COOL! Marian Bantjes - Empathy Penny...

Marian Bantjes' Empathy Penny. Obtained during my recent trip in Toronto and brought back as souvenirs for my design colleagues at Circle (much to their delight - see Rob's News+ post, here).

Read more about this cool project on Marian's website at http://www.bantjes.com/ - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | GOOD Transparencies Archive...

A recent query on the GDC Listserve for books discussing the topic of information graphics inspired me to post a link to the GOOD Magazine Transparencies Archive set on Flickr

The kind folks over at GOOD Magazine, whom I've blogged about previously on MUHSASHUM, here, never cease to impress with their handling of complex information in graphical formats.

Well, I'm an obvious fan, so this set on Flickr is pure 'eye-candy' to me... ;D check out the GOOD Magazine Transparencies Archive set on Flickr, here - enjoy!

If you're still interested in books about information graphics, I'd recommend you check out the works of Edward Tufte - cheers!

COOL! Micrography: Text Art and Typography...

Image: Obama word portrait by Jeff Clark.

Wikipedia says "Micrography, also called microcalligraphy, is a Jewish art form developed in the 9th century, with parallels in Christianity and Islam, utilizing minute Hebrew letters to form representational, geometric and abstract designs. Colored micrography is especially distinctive because these rare artworks are customarily rendered in black and white.”

View some beautiful examples of this art form, here - enjoy!

Thanks to Mr. Mark Simpson for the link - cheers!

COOL! Happy Valentine's Day...

...from Marian Bantjes. I received this in the mail earlier this week. Mysterious...


...lovely (and sweet - FYI, the chocolates weren't from Marian, they're from the equally lovely & sweet, Carol MacKay)


...and very much appreciated! Thank you Marian!

Happy Valentine's Day! Apologies for the poor quality images, as usual they really can't do Marian's work justice.

Go visit Marian's website at http://www.bantjes.com/ to see better pics and read the description of the project by Marian, here - cheers!

COOL! Helbotica by Jonathan Yule...

Digging through a folder of bookmarks on my desktop the other day (labeled 2B_Blogged), I came across this little gem... Helbotica by Jonathan Yule is one in a series of Font-Bots, typographic illustrations based on his favorite san-serif typefaces. Very cool IMO... see the rest on his website at http://www.invdr.com/ - enjoy!

COOL! Optical Illusions...

Out of complete randomness while surfing the internet, I came across this cool site filled with neat optical illusions... view at your own risk of seizure/nausea/headache.


I think most of the optical illusions are self explanatory... check it out for yourself (if you're interested), here - enjoy!


Looking for a challenge? Count the black dots in the image above... ;)

*Note: The original website link stopped working, so I've replaced it with another one...

COOL! Car Logos Quiz...

A great little bit of fun, Car Logos Quiz... guess the automotive logo with just a part of it showing. Try it out for yourself, here.


I ended up with 45/50, and I totally guessed on a few of them. ;)

Thanks to Marie-Aline Oliver for posting the link to the GDC Listserve - cheers!

GDC Manitoba Button Swap 2008...

The call for registration for this year's GDC Manitoba Button Swap should be going out shortly... in case you haven't checked it out yet, the GDC Store is now open on the gdc.net website! This year's button swap is open to GDC Manitoba members only (savvy non-members can participate through a member friend).

Registration and payment is online, at the GDC Store, deadline for registration is November 28th and the artwork submission deadline is December 4th... for more information visit the online store at www.gdc.net - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | Airport Animation...

I just came across this neat animation on YouTube, via a post on the popular SpeakUp blog where they describe the video as using most of the famed AIGA Symbol Signs. I think it's rather well done and thought that you might enjoy it too... the description on YouTube describes it as the animated story of one man's epic journey, created entirely from public domain symbols. In other words, an airport story told in the language of airport infographics.

The video is a couple of years old so, I apologize if you've seen it before... you can watch the video (embedded above) or on YouTube, here - enjoy!

WICKED! Design Ignites Change Poster by Marian Bantjes...

My apologies for the lack of posts this past week... I've been rather busy (I realize that's not the best excuse - so sue me). ;P Anyhow, I received this awesome (understatement), Design Ignites Change poster in the mail last week and have only now, gotten around to opening the poster tube and snapping a couple pictures to share with you all. The poster was designed by the exceptionally talented, Canadian designer, illustrator and typographer, Marian Bantjes (who's work I've long been a fan of - see here).


This laser cut poster was designed for the AED (the Academy for Educational Development), as part of their ongoing AED Design Social Change Projects. The proceeds from this poster went towards supporting AED's Speak for the Child project, which provides assistance to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Kenya (a very worthy cause in my opinion). You can read more about the laser-cut poster on Marian's website, here - and on AED's Design Social Change site, here.

This poster will go quite nicely with the other Marian Bantjes poster/work I have in my collection. Both these posters (as far as I know) are SOLD OUT! But, if my 'Spidey-sense' is correct, you can expect to see more amazing/inspirational work from Marian soon!



Images (from top to bottom): the Design Ignites Change poster, the poster back-lit on the Circle light table, a cropping of a portion of the other Marian Bantjes poster in my collection (sadly, pictures could never do this intricate, vector poster justice, it's run in a metallic blue ink on a heavy weight paper and the detail is mind blowing), a close-up detail from the above poster.

Go Marian Go! Cheers!

Recommended Reading | Let the (Logo) Games Begin... via Speak Up

There's a great article/experiment over on Speak Up, where Doug Bartow hires four 'inexpensive' online logo design companies, giving them the same visual identity problem, and critiques the results. It's a must read IMO. Check it out over on Speak Up, here:

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/005099.html

Thanks to Jean-Sebastien Dussault for sharing this on the GDC Listserve - cheers!

COOL! 'Word Clouds' via Wordle.net

From the Wordle website:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

...great fun IMO. You can either enter in text yourself or submit a blog/RSS feed for the Java applet to draw from. Visit http://wordle.net/ to learn more, or to make your own "word cloud" - enjoy!

"Word cloud" image created using the Wordle applet and text from Circle's website. You can view the image larger on my Flickr, here - cheers!

Worldwide Identity – Inspired Design from Forty Countries reviewed by Maggie Macnab on DT&G...

The book, Worldwide Identity – Inspired Design from Forty Countries authored by Robert L. Peters and designed at Circle has received another positive review, this time from Maggie Macnab on DT&G. Here's an excerpt from the review:

There is more to being a designer than using tools to re-form and regurgitate our thoughts. There is more to design than balancing concept with execution. Design is intent: the process of understanding relationships and making choices based on that knowledge.

We make our thoughts real when we put them into the world, and they give us back the world we live in. Worldwide Identity – Inspired Design from Forty Countries is thoughtfully written and concisely edited by Robert L. Peters, beautifully designed by his team at Circle (Winnipeg, Canada), and published by Rockport in partnership with Icograda (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

Read the review in its entirety on DT&G, here - cheers! :D

COOL! Optical Illusions...

Friend and design colleague at Circle – Robert L. Peters, has an uncanny knack for coming across cool things... here's a taste, excerpted from his latest blog post:

If you’re into visual illusion and optical phenomena, you’ll want to see the work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. But be warned… his site “contains some works of ‘anomalous motion illusion,’ which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick (e.g. epileptic seizures, which can happen if the brain can’t handle conflicting information from your two eyes). Should you feel dizzy, you had better leave immediately….”

If you're curious, you can see the optical illusions for yourself here.
You can visit Rob's blog at www.robertlpeters.com - enjoy!

COOL! Mulheres Barbadas...

The above image was created by Mulheres Barbadas for Computer Arts Projects magazine issue 105 | Black & White. The artists describe themselves as follows:

We are two bearded ladies working together. We take turns drawing until we either fill up the canvas (or are too tired to go on, whichever comes first). We like monsters, icky stuff and tender love.

Check out their website at www.mulheresbarbadas.com - they've provided large, downloadable 300dpi images for you to enjoy! Very cool. Enjoy!

Valentine's Wishes...

Wishing you all the loveliest of Valentine's Days! The above image is a photograph (a bad one at that... it was shot in a hurry on the studio light table) of the Valentine's greetings I received this year from Marian Bantjes, friend, designer, illustrator, typographer, teacher and more (she's a mad hatter of all sorts)... this will go beside the one I received last year (once I've had the chance to frame it), thanks again Marian!

Warm wishes to you all. Particularly if you're based in Winnipeg aka 'Winterpeg' where today it's a nippy -46 degrees celsius with the wind chill... ;P

Cheers!

Recommended Plugin | Phantasm CS(2)...

I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to check out the Adobe Illustrator (CS, CS2, CS3) plugin, Phantasm CS(2). If you do a lot of vector based work/illustration, this plugin will come in handy... the Phantasm CS(2) plugin allows for comprehensive colour control/adjustments found in the likes of Photoshop. Once you've purchased and installed the plugin, you'll be able to access these colour control features directly from Illustrator:

Brightness/Contrast
Curves
Desaturate
Hue/Saturation
Invert
Levels
Shift to Colour

For more information, features, reviews or to purchase, visit http://www.phantasmcs.com/ - cheers!

Recommended | Vektorika Magazine...

If you're a fan of illustration, cool graphics and vector artworks you'll want to check out Vektorika magazine. Vektorika is an online PDF magazine put out by the folks at vektorjunkie.com - the magazine is now up to issue #10 and is available for download (FREE), along with back issues on their website at http://www.vektorjunkie.com/mag.html - enjoy!

Learn How to Screenprint Your Own T-shirts...

A great video on YouTube about D.I.Y. screenprinting by the folks over at Make Magazine. Check it out here on YouTube - enjoy!

Recommended | VectorMagic - Online Bitmap to Vector Conversion Tool

VectorMagic is an online tool for precision bitmap to vector conversion. Now, I have yet to try it out for myself but, the website has some good comparison examples between the results from VectorMagic, Adobe Live Trace and Corel PowerTRACE. There is also a video on the website that shows how to use the site. Worth checking out for sure! Check it out at http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/ - Cheers!

Via Computer Arts Daily