No object is too ordinary or random to end up being used as a stand-in for a full-scale building, boat, landscape or prop in art director and photographer Tatsuya Tanaka’s imaginative miniature landscapes, released each and every day on an online calendar. There’s a donut island, a record player as a lake, a literal sushi train, tiny European houses made of clips and dice, disposable razor ski lifts, brush bristle fields and even a cracked iPhone standing in for a hole in an icy lake.

With thousands of these brilliant photographs under his belt, Tanaka has amassed a following of no less than one million on Instagram. His work is so consistently clever and surprising, you might find yourself opening the app first thing in the morning wondering what in the world he possibly could have thought up this time. The little scenes will make you look at everyday objects in a whole new way.

“Everyone must have had thoughts like these before: broccoli and parsley may sometimeslook like a forest of trees, and tree leaves floating on the surface of water may sometimes look like little boats. Everyday occurrences seen from a miniature perspective can bring us lots of fun thoughts. I wanted to take this way of thinking and express it through photographs, so I started to put together a ‘MINIATURE CALENDAR,’” says Tanaka.

“These photographs primarily depict diorama-style figures surrounded by daily necessities. Just like a standard daily calendar, the photos are updated daily on my website and SNS page, earning it the name of ‘MINIATURE CALENDAR.’ It would be great if you could use it to add a little enjoyment to your everyday life.”

Grids of square-shaped dates aren’t the only way to keep track of the passing year. These 15 design-centric wall and desk calendars allow you to pop, unravel, bleed and burn your way through the days of the week, or arrange them into a functional sculpture.

Unraveling Calendar by Patrick Frey

(images via: design milk)

With each day that passes, you pull the thread that dangles from the bottom of Patrick Frey’s Gregor Calendar, and the year literally unravels, leaving nothing more than a ball of yarn by December 31st.

Bubble Calendar

(image via: bubble calendar)

Say goodbye to each day with a satisfying, stress-relieving pop. The Bubble Calendar has the days of each month printed on a sheet of thick paper covered in bubble wrap.

Matches Calendar

(images via: gstudio)

If unraveling or popping each day doesn’t give you enough satisfaction, maybe you’d prefer to see them burn. Ukrainian designer Yurko Gutsulayk offers each date as a tear-off match that can be struck against the surface of the calendar’s stand.

Dates Arranged in a Circle by Martin Oberhämmer

(image via: benhammer.de)

This striking black calendar by designer Martin Oberhämmer ditches the conventional layout of dates, arranging them in a colorful circle instead.

Year of the Snake Calendar by Moon in June

(image via: moon in june)

The year ahead is laid out in an unusual graphic checkerboard pattern in tones of magenta and orange in the ‘Year of the Snake’ calendar by Moon in June.

Pop Up Calendar by Johann Volkmer

(image via: design boom)

Each month is represented by a pop-up sculpture made of intricately crafted paper in these three-dimensional calendars by Johann Volkmer. Can you pick out the shapes in each one?

Letterpress Perpetual Desk Calendar by Orange Beautiful

(image via: orange beautiful)

Don’t worry about ever throwing away another calendar. Perpetual desktop calendars like this beautiful typographic one from Orange Beautiful make it easy to switch out the date, month and day of the week so you can use them forever.

ONE Perpetual Calendar Circles

(images via: design milk)

This perpetual calendar uses a series of rings that can be connected in various ways to create a three-dimensional sculpture.  The largest ring represents the month, the middle ring represents the moon’s orbit around the earth, and the smallest represents the seven days of the week.

Puzzle Calendar

(image via: paper source)

This fun and interactive puzzle calendar lets you arrange Lego-like blocks any way you like, inserting special blocks for holidays and other events.

Rocking Chair Sculpture Calendar

(image via: design milk)

Some of the seriousness is taken from the notion of passing time with this calendar, shaped like a rocking chair.

Planet Calendar 2013 by Szani Mészáros

(images via: behance)

“I made this calendar for a university project, where we had to use creative papers,” says designer Szani Mészáros of her Planet Calendar. “I wanted to use different papers for each month, so I made a special case, that you can open and, as the time goes by, you can always remove the old paper and replace it with the actual month. I used moon calendar to show the date, indicating only some days of a month, from which you can track all the days you need.”

Geometric Seasons Calendar

(images via: behance)

Spiky shapes capture the essence of various seasons in this calendar concept by Oleg Dzogan.

Ink Bleed Calendar by Oscar Diaz

(images vía: oscar diaz)

Ink Calendar by Oscar Diaz makes use of the timed pace of ink spreading on the paper to indicate the passage of time. The ink reveals each date slowly throughout the month. The ink colors change on a color temperature scale by month, ranging from dark blue in December to red in the summer.

Typodarium Daily Dose of Type Calendar

(image via: fontfeed)

Get your daily dose of type with the Typodarium calendar, which features 366 typefaces from 252 designers – one for each day of the year, plus the cover. It comes in a box that can be used to collect the torn pages, so you can keep enjoying those typefaces even after their ‘time’ has passed.

Median Calendar by Sandi Grigoryan

(images via: the dieline)

“Median Calendar is about balancing your time and energy. Customize you calendar by charting anything in your day and you will see if you are too involved or not involved enough. If you haven’t spent much time on what you are tracking, you will be slacking off but if you spend too much time you may be spreading yourself too thin. This calendar is a visual representation to show how balanced your life is.”

Even in a world of smart phones, high-speed trains, artificial intelligence and Mars exploration, many of us still bow to old superstitions. We avoid crossing under ladders, knock on wood, cross our fingers and worry about ‘jinxing’ things by speaking them aloud. Illustrator Fortuna Todisco features twelve of these superstitions in ‘Unfortunately013‘, a simple, modern calendar.

‘Fortune: Or other people’s bad luck,” reads the quote for March, beside an image of a rabbit with a peg leg. December proclaims, “Santa Claus doesn’t exist.”

The calendar was inspired by the common superstition that the ending of the ancient Mayan calendar, which is coming up in just a few short weeks, predicts the end of the world.

Todisco says, “UNFORTUNATELY013 is a reflection, through images, about the anachronistic persistence of superstitions in the present society.”

2012 is a Leap Year and what’s a Leap Year without a Leap Day? An ordinary year, obviously, which means 2012 is kinda extraordinary and February 29th is all kinds of awesome! Let’s celebrate this quirky and quixotic quadrennial calendar event by displaying a quarter of a hundred cool & creative Leap Day posters!

Caesar’s Salad Days

(image via: Maison)

Leapin’ lizards, Louise, it’s a Leap Year this year! Just what we need, one extra day of dreary, gloomy, snowy and slushy February. Those groundhogs weren’t kidding when they said we wouldn’t have an early spring, though it’s unlikely Punxsutawney Phil and his prognosticatin’ pals can grasp the concept of Leap Day… not with those wee paws, at least.

(images via: Trés Sugar, Latitude 47 and USA Weekend)

On the bright side, the 29th is the last day of the month, which is nice, and it gives us one more reason to celebrate something, anything… Leap Day? That’ll do!

(images via: Fly Magazine and Ultimate Ecards)

Leap Day has been around for longer than you might think. Roman Emperor Julius Caesar decreed it into existence in the year in 45 BC. as part of the Julian Reform of the calendar, with the first Leap Day occurring in 42 BC. Ol’ Julie may have had reason to fear the Ides of March but now at least he knew exactly when they would occur.

Lend Me Your Years!

(image via: Good Blog)

Anyway, the result was a vast improvement over the old way of keeping track of time. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, however, and realigning the seriously out-of-whack Roman calendar effective January 1st, 45 BC necessitated adding some extra days to 46 BC – actually, quite a few extra days: that year ended up being 445 days long!

(images via: The Lookout and Fairfield Church of Christ)

Caesar may have made salad out of the old, imperfect Roman calendar but his fix was far from prefect, er, perfect. Since the actual length of the year is 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds, the 365 days plus 6 hours long Julian Calendar slowly began to drift out of sync with the true solar year, gaining the equivalent of an extra day every 134 years.

(image via: Cafe Cargo)

It was a full 10 days out of alignment by 1582, which brought about the introduction of the current Gregorian Calendar. Due the inconvenient actual length of the year, Caesar’s quadrennial Leap Day doesn’t occur in end-of-century Leap Years unless the date is exactly divisible by 400.

(images via: Marine Marathon, Life Choices Center and Lake Elsinore Outlets)

Using this arcane but indispensable rule, 1600 and 2000 were leap years and 2400 and 2800 will be as well. The years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not, however, and neither will 2100, 2200 or 2300. Note for trivia buffs: February 29th’s occurring in end-of-century Leap Years always occur on Tuesday.

Birthday Blues

(image via: Themes Bank)

So here we are, the 60th day of the year and it’s still February – an event that won’t happen again for another four years. You’d think those born on February 29th would thus suffer a shortage of birthday cakes three years out of four, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Leap Day discombobulation.

(images via: UK Fundraising and Wheatstack)

Several countries have enacted laws that specify which days in ordinary years are considered as official birth dates for the so-called “Leaplings”, though most simply set February 28th (the last day of the month) as a Leapling’s birthday in non-Leap Year years.

(image via: The Barkyard)

In the year 1999, New Zealand passed a law designating February 28th as the official birthday of Leap Year babies in ordinary years. The United Kingdom and Hong Kong, however, consider March 1st to be the day Leaplings reach the official age of majority and are subsequently entitled to all the privileges adulthood entails… except for Scotland; at 15 it’s the country with the world’s youngest official age of majority.

February 29 Fame & Four-tune

(images via: Themes Bank and Viva Las Vegas Weddings)

Who are some of these “unfortunate” Leaplings, you ask? Wikipedia provides a surprisingly extensive listing, or maybe not so surprising since it extends back to the birth of Pope Paul III in the year 1468.

(image via: Meredith Cutler)

Other notables born on February 29th include composer Gioachino Rossini (1792), Big Band leader Jimmy Dorsey (1904), and infamous serial killers Aileen “Monster” Wuornos (1956) and Richard “Night Stalker” Ramirez (1960).

(image via: Geocaching.com)

Leap Day captures us coming in and going out, of course. The list of those who shuffled off this mortal coil on a February 29th includes Billy the Kid’s killer Pat Garrett (1908), major league baseball player and manager Rebel Oakes (1948), and commercial auto repainter Earl Scheib (1992).

(images via: Choctaw Casinos and AngryElvis)

Scheib very nearly made it onto both the Leap Day birth AND death lists, having entered this world on February 28th of 1908. Although undoubtedly there are many others who came and went, as it were, on February 29th, the only historical figure of note to accomplish the feat was former Premier of Tasmania Sir James Wilson (1812 to 1880). You devil you!

(images via: Stackin Paper, Disney World Stories and Time and Date)

Leap Day births have also played their part in fiction, most recently in that Superman is a Leapling and most pointedly in Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance.

(images via: Louve Notes, Manhattan Hotel and Captain Blue Hen)

Librettist W. S. Gilbert contrived that the character Frederic, who was apprenticed to pirates until he reached the age of 21, was a Leap Day Baby. Sadly for Frederic, his inferred birth date of February 29th, 1852 meant he would not be eligible for freedom until 1940 when he would have actually lived 88 years. Harsh.

Leap Dazed

(image via: My God, It’s Full of Nerds!)

For a date that comes by only every 1,460 days (or every 2,920 days every quarter-millennium), February 29th isn’t really big deal unless you’re a modern-day business advertising a sale – the ancients didn’t really give a hoot one way or another.

(images via: MNN and TVFanatic)

They also didn’t have Leap Day William, who “lives in the Mariana Trench and emerges every four years to trade children’s tears for candy”, according to NBC’s most engaging page, the inimitable Kenneth.

(image via: The Inspiration Room)

You’d think that some sort of Leap Day tradition would have become established over the centuries and actually there is one: women are “allowed” to propose to men. Blame it on Irish saints Bridget and Patrick… though the latter likely agreed just to get the former to quit badgering him.

(images via: Trib Local, My History Museum and Theme Bank)

Supposedly, the penalty for turning down a woman’s Leap Day proposal on February was buying her a new set of gloves – to cover up the embarrassing lack of an engagement ring. Sorry guys, guess you can’t win for losing!

(image via: The Telegraph)

Leap Day also carries some connotations of bad luck not contingent on one’s being apprenticed to pirates. Scottish legends speak of Leap Day births as being unlucky while in Greece, to marry on a Leap Day is considered most inauspicious.

(image via: File Downloading)

I’m blaming wives for that one: a hubby who married on February 29th would only have to remember the date (and buy a gift!) every four years instead of annually. If you’re determined to go that route, dude, don’t even think of asking her to sign a pre-nup!

“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives,” and even if your life isn’t a soap opera you’re still going to need some way to keep track of passing time. Since there isn’t an hourglass big enough to store a year’s worth of sand, these dozen cool creative calendar designs will have to do.

Google Calendar

(image via: Global Thoughtz)

The stationery trade has had difficulty coping with the advent of online, paperless media. Maybe it’s the “paperless” part that’s the main problem… ya think? Even calendars aren’t immune, what with traditional paper calendars being transmuted into online applications. Leave it to Google to break with SOP, however, and that’s exactly what they’ve done with the Google Wall Calendar.

(images via: Gigazine and InventorSpot)

A touchy-feely take on the company’s Google Calendar web application introduced back in April of 2006, the 2010 version of the Google Wall Calendar was created by Google Japan and measures 30cm (12 inches) wide by 21cm (8.5 inches) tall. The calendar incorporates themes relating to important Japanese national holidays in each month’s graphic Google logo, a feature that’s become a standard feature of Google’s online home page when special events are celebrated.

(image via: Jason.IT)

2010 wasn’t the first time Google issued an actual paper wall calendar in Japan, as a 2006 version (above) is known to exist. These retro-cool Google Wall Calendars have proven to be wildly popular and difficult to acquire; one wonders if the New Media giant is hedging its bets on a future in old-school media.

Camera Lens Calendar

(image via: Peevee@DS)

Calendars mark time while cameras capture moments of it – put the two together and you’ve got a calendar that’s a snap to use! Designed by Indian artist Sharad Haksar, the Camera Lens Calendar keeps every picture-perfect day in sharp focus from start to photo finish.

(image via: Techeblog)

Touted as “the world’s first camera lens calendar” – and quite possibly the last – Haksar’s visionary creation is no one-off design exercise. It can be ordered direct from the designer for the low, low cost of just $2,000 and delivery is within 15 days. But wait, there’s more! The body of the 5.5 x 8.8″, 4kg (8.8 lbs) “lens” is sculpted from a solid block of aluminum, then assembled so that by lining up a series of rings one can view the date, day, month and year all the way up to 2032. By then, of course, we’ll have camera lens calendars that also function as camera lenses… ideal for capturing your flying car for posterity!

Tuberculosis 3D Test Calendar

(images via: Scary Ideas)

If it’s Tuesday, you must have tuberculosis! Yes indeed, TB can be your disease of the day, every day, courtesy of the morbid but nice folks at the Voskhod advertising agency in Yekaterinburg, Russia. All the wonders of classic Consumption, now in 3D! The calendar, called Diaskintest, takes the time-tested “Where’s Waldo” approach to diagnosing tuberculosis and updates it with the latest in 3D technology… well, not exactly the “latest”: the calendar comes with a pair of plastic, blue/red 3D glasses that were cutting edge in 1973.

(image via: Unicorn Graphics)

Here’s how the Diaskintest TB 3D Calendar works: Open each of 12 months in the calendar and you’ll see a standard numeric grid with a seemingly abstract image just above it. Use your 3D glasses to pick out the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis bacteria lurking amid the pleasingly colorful diseased lung tissue. Making bacilli silly; it’s what they do at Voskhod. The Diaskintest TB 3D Calendar is also the perfect gift for that tough-to-buy-for Gregory House type on your holiday gift list.

AOK Apple A Day Calendar

(image via: InventorSpot)

An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but how in the world are you going to keep track of all those days… and, all those apples? A calendar, of course! And not just ANY calendar, either. Serviceplan, the ad agency for German health insurance provider AOK, has come up with the “Apple A Day Calendar”, a sort of fruit bazooka that reveals the new day’s date every time you remove an apple from the UVA- and UVB-resistant Plexiglas tube. At month end, simply reload the Apple A Day Calendar with 28, 30 or 31 apples.

(images via: DMB Designs)

Tasteful (and tasty) Apple A Day Calendars were hung in a number of AOK branch offices where they supposedly attracted a lot of attention. One must wonder, though, if there was a mad rush at each branch every morning to remove the daily apple, thus taunting latecomers who had to spend the rest of the day drooling. I seed what you did there.

Pencil Calendar

(image via: Mytton Williams)

Shave the days away with the Pencil Calendar created by Mytton Williams Design in the UK. Now you too can “get the lead out” every morning, thanks to this unique calendar design that substitutes graphite for graphics. The concept is a simple one: each pencil’s outer coating has been overlaid with numerals ranging from the first to the final day of each month. Start using your “January” pencil on New Year’s Day and by the end of the day when it (and you) are worn down, sharpen it. In other words, give the workday added appeal by turning it into curled-up peel.

(images via: PopSop and Mytton Williams)

The Pencil Calendar comes to you boxed in all its rainbow-hued glory, arranged not only by date but by temperature: January is as frigid blue as your frostbitten tootsies; August glows bright vermilion like your flushed and feverish brow. On the other hand, who uses pencils anymore… or works 365 days a year? Just sayin’.

Balloon Calendar

(image via: Advertolog)

So you work for Balloon AA Company and you need to hire an ad agency to design a calendar for a new ad campaign. Who else but High Advertising, amiright? According to Balloon AA, a household maintenance and pet products company from Thailand, this special Balloon Calendar aims to “turn a stressful office into a 365-day party.” I guess productivity is measured somewhat differently in Thailand… and since the ad campaign’s tag line is “Live for today, Plan for tomorrow, Party tonight!!!”, I’m sure of it.

(images via: Unicorn Graphics)

Each of the 12 colorful balloons features a graphic calendar along with Balloon AA’s website address and contact info. The Balloon Calendar was released in November of 2009… let’s hope somebody remembered to hold onto the string.

Earplug Calendar

(image via: Butter.de and Unicorn Graphics)

Looking to add a note of calm and quiet to your day? Sure you are… but all year? German ad agency Butter is thinking just that for this ear-y Earplug Calendar. Forty-three molded ears (12 for the months, 31 for the days) are ready and waiting to be plugged – one each – by a pair of 3M model 1271 earplugs attached to each other by a string.

(images via: Direct Daily)

3M’s model 1271 earplugs are sold with the tag line “for frequent use”, so installing the Earplug Calendar in a noisy office, classroom, daycare center etc might be problematic when somebody takes the ad copy to heart, thereby rendering the calendar… mute.

Accordion Calendar

(image via: Mein Craft Haus)

An accordion-folded calendar in an accordion-shaped carrying case… well, I’m in accord with that. Leave it to the folks at Mein Craft Haus and Paper Foldables. The latter offers a link to a printable PDF page by which you can simply print, cut, fold and tape… and thankfully, NOT play.

(images via: Mein Craft Haus)

The Accordion Calendar looks cool by looking uncool and all, but doubtless some will think there’s WAY too much work involved in crafting what most people install on their walls with a single push of a pushpin. If crafting – paper-crafting especially – is your thing, however, then this pleated wonder is replete with crafty goodness. Or good craftiness, as the accordion case may be.

Bubble Calendar

(images via: BubbleCalendar.com)

The Bubble Calendar was an instant pop culture hit when first introduced. Yes, I said “pop”, and that’s just what this 48″ x 17.5″ (122cm x 45cm) bubble wrap covered calendar does, once a day. At least that’s the concept: I’ll bet dollars to donuts not a single bubble remains un-popped after spending a few hours alone with the 6-year-old in the image above. Kids grow up fast… this kid especially.

(images via: Unicorn Graphics)

According to the Bubble Calendar people (you know who you are), the Bubble Calendar is available in any one of 4 different languages, employs “heavier bubblewrap for a bigger POP”, has the weekends bolded for quick reference and features American, Australian, British, Canadian, and New Zealand holidays. Quick, name a New Zealand holiday that has nothing to do with sheep! Time’s up, it was a trick question.

X-Ray Pinup Calendar

(images via: Advertolog and Gigazine)

Medical imaging professionals might get paid more than warehouse box-stackers and apprentice garage mechanics but it’s the latter who enjoy far better pinup calendars… or ANY pinup calendars for that matter. German ad agency Butter has made it their mission to resolve this lingering injustice, which they have – in a way. An x-way, er, x-ray to be exact. The “Pin-up Calendar 2010” for EIZO features an inside look at twelve luscious pin-up beauties without all the distracting lusciousness. Uh, guys, I’m sure you have the best of intentions but you’re doing it wrong.

(images via: InventorSpot)

The X-ray-ted Pin-up Calendar 2010, besides weirding everyone out, also manages to crush most every young man’s most fervent wish: to have x-ray vision. Be careful what you wish for… or at least, turn the darned power down!

Shredder Calendar

(images via: Susanna Hertrich)

The Chrono-Shredder by artist and designer Susanna Hertrich leaves each passing day cut & dried… well, at least “cut”. According to Hertrich’s website, this wall-mounted, one-off device “reminds us of the volatileness of the Now”. Funny, it reminds me of a wall-mounted paper towel dispenser from a grade school washroom though those didn’t display the date, as I recall.

(image via: Por Homme)

In keeping with the so-called Now and its volatility, the Chrono-Shredder never sleeps: it shreds each day in real time, and “As time passes by, the tattered remains of the past pile up under the device.” Heavy, man, far out.

Pointless Calendar

(image via: PointlessCalendar.com)

Calendars… so utilitarian yet so amenable to modification, decoration and other such forms of manipulation. One might ask, what’s the point of it all?… and the answer would be the Pointless Calendar… possibly made from paper sourced from the Pointless Forest.

(images via: PointlessCalendar.com, Ahashare and IMDB)

Each month’s date grid on the Pointless Calendar is accompanied by an image completely unconnected with that month, or with anything really. Or is that just what they want you to believe? Which is more pointless, these bland, ambivalent images or your repetitive, unremarkable daily routine? What good would it do you to know? It doesn’t matter. Don’t you understand? Nothing matters!

(image via: Full Circle News)

Calendars have been an integral and inescapable part of our lives for thousands of years – take Stonehenge, for example. Nowadays everyone has what amounts to the home version of that pre-Druidic stone circle hanging on their kitchen wall, emblazoned with awe-inspiring images of cute cats or, perhaps, various views of Stonehenge. Me, I’m anxiously awaiting a calendar that features cute cats at Stonehenge… preferably the apocalyptic 2012 edition.