Marian Bantjes: Queen o’ the Thistle

Last summer, Marian Bantjes and Pentagram teamed up to refresh the iconic Strathmore thistle. Marian’s reinterpretation went against the creative brief, against Michael Bierut’s direction, and against Marian’s own initial inclination. Her presentation showed the explorations leading up to her radical redo of the thistle. She described this direction as “essentially not calligraphic. It’s basically geometric. A little bit old, a little bit new. Kinda bitchin’.” Who could resist? Certainly not us.

Here are Marian’s sketches. See the ultimate thistle in its geometric glory on her blog, floating beneath Marian’s fab nav tabs.

strathmore_v1
Michael B. and Katie Barcelona at Pentagram translated Marian’s motif for our new ream wrap. Yes, we call it the Dream Ream. Once again, our design stars have aligned! Theme swag to follow. Thistle keep us amused for a long time.

marian

02.10.09
  1. Posted by yep, i’d buy this « a girl named fred on 03.7.09 at 6:14 pm

    [...] first seen on canadian design resource. get the whole scoop here. [...]

  2. Posted by Against the Brief on 03.10.09 at 4:09 pm

    [...] sketches are shared here on Felt & Wire (seen below) and a full length post on the redesign. Don’t miss her take on it at her [...]

  3. Posted by famdog on 03.10.09 at 4:16 pm

    That work is so good, it makes my spleen hurt. Jealousy abound…

  4. Posted by Print Hint: The Reflex Blues « Felt and Wire on 04.24.09 at 10:51 am

    [...] color is blue {PMS 661}, and Strathmore has long been synonymous with blue.  The new Strathmore ream wrap is very blue {PMS 662 & PMS 279}.  This means that I often find myself needing to print lots [...]

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