Derek Powazek sure knows how to make lemonade out of lemons. Even after the sudden (and forced) disassociation of both himself and his wife, Heather, from JPG Magazine, a magazine they founded, together, he’s turned around to create yet another community for photographers. This time, though, Pixish directly connects creatives with the people who need them. As the site itself explains:

“Say you’re a magazine. You have a story that you need an illustration for. Your options are to find an artist for a custom job (time-consuming and expensive) or spend all day trolling microstock sites to find the perfect image (cheap, but just as time-consumung, and very frustrating).

Pixish is a middle path. With Pixish, you can create an Assignment that asks for what you want. Pixish peeps can submit their work and collaboratively vote the best up. All you have to do is pick the winning entry!”

Taking it a step further, Pixish is an interactive community which will hopefully make ensure everyone gets exactly what they need for truly inspiring collaborations. Pixish is currently in beta, and you can sign up for it right here.

It was a little over a month ago when we told you about Core 77’s Greener Gadgets competition…so if you had a design for a Green Gadget and you snoozed until now, well, you inevitably “losed.” The design competition submission deadline was January 27th and the results on the greenest gadgets of them all are in. The winner of the $2,500 grand prize went to Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel for their EnerJar, a DIY device that “measures the power draw of electrical appliances” and can be easily assembled by mostly anyone…even a monkey! Actually we’re not sure about the monkey thing but we do know that the EnerJar can go a long way towards teaching people just how much electricity their appliances use, encouraging them to reduce their usage of the valuable resource. The EnerJar wasn’t the only winner on display, but we don’t have the space to talk about them all so we recommend checking out the winners at the Core 77 site, as there were many worthwhile projects in the running.

As global warming brings the inevitable dawn of another ice age the likes of which the cast of The Day After Tomorrow has never seen before, it’s probably a good idea to be properly layered. We don’t really care what you’re wearing underneath that winter coat, but we think you should be fashionable outside. That’s where Jamie Geller Dutra comes into the picture. The Ithaca, New York native, who is no doubt used to frigid weather, makes quite the statement with her hand-painted, handcrafted scarves that double as unique works of art and bold fashion accessories. If you’re in the market for a scarf that shows some artistic flair, we recommend stopping by Jamie’s Etsy store and pick one up for yourself. While you’re at it, you can snag one of several original abstract modernist paintings, just in case you’re too scared to venture out into the cold.

Because my bladder’s the size of a pea, I get to know a lot of bathrooms on an intimate basis. But besides learning the rough way about the fine nuances of different types of toilet paper here in Sao Paulo, I’ve also noticed beautiful sink designs installed in some of these bathrooms, the wide majority of them stamped with the logo of a national company called Deca. They’ve actually just won an IF Design award in Germany for their upcoming Cuba L 1036 model in the Cuba range of sinks, a collection that emphasizes shape to encourage imaginative play for a bathroom layout. Made with fine fireclay, the L 1036’s washbasin has sloping sides that go from thin at the top to thicker at the bottom, a design that mimics the movement of water as it comes out of the faucet, strikes the bottom and bounces up along the interior. I have to admit that each time I’ve encountered a Deca sink, my bathroom experience is all the much better for it.

If you’re in the mood for more neat, smart and fun designs, stop by the Online Exhibition area of the IF Design site to check out winning entries from hundreds of other companies in categories like transportation and leisure/lifestyle, including the convenient modular-shelved bookcase called Insert Coin, by German company Neuland.

While the most cities shudder at the potential of a major disaster and the impact it would have on the lives of its inhabitants, the majority urban infrastructure experts would probably agree that it never hurts to be prepared for the worst. Having dealt with major crises before the New York City Office of Emergency Management decided you could never have enough input on how to deal with the issue of post-disaster housing. As a result, they held the What If New York City Design Competition, in which designers from around the world submitted proposals on possible design for post-disaster housing solutions. In January the NYC OEM chose the ten winners, and ten honorable mention designs from the contest. Perhaps our favorite design came from Danish designers (and winners themselves) Carston Laursen and Morten Fassov, whose vision depended on principles of urbanity, sustainability, home and rationality, as well as reliance on the strength of a hexagonal structure to create a new urban grid that is seemingly practical and visually stimulating. It’s all quite an accomplishment for building plans you hope never need implementation.