From typographic illustrator Marian Bantjes, I Wonder will make you think in new ways about art, design, beauty, and popular culture. This unique presentation features the elaborately crafted word pictures of Marian Bantjes, the most inventive and creative typographic illustrator of our time. Whether intricately hand-drawn or using computer illustration software, Bantjes's work crosses the boundaries of time, style, and technology. There is, however, another side to Bantjes's visual work: her thoughtful treatises on art, design, beauty, and popular culture that add a deeper dimension to the decorative nature of her best-known work. These reflections cover the cult of Santa, road-side advertising, photography and memory, the alphabet's letterforms, heraldry, and stars. Bantjes's writing style ranges from the playful to the confrontational, but it is always imbued with perspicacity, insight, and a sense of fun. Intended to inspire creatives of any persuasion, this is more than a collection of ideas: Bantjes has meticulously illustrated every page of the book in her inimitable style to create an accessible work of art that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Quirky, poignant, astute, funny--this beautiful book presents a compelling collection of observations on visual culture and design. In Stefan Sagmeister's telling words, Bantjes's work is his "favorite example of beauty facilitating the communication of meaning." This paperback edition is expanded with a new essay from the author.

"Presents Bantjes's projects chronologically, revealing a fascinating journey from her early work as a typesetter to her experimentation in digital technologies and analogue materials alike"--Jacket.

"This book explores the work, ideals and ventures that have helped define the last fifty years of the graphic design profession. Learn about the women who helped establish design's relevance, importance and impact."--Back cover.

This book began as a list designer Sagmeister made in his diary under the title Things I have learned in my life so far and transformed these sentences into typographic works. This series is revealed as a complex blend of personal revelation, art, and design.

An ambitious publication in scope and specification, the book presents the total design output of one of the world's most talented and sought-after graphic designers. Presented loosely chronologically and with candid commentary throughout, this large-scale publication reveals a fascinating journey from Bantjes's early work as a typesetter to her adoption of digital technologies that push conventional print production to the limit.

This guide aims to move students away from a cut-and-paste mentality and refocus design instruction on the fundamentals of form (starting from such basics as point and line) in a critical, rigorous way informed by contemporary media, theory and software systems.