Marian Bantjes

Marian Bantjes is a designer, typographer, writer and illustrator working internationally from her base on a small island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver. She is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), and regularly speaks about her work and thoughts at conferences and events worldwide. Her career spans 3 stages: she worke... d as a book typesetter from 19841994: she co-founded and ran a graphic design studio, Digitopolis, from 19942003; and since 2003 she has worked on her own as a designer/artist/letterer. It is this latter work for which she has become internationally known. Marians art and design crosses boundaries of time, style and technology. She is known for her detailed and lovingly precise vector art, her obsessive hand work, her patterning and ornament. Marians work has an underlying structure and formality that frames its organic, fluid nature. It is these combinations and juxtapositions that draw the interest of such a wide variety of designers and typographers, from experienced formalists to young students. Her 2010 book I Wonder (published by Thames & Hudson, 2010) is an exploration of the marriage of word and image, written and illuminated by herself throughout, it is alternately mysterious, thoughtful, personal and funny. It was shortlisted for the British Design of the Year award in 2011, and along with several other pieces or her work, is included in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Much of Marians work has been published in well over 100 books and magazines around the world, including IDEA (Japan), Eye (UK), Wallpaper, Creative Review (UK), Azure (Canada), Communication Arts (USA), Print (USA), DPI (Taiwan), Concept (Indonesia), +81 (Japan), 2+3D (Poland), Form (Germany), D2B (Brazil), Design Indaba (South Africa) and étapes (Paris). She does not enter awards, but she has judged for many of them, including D&AD (UK), TDC (NY) and ADC (NY). She has had several solo exhibitions of her work and has had work included in ...Read More