“If everything in our lives were afforded the design attention that my toothbrush has, we would sit in chairs that floated while tickling our troubled backs, have tables that yielded at our aching elbows while remaining firm on top, walk on floors that tingled like active sand, and sleep on pillows that would never allow our ears to flatten against our heads.” – Marian Bantjies
Walrus Magazine cover
“They wanted me to illustrate the words “We’re Sorry” relating to a story about the Canadian propensity to apologize, and the troubles that ensue from public apologies for past national crimes. I had hoped to trick them into letting me draw snakes, but just as I was relishing the prospect of a triumphant coup in getting snakes on the cover of a magazine, they nixed that idea. Disappointed but not surprised, I switched to string … or the entanglement of yarn.”
Transparent things / Nabokov book cover project
“John Gall at Random House invited me to take part in a project whereby 21 designers are invited to create a cover for reissues of Nabokov’s books … but within the prescribed format of creating a specimen box (Nabokov collected butterflies) with pins and “paper”, to create the cover.
Ten of these new designs are just being issued now, with wonderful covers by Carin Goldberg, Sam Potts, Michael Bierut, Stephen Doyle and the ever-amazing Martin Venezky, among others.
My book was “Transparent Things” so I used the pins to suspend 4 layers of acetate, with dots of transparent ink on each later.”
étapes Design Magazine - 15 Years
“The tiling unit for this piece is a “15”, and the piece then shows how it goes from one little sketch, to a repeated pattern which evolves and changes from left to right. Plus of course, there is a “15” in the larger, resulting image.”
Marian Bantjes
Marian Bantjes illustration and design work has included projects for Saks Fifth Avenue, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut/Pentagram, the AIGA, Winterhouse, Bruce Mau Design, Rick Valicenti (Thirst), Print Magazine, wired, The New York Times, Wallpaper, The Guardian, seed, FontShop, Houghton-Mifflin, Little, Brown & Co., Knopf Books, Young & Rubicam Chicago, and numerous other publications and companies.
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I do not know if I am lazy or driven. A little of both. While I tend to work every day, from morning to night (I’m frequently working past midnight), my days are relatively stress free. In the summer I tend to take a lot of breaks and sit in the sun or go for a walk. I spend a lot of time thinking. Just staring into space and thinking. Does this count as work? Sometimes. When I wake up in the morning with the perfect solution to a given problem, have I been working while I was sleeping? Perhaps.
These days I call myself a lapsed Graphic Designer. This is largely untrue, but in my struggle to redefine myself it’s helpful to cast off the old me in the search of the new.
I have a ton of experience in typesetting and design, but it wasn’t until I started doing this other thing in 2004 that I began to find the thing that is me in the act of what I do. Does that make sense?
I am impatient; I’m always about 6 steps ahead of myself, and I get frustrated that it takes me so long to reach where I feel I already am. But I have to remind myself I’ve made a huge amount of progress in the few years that I’ve been doing what I’m doing.
Am I successful? Yes. In terms of how I feel about what I make and why I do it. In terms of the acclaim and attention I feel far more worthwhile than I did when I ran a graphic design firm. Am I rich? No.
I often get mail from people and students asking me “What are your influences; where do your ideas come from.” I will answer that now: “Everything.” Conversations, things I read, things I see around me, books, magazines, old stuff, new stuff, art design, craft, film, music and garbage. I can be inspired at any moment by the strangest things. I am seldom bored. I have more ideas than I will ever be able to produce in my lifetime—some of them are even good ideas.”