This is my most recent piece for Varoom Magazine, on the topic of localism. It's a bit post-apocalyptic.

It says:

Maybe one day we will all be local
in our small communities structured for survival
we will hew things out of wood
and farm our plots of land for seasonal food.
Our neighbours will be potters, metal smiths,
bakers, weavers and stonemasons.
We'll have a primitive doctor
and a sadistic dentist.
The weather will be our enemy and our saviour,
gracing us with water 
or withholding it for too long.
We will be surrounded by the warmth of animals
using them for everything they have to
give us while strugglingto keep them alive.
We'll know each other well and gather
under summer stars and around winter fires
to tell stories of the past.
We'll assist in births and deaths.
We'll worry mostly about food.
We'll draw pictures of each other on skins
and in stone and wood.
Now and then a stranger will come.

This is the first of the wrapping papers I did for Hemlock Printers in Vancouver. It might be my favourite. I certainly had fun making it (beginning with ordering a mass of exciting cake decorations). As usual, the cake decorations are not photoshopped, nor are they glued: I placed them in place, shot them and moved on to the next.

Printed in CMYK with a flourescent yellow background with spot varnish.

Some details:

And the full sheet:

After doing a poster for one of my favourite bands, The National, last year, I was happy to be asked once again to do another one for them. This time they were playing in my home town of Vancouver at the Orpheum. The 3-light-condition design of the first poster was hard to beat, but I've always wanted to print on a mirrored surface, so I worked with Jake Sorensen at the silkscreen printers PrismTech Graphics to source the right material. Vancouver has become known recently as a city of glass, so this isn't as whimsical as it sounds.

This is not just "shiny," it is mirrored, it reflects everything. This is my best shot of the whole poster: that's me reflected in the bottom (this copy is signed to my friends Cindy & Rory).

I printed on it in white ink.

See how perfectly it reflects my hands and the ceiling above me?

It's a limited edition of 225. The National got 1–175, and I got 176–225.

The only difference between the first 175 and the last 50 is that 1–175 were laminated with a clear laminate to protect them, as they were sold at the concert. Mine are unlaminated because they are slightly more reflective than the laminated ones.

They sold for $50 at the show on November 28 & 29th. (Sadly, I was away and couldn't go!) I may sell some of mine in the future but not yet. It is currently impossible for me to get around to put anything in the mail. One day I hope to have a system, but until then it's not for sale.

It's that time of year again, and herewith are my 2011 Valentines. Because this Valentine thing has gotten a little out of control in a covetous way, I thought it would be nice if I was able to give people multiple valentines that were all similar but slightly different, so they could keep one or two for themselves and still have a few to give away. So I created a modular heart with which I could easily make 10 variations, and as well I made a heart that says "Remember when we were young, we used to give Valentines to all our friends." (My best friend's 7-yr-old did not get this at all, repeatedly saying "But we do give Valentines to our friends." Yeah, wait 'til you're older, kid.)

So here's the press sheet:

Each person got one of the following in either blue or pink:

And then they got 4 or 5 different Valentine hearts. As I said, they are supposed to give them away, but it seems people like to hoard them! These are Kim Berlin's at Sterling Brands:

Kirsten Skipp has added one to a shrine:

Mark Mushet might have given the rest away like a good boy ...

Nik Hafermass has added his to his growing collection:

Stanley Hainsworth has made an odd justaposition:

Darling Tan Le is ready to cash in:

But the amazing Stefan Bucher really knew what to do! ... crazy kid!!

The process for making these was documented by  Lynda.com. in this VIDEO! 

With big thanks to David White and Scott Erickson and all the folks at Lynda.com.

You might be wondering how you get on my Valentine list. The answer is it's tough. This is a monumental effort for me each year so I'm not anxious to expand the list. However, hiring me and paying me gobs of cash is a pretty sure bet. ;)

Jen Beckman and Sara Distin asked me to take part in their 20x200 project: wherein they create art prints for reasonable prices by a wide variety of artists, and new work going up every few days (or is it every day? I can't tell).

The art comes in different sizes, and usually you just get a bigger version of whatever the print is. But to me it seemed that the more you spend, the more you should get ... so above is what you get in the 8x10 (inches) size for $20, and below is what you get in the 11x14 size for $50 ...

Big spenders can buy even more, at 16x20 for $200 ...

And if you have a lot of wall space, or you're greedy, or rich, or all three, you can spend $2,000 and get this 30x40 inch baby ...

Buy them at 20x200!

Wallpaper* Magazine asked me once again to be a part of their exhibit at the Salon del Mobile in Milan this year. They approached me to apply graphics to a Laser Sailboat.

It just so happens, I’ve always wanted a Laser.

I decided to avoid the obvious of working with organic forms to go with wind, water etc., and instead work deliberately against those forms. I wanted to make something that was incredibly distinctive in the water, and which would disguise its speed and versatility. To create an optical illusion of sorts, of something that looked like it didn’t belong in the water at all, much like the cubist patterns of WWI & WWII “dazzle” naval camouflage.

This is the finished boat, and the photo as it ran in the August 2010 “Handmade” issue of Wallpaper*. The photo is by Benedict Redgrove.

I worked with Sarah Douglas at Wallpaper*, James Lund Lack at Laser Performance, Alastair Goodall at Inchmere Design in the UK, and John Brooks at Hyde Sail in the Philippines.

And here’s the transom:

The sail, being a one-off*, was hand painted:

And here is someone in the UK taking it for a spin on a sad little English day before it was shot for Wallpaper. (Thanks to James Lund Lack for the photos.)

But here’s the good news! YOU CAN BUY ONE! Wallpaper is making a limited edition of 12, each for the small sum of £10,000. How can you resist? Order yours from Wallpaper* now!

It’s been making some … er … waves in the sailing community, too.

here
here
here
here
etc.

This year I had the idea to make my valentines from old Christmas cards.

I solicited my friends to send me all their used Christmas cards, and I started getting exciting envelopes of cards in the mail. Many, many cards. This must be what it’s like to be popular!

I created the design of the heart for laser cutting … I wanted most of the card image to be cut away, but there to be enough left that some semblance of image remained; that you could tell it came from a christmas card.

I then consulted with Arkwel Industries here in Vancouver about the production. They got totally behind the idea, and Nancy Lock and her boss, Bill, also sent me a huge batch of used cards.

The laser cutter is fussy, so then I had to sort the cards, discarding any with multi-layers or glued-on bits, and sorting the rest into card weight, which I did just with a primitive snap-test.

Then I trimmed them so that the heart would fall in the most interesting part of the card.

The final result exceeded my most hopeful expectations.

I simply couldn’t believe how transformed the cards were …

How these cards (most of which were, in their original state, nothing special, or even downright ugly) gained so much more from the process.

How abstracted the designs became.

And how incredibly attached I became to each and every card. They were very hard to give away.

I made about 500, and every single one is different.

Here’s Ed Fella’s card, hanging in his office:

They looked so great all together:

This time, I was invited, along with 10 other designers (including Milton Glaser, Louise Fili, Neville Brody, Chip Kidd, among others) to design one of 10 special covers for GQ Italia’s 10th anniversary issue.

Of all the things I’ve done recently, this is my favourite. It’s structured, manly yet pretty, n’est-ce pas?

(printed in CMYK + silver)

I can’t really take any credit for this. When I drew the snowflakes for Terron Schaefer at Saks Fifth Avenue last year, I didn’t know what, ultimately they would be doing with them all. But I was excited when he said they had commissioned different jewellers to interpret some of the drawings into jewellery. And I was super excited when I saw the results.

So here are the drawings and the pieces that were made from them:

This pendant, by Chopard, is one of my favourites: $77,200

And then this brooch, by Vendorafa, a very different—and faithful—interpretation of the same drawing, for a mere $17,750

Then, (this, by the way, was Terron’s favourite snowflake)

Interpreted as a brooch by Utopia, for $44,000

But the prettier version by Faraone Mennella, will cost you $64,000

My antler-snowflake …

Spawned this pendant by Marco Bicego, $27,230:

But I prefer the red enamel necklace by Roberto Coin, and the least expensive of them all at $12,500

Then, I was most impressed how the shading in this unspectacular little snowflake …

was faithfully interpreted by Gurhan, in this necklace for $32,800

This drawing looks like an unlikely pick …

but Dominique Cohen did an amazing job with it with these earrings (earrings!!!) for $55,000

Another weirdo drawing

And another great interpretation by Graff, a pendant for $38,000.

A rather nice drawing, if I do say so myself

and a very expensive ($81,600) pendant by Kwiat

The last I’m not sure of … tentatively this drawing is the inspiration … either that or they went off and did their own thing …

Temple St. Clair’s pendant for $17,500.

And if you really loved me you’d buy them all for me. Or at least the earrings. Pleeeease?

When I was asked to speak at Pop!Tech this year, I was also asked to create a poster for the attendees. I knew that Pop!Tech is an eclectic conference and there would be many kinds of speakers presenting on different topics. So I didn’t want to include specific words that might mean something to some but nothing to others. The theme of the conference, however, was “Scarcity and Abundance” so I decided to visually work with that at a concept. The result is sortof “Mondrian goes to Tehran”.

This poster is narrow so that it could easily roll up into a small tube and fit in anyone’s suitcase.

Many people at the conference told me they really love it.

The folks at Bunch started asking designers and others to fuck with their logo and submit the results, about a year ago. They nagged me for many months when I finally found some time and created this little piece of whimsy of which I am quite proud.

I designed a funny little animation of which these are just a few frames. The animation is on their site (click on my name, near the top of the list). And I know, i should have knocked the background out properly, and I’m hoping one day to fix it up and make a little non-Flash version (cuz i can’t figure out how to embed the Flash file on this site, and i fuckin’ hate Flash).

But to me its … I mean if you think you know me and my work, and you find this a big surprise, then I don’t think you’re quite getting it.

This is a really important piece for me. Patrick Burgoyne at Creative Review offered me one of these “Monograph” pieces they send out with subscription editions of the magazine.

For me, it was an opportunity to create all new pieces that I called “Love Stories”, because each one was an illustrated text of the story of someone I love.

I spent 3 solid weeks on it, and nearly burned myself out. But in the end, it was worth it. Some of these are easier to read than others, but I won’t “translate” them for you. Either you’re curious, or you’re not.

June Bantjes, my mother (watercolour):

Gillian Muir, my best friend (watercolour):

Debbie Millman, my best friend (ink + photo):

Peter & Tamsin, my friends & neighbours (inks):

Jan & Ken, my friends & neighbours (inks):

Michael Bantjes, my brother (pencil, photo & vector art):

Rod Bantjes, my brother (acrylic paint):

Cake (cake):

My dentist (watercolour & ink):

Dennis Bantjes, my dad (pencil):

Doyald Young, my friend (pencil):

Ampersand (pencil crayon):

All the boys who loved me back (burned wood):

The booklet is included for subscribers with the August 2008 edition of Creative Review. If you’re not a subscriber, I’m afraid you’re SOL for getting this one of mine, as it’s not in news-stand copies. But there’s a different artist/designer/photographer featured every month, and friends of mine who subscribe say the Monograph is their favourite thing.

Last summer, Stefan Sagmeister asked me to contribute once again to his series “Things I have learned in my life so far.” He had seen the piece I made from sugar (“Indestructible”) for the Fox River Paper booklet, and asked me to use sugar once again to create his phrase “If I want to explore a new direction professionally, it is helpful to try it out for myself first.” Which was appropriate for me, as that is what I had done with “Indestructible.”

He needed it both for 6 or 8 pages in Copy Magazine, and for his new (Feb. 2008) book Things I have learned in my life so far.

I made the phrase five times, photographed it, and then destroyed it and photographed the destroyed version. They were all designed to cross a page spread. Some read down the left first, then back up top and down the right; others read across the spread. The one below is one of my favourites.

Some were made with a lot of sugar, and some with a little. Some were quite legible, and others more … shall we say, challenging.

The one below is another favourite …

And below, some details…

Stefan, as always, is a pleasure to work with. Sweet!

Years in the making, almost as long in the promising, this ornament font which happens to contain letterforms is now available for you, yes you to buy and use until you become positively dizzy in the head (an effect which is almost guaranteed).

The font contains the 26 letters of the alphabet, numbers, a hyphen, an ampersand and a question mark, plus a whole ton of squiggly bits for making fantastic shapes and borders. Simply masses of entertainment value.

With the font you get a handy little instruction PDF to help you on the way (you need it—really). How much? For now, a mere $45. But there is one catch. The End User License Agreement has some limitations on its use (mostly that you cannot use Restraint as the sole or major design element in identities, major ad campaigns, or use it to manufacture products for sale without additional licensing—but please read the EULA).

Ready, Set, Buy it now.

(Jan. 2010: Something nice made with Restraint!)