Marian Bantjes and Inspiration

     When designing anything, it is crucial to be a unique you. Being an individual in the design world is how one can be successful. Marian Bantjes received such an immense amount of success because she created designs that brought joy, wonder, curiosity, and most importantly, inspiration. Her unique method of creating type out of such a common household item such as sugar is just one example about what makes her so unique and attention grabbing.

      Watching Bantjes’ TedTalk can aid my design development because I can learn a lot from her approach to design. Her main goal is for others to look at her work and get inspired. That has always been one of my goals for every artistic medium I have used. To inspire others the way others have inspired me is the simultaneous stimulation that all designers should strive for. Something I found extremely inspiration was the lettering she did for shop windows. In her sketches there was the phrase “Bountiful Lashes” and the design for the words was free flowing and hand drawn. But what made it so inspirationally intriguing was the way she added the look of bountiful lashes to the ends of the words. That kind of creativity and thought process is so intriguing to me, and it seems so simple, yet it is so wildly creative.

           Methods I can use to make my creativity flourish are watch videos like Bantjes’ TedTalk, as well as other videos that get my mind artistically working. To find inspiration I usually go on websites like Pinterest, Tumblr, Behance, Fiverr, Flickr, and any other artistic related websites. Those always help me as far as looking at other’s beautiful work and then taking a something from each work and making my own unique composition. I can provoke unique thoughts by thinking about some key points Marian touched upon like her public fine arts sphere, her personal ego feeding approach to her work that also greatly benefits the client, and words and images working together as a powerful force.

            Thus far in my design courses I have changed a lot. At the beginning of the year I did not understand the tedious nature of a process book, and I thought that ideas and execution came simultaneously, because that was always how I had done it. Now I see the real reasoning behind the process books. It makes designs seem a lot more approachable and achievable. Not only does it help to organize ideas, but also it makes the execution process more precise and technically perfect. I hope to improve in all areas of design. I want to think more like a graphic artist and make my designs more creative. I want people to look at my designs and think, “How did she come up with the idea for that?”