• Liquor bottles always have the best design! The Dieline shares its 50 favorite liquor package designs.

• George Lois (the mastermind behind some of the most famous Esquire covers of all time) is one of my idols. Read what he has to say about magazines and editorial design. Thanks, Danielle!

• Smashing Magazine lays out the finer points of how to explain to clients that they are wrong.

• The retail slump has finally hit Los Angeles. To be fair, maybe it has been there all along but is just now becoming more noticeable.

• Hating a book by its cover is something that I have always struggled with (sad but true!) and the NY Times digs a little deeper with When Bad Covers Happen to Good Books.

• Need some common sense career advice? Get it here. Charlie Hoehn says “Therein lies the best career advice I could possibly dispense: just DO things. Chase after the things that interest you and make you happy. Stop acting like you have a set path, because you don’t. No one does. You shouldn’t be trying to check off the boxes of life; they aren’t real and they were created by other people, not you. There is no explicit path I’m following, and I’m not walking in anyone else’s footsteps. I’m making it up as I go.”

• How to buy on Ebay.

• I am in Heaven. Helvetica Heaven, to be precise. Get your very own Helvetica Moleskine icon!

• Lady Gaga meets the Queen and it is pretty much the funniest thing I have ever seen. The caption on photo #5 is the best: Her Majesty’s face says it all. ‘I think one has finally worked out what WTF stands for.’

• The Display Modern Graphic Design Collection features a curated collection of 59 (and growing) important graphic design books, periodicals and ephemera.

• I realllllly want the new Conundrums Book that is designed by Harry Pearce of Pentagram. It features a collection of typographic puzzles that are beautifully designed, of course.

• Criterion Collection DVD covers feature some absolutely amazing design. They’re all like mini movie posters crossed with book covers.

• Currently, the word on the street is that Martin Margiela will not be replaced at the design house bearing his name, Maison Martin Margiela.

• For all of you crafty folks out there, Vain and Vapid has a roundup of 12 holiday tutorials.