WHO
The tendrils of Marian Bantjes’ work reach out from the page with intoxicating allure, but hers is no decorative indulgence. These meandering filigrees mean business. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that she’s reached the height of her form during a renaissance of ornamentation in design, but one fact is indisputable: Bantjes has amassed a body of work that’s in extremely high demand. She’s also an accomplished writer: On the design blog Speak Up, Bantjes dissects aspects of visual culture, from appropriate Halloween imagery to the aesthetics of cute. And she counts herself very, very lucky to be accomplishing all this from her perpetually green outpost on tiny Bowen Island, outside Vancouver, British Columbia.

WHAT
Curated by Rick Valicenti, who has worked with Fox River Paper for 17 years, the Emerging Portfolio series highlights the next generation of designers, with emphasis on those whose work straddles the line between art and design. “Having established their practice over time, these four designers redefine the model by demonstrating that a lifetime of being creative and personally expressive can be had through design,” says Valicenti. For this piece, he acted as creative director, working with Thirst designer Gina Vieceli-Garza to match appropriate papers from Fox River’s Sundance paper line with printing effects for Bantjes work. “Indestructible,” for example, features an impressive embossing job that renders white paper into a pile of sugar. A goth-y black foil on black paper “Hallowe’en” piece is Bantjes’ personal favorite. Being “designed”—and by a friend, to boot—made Bantjes both nervous and grateful. “In the end, it’s very different than it would have been had I designed it myself, but there are certain ‘Thirst-y’ things that I really like,” she says. “In some ways I wish they had been more intrusive with the design; I wish there were more Rick.”

WHERE
The pieces of Bantjes’ work collected here are evidence of her range—they’ve appeared everywhere from Details to the Milan Design Salon to Times Square. Instantly recognizable are her looping curves for the cover of Print’s June 2006 issue, her collaborations with Stefan Sagmeister, and her contributions, both written and designed, to Speak Up. But there are also plenty of previously unpublished pieces. Sketches and drawings that could previously only be found in the private collections of friends and fans are tucked in like treats. Other pieces were personal projects custom-made for this piece, and some were created for assignments in design classes—like an arresting timeline/infographic hybrid that chronicles Bantjes’ influences and artistic vocabulary.

WHEN
After previous careers as a typesetter and designer, Bantjes broke free three years ago to focus on the kind of work she wanted to create. 2004 to 2006 was a prolific period for Bantjes, and it’s fitting that this piece brackets that era, preserving her growth curve for posterity. The book both chronicles her recent brush with success and points her towards the future. “I’m somewhere between being known and unknown, and at this point it feels like it could go either way,” she says. “It depends on what happens with my work. If I can take it in the unpredictable directions I want to, I think I can maintain a worthiness of attention. But if I fall into predictability, people will move on to more interesting things.”

WHY
From the beginning, Bantjes’ personal goals for this publication were lofty but simple—make something that people won’t toss. “I really hate to say it but the vast majority of paper promotions do go into the recycling bin very quickly,” she says. “As a designer, I eventually stopped accepting them from paper reps unless they were a useful piece for identifying paper or were really gorgeous in some way. So if we’re lucky, people will be compelled to keep this.” But perhaps more importantly, this piece challenges prospective clients to present her with only their most intelligent projects—ones worthy of her undivided, unbridled attention. That is, once they are able to free themselves from Bantjes’ delightfully tangled page-turner.