January 12th, 2009
Bantjes
Marian Bantjes
I just saw Marian Bantjes speak at an AIGA event at San Diego City College. She is best known for custom lettering, and her background in typesetting had a big influence on her work now. Her work blows my mind, I can’t even begin to describe it, and hearing her talk about it, and about how she started and what led to what was the most inspiring part. I could spend days and days looking at her mesmerizing work, but to hear her talk about it was a real treat. She was honest and humble, and I now I am sitting at home with a sketchbook trying to get as much out as possible because it’s a rare occasion when I am so inspired to work on things for myself. If you aren’t familiar with her work, click here.
There was something she said at the end that really struck me, as it did the rest of the audience. She came up with this list when asked to judge the work of others and decided that these are the things she uses to judge her own work by:
- Does it bring JOY?
- Is there a sense of WONDER?
- Does it invoke CURIOSITY?
- Could it INSPIRE?
- Is it UNUSUAL?
Bonus points for being FUNNY!
*Note: Bantjes does not try to hit all five of these every time, but she said she must meet one or two, or else she throws it out the window and tries again with a new idea.
This made me decide that I need to come up with my own list of criteria to judge my work by. Bantjes’ list is fantastic, but I think if I sat down and honestly wrote out how I judge work, then I would have a different list than hers. I suppose I should do this in the next couple of weeks, so when it comes time to really crack down on my portfolio I will have more focus.
