Mike Lenhart (bio)

British Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently visited the White House for his first-ever visit to President Obama. Although they talked about a lot of issues, one of the most interesting things to me was the exchange of art they gave to each other.

Mr. Cameron gave the President a painting by graffiti artist, Ben Eine. The work is called Twenty First Century City. I love the use of space and typography used.

Mr. Obama returned the exchange with a work done by pop artist, Ed Ruscha, called Column with Speed Lines. I couldn't find the piece, but check out his Web site.

I am impressed not only by the choice of art as gifts, but also the infusion of culture in diplomatic relations.

You can check out the entire article on this, here.

Web site design has certainly come a long way since the '90s. Remember when it was all HTML? Later, we got into XHTML, Flash, CSS, and other types of scripting? Web designers have had to keep up with all the changes in coding just to keep ahead. Now, there is a type of Web design that goes back to the basics of most of them - black and white.

It seems that Apple is doing some censoring in a few of their various apps. I just read a report that they've asserted some control over what they deem appropriate in their app store and iBookstore. Not only have they blacked-out gay-themed, illustrated books, such as two men kissing, they've also censored some of the great literary works of all time. Can you believe that in Moby Dick, they altered the word sperm whale into s***m whale? I guess that Apple has reversed their censorship after an outcry on the Internet. Good move. C'mon Apple, work on your products and technologies that have made such an impact. Fix the iPhone!

What with the Lindsay Lohan's controversial nail polish message during her recent court appearance, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the art/design of this practice. Not that all nail polishing habits have to contain the F-word, there are a lot of ways that women, and men, choose to design their nail polishing works of art.

I've always loved signage and typography, well at least for a long time now. After spending some time in rural Ohio this summer, I've had the opportunity to see some interesting signs along the country highways and biways. It's interesting to me to see typographic styles on signs that were done before the digital age. It seems that there were a lot of talented sign painters through the years.

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

The design of airliners and passenger seating has taken a new turn. As we all know, the business of commercial air travel has gone through great lengths recently to retain their passengers without pissing them off too much. It's no wonder, with all the fees and extra charges that make most flyers cringe.

It seems now that there is talk about allowing passengers to purchase airline tickets at phenomenally low rates - only if they are willing to stand on the flight.

With the largest, man-made environmental disaster currently going on, I not only take pause to reflect on how sad it is that this is happening, I also have to think about the corporation(s) that are responsible.  There's plenty of blame and finger-pointing going on which won't solve the problem. With BP at the top of the blame list, it's funny to see how some folks out there have taken it upon themselves to reconfigure, and redesign, the company's logo.

Take a look at some that I consider the best.