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Artand Design are areCousins
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Pretty doesn’t have to be brainless. a
arian Bantjes is a graphic designer from Saskatchewan, Canada, who does most of her work for American clients. Why? “I almost never work for Canadian clients,” says Bantjes. “This is the only place I’ve ever felt looked down on. People shake their heads and say ‘I don’t get it. She just makes this swirly stuff.’”1 That “swirly stuff” is certainly beautiful, but you won’t hear Bantjes call it that. “It may be pretty, but it’s not brainless. I want my work to awaken curiosity, to inspire awe. I want it to fill people with wonder.”2
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Much of that wonder comes down to the creation of the incredible details, engaging shapes, and seamlessly meshed art and text. Using Adobe Illustrator, pencil, ink, and watercolour, Bantjes merges multiple concepts into incredible masterpieces. She also utilizes less conventional materials such as flower petals, sugar, or macaroni.
The thought process involved to design a piece can be very literal, with careful precision in placement of detail. “I’m very interested in structure, especially as I’ve developed. Structure may or may not mean ‘grid’, and grid may or may not be based on mathematics or other systems. Mostly it means balance and relationships between elements on a page.”3
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“I believe that one of the huge benefits of design is art and culture,” Bantjes explains. “Basically what you can do with design is create public art. You can put things out there that are really wonderful pieces of art, that will move people, that will make them think or bring them joy. In an ideal society design works to put really interesting visual ideas out there, that people can see without going to a gallery. That will enrich their lives. I think that is really important.”4
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“I’ve heard that the human brain is predisposed to finding patterns, to linking cause and result, often 5 in long chains of reaction.”
You can have art, you can have text, and you can easily place them on a page together. But combining them in a way that the entire text becomes part of the illustration rather than on top of it takes more than a little thought. But say you want to make something that would require a mash-up of materials. It wouldn’t necessarily be the regular approach to it, but you really, really want it, all you must do is say...
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‌and do it.
There is an importance to have good typography that isn’t just text and art, but that the text is the art.
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[bibliography + notes] Images (from Pretty Pictures): front cover. Dorado a. You Are In My Thoughts b. Strangled Heart c. Valentine, 2005 d. Knoxville Voice Mural e. Monogram f. Strathmore Thistle g. Doyald Young h. Christmas Card Valentines i. YouMe3 aka Alienhead j. Want It!
k. Hell Shit Fuck Damn aka Bad Type l. Saks Heart m. Christmas Card Valentines (cont.) n. Er Will Mich o. I Want It All p. Ampersand q. Say Yes r. Sorry back cover. I Wish I Had More Time With You
References: 1. The Five Million Dollar Woman. By: Giffen, Peter. Applied Arts Magazine, Mar2010, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p60-68 2. http://www.wearedesignbureau.com/projects/marian-bantjes-wonderland/ 3. Marian Bantjes, Pretty Pictures, final page of Introduction 4. The Five Million Dollar Woman. By: Giffen, Peter. Applied Arts Magazine, Mar2010, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p60-68 5. Marian Bantjes, Pretty Pictures, 1 For more information, go to http://www.bantjes.com Designed and written by Heidi Hayden Composed in Bodoni SvtyTwo OS ITC TT Š 2014 Heidi Hayden, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art