Image via Complex Original
Intro
You're probably most familiar with designer Ben Swantek from his work with The Weeknd on his three mixtape covers — House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. What you didn't know is that he's also an awesome typographer and graphic artist.
Portfolio Review: Designer Ben Swantek Shares His Favorite Works
1
PUBLIC BATHING
"Public Bathing represents my work and collaborations within a single identity. This is custom typography inspired by Wim Crouwel’s 'Hiroshima.'"
www.publicbathing.com
2
NEW ALPHABET
"This is the first typeface I created (without upper case). I remember my roommate at the time was in school and working on one of his own. He was the one who introduced me to typography and acted as inspiration for this work."
3
WENZELL
"This is a logo I created for a local Toronto DJ, Wenzell. I really enjoy simplicity and line work. This type is based off a mono-spaced alphabet that I had been working on for some time."
4
BLOP 3D
"This was a project exploring the evolution of line to form. This custom display face started as a basic line drawing and eventually became three-dimensional wooden blocks. My father is an accomplished carpenter, so he was a big inspiration for the work."
5
FRAGILE
"This 24x36 wooden panel piece is inspired by my affinity for shipping labels & boxes. It consists of everything from paint to pasted grid paper. I had just moved in to a hard loft in the east side of Toronto and fell in love with the industry/grime aesthetic."
6
CARTEL
"This is a photograph of an artist I am working with in Atlanta. His album The Tony is coming soon."
7
JULY 24 POSTER / TICKET
"This was the poster done for The Weeknd's first show on July 24, 2011. I created this after the release of House Of Balloons, so I kept to the same branding and theme as the mixtape."
8
HOUSE OF BALLOONS
"House of Balloons was a super exciting album for me. I was living in Vancouver at the time and had no idea about all the hype it was generating (pre-release) in Toronto. It was the first time I got to work with Lamar Taylor and Drop, two guys who I continue to work with through the trilogy. House of Balloons and the following two mixtapes were also designed to reflect shipping labels over prints and colour swatch aesthetics."
9
THURSDAY
"Faced with the decision to either switch up the mixtape art work or keep it the same, we decided to keep the trilogy consistent and follow the same aesthetic through. The primary colours were chosen because Martha Stewart's selections weren’t cool. Thursday is pretty self-explanatory; you just need to listen to the mixtape to figure that out."
www.the-weeknd.com
10
ECHOES OF SILENCE
"This was a fun mixtape to work on. Thursday was shot in my loft out east, but since I had moved, we didn’t have studio space anymore. We shot in a glorious studio and had a lot more space to experiment with framing. This being the final piece to the trilogy, I needed to make sure that it had a deep and concluding feel. Thus, red was chosen."