Creativity and profit-making have always had a turbulent relationship. Creativity typically gets sacrificed for the profit motive (though not always), and profit-makers tend to see creative types as a cloud of annoying gnats blocking their progress toward the clear, melodious sound of “Cha-ching!” One welcome development in the creativity / profit-making equation can be seen on certain commercial websites, where the content overflows with originality and imagination. Visitors to such sites are invited to play for its own sake. Example: FWIS, a design studio with offices in Brooklyn, Portland and Cupertino, offers cleverly designed flat images to cut, fold and tape into manga-like 3-D toys at http://readymech.com — for free! One character featured on the site — “R. Mutt” — pays homage to DuChamp’s ready-made urinal. The toys are so beautiful that you’ll want to download all of them. Recently, FWIS was commissioned to create a series of free designer pinhole cameras for the Corbis website. The “Pablo” and “Peyote” cameras are especially fun.

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