Within the broader milieu of Neo-modernism, we focus on Marian Bantjes, who set design trends with her unique application of typography, loose illustration and well-balanced compositions.
Watch the Interview with Marian Bantjes on Lynda and answer the following questions:
- Objetive observation
During the interview, Marian mentions, “When I worked at Digitopolis, I was working almost entirely on the computer, basically the computer and with photography. And now I am using a wide variety of materials, sometimes still involved with a computer and sometimes just with the materials themselves. But having a space like this allows me to obviously store them all, and to work on these various surfaces in different media.”
What is your opinion on the use of the computer combined with different media? Write one page (350 words) on your opinion of the importance of media and design and what your take is on the use of computer technology. - Pushing technology and changing philosophy
While describing her development of style, Marian states,”I am not an expert on illuminated manuscripts by any stretch of the imagination, but there are a couple of purposes of it. But one of those purposes is definitely to invoke wonder in this way that was very interesting to me and was feeding directly into my ideas about that symbiotic relationship between graphics and text.”
How do you think this links to the philosophy of the Swiss International School? How is it different? Has technology given us an advantage in expressing the symbiotic relationship between image and text? What about Marian’s work? Is this reflected in her work? Do a write-up (350 words) on the relationship between image and text, as seen in Marian’s work and relate this back to the Swiss International School. Substantiate your answers with relevant facts. You may use a visual example of both Marian’s work and that of the Swiss International School to facilitate your analysis.
Objective observation
I think that it is important to combine the use of computer and newer technology with the use of other more traditional means of media and material when working with design. I believe that knowing how to use new technology/digital media as well as more traditional means when doing various design work and trying to communicate a message is absolutely crucial to achieving quality and strength in your works. Your idea development and work process when trying to come up with a design should really only be limited by your own imagination, and not by a lack of technique, skill or understanding of how to use various media. When you are able to use the traditional media and materials, and combining it with computers and new technology, you have a greater understanding for what you really are doing (and why you are doing it), and you have a larger skillset and more tools that can help you further develop your ideas and designs to its full potential.
By sketching, working by hand, trying out different media and even materials, you explore and work on your ideas, consider and evaluate the various sides of it, and really develop the good ones and separate them from the ideas that won’t work out. It helps you really delve into the ideas you have and properly examine all it’s possibilities, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
Some ideas really don’t work out the way we imagine them to, but sometimes, changing what media you are channeling your idea through can change the whole game. Knowing what kind of media to use can be tricky at times, and it is a skill that has to be learned. Nevertheless, there should always be room for experimenting and exploring other things and approaches to your idea than what you originally had in mind. It can help you develop your idea even further, or strengthen how you perceive the same idea in another media. Designers usually have their own individual preferences and methods of how to approach an idea they have and «give life to it», developing it and working on it until it is solid enough to base a design on. This is where it is key to combine the more traditional media, like sketching, illustrating, painting etc., for developing and exploring your idea by hand, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and then using digital media to further develop your idea or design.
By the time you then start working digitally, you have pinpointed the strengths and weaknesses of your idea/design and you can further experiment with it, perfecting it, making it as good as possible.
Pushing technology and changing philosophy
In Marian’s work, you can clearly see that her personal style shines through, and her work is definitely more subjective compared to the objectiveness and personal detachment in work with the Swiss International Style. During the Swiss Design movement, the relationship between image and text was supposed to be very unbiased and the artists/designers wanted their work to be as impersonal as possible so they could get the message across quick and easy without any unnecessary elements or embellishments. In the Swiss International Style, the relationship between images and text is that the image describes the text, and the text describes the image. One of the main goals of these designs was to get the message/content of the design to be quickly and easily read and understood by the viewer. The legibility of the designs was very important so that people could understand and comprehend what they were looking at as fast as possible.
The way the Swiss International Style is approaching design is pretty much the exact opposite of how Marian’s work can be perceived. She allows her work to be influenced and affected by her personal style and characteristics, and she has her very own way of designing. In her work, it is not always clear what the message really is at first, and her works often demand to be studied a bit longer and harder for the message to come across. Her text elements don’t necessarily describe the image and vice versa, because often in her designs, the text elements actually make out the image. She often hides words in very elaborate, decorative, and embellished swirls, lines, loops and flourishes in her designs, and it is not always clear what you are looking at. One thing she is particularly good at is making designs that (of course) looks very good already at the first glance, but as you study the work more and more, you notice things and details that strengthen the design even more. This gives her work a very comprehensive depth that you won’t find in the Swiss International Style.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/5e/e8/4b5ee8a3fb22eb9d7d7aa3b64ea537de.jpg
Here is an example of the Swiss International Style. Very few elements, sans-serif typeface, text elements describing the image/image supporting the type, objective, clear, highly legible with a very straight-forward communication of the message.
Here is an example of Marian’s work (one of my favorites from the Lynda video). When you first look at it, it looks like a cool pattern with some oval shapes of some sort. But when you look closer, you can actually see that the oval shapes are grapes. But it doesn’t stop there, because if you look even closer, you can actually see that each grape has its own letter – and then you realize that the arrangement of the grapes spells out actual names. A truly intricate, subjective, detailed design that needs to be studied a bit longer for its message to come across.
The storyboard shows how the last letter of the word is hanging from the second last letter of the word, swinging back and forth.
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