Location: Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada
Website: Marian Bantjes

Marian Bantjes may be most widely known recently for her massive Saks Fifth Avenue “Want It” campaign that brought products to life in swirling flourishes of text and calligraphy. In the design world, her work is known for its amazing attention to detail and clever lettering and type design that makes simple words into works of art. Marian has worked her magic for such magazines as Print, Wired, Creative Review, Wallpaper, and others. Her collaborations with Stefan Sagmeister are also standouts from her portfolio.

I’m not sure which works of Marian’s I first saw (probably this issue of Print), but I know that I was immediately infatuated with them. When I attended a lecture she gave at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2008, I was amazed to see just how much work she has made, and so consistently strong both conceptually and visually. You can more or less relive the experience I had by watching this video of the Walker lecture.