Artist of the day: Artist of the day, April 9: Marian Bantjes (Women in the arts week): Canadian graphic designer, typographer, illustrator and writer (#662)

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Artist of the day, April 9: Marian Bantjes (Women in the arts week): Canadian graphic designer, typographer, illustrator and writer (#662)

Marian Bantjes (1963) is a Canadian designer (Saskatchewan), artist, illustrator, typographer and writer. She is known for her custom lettering, intricate patterning and decorative style. Inspired by illuminated manuscripts, islamic calligraphy, Baroque ornamentation, Marian Bantjes creates detailed work, often combining the forms of her disparate influences.

She started working in the field of visual communication in 1983 and worked as a book typesetter She became well known as a talented graphic designer from 1994–2003, when she was a partner and senior designer at Digitopolis in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she created identity and communication designs for a wide range of corporate, education and arts organizations. She owned and ran the design firm, with a small staff.

In 2003 Marian left her firm and "strategic design" behind to embark on the work that she has since become internationally known for. Describing herself as a Graphic Artist, working primarily with custom type and ornament, Bantjes' highly personal, obsessive and sometimes strange graphic work has brought her international recognition and fame as a world-class visual designer. Bantjes is known for her detailed and lovingly precise vector art, obsessive hand work, patterning and highly ornamental style.

In 2005 Bantjes was named one of 25 up-and-coming Designers to Watch (STEP Magazine, January 2005).

Her work has been featured in STEP, étapes (Paris), Azure, Matrix (Quebec) Tupigrafia (Brazil) and Print, Fontshop's Font 004, and Eye magazine (#58). She has written the design book "I wonder", published by the Monacelli Press, which was dubbed one of the 13 best design books of 2010. Bantjes has been honored with numerous awards and her work is now part of the permanent collection at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Bantjes is an accomplished writer on the subjects of typography and design, and was a regular contributor to the popular design website Speak Up. Bantjes is frequently invited to sit on design award juries and speak at design conferences – such as Trimarchi in 2008 – and design schools around the world. Bantjes says "throwing your individuality into a project is heresy" but she has built a career doing just that, as her signature style is unmistakable.

From 2002–2006 Bantjes served as the Communications VP of the Society of Graphic Designers in British Columbia. She was also the Chair and Creative Director of the 2006 Graphex Canadian design awards. In 2008 Bantjes was invited back to serve as a judge for 'Graphex 2008 Canadian National Design Awards'.

© 2019. All images are copyrighted © by Marian Bantjes. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only.