ABOUT

Marian Bantjes started her professional career more or less by accident when, in 1982, she began working for a typesetting company in Vancouver, Typeworks. Ten years later she was an accomplished typesetter, having learned on the job in an apprenticeship fashion, working under the direction of some of North America’s best book designers.

In 1993 she started, with friend Sue Kerr, a design company in Vancouver, BC, later known as Digitopolis. She, and eventually a small team, designed the usual gamut of graphic design: identities, brochures, posters, annual reports, websites, etc. It grew, at its largest, to 12 people. After 10 years, Marian had had enough.

In 2004 she left that company to begin working on her own in a more personal artistic style.

Illustration and design work has included projects for Saks Fifth Avenue, Granta, Penguin Books, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut (Pentagram), Ogilvy, the AIGA, Winterhouse, Print Magazine, Wired, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Wallpaper, The Guardian, Knopf Books and numerous other publications and companies.

It is this work that led her to international recognition.

Her work has been published in well over 100 books and magazines around the world, and she has lectured on her work at over 100 conferences and events worldwide since 2006. In 2010 she spoke on the main stage at the renowned TED Conference in Long Beach, California.

She has written two books: I Wonder (2010) and an extensive monograph of her work, Pretty Pictures (2013), both published by Thames & Hudson to critical acclaim. Pretty Pictures was named one of the best 20 art books in the past 20 years by BookForum.

She does not enter awards, but she has judged for many of them, including D&AD (UK), TDC (NY) and ADC (NY).

In 2008 she was accepted as a member of the prestigious international design organization Alliance Graphique International (AGI).

In 2011 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada.

In 2022 she was made a Fellow of DesCan (Design Professionals of Canada), given to “those who have made a major contribution to the organization or the design communications industry.”

In 2024 she was awarded the  The Les Usherwood Award from the Advertising and Design Club of Canada, “given to someone who has made a major contribution to the Canadian creative community.⁠”