Be original this Christmas and forget about the usual chocolate box/book/perfume. From $25 per month, you could support the Australian Koala Foundation by adopting a cuddly marsupial as a gift. How about Rocky or Serenity, or maybe Rose? They are all so cute that it’s impossible to choose only one.

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The Sketchbook Project collects thousands of artists’ sketchbooks from across the globe and exhibits them in cities all over the world. The crew just posted a sneak peek at some of the finished sketchbooks that have just arrived at Project HQ in Brooklyn.

All Oz Cards stamps a new twist on time-honoured entertainment, poking fun at the Australian culture with every deal. Photographer and designer Celeste Brignac brings her talent for detail to the game after years of in-depth research at watering holes across this dry continent. Get your mates together, pull up a few eskies and distract the competition with the iconic Aussie lingo.

This is the story of a beautiful painting: The Rising by Australian artist Emma Walker. A stop-motion film clip and a love letter to Thom Yorke? Wonderful.

Ducked and Covered is a must-see: the Survival Guide to the Post Apocalypse is an instructional public information film designed to assist Australians after a nuclear war. Produced by the Australian Board of Civil Defence during the early 1980s, this dusty film was found within a university film archive.

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Check out the awesome work of Australian artist Matthew Quick. His latest series, Introduced species, is very cool stuff indeed.

Registrations for the 2011 Music Video Mash-Up registrations are now open. This is an annual competition that pairs up-and-coming musicians and directors across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Bands and filmmakers are paired randomly over the June long weekend to compete for thousands of dollars in prizes, including the winning band and filmmaker being flown to the Video Hits set to be interviewed on air.

Our friend Marcus Westbury, Renew Newcastle founder (a movement that Lost At E Minor co-founder Zac is a board member of) and man of boundless creative energy, has been selected as part of The Crunch, a Victorian-based project to nurture new social enterprises, for his efforts toward the establishment of Renew Australia. The Crunch offers one of nine organisations the chance to put in a bid for a share of a million dollars in seed funding.

As Westbury notes: ‘Renew Australia is aimed to be a national scheme based on the Renew Newcastle model – making the best possible uses of otherwise empty spaces by making them available to artists, creative projects and community groups’.

To help support the bid, you can become a fan of Renew Australia on Facebook and ask your friends to ‘Like’ it, too.

Marcus will be heading to the US for three weeks next year and is looking for opportunities to meet interesting urbanists, see creative responses to decaying cities, and chat with people who might be interested in implementing similar models. Drop him a note if interested.

[photo by Brock Perks via the SMH]

Trading nightlife between countries. What a neat idea to switch music, parties, food, places, drinks, people and the inner workings of far-flung cultures for a night and just see what happens. We’re into it, so we figured that a good way to support would be to discover what nightlife means to some of our favourite Aussie creatives.

We’ve just wrapped the interview series during which we heard about a tight knit community from Pat Stevenson, food and friends from Jai Pyne, lurking in shadows from Anthony Lister (ha!), more food and friends from Luca Ionescu and a fistful of music and good times from Dan Single.

Can’t help but wonder how many kebabs and Four’N Twenties snuck into the crate before it was sealed up. We’ll find out on November 27 when the world swaps nights and the Aussie crate is cracked open somewhere across the pond. Not sure which country’s crate is landing in Australia, but if you’d like to be at the party in Sydney head over to Smirnoff Australia for a shot at attending. [Taj Alexander is pictured with his crate artwork in Melbourne]

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We asked Jai Pyne of indie-rock band The Paper Scissors what Aussie nightlife means to him. ‘A night out in Sydney for me is probably not the most thrilling experience compared to others. I could lie and tell you about how much I love Ching a Lings, or Shadey Pines. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad there are some nice bars in Sydney now. But the truth is that I lay pretty low. For me, the best nights happen when food is involved. I think that’s one of the things that keeps me sane and keeps me in touch with Sydney. I often doubt the city and my reasons for living in it, but when I go out and eat, it reminds me of the reasons why I stay and why I begrudgingly love Sydney.’

‘The thing that represents nightlife to me is eating amazing food with friends. My partner and I will often make the trip to Lakemba to eat Lebanese food. Driving down the main street, it’s so far removed from the inner city that it’s refreshing; the smells are different, the faces are different, and the hours people keep are later. You’d be hard pressed to find a shop open in some inner city suburbs after 9, but here you can still buy nuts in bulk or bunches of herbs for a dollar. But the garlic and the mint and the hommous are the things that suck us back. And you don’t always have to venture that far for an awesome dinner. There is Thai food that has blown my mind and chilli rushed my head into oblivion and sleeplessness only a suburb away. Living in Newtown, I am surrounded by Thai restaurants, although a lot of them are very standard – edible but underwhelming. But there are a few places you can go and get flavour that kills these wok rockers.

‘Even with my band The Paper Scissors – we are the least ‘rock n roll’ guys ever – we always try to find the best spots to eat in the different places we pass through. We often take the piss out of ourselves – and deservingly so. One time we ate Gelati between sound check and show, and on a trip to Adelaide for a festival, we went wine tasting. I think my friends all have worked in the hospitality industry to support themselves or maybe sadistically for the joy of it, but I think it helps when going out. These people know where to eat, how to eat, to share dishes, to tip enough, and to drink well.

‘I spend all my money on food. I always wonder where it all went, but then I remember all the nice meals I’ve had and the fun I’ve had with friends. I think the term ‘foodie’ evokes pictures of Matt Preston or some wanker who reads Good Living religiously, but most of the people I love and value in life love food and the best memories of Sydney involve food.’

Fill our crate with the best of Aussie nightlife. Your fave bands, DJs.. Go!

[Track by The Paper Scissors]

We asked Hobogestapo photographer Pat Stevenson what Australian nightlife means to him: ‘I believe the main characteristic that makes Sydney and Australia stand out from the rest of the world is how tightly knit our community is, everyone knows everyone. This may sound like a bad thing, but it actually makes things great. I find in Sydney we are like one big family, everyone is on good terms with each other and for the most part it’s a very positive, supporting group of very talented musicians and creatives pushing each other to achieve something truly unique’.

‘I found when I first started shooting social stuff, that a lot of things were very bland and generic. You had your small pockets of creatives trying to push things in a new direction, but for the most part, it was all very tame and safe. Each time I go out to shoot, I am always trying to think of something new and innovative to try to change things up a bit. It’s great working with five other guys under the Hobo banner in Sydney as we all basically live with each other in our small office space in Surry Hills and we are constantly punching ideas into each others heads and feeding off each other.

‘I just came home from shooting an entire portraiture gallery with ‘The Kid’ in three different clubs around Sydney, just using two iPhone ‘flashlight’ apps to light our subjects. It is this thirst for creativity that is keeping me happy and active three years down the track. Still going strong!’ [photos by Pat Stevenson]

The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange crates have arrived in fourteen countries across the globe. Be a part of the day the world swaps nights by filling Australia’s crate with the best of Aussie nightlife. Get started!

The Nightlife Exchange Project involves 14 countries around the world filling crates with the best of their local nightlife and exchanging their country’s crate with another. It kicked off in Australia with artist and China Heights curator Ed Woodley giving the Aussie crate a good lick of paint at Sydney’s Darling Harbour [pictured], and the crate will be making it’s way around the country before enjoying a send off party in October.

To support the Nightlife Exchange Project we’re running an interview series with 5 of our favourite Aussie creatives; we’ve asked what Australian nightlife means to photographers, designers, musicians and artists, and we’re publishing the responses over the next few weeks.

Read the interview series on Australia’s inspiring nightlife.

Australian illustrator Eamo has a new exhibition running at The Gorker Gallery in Melbourne featuring, among other works, this limited edition print — Shrimp — ten per cent of the sales of which will go towards the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. [See more Australian art and culture at The Colour]

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Vintage tram and bus destination rolls are the new must-haves for any design-savvy hipster living in Australia. Dating back to the early 1900s, these simple yet domestic icons represent a time when print was in. Happily, it still is: this time, on tea towels thanks to Bus Roll Tea Towels.

Made of one hundred percent fresh, white cotton, these graphic-popping towels cover destinations across Australia from Adelaide to The Blue Mountains, with more stops to come down the road (pun intended). Snag them online or at shops throughout Australia — just make sure you take the bus to get there.

During a recent visit to Australia, I picked up one of these Das Monk tees. I figured I’d bring a little piece of Down Under-style back to America with me. They’re a sweet fit and run just a touch longer than a few other brands I’ve worn, so they pair well with fitted jeans. save yourself an airfare and grab one from our online store.

The work of Australian artist Eamo is a fun explosion of colour, all wrapped up in mischevious themes and personalities.

Thom Kerr is one of Australia’s most exciting fashion and advertising photographers, having exhibited in Japan, Italy, and New Zealand. In 2008, he was featured on the hit reality television show Germany’s Next Top Model.

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Vee Speers was born in Australia and has been living in Paris since 1990. Her most recent work, The Birthday Party, is a series of short stories linked by the theme of an imaginary birthday party. In a conceptual and technical departure from her previous work, it is partly a self-portrait, sometimes woven with threads from her own childhood.

Nothing says I Love You like a bottle of wine with your face on it. At least that’s what the clever kids of Australia’s The Creative Method believe. And so was born the idea of BYO: Build Your Own Label with your face on it, that is. Originally conceived as a unique gift for this creative design agency’s clients, BYO has been turning a lot of heads — or faces, as it were.

The Creative Method searched for something that would reflect their staff, their ingenuity, and their playfulness as a substitute to tiresome flyers and other predictable thank yous during the holiday season. Thus came these build your own wine labels, where each staff had their own bottle to represent them. And despite being slightly spooky to some, this fresh look at wine labeling and gift-giving has been the talk of the town ever since.

You can search high and low, but sometimes the inspiration you’re chasing is in your own backyard. One site keeping it local, is Re:Collection. This online archive of Australian graphic design from 1960-1980 well and truly covers off the three I’s — inspiring, intriguing and influential. What more could you want?