XOXO or how i learned to loathe marian bantjes

back from designyatra 2012.
my favourite speakers:
• ambrish arora • arunachalam muruganantham (SO BEST!) • paul barnes aka. @paulobarnesi • kentaro kimura • joachim sauter

marian got top billing, last day, last speaker. the headliner if you will. debbie millman's favourite person - marian bantjes. but marian is... shall we say the oprah of the design world. she has opinions on everything: the quality of her work, the sub-par-ness of others (everyone else).

...and you need to work to get on her valentine list. of about 400+ people? but even stefan sagmeister only got an "xoxo Marian". and poor david only got an "xo". i think where i'm going with this is... can you love 480 people? or is it inauthentic. now this is one of my favourite people - jason permenter with Good Morning, Annas:

http://bit.ly/hw53p

in his words:

Turns out this is exactly the sort of thing, for us, that makes an eight-hour time difference that much more bearable.

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marian also has no qualms about slagging off typography students who make alphabet posters (because where is the deep meaning in that? only marian makes meaningful work). that's 3 of the other speakers insulted already.

www.handpaintedtype.com 

part of the conference freebies

marian being meaningful:

“Get up from this table and go make a contribution to Doctors Without Borders. Donate enough that it hurts a little. Then come back to this table and enjoy your meal. Really, really enjoy your meal.”

sure, it's beautiful. but does it mean anything at all?