Physical Texture

Marian Bantjes Summary

Marian Bantjes is a very successful graphic designer, both in the commercial sphere as well as her own personal creations. She is a true inspiration of someone who really honed in on her craft and her originality over years of working hard at it. She is at the point now in her career where she is really able to expand her creativity and push her own boundaries. As a contributor in the film said, "she is demonstrating that design can be personal". She always does the unexpected but in a beautiful way. Her designs were inspiring in that you can tell she takes of pride in her work.

Her project with the Valentine's Day cards using the old Christmas cards was beautiful. As she put it, it was an idea that turned into pleasantly aesthetic surprise. The details of the cards and the cut outs were creative, beautiful, and timeless looking. Marian uses a wide variety of materials in her projects, including drawing and scanning into illustrator, that adds to her overall creative expansion. 

Her colleagues referred to Marian as fundamentally understanding the creativity of each project and that is why she was so successful. The amount of knowledge she has and time she put into it showed through her understanding of concepts exceptionally well. 

Scale, Depth, Motion

Jessica Hische Summary

Jessica Hische is the co-owner the design firm, "Title Case", in San Francisco, and has a career that I truly admire and wish to learn more from. As someone who is passionate about lettering as an art form, it is always interesting to hear about someone who has made it into a lucrative and fulfilling career. In the video, Jessica mentioned people's reactions when she tells them she does lettering and how most people don't understand the complexities and intricacies that encompass typeface and lettering. She mentioned that not until you really start to look at and teach yourself the details of lettering, will you start to truly learn the craft. 

Her advice, in terms of career and artistic progression, was to be creative every day in order to keep yourself fresh and revitalized in your craft. When searching for your ideal career, she said that it is important to not only consider what you love and are passionate about but what your day to day really looks like. Her success has relied on her using her career to make a statement about yourself. 

Jessica constantly floods sketch books with ideas. It is important to do this because once you find out things that aren't working, you're closer to finding what does. You have to go through an exploratory period in order to generate your best work. 

Scale

Sean Adams Summary

As a founder of his own design firm, president of the AIGA, Graphic Design instructor, and a contributor to Lynda.com, among other things, Sean Adams is known as a very successful, and busy, designer. There is so much to learn from the span of his career, and he has a lot of wisdom to give to his students about making it in this line of work. I appreciated his insight on what he would be looking for in a potential hire, and that what he valued most was simplicity in presentation. He also emphasized networking as a way to create your own career path. The design community is a tight knit group of people, and the easiest way to get yourself an opportunity is to meet the right connections! 

Sean relies on many different techniques to get his ideas. One of them is to listen to other's ideas, which I thought was great. As much as anyone wants to have a completely original idea or thought, it is always helpful to get another's idea or perspective and then create it into your own. He also loves to combine symbols and ideas in his work to create artistic metaphors. 

He said, "design keeps capitalism going in the marketplace", which I thought was a very thought-provoking statement. Essentially, without design, our entire economy wouldn't have the momentum that is does today. As Sean put it, as an Art Director or Creative Director, you truly are "in charge of pop culture". 

Rhythm Balance

Points, Lines, and Planes

Margo Chase Summary

Margo Chase has had such an inspirational, and envious, career path! Her style and skills are so well-rounded and she is always willing to push herself further and try something new. She mentioned that she felt at the beginning of her career she started getting known for a certain style, which has its perks, but also can ultimately pigeon-hole you into a certain market. She pushed through this adversity, and has shown that you have to be confident in what you produce and what you are capable of. Before she even knew how to do effects on a Mac, she told her client that she could, because she knew it was possible. She trusted herself and her ability to push herself and her skills.

Margo showed that you must always been soaking in information and inspiration from everywhere. She has an extensive book collection that she references frequently for ideas, and also uses several different types of media to expand her creative thought process. She sketches and draws when she is traveling, and said that she pulls influence for certain projects from something that she had already created or an idea she thought of.

Margo took each new opportunity as it came to her, made it her own, and wasn’t afraid of a challenge, even if she didn’t feel fully prepared. My main takeaway from Margo’s story is that as much as you try, you can never be truly prepared for challenges in life. So, it is important to take the leap anyway, be confident in yourself, and know if you work hard at it, you will succeed. 

100 Iterations