PICKED: Faucet Face

Water sustainability has been an ongoing concern. Which is why we love Faucet Face — a delightful line of glass bottles that make drinking tap water a joy, in hopes of inspiring people to buy less bottled water.

The bottles come in three colors, each featuring original artwork by an independent designer — a green Hose Water, with typographic illustration by Ray Fenwick; a red Hummingbird Feeder designed by Anneka Tran; and a blue Tap is Terrific with typography by UK designer Seb Lester.

Exra-thick glass keeps the bottle from breaking easily and a BPA-free cap ensures a non-toxic, carcinogen-free drink. A portion of the profits from the sale of each bottle goes to charity:water, our favorite nonprofit bringing clean drinking water to people in the developing world.

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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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