003 MARIAN BANTJES
LATIN NAME: Ornamentalis Obsessivitae
AGE: Not yet extinct
DESCRIPTION:
A self-taught designer of 10 years, Marian Bantjes says she has a
foundation built on a “kind of apprenticeship” as a book typesetter
and layout artist (“I have stripped lots of repro,” she adds). She
designs and writes for the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada
(GDC/BC) and is on the BC Board. She teaches typography
through the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver and writes for the
design weblog Speak Up.
Bantjes is currently developing her first font with Ross Mills of
Tiro Typeworks, for whom she previously designed a set of ornaments,
and she’s recently done illustration for Details magazine.
VOICE:
“My relationship with design is volatile and prone to ecstatic
embraces and violent breakups,” Bantjes admits about her career
choice. “Two years ago I reached a crisis in my career and no longer
felt connected to the work. I sold the studio to my partner
and thought I had left design. Partly through Speak Up and partly
by connecting with talented and passionate people, however, I’ve
become more deeply involved than I was before. My art explores
human relationships and the emotional manifestation of words;
my illustration explores pattern and ornament; and my design is
attempting to communicate nonintellectually, whatever that means.
These three things are still groping around trying to find each
other. That’s the song I’m singing today, anyway.”
DISTINCTIVE MARKINGS:
“When it comes to ornament and pattern, I try to avoid the trap of
‘purely pretty’ by combining my interests in baroque, graffiti, writing,
medieval art, science fiction, sex, typography, spatial drawing,
kitsch, and humor. I like things that are diabolically complicated.”
HABITAT:
“My studio is located on a small island in the Straight of Georgia,
near Vancouver, Canada—this is what the internet is for,” notes
Bantjes. “It is messy and woody and warm and light, but sometimes
a little lonely—also what the internet is for.”
SPOTTED BY:
Noreen Morioka, AdamsMorioka, Los Angeles: “I think that great
creative cooks down to smart thinking and excellent execution.
Marian pulls both together with a beautiful twist of brilliant artistic
talent. I think she’ll be the Doyald Young of her generation and
perhaps, just maybe, she’ll inspire a generation to pick up a pencil
and see beyond a keyboard.”
CONTACT:
604.947.9107 | www.bantjes.com
Written by Marcy Slane
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