Planetary

Google's Chromebook, inside a Chanel atelier, dissecting an FBI tracking device and more in this week's look at the web

What one reviewer called “the most polished, the most magical, the most immersive app” in iTunes, Planetary visualizes your music collection as an astronomical journey allowing you to browse albums and control playback in a 3D vision of outer space.

Landmade Cork Journals

Hand-bound notebooks with beautifully one-of-a-kind cork covers

We recently came across the meticulously constructed Landmade Cork Journal by Michael Roger Press, and not only does the material give way to a beautiful pattern, but the half-century-old stationer uses the traditional Smyth sewn binding technique. Hand-sewing the pages together (instead of gluing) gives the notebook’s binding extra strength and allows it to open flat—two important features for anyone who uses a notebook regularly. …

Julien Vallée

A young Canadian designer marries painstaking handcraft with digital finesse

The work of Québec-born graphic designer Julien Vallée practically leaps off the screen, and in some cases literally, as in a paper sculpture that he did for the 2008 Illustrative Zurich Festival. Spray from a can explodes through a stark black background into a thousand primary-colored shards, for a sculpture that is so dynamic, you can hardly believe it isn’t moving. In a move that’s …