Instead of swapping between rings and earrings for different occasions, why not keep the framework and trade out the colorful key element: the featured jewel.

Inspired by Lego and designed by Hintlab, these interchangeable creations feature all different kinds of options, from simple translucent and opaque blocks to growing crystal shapes and stamped message surfaces.

The blocks, like LEGO, can be stackable to, allowing for hybrid creations that evolve over time. Alternatively, the add-ons can fit flush with their settings, looking like a more permanent stone.

Some of the more colorful options may work well for kids, but the idea can appeal to adults as well who are sick of making sure all of their various jewelry fits, and want something minimal and simple.

A long-standing design proposal from Foster + Partners has been scrapped by developers in favor of a new scheme from BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) that presents a different face to viewers depending on their approach or view within the city, rejecting conventional skyscraper typology and cultivating visual transitions between neighborhoods on all sides.

As the last project slated to be built on the World Trade Center site, the would-be 2 WTC skyscraper is a critical piece of the Lower Manhattan landscape, but its future tenants wanted something that stood apart from the more straightforward tall buildings associated with finance and Wall Street.

The prior scheme, shown above, featured four connected verticals, each terminating in an angled plane at the top, essentially a tower with slots centrally located along each face. The new scheme, endorsed by occupants including 21st Century Fox and News Corp and shown below, intentionally shies away from the skyscraper aesthetic and creates space for greenery on a series of platforms created by recessed sections of structure.

Its facade shows off a slim and modest structure when viewed from the memorial site on one side below but creates a stacked-box effect when seen from adjacent lower-rise parts of the city above like Tribeca: “From Tribeca, it will appear like a vertical village of singular buildings each tailored to their individual activities stacked on top of each other, forming parks and plazas in the sky.”

By keeping larger boxes at the base and similar overall square footage (nearly 3,000,000 square feet), the building also is designed to accommodate sizable studio spaces for the aforementioned media companies. Lower levels will be occupied by these giants while upper floors will be rented out to smaller commercial clients. Set alongside One, Three and Four World Trade Center, this structure will stand apart, its broken-down scale visually bridging the gap between the southern tip of the island and the rest of the city to the north.

Breaking into One World Trade Center and scaling to its top was just the beginning for this daring trio, who then not only parachuted from close to the peak but also had to navigate nearby structures on the way down and ultimately land in the street.

If you are not one for suspense, skip to the two minute and thirty second mark in the first video above to watch as the first jumper takes the plunge from the 1,776-foot tower, followed shortly thereafter by the man behind the camera.

After months of hiding their identities, James Brady, Marco Markovich and Kyle Hartwell have turned themselves in and are already raising legal funds for their defense. They are charged with burglary, reckless endangerment and jumping from a structure.

According to the New York Times, the trio have been “described by their lawyers as experienced, amateur sky divers who also sought thrills leaping from buildings, bridges and other structures.” As for how they got in and up in this case: apparently, they simply slipped through a hole in the fence, scaled the stairs and did not encounter any security along the way to the top of the tower above. A similar stunt was pulled by a teenager not too long ago, but reporters who tried to follow suit found themselves caught and arrested.

Our brains recognize brands before we even get to the text … but what happens when that second of the process process yields the reverse of what we expect?

In this series of experimental logo swaps by Graham Smith, our expectations are subverted right at the point of recognition – Coke replaces Pepsi, UPS becomes FedEx and so forth in realms ranging from fast food to digital technology.

The result is a kind of temporary cognitive dissonance, and poignant reminder of just how much we rely on visual cues – from shape and layout to color and typography – to interpret input and apprehend iconic designs.

Some of the trades work relatively seamlessly – a surprise number actually work visually – you could almost believer that Twitter, Facebook and Google could simply have gone a different direction with their designs.

But given our own familiarity biases when viewing them, it is hard to say in some cases, too. Either way, it is clear that our experience and associations play a major part in the power of branding.