Marc Jacobs: former addict turned narcissistic gym-goer. That's the takeaway from GQ's new profile of the ubiquitous fashion designer, and perhaps that's exactly what one should expect. He's really good friends with his personal trainer! He has a tattoo of SpongeBob! He had a bad childhood! But now he's fabulous and not on drugs and working out at the David Barton Gym for hours before peacocking around town! The real lesson here is that if you write about fashion designers like Marc Jacobs, you're working with a limited palette from the start. But we'll fill you in on the specifics—including his mom's bad taste, his own self-loathing, and his friendship with "Easy," after the jump.

Designer Doron Braunshtein, a.k.a. Apollo Braun, expresses his interest in matters political with his newest work of sweatshirt-related art. And you can too, for the low price of $129! Braunshtein, who describes himself as "very punk rock," says his message is one of love, not of assassination [NY Press]. Though he worries, "Could you imagine if Obama were killed? They might blame me. Then I'd be taken to jail and have to have prison sex." Let's all hope no such thing comes to pass! To be fair, this sweatshirt fits with a certain ongoing theme, as this picture of Braunshtein's last big t-shirt design ($250) attests:

They done moved the Project Runway contestant housing! They will now be at 520 West 43rd Street. [NYO]

Today's Page Six asks: "WHICH designer who's gone 'round and 'round the revolving rehab door gets his fix from a model—who's been in rehab herself, though for a different problem?" Um, we spent like an hour working on a poll for this but all the answers had poor Marc Jacobs in them so we didn't bother? (Despite this AP photo from the other night, and despite the coverline of this 2002 issue of Women's Day ("Tragic Linda Evangelista In Rehab"), we're pretty sure the god-like Linda Evangelista never actually did.) So?

The upsides of being a designer are many* but the downside is living in a world full of non-designers. Some of these people will become your clients, and they will always want a bigger logo, less white space, and other vulgarities. Laugh at them, not with them, by watching the parodic ad for Make My Logo Bigger Cream.

"Get real," says 37Signals, but the famous Chicago design firm (designers of Meetup.com and creators of Basecamp and other web apps for businesses) is well-known for getting cocky on its corporate blog (a common faux pas of companies that think they're leading a movement). That's why an outside designer told me:

The Washington Post apparently discovered the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button this week, because it's written an ode to that and Google's "famously spartan home page." How, the Post marvels, does Google keep the site so clean and still give access to all its new products?

• #4 from Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers: ""Well, we aren't sure if we want to use you yet, but leave your material here so I can talk to my partner." [PhotoRavlik]

Sci-fi author David Brin writes in Slate Salon,

Since a man got fired for reading Valleywag, it's time to solve the problem of office-hours wag-surfing.

So Philip Kaplan's no longer running AdBrite — I think we established that. Where are all the other geeks moving?

Jason Kottke recently gave an interview to blogger Leah Peterson. The blogging designer, who's actually a really nice guy, couldn't help but let all the recent media attention go to his head. Oh well, what blogger isn't a Walter Mitty of traffic numbers?

Quick thoughts for this morning:

Everyone loves a pile-on. And when up-and-coming media mogul Michael Arrington posted a screencap — one little screencap! — complimenting a fan redesign of TechCrunch, his paid designer, Rachel Cunliffe, resigned in disgust. And then everyone hated on Michael.

It's infiltrated the real world! Dot-com mania enters meatspace with the launch of pakoolicio.us, Didier Hilhorst's service that promises to accessorize you for Web 2.0. Didier and a Milan designer will make little tidbits — gee, I hope there's some RFID involved — and, one presumes, either sell them or give them away and charge for tech support. Didier moves to the Valley this fall to work at IDEO Labs, a locally based professional crazy-tidbit-maker.