The Holstee Manifesto: Making The Life You Want To Live

This morning, we celebrated a brilliant upcycling effort, but when it comes to upcycling and smart social responsibility, no one can out-smart, out-cool and out-inspire our friends at Holstee, who blend an ethos of sustainability with an honest and inspired approach to all of life.

We’re particularly enamored with The Holstee Manifesto – a poetic homage to the art of living your passion.

UPDATE: The Holstee Manifesto is now available in a wonderful 5×7 greeting card printed on handmade paper derived from 50% elephant poo and 50% recycled paper and a gorgeous letterpress print.

Show Holstee some love on Facebook, take a look at their original collection, and keep an eye on their fantastic ongoing Curated section.

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I Wonder: Marian Bantjes Explores Joy Through Typography

Marian Bantjes is one of those creators that make pigeonholing impossible. Trained as a graphic designer, with a decade-long career as a typesetter under her belt and a penchant for the intricate beauty of letterform illustrations, she calls herself a ‘graphic artist’ and is an avid advocate for self-education and self-reinvention. Stefan Sagmeister, a longtime Brain Pickings favorite, calls her “one of the most innovative typographers working today” — with no exaggeration. (So innovative, in fact, that Sean “P. Diddy” Combs felt compelled to shamelessly, blatantly rip her off recently.)

I exist somewhat outside of the mainstream of design thinking. Where others might look at measurable results, I tend to be interested in more ethereal qualities like does it bring joy? is there a sense of wonder? and does it invoke curiosity?”

Bantjes’ highly anticipated new book, I Wonder, is out today and we couldn’t recommend it more — a remarkable journey of visual joy and conceptual fascination, intersecting logic, beauty and quirk in a breathtaking yet organic way.

I’m using my own writings as a kind of testing ground for a book that has an interdependency between word and image as a kind of seductive force. I think that one of the things that religions got right was the use of visual wonder to deliver a message. I think this true marriage of art and information is woefully underused in adult literature. And I’m mystified as to why visual wealth is not more commonly used to enhance intellectual wealth.”

For more of Bantjes’ unique brand of visual curiosity and creativity, don’t miss her excellent TED talk.

I Wonder is positively our favorite visual communication book this season — and we’re pretty sure it’ll be yours, too.

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Need to Want Less: Modern Philosophy via Graphic Design

What Facebook and the food pyramid have to do with our deep desire for self-acceptance.

The disconnect between our wants and needs is one of the most fundamental and universal paradoxes of being human. Virtually everyone comes in contact with it in various levels of intensity. That piece of rich flourless chocolate cake after a perfectly healthy and nourishing meal. The lover you so desire even though you don’t need all the drama. And does anyone really need an iPad?

A few months ago, we micro-raved about artist and designer Erin Hanson’s brilliant Need To Want Less series of visual modern philosophy, and today — as we confront and try to reconcile our own wants and needs — we’re taking a closer look.

when i was 8 i wanted a puppy

when i was 10 i wanted parachute pants

when i was 12 i wanted an ogilvie perm

when i was 14 i wanted a boy named robbie

when i was 16 i wanted a car

when i was in my 20s i wanted to make bad choices

now i want everything

i only need enough to survive

From the playful to the profound, the project captures the wistful aspiration of who are versus who we want to be — and beneath the humor and facetiousness lies a somewhat tragic longing to be something else, something better, bespeaking the harsh judgement in which we consistently engulf ourselves, our desires, our very thoughts.

But sombre contemplation aside, it’s hard not to appreciate the cheeky self-derision and honesty with which Hanson approaches these very human issues. So take a look at the entire set for a dose of delightful neo-philosophy.

Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.