Yesterday, we inaugurated The Totally Frightful Issue with a piece on gay skin heads. Today, we take a look at some petrifying ways to top those - and your - heads.

Dead animals may be a bit scary to some, but for Victor Osborne and Zach Barnett, the duo behind Victor Osborne, they’re grist for the creative mill. Drawing on an old millinery tradition, the boys incorporate every thing from fox heads to baby birds into their frightening fabrications.

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Ready to upgrade from Ikea's lighting department? Your roommate-boyfriend-party posse will thank you. Enough with those tired prefab designs made for the mass market. Especially if you've got only 250 square feet of living space (hey, we know what it's like to live in New York) it's even more important to keep your home well-lit. And, perhaps more importantly, lit attractively. That's where Rob Zinn's wall sconces come in. The designer teamed with blankblank (the team responsible for executing these designs) to create two worthy additions to your living room: the Expansion Wall Sconce and the Viscosity Wall Sconce, which only look like vaginas to the untrained eye. If we've even got to tell you these fixtures double as art then, well, you probably don't deserve them.

Expansion Wall Sconce and Viscosity Wall Sconce [2modern]

We await the day when club owners will stop paying people to "design" things like giant plastic womens legs over the bar, and instead spend that cash on more worthwhile additions like intelligently designed urinals. Designer Philip Watts has two models that we love: the Spoon and the Pale Ale.

The former has a sleek, tapered shape and elegant curves that could possibly turn peeing into a classy experience, and the latter does the opposite, by making you feel like you're peeing into a tin bucket. We especially love the bucket one for its faux-rusticness; peeing in that thing would be like standing around the junkyard with your buddies and having a pee, except when you're finised there is an attendant to hand you a paper towel.

Urinals [Philip Watts Design]

With so many opportunities to create something beautiful out of the everyday mundane, we're waiting for the day when trash cans dotting every New York City corner display works by local artists. Maytag is on moving in the right direction by reinventing washers and dryers as installation art. But it's Barcode Revolution that proves even the most simple ubiquitious aspect of our daily routine can elicit some charm. The company took a basic question – Why has the barcode never changed? – and "set out to innovate a new way for companies to think about how their valuable product real estate gets used." The result is an effort to bring top Japanese to the U.S. — and make sure event he packaging is pretty.

Barcode Revolution

Always on the look out for under-the-radar designers with the talent to rival behemoths like Louis Vuitton, we were ecstatic to discover Ro, a New York design outfit from Gene Miao and Yvonne Roe that specializes in leather goods. Tired of seeing store shelves lined with bags that scream both "impractical" and "ugly," Ro does the opposite: instant classics that're both usable and aesthetically pleasing. We recently picked up Ro's MW Suitcase (smaller than you'd think) and business card holder, but already we're eyeing their duffle, which puts Prada's canvas alternative to shame. So far it looks like Ro is sticking to smaller bags and accessories; but as soon as they've got a suitcase on wheels, we'll be buying.

Ro (Purchasing available at retail locations only. No online shopping, unfortunately.)

Canadian designer Karim Rashid has opinions about as loud as his interiors, so love him or hate him, we respect him for his ability to give a juicy interview. In the most recent issue of fab Magazine, he goes to great lengths to talk about how he "designs" rather "styles", how he is "not arrogant", and how his low, 60s-like couches are not copying the 60s.

His thoughts on the color pink are particularly telling:

I use pink a lot. I’ve been using pink since I was a teenager. I went to my high school graduation in a pink satin suit with pink hair and pink nails in 1976. It’s not like I’ve changed a lot. It’s always been a part of me. Pink is strong.

But we definitely disagree with him on his point that "The formal shoe of today is the running shoe." We personally think running shoes are so hideous that we don't even wear them to the gym, sore feet be damned.

Karim Rashid on colours, high heels and orgies of conversation [fab]

"Girl, that faux-Balenciaga purse is against the law!" And it actually could be, if the fashion industry gets its way. The Council of Fashion Designers of America is petitioning Congress to get copyright protection for the physical appearance of their designs, something they have not had since the 1930s because until now clothes have been considered "utilitarian," and thus exempt from intellectual property laws.

The CFDA wants that to change so they can have legal recourse if a copycat design is not "original" or is "substantially similar in appearance to a protected design."

These are very murky waters, because as we all know, probably 50% of the collections shown during any given fashion week look strangely similar. We call it "trend," but maybe, just maybe, it is the result of decades of indiscreet borrowing of ideas.

But the target of the proposed statute would most likely not be designers' high-end colleagues, but rather discount stores like H&M and Zara, which follow the trends so closely that only those in the know can tell that the trend didn't start right there for $19.95. Not only are high fashion designs showing up in those stores through mimickry, but designers are now taking their business directly to the cheaper chains with exclusive partnerships (hello Karl, Stella, and Isaac).

Slate ponders whether creativity in the fashion industry would thrive or stagnate if the CFDA succeeds in its effort. It'd be nice if designers on the high and low end paid more attention to originality of ideas, and were more comfortable setting trends than following them. And aside from that, a good courtroom drama is fun. It comes as a surprise to us that all the bitchy queens in the fashion industry haven't been suing each other right along.

Copycat fight [Slate]

We know some of you were more interested in the chair from these photos we posted this morning. And that is OK to admit, because it’s a beauty. The Eames Lounge Chair was designed in 1965 by the husband and wife team of Charles and Ray Eames. Using leather and bent woods the design is functional and comfortable, while retaining a beauty not often seen in furniture design. Somehow it is beautiful and masculine at the same time.

Charles and Ray Eames are considered masters of 20th century design. Their catalog of designs remains vital and stylish today, 50 plus years later. But we’ve already told you that.

Those photos this morning got us all excited partly because of Micky and partly because of the Eames Lounge Chair. We’re design fags. Sometimes chairs and boys both can get our blood pumping. The chair may cost more, but unlike the boy, it will last a lifetime.

Eames Lounge Chair [Design Within Reach]
Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman [Herman Miller]
Charles and Ray Eames Online [Eames Office]

We love Craigslist. We have found jobs, mid-century modern furniture, and the occasional blowjob all through the site with equal ease. In what we hope becomes a regular feature around these parts, featuring fun, disgusting, and unbelievable posts on Craigslist, take a look at this job posting for the Senior Planner for the WTC. Maybe we fags hold design and city planning in higher regards than most, but this seems like a job that is a little too important to be listed on the same website that has people peddling stained IKEA couches and searching for bareback sex. Does it not?

See a Craigslist post we should spotlight? Send it over.

How could you not love a blog dedicated to interior design and urban living? And that is exactly what Apartment Therapy is: the definitive blog covering design news, reviews, resources, and solutions. Co-founder Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan (what a name!) took the time to complete our five-question interview. We are tickled pink that a straight guy, and not a homo, is the talent behind site.

What is your greatest source of inspiration?
Gosh, humans inspire me the most. Gandhi, Steiner, and JK Rowling are among the top picks.

What is the greatest album every recorded?
Good question. This is a too much pressure to put on one album, so I would take English Beat's What is Beat? and a Bach symphony.

What is the greatest book ever written?
Unquestionably, The Divine Comedy by Dante. You need a teacher or SOMEONE to get you through it, but it is absolutely unforgettable on every possible level.

What is your most prized possession?
My wife.

What is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness is not to be caught in illusion. Avoid your hunger, keep to the center, trust yourself, and don’t stop. That is it.

It's not hard to find a gay architect or designer. Hell, it's hard to find one that's not gay, but finding one that's also good? Well, look no further than Rawlins Design. Founded in 2000 by Christopher Rawlins, the Manhattan firm focuses on residential interior architecture that somehow comes arcoss as looking "smart" and stylish as well.

We love the "Bibliophiles Residence" as well as the "Bathroom for the Filmmaker," but it's the "Essay in Copper, Walnut, and Maple" that really caught our eye. Rawlins works with lots of wood and "woven" copper to create spaces that are modern yet warm.

His website says he's working on designs for a new loft building. Better get those checkbooks out quick. Good design is hard to find.

Most ceramists don't have a manifesto. Then again, most ceramists are not Jonathan Adler. He is the the partner to Barneys' creative director Simon Doonan and the maker of retro, kitsch house must-haves. Jonathan Adler's work is remarkable. Whether a Valley of the Dolls inspired pill dish or one of his decorative fishes, each piece of his work has personality. And they are all so gay.

His manifesto includes some choice words:

We believe that when it comes to decorating, the wife is always right. Unless the husband is gay.

We believe minimalism is a bummer.

We believe handcrafted tchotchkes are life-enhancing.

We believe in our muses: David Hicks, Alexander Girard, Bonnie Cashin, Hans Coper, Gio Ponti, Andy Warhol, Leroy Neiman, Yves Saint Laurent, and Madonna.

We believe in being underdressed or overdressed always.

We believe in infantile, happy emblems like butterflies and hearts.

We believe celebrities should pay full price.

We believe in rustic modernism: Big Sur, A-Frame beach houses, raw beams, and geodesic dome homes.

We believe our designs are award winning even though they've never actually won any.

We believe colors can't clash.

We believe Adler is a genius.