exploration: Audubon Article W cont. 4

Brief

Marian Bantjes refers to herself as a graphic artist. She blends graphic design elements with illustration to produce her unique images. She is influenced by works including islamic art, art nouveau, the arts & crafts movement, typography, old lace, Baroque, illuminated manuscripts and more.

Born in Canada and has spent most of her life in Vancouver, BC. Her education has been unusual, she has no real training in design. She attended art school for one year in 1982 but she refers to herself as an "art school drop out". After that she became a book typesetter in 1983. In 1993 Marian started and co-owned a design firm until she quit to become a graphic artist. Now she works from her studio at home on an island on the west coast of Canada.

Currently she is working as a typography and editorial design teacher through the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver and is also an author for the design-discussion website Speak Up. Marian states that her motivation in design; "I can be struck at any moment by any image, phrase or thought that will cause my mind to leap from one thing to the next in a realm of creative possibilities."

She believes that a graphic designer must have; "Deep interest and commitment beyond expected requirements, plus intelligence, imagination and tenacity." in order to be successful. Her clients to date include Stefan Sagmeister, Saks Fifth Avenue, Pentagram, Print Magazine, The New York Times among many more.

exploration: Audubon Article W cont. 3

The images of the Audubon Article W are shown in the progression of my process of adding images, text and illustration. I have scanned them in about every two hours of working on it. My first "W" began to touch on some of the questions that i was interested in. the progression through my exploration is attempting to integrate the content of the article in a manner that will allow the image to be incorporated into the text in a more fluid manner. Also i was touching on the idea of obscuring the original letter form i started with. In this case it was a "W" which i chose because it stood for wings. which is a characteristic that birds all share.

exploration: Audubon Article W cont. 2

exploration: Audubon Article W cont.

exploration: Audubon Article W

next step

i am interested in how i can use the ideas that were refined in illuminated text in our contemporary world in order to portray current events.

exploration: Shark

for my first exploration i used an article about sharks to inform my image. The images seen in this image are taken form the article itself. i was attempting to use a decorative style that embodied both the illuminated text and the works of graphic artists today. giving reason.

illuminated text

I began looking at illuminated text because it seems to be the predecessor of the work that i have collected in my research. the difference is that it has symbolism and meaning in the illustrative quality of the work. illuminated text accompanied works such as bibles and were illuminated with the context in mind. The examples above are scanned in from "Decorated Letter" by Alexander Johnson.


Jean Mielot, Miroir de la Salvation Humaine


Beatus, Commentary on the Apocalypse


The Bible (So-Called "Second Bible") of Charles the Bald


The book of Kells

questions

• How can the illustrative quality of type provide additional meaning to the text instead of merely being an aesthetic choice?
• How can the history of illuminated text be applied to typography today?
• How can the content inform the typography?
• what makes the rendering style of an object meaningful rather than arbitrary?
• What is the purpose of illustrative typography? and how does it inform the viewer? or provide additional informative context?
• How can typography be used to tell a story?

written

The things that i noticed in graphic design was the focus on the hand made designs or the reference to the hand made design.
The works i chose begin with typefaces moving to altered fonts to type that is illuminated by design to type that is confined in design or type that i broken apart to form new meanings. The artists that I found involved in these practices were Marian Bantjes, Yulie Brodskaya, Martin Venezky, and other artists.

Illuminated by design means type that has meaning from the way it is drawn, or portrayed. A lot of bantjes work consists of a word or a phrase that is illustrated in a way that adds a second level of meaning. Type that is confined in design relates to the work that Brodskaya does in that the typeface is recognized and is intwined or combined with imagery that is active around it. Venezky's work falls into the category of broken apart type that is reassembled for new meaning. Martin uses many forms of collage. the ones I was particularly interested was when he took found type and used the pieces to create image and meaning.

Marian Bantjes work is particularly interesting because she supplies meaning through her work by combining words or phrases with imagery that is subtle yet supports the meaning of the piece. Her piece sustainability contains photographs from the library of congress and patterns. Her method is interesting yet some of the combination are arbitrary and only provide graphic interest without supplying and real meaning.

I want to explore the idea of type informed by image and message. In that the illustrative quality’s are directly related to that of the overall message.