Marian Bantjes Presentation

A live report from the Emily Carr Institute, March 22, 2007.
Marian Bantjes, “13 years’ experience in design on top of an additional 10 years’ experience in book typesetting and production”, worked with Sagmeister (who is quoted recommending her), writer for SpeakUp, sessional insutructor at Emily Carr, all around name that keeps appearing in graphic design circles I, er, circle in. Oh, and from BC.
11:38
Introductions: My best friend, amazing work. Started as a typesetter. Learned the rules and then broke them (students pay attention).
11:39
Material to show corss over of illus. and design. 10 years book typesetter. Trad. and strict grunding in type. “Nine years straight up graphic designer” too. But it was never exceptional.
Current existence started four years ago with Speak Up. Gave up graphic design, fed up. Sold business. Ya right. Entered t-shirt contest, type for SpeakUp, based on unibody. Slide of decorative, cursive, pixelated word mark. Won contest. The impetus, got attention, got a commission.
11:42
Clients come in. New York Times mag. Became known for pixelated vector ornament. ESPN. Style getting typecast. (Good groan).
11:45
Slides of ballpoint illustrations. Font Shop Magazine. 6 pages to do anything I wanted about ‘community’. Concentrated on us vs. them. Circles of inclusion and exclusion. Illiminated article. ‘Tortured’ the fonts. Broke her own rules. Work for free.
11:49
Wallpaper mag. exhibit. Salon de mobil. Giant vertical banner.
GDC BC 2004 Annual Report. Full license to do what she wants. Take dead boring conent, designer audience. All black letters. A few complains about readability.
Graphex ’06 poster. Logotype out of ripped maple leaves. Ellaborate photoshoped foliage.
GDC Annual ’05. Experiment with translucent paper. Layering of roles. Names come up out of the murk of the layers.
11:54
No real design education, but took class with Milton Glaser. Assignment received a mnth prior to class. Map of significant art influences. Artists, materials, movements, etc. Just sitting down and thinking of that was a massive undertaking.
Gets her work out there herself. Promos, website, etc. Halloween, Valentine’s.
My impression: highly evolved doodles.
Obsession with patterns, long before apparent in work. “Orgy of Reading” illus. Hehe.
Need to make pattern for words. Constructed letter forms that connected vertically and horizontally. Like scrabble. They all connect at three points on each side. Connect either way. Whole alphabet looks amazing.
12:03
Call from Stephen. I now get great work. Where others get mall magazine layout, Stephen gets billboards. Six in his hometown in Austria. Things Stephen has learned. “Complaining is silly, either act or forget” – Sagmeister. Bantjes illus. reflects words. More silly for silly, etc. Presents Furry type logo. Stephen phones her 2am “In New York we love fur, we love fur.”
Print magazine cover. Best thing ever: “You can do whatever you want AND we’ll pay you.” “Technology and the falability of human technology.” Articles of 1960 predictions in graphic design. “Plugging and unplugging wires” to get the colours worked out.
12:12
Wired Magazine’s article Church of the Unbelievers. Richard Dawkins. Me: reference to Flying Spaghetti Monster by Dawkins. I could really see Bantjes doing that monster’s logo.
AIGA presentation poster. “You really have to have it in your hands to understand it.” More transparency. White ink. Two sides interact and work together.
More great slides. Personal promo for designers. For Michael Beirut. The Guardian.
“The loser the creative brief, the better my work.” “‘How much can I fuck with [this G2 logo]?’ Best Client respnse ever, ‘Fuck away.’”
Wall Paper cover this month. Theme is the future. Centre of illus.: Wishing you all the best in the future. Circle of special positive sayings for the future. And “It’s the future so it has to have rockets on it.”
End presentation. Questions.
How long does it take?
I don’t know anymore. I used to keep track when I was a designer. [Me: telling: when she used to be a designer.]
Your process?
Michael Beirut article on Art of Bullshit. Rational afterwards. “I don’t start with something and wonder where it will go.”
Where do you work and do you work without your squiggles?
Lives on Bowen Island. Yes, some. I love Swiss type design. But my clients hire more for those flourishes. So it’s up to me to make inroads into other interests and the clients will follow me.
Find many copycats?
No, not really. Ornament is big right now. I didn’t event letterforms or ornament.
Any motion work?
Waiting for the right person to call me. Yes, can’t wait.