Scion, pop culture magazine Giant Robot and artist Shin Tanaka have created a series of cool paper toy templates for select Giant Robot issues. Tanaka’s first template appeared in Giant Robot issue 56, which also featured an interview with the artist himself. The second template followed in issue 57, and the third is featured in issue 58, which hit the streets on February 9. Readers can cut out the templates and fold them following the simple instructions to make their own robots. Fun.

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Lifelounge’s Luke Lucas is one of the guest speakers at this year’s Semi-Permanent conference in Perth on April 8th. We caught up with him recently and asked him about the latest with Lifelounge: ‘After eight years of working in the our tin shed with few comforts, we finally renovated Lifelounge HQ at the start of this year. It’s about billion times better than before with a fully stocked bar, climate control, insulation and heaps more room (which we’ve already outgrown). We’ve also just secured a second premise that we’re about to commence the fit out on in early April. Workwise, we’re about to send the 11th edition of Lifelounge Magazine off to print’.‘This next edition is our biggest issue yet, with more pages, better paper stock and a larger format than before. On the client services side, we’ve been working closely with the Victorian Government on a preventative marketing campaign for the drug Ice. We’re also working on the creation of a mysterious new beer, the relaunch of the Aussie deep fried icon, the Chiko Roll, building and managing the mobile shipping container event space, Soco Cargo as it travels around the country, and a few other bits and pieces. Our research arm is also about to release it’s latest findings through the business tool UMR (Urban Market Research)’. In your opinion, is there much been done these days that could be called truly original when it comes to design work — print or online — or is it all a rehash of trends of days past? ‘There’s very little in the world of design that hasn’t been influenced — whether it be consciously or subconsciously — by the design styles and executions from previous masters. There is a lot of rehashing of previous trends, but at the same time, there are people who are drawing on inspiration from the past and re-interpreting it or combining it with their own flair to create something new. Also, technological advancements in print, web and motion design (through progression in paper stocks, ink, print processes, hardware and software) all open doors to concepts and design solutions that would never have been available before’. What will be the bones of your talk at SP? ‘We haven’t actually worked out the specifics, but I’m guessing we will talk a little bit about where Lifelounge has come from and where it’s going and a lot of things we’ve picked up along the way’.