According to Greg Washington, print is dead. Well, maybe not quite dead - but on a respirator, losing consciousness, and rapidly deflating from the monster that is was to the mouse that it will be.

As the Art Director/Photographer of online culture magazine Inquiringmind, Washington is arguably one of the only people with the right to make such a claim. Unlike other online publications hoping to take the place of our periodical standbys, Inqmnd seems to believe something that its fellow compatriots fail to grasp: It’s a magazine. A magazine, traditionally speaking, is beautiful; it is composed page by page, word by word, and is as much art as it is literature. It is something you flip through, not something you scroll down, and it’s something you keep on your coffee table. What makes Inqmnd different than members of its genre is that - were your computer in the business of shape shifting - you’d want to keep it on your coffee table.

The reason that Greg Washington believes that print is dying is probably the same reason we want to believe him. For print to die, we need a damn good reason to pull the plug. Give us beauty worth looking at; give us words worth reading; give us an online magazine that is better than a print magazine. Give us Inquiringmind.

Joshspear.com: You have a thorough history in design and art direction with companies large and small. Where were you, and what did you learn, on the way to Inquiring Mind Magazine?

Greg Washington: My first design gig was for a very small company who did direct marketing. The pay was low and the task was simple; I handled anything that needed graphics. I ended up doing quite a bit of boring product catalog design work. It sucked having to trek out 1.5 hours for minimum pay and boring work so I decided to spice it up by designing my own personal t-shirts during work hours. When the boss found out what I was doing… it was a wrap.

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For those of you who were hanging around here last year, you’d remember the infamous 6 resolutions I made for 2008. I’ll cover how I’ve done on the others ones soon, but time is of the essence to circle back to the last one, entitled Donate More. I pledged to walk my walk about companies big and small making a difference in the world by donating to those in need. And, I said I would donate 5% of my site’s profits to a charity that we all agreed on together. The time to decide on that place has arrived. Clean water? Disaster Relief Efforts? Create a scholarship fund at a design school? Perhaps we should micro-finance some projects as a group together through Kiva? You (and there are many of you), tell me where it should go. Comment below or email in, and after we receive a bunch of ideas, we’ll put it up for polling and go from there. Speak!

China-based designers Being Object see a lot of similarities between man and bean in terms of their relation to water. What do mankind and beans have in common? If you’re answer is they should both be held accountable for their own actions while at sea, you’re only partially right and potentially insane. The real answer is, Beans are the seeds of new lives and as such need water to grow. “Mankind uses water to clean bodies and refresh our minds, a man soaks in a bathtub just like a fetus gestates in a womb.” It is this similar reliance on water that serves as the inspiration behind Being Object’sReborn bath and faucet project. The core idea of the project is to regenerate the existing bathtubs and water faucets by refreshing the shapes and finishes. The shape of the bathtub was inspired from beans whereas the faucet is designed with human consciousness in mind and bears slight resemblance to a sprout. Finally, a bathtub that’s both people and bean friendly. What will they think of next?

If you’re like us you’ve got a wealth of important information stored on your laptop. Were the great hard drive crash of ’08 to take place you’d probably be in quite a fix. In this digital age having your files backed up is an absolutely crucial but not necessarily fashionable concern. Some external hard-drives are downright dreary with design as appealing as that of a cinder block. Thanks to the folks at Netherlands-based de groene banaan, your data storage can now be a thing of artistic inspiration. The IVY a unique hard drive using OLED technology shows just how much of the drive you are using by illuminating the design on the screen. When empty, the IVY appears a blank canvas but as you gradually fill it, it resembles more of a Mondrian masterpiece. Now that’s innovation.

Via Shake Well Before Use

UK designer Chrissie Macdonald combines set decoration, art, design, and a whole lot of paper in order to create her work for clients like New York Times Magazine and Dazed & Confused. Charming, detailed, and richly colored, Chrissie’s amazing compositions mix 3D objects with paper-doll-like paper images, resulting in a mix of dimensions that intriguingly combine reality and make believe. As a member of the UK’s super-talented collective, Peepshow, Chrissie probably has her work cut out (cut out — like with scissors — I’m funny) for her, so browse her work here, then try to imagine her work in the form of a family portrait over your fireplace. I have no idea if she does that kind of thing…I just think it would be a good way to make sure everyone’s smiling.

I’m having trouble processing the fact that this time next week, a new year will be upon us. I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions — I’m more of a “change it right now” kind of person — but there’s some things I’ve decided to do starting now, through the next year and beyond. Some things are ongoing projects (like training the best-behaved pitbull you’ll ever meet), some are typical (more walking, less cab-taking) some have a definitive ending point (finding the perfect couch) and some are mental adjustments I’m making (refusing to ever put up with crap from anyone, ever again), and I feel like the new year and a clean calendar will only benefit them and me in sticking to them.

That being said, here’s the inevitable question: What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Saying it out loud (or, in this case, typing it out) has proven to keep you accountable for your decisions and actions, so get sharing! We promise to help in any way we can.

It’s about time that the rumors about a new Tristan Eaton Dunny coughed up something tangible, and now — after almost two years of speculation — we can finally say that an actual Dunny (designed by the actual co-creator of Dunny and founder of Thunderdog Studios, Tristan Eaton), will be released in the middle of January. The gas-masked, 8-inch Tag Team Dunny comes in either pink or black, and will be accompanied by his own Fatcap mini assistant in a matching color. Two signings for the new Dunny will go down in New York and Miami, respectively; head here if for more deets on either event.

I just received an invitation to check out the screening of a new and interesting U2 film, and the title U23D Movie really caught my eye. It’s the world’s first ever live-action 3D concert movie, featuring, well Bono and his sunglass-clad group, U2. As they put it, the film is a marriage between innovative digital 3D imagery and 5.1 Surround Sound, which creates an immersive theatrical experience. Shot in South America and directed by Irish artist Catherine Owens, this looks to be a real treat. Pop over and check out the trailer — I’ll be sure to let you know how the screening is next week in New York. No word if it’s IMAX or if I’ll be putting on retro 3D glasses for the show, anyone know how this works?