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!

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!

Recommended Viewing | Designing Minds: Marian Bantjes...

Designing Minds has posted a video of Marian Bantjes (friend, renowned designer, illustrator and typographer extraordinaire) from her appearance at the Design Matters Live event presented by Adobe and the AIGA. From the Designing Minds description:

A portrait of world-renowned designer, illustrator and typographer Marian Bantjes sharing her love for the design community and the importance of staying connected, even while working from her idyllic rural home studio. She speaks about her transition from a more traditional design career path to a much more personally fulfilling mix of work. Marian has an obvious love for what she does, sharing some of the inspiration for her recent projects as diverse as hand-drawn valentines to the type treatment for the "Want It!" campaign at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Marian's insights in this portrait are important for anyone who cares passionately about design and respects the craft of the artist.



Credits:

Producer: Rachel Talbot
Associate Producer and Sound Engineer: Matthew Hendershot
Editor: Lance Edmands
Assistant Editing: Hei-Man (Anita) Yu
Camera: Michael Coleman
Additional Camera: Michael Tucker, Rachel Talbot
Animation: Colin Yu
Design Matters Live poster: Marion Bantjes
Music: Music Box
Design Matters theme music: RJD2

You can watch the video embedded above or via Zoom In, here. Read my previous posts about the über-talented Marian Bantjes, here - enjoy! Go Marian Go!

Via Type for you.

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!

COOL! Handwritten Typographers...

I came across this post via Computer Arts Daily (a UK blog), an excerpt from the posting:

Cameron Adams found himself wondering what typographers' handwriting looked like. Then, instead of promptly forgetting about it, he asked a number of leading typographers, including Erik Spiekermann and Marian Bantjes, to send him a scan of their handwriting. And they did, with fascinating results. I wish we'd thought of this.

I couldn't agree more... wish I had thought of this... ;) Very cool stuff indeed! Check it out via http://www.themaninblue.com/

Image: Marian Bantjes, taken from the original blog post...

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!

Marian Bantjes - Design Matters Live with Debbie Millman Video on Zoom In

Via Marian Bantjes' website:
A video of Debbie’s Design Matters Live interview with me, which took place in San Francisco, September 2007, is now posted on Zoom In. The video is a compilation of the live event, and a backstage interview with me; skillfully put together by Rachel Talbot and her team at Magnet Media. Thanks to all, and love to Debbie. (I’ve had some trouble buffering the movie; my advice is to start it, then pause it, go away for half an hour, then come back and watch the whole thing without interruption.)

Enjoy!

Restraint, Released! Font by Marian Bantjes

I've long been an admirer of Marian Bantjes' work. I had the pleasure of meeting her last year when she visited Winnipeg as a guest speaker. At that time, Marian gave us all a sneak-peek at her pending font release - Restraint. Restraint has now officially been released and is available for purchase from Tiro Typeworks!

From the Tiro website: Designed by Marian Bantjes & Ross Mills, Restraint is an ornament font which happens to contain letterforms. It is 100% fanciful all the time, and not for those timid of heart. It contains numerous squiggles and curly bits for creating blocks of exuberance, borders, frames, and graphic flights of fancy.

Very cool... enjoy!