Network and highlights a few that are pushing the edge of the creative industry. Josh also serves as an Advisor and Guest Curator for Behance.

We get up at all times of the day. We work into all times of the night. We don’t wear blue collars, but like the carpenter’s belt or the laborer’s lunch box, we bear the mark of our social class status in the tools we carry to and fro the office, coffee shop or airport. These tools are sheathed in various cases and holders — in the doorway, smiling prettily and waiting to hand us our necessities as we leave to do our important jobs are Working Class Heroes. Stylishly designed felt and leather holders for our paraphernalia: like that Moleskine pouch, to protect our philosophical ruminations; like the leather passport holder, to keep fresh the inspiration the world gives us; like the Laptop Wallet Butterfingers (pictured), which doesn’t fail us when we get a little clumsy. When we come home at the end of the day, we can feel like we did something, even if it wasn’t catching a hot blonde falling out of a burning building in mid-air. That something’s called — you got it — satisfaction. You can order Working Class Heroes’ stuff here.

Anyone who fancies themselves a poet or painter will probably agree with the fact that inspiration seems to strike at the oddest of instances; most artisans will tell you that it’s important to have a notebook on hand to record these magical moments of motivation. For many creative types the scratch pad of choice is the Moleskine. Luminaries such as Van Gogh, Picasso, and Hemingway toted the trusty tablet, and who knows maybe someday you’ll be mentioned in the same breath as those legends. Perhaps, The Moleskine Project is where it all begins. The project is an attempt to uncover talent from around the world by asking artists to submit the doodles from their own personal notebooks to be displayed on their website. Fortunately for your ears, the drawings can only be sent in via email.

I’m an enthusiastic user of Moleskine notebooks because they’re high quality, but now that everyone and their mother has one now, I’m always getting paranoid about my roommates mistaking mine for theirs if I ever accidentally leave it laying around the house. So when I came across the similar-looking notebooks at Atelier Machado in Sao Paulo, I had to really hold back from buying all of them. The studio, which specializes in binding and restoration, as well as producing paper products like photo albums and writing pads, unabashedly call their versions “replicas”, but placed in comparison with Ernest Hemingway’s notebook of choice, Atelier Machado’s versions are actually anything but the pieces that inspired them. The huge difference is in the color: the sides of each notebook have each been swiped in a variety of shades, with a matching elastic closure. Atelier Machado has taken it a step further though, by offering a choice of shiny metallic covers paired with contrasting colors. For the avid notetaker who believes his thoughts are worth a million bucks, there’s also a leather-bound line with matching pens. Sizes vary, and price out between $10 to $36.

The newest from Moleskin, the City Notebooks are part guidebook, part journal; they have helpful maps, begging-to-be-used blank pages, and easy to navigate tabs. At this point, they cover a good number of European cities, as well as Boston, New York, San Fran, and D.C., with books for Chicago, L.A., Montreal, and Seattle to follow this coming Fall. With this City Notebook addition to their notebook offerings, Moleskine has, with genius, continued a legendary tradition – now over two centuries old – and is sure to inspire the Van Goghs and Picassos to come. Also have a look at the Moleskine City blog, and open information resource and community for like-minded Moleskine travelers.