(thanks, Brígida Santana)

Winnipeg, Canada

Our latest stamp design launched in Canada today, on International Women’s Day. As a feminist, I found it particularly gratifying to be able to have a hand in this issue.

Read all about the stamp’s design here. Access information of interest to philatelists and collectors here. Watch news reportage of Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, unveiling the stamp in Ottawa earlier today here…

Seattle, USA

Project Thirty-Three celebrates “vintage record jackets that convey their message with only simple shapes and typography… a personal collection and shrine to circles and dots, squares and rectangles, and triangles, and the designers that make these shapes come to life on album covers.”

Erik Spiekermann’s “plan for the future.”

(reposted from Brain Pickings)

Whatever You Are, Be a Good One is an impossibly charming compendium of 100 wise and timeless thoughts from some of history’s greatest minds, hand-lettered by illustrator Lisa Congdon. The common thread underpinning these quotes — which include such beloved luminaries as Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Henry James, Anne Lamott, Søren Kierkegaard, and Leo Tolstoy himself — is Congdon’s own sensibility about what it means to live with kindness and integrity, to cherish beauty and ultimately to be a good human being.

See more here.

Winnipeg, Canada

Maxim/Dictum, the manifesto we developed at CIRCLE several decades ago (to reflect “our collective attitude to life, work, and play”) is now available in the form of a poster. We’ve donated this special edition to the GDC Foundation, with proceeds helping to build a sustainable fund for Canadian designers in need, and to provide scholarships and professional grants in our field.

Like it? Buy it online, here.

Harare, Zimbabwe

I feel privileged to call Saki Mafundikwa my friend. I’d like to introduce him and his current initiative with ZIVA to those of you who visit my blog.

Saki is a typographer, graphic designer, photographer, filmmaker, author of Afrikan Alphabets (the first book on Afrikan typography), a recent TED presenter (great talk!) and yes, an old-school farmer. After a long sojourn through the world of design and media in the United States, Saki returned to his native country where, amidst social and political upheavals, he managed to found and recently expand ZIVA into a program that galvanizes intrinsic design values.

The Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts, or ZIVA, was started by Saki Mafundikwa in 1999 as the first school of digital design, new media, and visual communication in Zimbabwe. Since its birth, ZIVA has produced a plethora of award-winning students and inspired design practitioners.

ZIVA has recently started an Indeigogo campaign with a fundraising goal of USD $100,000. These funds will be allocated to changing HP laptops to powerful desktop computers, changing Photoshop CS2 to the most current Adobe Suite software, updating technical design manuals to the latest on the market, to expanding faculty, and last but definitely not least, to providing full scholarships to deserving and talented young designers.

How can you help? Please share the campaign link (or this post) and/or consider donating to this worthwhile cause. Saki and I both “thank you in advance…” from the bottom of our hearts.

(Click on image for higher resolution. Feel free to use or share).

Seoul, Korea

After years of anticipation, the curvacious Dongdaemun Design Park (DDP) by renowned architect Zaha Hadid opened yesterday. Situated at the East Gate (Dongdaemun) neighbourhood in central Seoul’s Jongno-gu district, DDP is destined to become one of the bustling city’s key cultural hubs, while also literally putting South Korea’s design, art, media, and new technologies on the world map. Read more about DDP’s inauguration here.

I was honoured to be one of a dozen designers from around the world asked to contribute a commemorative poster for the occasion of DDP’s opening. I don’t often quote myself, but this time it seemed appropriate…

The DDP photos are by Virgile Simon Bertrand.

Nunavik, Quebec

Established in 1978 with a lone, single-engine De Havilland Beaver aircraft and collectively owned by the Inuit, who have occupied the territory for thousands of years, Air Inuit is the sole airline providing passenger, charter, cargo, and emergency air transport services to Quebec’s northernmost coastal communities known as Nunavik. Its small fleet of 26 airplanes is well known in the airline industry for having “one of the most enviable safety records in Canada” despite the “challenging and often hostile conditions” under which it operates. The new identity and liverywere designed by Montreal-based FEED in collaboration with brand consultant Marc-André Chaput.

The orange-and-white goose design was created to reflect the Inuit’s love and respect of nature and the abundant wildlife that have allowed its people to survive for thousands of years in one of the planet’s harshest environments. It was also intended to underscore the company’s distinctive corporate culture and bold new vision for the future which includes improving efficiency to cope with rising operating costs, the addition of new routes and specialized services, and a careful expansion into new markets…

Read more and see more of this outstanding re-brand at Brand New, here, where you can also see a “before and after” identity comparison.