Being a graphic designer means following certain guidelines whether they be provided by a boss, a client, or a professor in life; the main objective that really stands out to me about Marian Bantjes is that she refers to herself as a graphic artist rather than a graphic designer. She feels that the idea of a graphic artist is much more open and accepting of her own personal ideas. Bantjes lectures about how she can now follow her heart and her own interest into her work and I really think that that is one of the most important aspects of individuality and creativity. I don't think that it is possible to be creative if you don't have a motive. I know that when it comes down to myself and being creative I need to look at the world around me and bring in my own personal feelings and thoughts about life, and from there I am able to bring the words in my head and create them as images on a canvas. I think that hearing a successful artist/designer say this about herself has really helped to open my mind when it comes to abstract pieces of work and speaking to the audience in different ways that may not be as direct as originally thought out. Bantjes spoke about what she is bringing to the table for not only the audience, but also for herself. The topic of joy and curiosity are major components in her work and she likes to have her audience stop and think about her work and wonder what the overlying message truly is. I think that it is very important that she brought up the works of her own that use unusual materials such as sugar on her kitchen table, or tinfoil, and even macaroni and related it to the work that children may do in preschool or kindergarten. Given Bantjes idea of working with unusual materials or usual materials in an unusual way can really help me when trying to be more creative with my work. She has really widened my eyes to see that when working on a project, I don't necessarily have to be as serious as I may have originally thought, but I just have to be open and confident in what I am choosing to do.
Bantjes was able to really open my eyes when it comes to really working outside of the box to reach out to the audience that I am gearing my work towards. I think that it is important to remember that something that is more personal can really help engage others in my work given the fact that many people share the same thoughts and ideas about life. Looking at myself from the beginning of last semester to now, I feel much more confident in my work and much more open with my curiosity with design. I think that Marian Bantjes really touched upon this topic as well when she mentioned that her work must satisfy her ego first before she can feel that it may satisfy someone else. I would say that as confident as I feel in my work, I can always improve on this as well. I sometimes fear rejection about my work or that it may not be good enough or as good as someone else's, and I think that hearing Bantjes say she must satisfy herself first before delivering her work to someone else is definitely a huge guide for me to feel satisfaction with my work as well. I think that as long as I am open to myself and willing to take on projects that make me think a little more, I will be more open to different aspects of creativity throughout my work for this semester and for a career in the future. I also think that the three questions she brings up are really important to remember throughout the whole design process; Who is it for? What does it say? What does it do? Given these three questions, on top of the design process, I feel that a designers work can be the strongest possible. Marian Bantjes is a really strong designer and her work really speaks to many different people. I feel that I have learned a lot about her and a lot from her and it will be ideas that I keep with me while in school and with a career that I may have down the road.
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