Dwell Magazine just recently did an interview with our founder Dave Brown and we wanted to give it some notoriety because the only thing we love more than Dwell is shameless self-promotion. JK. The article traces Holiday Matinee from its music industry roots all the way to I Swear To Good You Are God At This. Dave talks about his process in writing the book and how jazzed he is to release more products in the near future including some possible collaborations with Furni and Baggu. Anyway, give it a read if you have any questions about what the hell we’re actually doing around here.

The Hardgraft aesthetic is just ridiculously cool and I almost lost it when I saw there new 2UNFOLD bag. I mean, there’s laptop bags and then there’s hardgraft’s bag. Each handmade and individually numbered bag can be either a briefcase, messenger bag, shoulder bag, or backpack with a few minor changes. This is really great because it combines the quality we look for in specialized apparel with fantastic design and versatility.

I really love seeing that old world care and skill in our modern world of convenience and outsourcing, which is why I like Brooklyn Tailors so much. Their custom shirts and suits could not be cooler and you can really feel the quality in the stuff they make. Besides, if you’re into the slick Mad Men-esque style like I am, their shit is a no-brainer. Check ‘em out, it’s companies like this one that the apparel world needs right now.

Given the upcoming release of our book I Swear to Good You Are God At This, we’ve been on the lookout for other great design literature and have stumbled upon designer Cody Hudson’s book Thanks For Nothing. 30 pages of incredible design and great inspiration make this book a must have for any creative mind.

Steve Powers’ latest project A Love Letter for You really brings murals into the modern age of clean design and vector drawing. Basically the premise is 50 murals covering 20 blocks around Market street in Philadelphia, all centered around the theme of a love letter to and from West Philadelphia. Now comes the best part, you don’t have to fly to Pennsylvania to see it because the whole process has been put into a book. Check out Cool Hunting for more pics and info.

So Craigslist is great if you’re looking for an apartment or a camcorder made in the early 90′s, but it comes up rather short when you’re trying to find say, an Eames Lounge Chair. This is where Lushpad.com comes into play. Basically, it’s a posting board for people looking to buy/sell expensive furniture and art at a marked down price. Again, Craigslist for the yuppy of discerning taste and limited resources.

I think it’s really important that as the younger generation in our current financial crisis, we begin setting the trend of fiscal responsibility, and that trend starts with Mint.com. Mint is basically Weight Watchers for your bank account. You can set budgets for how much you want to spend on what and establish goals for what you would like to save each month, year, etc. and Mint automatically keeps track of your spending. If you go over or are close to going over a budgeted amount, Mint will email you or text you to let you know. The point of this is that finally someone is developing a simple and clean way to manage your finances that takes full advantage of the technology we use on a daily basis. So, if you’re young and think you might be broke in the near future, this is your answer. I mean, I’m 17 and I know next to nothing about the financial world or the people at Mint but it makes sense to me, and that is what’s cool.