Alex Veras

COMD 1100

Prof. Trofimova

Writing Project #1

9/12/20

In a world like graphic design where work is already hard to find, and you have no space to throw in your ego, it can be frustrating to find a way to properly express yourself through your work. I’m not at that point, but I imagine that it must be frustrating to work on projects you find uninteresting and stale. Marian Bantjes worked herself out of a situation just like the one I just explained, and her story is a testament to the fact that if you set your mind to, you can really find happiness in showing what you love to the world. I read a quote somewhere a long time ago that mentioned that if you passionately like/ love something, the chances are that somebody else loves it too, and by showing her love and passion for design to the world Bantjes was able to achieve something many graphic designers and artists across all other creative fields and genres can only dream to touch; feeding yourself off of your own work.

Her work and the passion that she has for explaining its conception and creation inspire me a lot, and just through the video of her speaking, you get a deep view into the eye of a passionate artist that really cares about her craft. The first striking element of her work that caught my eye was the fact that she actively works to engage the mind of the viewer of her work. As a musician, I am to grasp the attention, devotion, and feelings of the audience I’m blessed to ever perform in front of, and Bantjes aims to do that in every single piece of her work. There’s a lot of creative projects and work that directly aims to make you feel something, such as a sad love song or a somber painting with dark colors and imagery, but Bantjes takes it to the next level. She makes you think before you can come to a conclusion about the way you feel about her work, and it’s something that I wish all creatives did even if they’re just working check to check. All of the work shown off throughout the tedtalk is very eye-catching to say the least, and seeing her excitement in talking about the work she put in to make those pieces makes them all that much more enjoyable to take in and see.

Materials used in a piece are a very large part of the way a piece of work is perceived, and Bantjes doesn’t leave any legroom in terms of this specific element of her work. The most obvious evidence of her creative mind at work is the way that she takes elements from a single simple concept such as old Christmas cards, and turns it into something as complex as Valentine’s day designs with a laser printer. Thinking of something like this is already a wild idea, but the fact that she successfully executed it is even more awe-inspiring. I often use concepts like this in creating my own art; I believe that literally anything has the ability to make noise that can be turned into music, and Bantjes uses this same philosophy in her designs; anything has the ability to be turned into a piece of art in one way or another whether it be something extremely intricate or very very simple. Although this falls more into her use of concepts than her use of actual materials, but her work in using patterns to make patterns, to make more patterns and so on and so forth is something I find extremely cool. This connects right back to the idea of making your viewer an active one, and making/ keeping them engaged in your work and ideas. The longer that somebody stares at your work and takes time to interpret and understand it; the better, and she uses this all throughout her pieces.  

The Chip Kidd expo is more focused around the conceptual development behind his work and his explanations of why his work turns/ turned out the way it did/ does. It’s cool to see his use of simplicity in order to drive the overall memo of whatever type of work he’s doing, and even though he does work for different writers and other styles of clients, he uses his core principles to create fantastic work that stands out to people. Much like Bantjes, his work actively makes you think, and leads you on to a point where you want to see more and more. His example of the simplicity in the few lines and then turning it into Charlie Brown at the start shows that through a sketch that on paper shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds, you can touch the hearts of hundreds of millions and write an entire story. The ted talk is great seeing as how the way Kidd speaks is relatable, and you can see that he’s genuine and passionate about his work. It inspires me and shows that even if something is easy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t good. Look behind what you initially see, and you might find that things are more complex than you see at first glance. 

As an artist, and somebody who hopefully plans to become a better design, these ted talks were not only clear and understandable, but they were more importantly motivating and inspiring. Both speakers showed that thinking out of the box has its rewards, and even if something might look simple on paper, it could be a lot more interesting and complicated than you know at first. Focusing on the materials used by the artists has helped me broaden my horizons on the fact that anything that can be used to make art. Actively trying to engage my audience is something I already aim to do in my own work, and these ted talks have made this point even more interesting and mandatory for me.