Intricate Beauty by Design with Marian Bantjes was a powerful talk on the applications of designs and maintaining individuality. In the world of Graphic design, it’s often recommended to stay to a general style, without individual expression and one that focuses on being commercial. Bantjes is a designer that refused that view of graphic design and in her talk she talked about how she adds individuality and personality for her work through her career. My view of graphic design happens to align to Bantjes and I agree with the reasons she mentions. For one, adding individuality to design work brings joy. The more personal work the better it is and by adding individuality you end up reading more people and communicating different things.
Graphic design nowadays is seems very much mechanical and generic. Sometimes I think this when I see logos that are so simple and designs that are bland and monotonous. I think that most designs have no personality. Marian Bantjes explained it in a way I agree with. By following her hear, her passion and interests, she was able to make work that resonated with people and fulfill her. Though this may be looked down upon the design profession, I don’t see why I myself wouldn’t do it. In my own opinion, I desire to create work I’m proud of and sometimes I worry I only create with the goal of a client or just a company. I myself want to fee that I’m putting in creativity from my part. I want to be able to enjoy the work.
One of the projects of this speaker that I enjoyed the most was her work with Seigmeister about a book cover mage out of sugar. The idea just came as she was playing around with sugar. She then noticed it made a pattern. That’s when she had a small design moment and decided to make her own stud/ Marian Bantjes shows that you can add individuality to design and making it look beautiful./ That’s one of the questions I do ask myself all the time. I did previously learn this from my type 1 professor; Simona Prives. I felt that the work I have done with her is more than just designing for the sake of a potential employer, its designing to enjoy the process and make some beautiful work. For example, one work was editorial spread I did for my type 1 professor. Although, it was somewhat of a long work it involved drawing and sketching display type and typographic illustrations, designing body copy and overall making a project our own and that we would be proud to show and I can really say that. That editorial spread that I made in that is in my portfolio. Everytime someone sees it they are just amazed by the illustrations that I myself created by hand. In the end, the project became something I made my own. Now it’s a project that became part of my portfolio and a lot of people are impressed by it. They like when I take them through the process because they are interested in how I created really distinct and individual work.
There are many things one can learn from Marian Bantjes. Her motive and drive are impressive. She strives to seeding the imagination of the population, showing the conditions she’s under and the people she works with. Bantjes inspires me to try to inspire people through my designs. She mentioned that her work may still be commercial and still try to sell things but her focus now is to make work that ends up being beautiful enough to get people to notice and build up visual wonder. I saw what she meant in her work for Saks Fiths Ave with the beautiful type. I somewhat strive for something similar where I can create beautiful work for different brands. At the moment it may sound like an eerie desire but I really truly would like to know how far I can push myself and see the kind of work I make five years from now, 10 years, 15 years or 20 years.
Who is it for? What does it say? What does it do? These are some big questions to ask about a designer’s work, about my own work. I wonder in times when I start a new semester and I wonder what work will I make next or when I’m so consumed by my work, I haven’t done much physical activity, my back aches, my eyes are strained and my mind is foggy. Why am I going through this? Marian Bantjes’s responses to those initials questions may sound romantic to some but I believe in that my work may inspire someone. I believe that something in the world inspires me and what I create may inspire someone else after me. Life is a big cycle that although we tend to measure it through systems and defined through terms, it is something that has no beginning or no ending, no boundary, no easy explanation. Finding meaning in everything is counteractive. Stressing over the grand reason of why we are put on this world distracts us from the living the present world. It distracts us from creating creative work because we’re constantly trying to prove our worth to other people or to ourselves trying to match it to an unrealistic idea we may have. In the end, we have to focus on what is our impact in the world with our work and what ideas we value most.
