Welcome to the weekly Design Dispatch. This week we're talking the Instagram auction that lets you support small businesses while raising money for Covid-19 relief, how artists are beautifying boarded-up buildings, and where to shop for essential items (and puzzles).

DESIGN NEWS:

Still We Rise is hosting an Instagram auction of items from small brands and makers to benefit Covid-19 relief by bringing meals to those who need it most right now. It ends April 20th, so there are only a few days left to get your bids in. Find out more here.

As anyone with children can attest, it's hard enough getting them to put on a jacket to leave the house, let alone a face mask. Two brands have come up with a creative solution to that problem by making kids' masks look more like dress-up clothes than PPE. Lovelane Designs is currently taking preorders on their series of masks, featuring black kitty, dragon, and panda masks, $9-$9.50, while Dearest Kjaere is offering the option to have a kitty face embroidered onto their kids' masks, $18.

New York Mag Strategist put out this great guide to unlikely sources for essential items, including hand sanitizer and toilet paper. We can personally attest to finding items at a couple of the places that made the list.

We just updated a couple of our own lists, including small brands that are making reusable face masks and modern jigsaw puzzles for adults, which, no joke, has been one of our most popular posts to date. If puzzles aren't your thing, you might want to check out our adult coloring books to destress.

The video conferencing platform Zoom has become a massive success overnight (though not without some major growing pains), and people have come up with some creative ways to use it. Oakland based band Thao and the Get Down remotely produced a full-length music video on it, and the results are mesmerizing. Equally impressive was the performance of the song Alexander Hamilton put on by the cast of Hamilton as a part of an episode of SGN- John Krasinski's uplifting new Youtube show.

LOCAL INTEREST:

Boarded-up storefronts are getting a makeover thanks to artists treating the boards as canvas'. The iconic honey bears of local street artists Fnnch have been popping up all around the city, clad in face masks, and often on theme with the businesses they are installed in front of, while in the Haight muralists are adorning the front of boarded-up buildings. Locals are getting in on the action as well with homemade signs bearing messages of hope appearing throughout the city.

San Francisco based co-working space The Assembly has announced plans to move online for the time being with The Assembly Anywhere. Membership to the "digital wellness club" is $60 a month. Benefits include a full roster of live fitness classes, wellness workshops, and more, plus access to their library of on-demand content. They're offering a seven-day free trial if you want to check it out for yourself.

READ:

The Upside of Being Down by Jen Gotch is a memoir, but also a self-help book, a startup founder's story, and a lesson on running a business. It's gut-wrenching and raw, but also hopeful and imbued with optimism. In short, much like it's author, it's complicated. We couldn't put this tale of self-discovery down and think that its message of mental health advocacy and destigmatization is timely as we go through this collective crisis.

That concludes our weekly Design Dispatch. If there is anything you would like to add to the list, feel free to leave a comment below, and if you have a tip for a future column, feel free to drop us a line.

For up to date information and recommendations on Covid-19, please visit the CDC website.

*This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links, click here for our full policy and disclosures.