Going Solo.

Going Solo. from Studio Botes on Vimeo.

Breaking the silence on this blog to share the above video with you.

2,500 match sticks.

Artwork By Pei-San Ng.

The top piece - 'Love on fire' is made of approximately 2 500 match sticks. Representing romance and passion or destruction and jealousy? The second was titled 'Temptation' before burning and now quite simply, "Burned".

Another pursuit requiring patience in the extreme.

Save the type!

Germany has a museum of rescued letters. How awesome?

We have a couple of letters rescued from Vangard House in Woodstock before it's demolition. A friend salvaged them by negotiating with the developers in the nick of time. He chose to spell out the GRANDE below, we have the rescued O, A and H!

French letters.

No, not condoms. Type. 

I keep seeing reclaimed typography emblazoned on walls in restaurants, for sale in decor shops and at the market - and even in BHV. Seems to be another trend that's staying firmly put. No surprise that this is one I really like.

Age-old advice.

Some sage advice from WWI. Kinda along trend of the reprinted WWII Keep Calm poster. From the Wallblank Vintage collection. We could all do with a prompt to be more mindful, I think.

Homebody.

I really should go out, but it's so cold. Sitting in front of the fireplace is much nicer.

Marian, you beauty!

I've pre ordered this book by Marian Bantjes. Due for release in September it looks a fantastic visual feast. 

What typeface are you?

Of course I couldn't resist this. What typeface are you?

Never ignore kerning.

Unless your message is as sweet as this. Fffound.

The a,b,c of jewellrey.

Great find for type fans from esty seller 'plastique'. And another great new online store just launched here. Congrats Denise!

Picture it.

ffffound I think.

A meal without wine...

We had both sunshine and wine this past weekend. Hope yours was good.

Above tea towel one of the new collection at the Keep Calm Gallery.

The Road Less Travelled.

Beautiful typography here. Seen on graphichug.

Bruce Robertson's "The Quarter"

Bunny chow is a South African street food. It originated in Durban in the 1940's and the term is a slang description for a hollowed out loaf of bread (usually a quarter loaf) filled with curry. 

Celebrity chef Bruce Robertson is now providing Cape Town with a gourmet version of the Bunny Chow. 

I designed the identity for this new concept eatery which recently opened on Long street. The name, The Quarter, takes it's lead from the colloquial term for bunny chow - a 'kota', referring to a quarter loaf of bread. 

The images below show the identity (with apologies to vegetarians) applied in the store and on various design pieces - the signage, food packaging, business cards and wallpaper. The wallpaper amusingly puts across the 'rules' for eating bunny chow. If you are in Cape Town, do stop by! 

Jordan Metcalf

Work by talented designer/illustrator/typographer: Jordan Metcalf. 

See more of him here and here. 

Save Our Seas - The ocean speaks out

A campaign I've been working on for a while launched yesterday. It's for Save Our Seas - a non profit organisation who work to preserve our marine creatures and their environment. 

To educate the public about the fast decline of oceanic life, we came up with the idea of giving the ocean and its inhabitants a voice.

If walking along Muizenberg beach in Cape Town yesterday you would have come across a sea shell that actually spoke. Fitted with a mini speaker device the shell holds a recording that speaks of the ocean's plight from the point of view of the sea.

Above two images: Lesley Rochat 

This morning, beach goers discovered messages in bottles that had appeared to have washed ashore. Inside the weathered bottles were handwritten letters - personal calls for help from different sea creatures like Shawn the Prawn or Greg the Great White Shark. 

In this way we communicate the threats that the ocean faces in a very personal tone of voice. It's a personal SOS from the sea.  

Bottles on the beach this morning before they were discovered.

I was fortunate to have involvement from some fantastic, internationally-renowned illustrators in crafting the letters for this campaign. With their skills they added life and personality to our messages, allowing them to take on the character of the various sea creatures who penned the letters.

Illustrator: Ray Frenden

Illustrator: Cristina Guitian

Illustrator: Linzie Hunter

llustrator: Alex Latimer

Illustrator: Toby Newsome

The final stage of this ambient campaign will play out tomorrow morning. I'll post a follow up about that. Also on Muizenberg beach this final statement is a sobering reminder that speaks to the fact that if we as humans don't drastically change our behaviour towards the ocean, there will simply be no life left in it. No more fish and chips. No more Nemo.