A few Emmys later and it’s official — Mad Men is an outstanding drama series. The 60s throwback sets, costumes, and conundrums are inspired, but they’re also inspiring. New York designer / unofficial official house designer for UCB, Dyna Moe has illustrated scenes from the first and second season using a period-invoking cartoon style. Her stylized pics portray everything from Betsy and her steed, to the crew at Sterling Cooper enjoying their Christmas party (the piece that started all of this, commissioned by Rich Sommer aka Harry Crane in the series).

In spite of all of the warnings about global warming, there are still those that continue to drive the gas guzzling behemoth that is the Hummer. The tank-sized vehicle is often purchased to compensate for shortcomings both mental and physical or just as a garish show of riches. In order to offset this ostentatious display of wealth and environmental disregard Ji Lee, Andrew Wilcox and Nelly Ma have come up with a project entitled Tag A Dummer. The project asks people to download and print out the letter “D” as provided and tag any Hummer they see by gluing it on and rebranding their vehicle a “Dummer” to alert the driver to the error of their ways. While it probably won’t convince people whose idea of a good time is cruising down the street in an urban assault vehicle to become environmentally conscious, it might at least go a short way in knocking them down a peg. Visitors to the site can also read up on the environmental impact of the vehicle as well as see pictures of Dummers that have been tagged.

Just newly opened like a fresh cereal box at Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles is Vida e Morte spotlighting three deserving talents from Brazil you likely haven’t heard about yet — Alexandre Anjo, Andre Firmiano and Pankill — whose works were done in a variety of media. Anjo’s art focuses on fire, earth, air and water; Firmiano visually discusses the metropolitan growth of Sao Paulo and how it affects the social and economic order there, and Pankill (go girl!) tackles good versus evil. Get these three on your radar. The exhibit runs till Oct. 12.

Rooms is an innovative international tradeshow, stemming from the idea that designers have concepts to transmit to the world around them. Literally, Rooms provides a “room” to exhibit those ideas, each an intersection for designers, buyers and journalists to create new business opportunities, global communication and inspiration. Launched in 2000, Rooms is held twice a year with exhibits that include clothing, denim products, accessories, everyday gadgets and art. The latest room (No.17) was adorned with resin and plush art toys by Tokyo-born, London-educated designer, Ayako Takagi.

I’ve been mostly off the radar in Japan this past week taking a little time off from the interwebs, but have been photo-blogging a few of my experiences over at the new pet project blog, Flying Standby. Check out the unbelievable Kaiseki style meals, the crazy pilgrimage to eat black black eggs at Owakudani, and a visit to meet Yahoo! in Japan. I’ve just now landed in Hong Kong, welcomed for my one day visit by what seems to be a serious typhoon. I experienced incredible restaurants in Tokyo, an earthquake, and an onsen (hot spring) resort to die for– i’ll be writing about it all soon right here. On Thursday morning I head to Tianjin for the World Economic Forum, Annual Meeting of the New Champions. I’ll be twittering and blogging live from there (where I’m on a panel) as well. As usual, any tips for HK, Shanghai, Tianjin, or if you want to say hello, comments are open. Cheers…