Welcome to the online component of Marian Bantjes' solo exhibition at Onsite [at] OCAD University. This blog is a OCADU student project led by Meghan Hers. Each post is inspired by a segment of Bantjes' recent book I Wonder (The Monacelli Press, 2010) and is not complete without your feedback! Click on an image to see a post, add your response and join in the wonder.
We use the alphabet every single day, yet we rarely stop to consider it from a design standpoint and wonder how exactly it got to look the way it does today. In this section of “I Wonder” Bantjes takes a “cold, hard look” (124) at our familiar letterforms, and critiques them as if they were designed by a team of designers, coming to some interesting, and humorous, conclusions. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? Do you love it for its visual qualities, or the words that it is incorporated into? Write a love letter to it, describing why you adore it, and share it with us in the comment section…

We use the alphabet every single day, yet we rarely stop to consider it from a design standpoint and wonder how exactly it got to look the way it does today. In this section of “I Wonder” Bantjes takes a “cold, hard look” (124) at our familiar letterforms, and critiques them as if they were designed by a team of designers, coming to some interesting, and humorous, conclusions. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? Do you love it for its visual qualities, or the words that it is incorporated into? Write a love letter to it, describing why you adore it, and share it with us in the comment section…

“Ye Olde Graphic Designer” is a chapter of “I Wonder” in which Bantjes offers a quick history of heraldry and the brilliant graphic language that it utilizes. This visual “language that we can count on and read in a precise way” (59) is something she sees as lacking elsewhere in the 21st century, and she consequently imagines what it would look like applied to contemporary logo design. She concludes “all coats of arms are not the same” and that “they are readable, and describable, and most importantly, they mean something. Not only do they tell us something about the owner, but they tell us about their history and potential relationships to others.” (65-66) Do you have a coat of arms, or personal logo that you think sufficiently represents you, and has an interesting story to tell? Upload a picture of it and describe the meaning of the different elements!

“Ye Olde Graphic Designer” is a chapter of “I Wonder” in which Bantjes offers a quick history of heraldry and the brilliant graphic language that it utilizes. This visual “language that we can count on and read in a precise way” (59) is something she sees as lacking elsewhere in the 21st century, and she consequently imagines what it would look like applied to contemporary logo design. She concludes “all coats of arms are not the same” and that “they are readable, and describable, and most importantly, they mean something. Not only do they tell us something about the owner, but they tell us about their history and potential relationships to others.” (65-66) Do you have a coat of arms, or personal logo that you think sufficiently represents you, and has an interesting story to tell? Upload a picture of it and describe the meaning of the different elements!

Bantjes once again examines the cultural iconography that surrounds us from a design perspective in her chapter of “I Wonder” on Santa, taking Old St. Nick to task and trying to figure out “how the Santa identity is maintained, and what it is exactly that makes Santa, Santa.” (167) Her findings are surprising, mainly that “the Santa icon can appear in any number of forms or media without loss of recognition,” (167) and she once again applies the idea to contemporary branding design, wondering what the Santa-fication of a brand or logo, malleable yet recognizable, might look like. Is there a company or institution that you think has established a brand or logo that is Santa-ized? Or has branded themselves in a way that you particularly admire? What makes their design or branding particularly effective?

Bantjes once again examines the cultural iconography that surrounds us from a design perspective in her chapter of “I Wonder” on Santa, taking Old St. Nick to task and trying to figure out “how the Santa identity is maintained, and what it is exactly that makes Santa, Santa.” (167) Her findings are surprising, mainly that “the Santa icon can appear in any number of forms or media without loss of recognition,” (167) and she once again applies the idea to contemporary branding design, wondering what the Santa-fication of a brand or logo, malleable yet recognizable, might look like.

Is there a company or institution that you think has established a brand or logo that is Santa-ized? Or has branded themselves in a way that you particularly admire? What makes their design or branding particularly effective?

Wonder and awe are two themes that run deep throughout “I Wonder,” and Bantjes states they are each rooted in “the feeling that something is just beyond our grasp, combined with enough knowledge to make the mind seek.” (14) Not understanding “how something so beautiful or so vast or so complex could possibly exist” sparks this “desire for enlightenment” which keeps us “moving and growing.” (14, 30) What do you wonder about? What strikes you as incredibly mysterious, and makes you hungry for knowledge? Make a list below of different things you wonder about, then tell a friend about this site and ask them to do the same.

Wonder and awe are two themes that run deep throughout “I Wonder,” and Bantjes states they are each rooted in “the feeling that something is just beyond our grasp, combined with enough knowledge to make the mind seek.” (14) Not understanding “how something so beautiful or so vast or so complex could possibly exist” sparks this “desire for enlightenment” which keeps us “moving and growing.” (14, 30)

What do you wonder about? What strikes you as incredibly mysterious, and makes you hungry for knowledge? Make a list below of different things you wonder about, then tell a friend about this site and ask them to do the same.

Reading I Wonder is a sensuous experience; from the satiny embossed cover to the gilded pages and shimmering gold ink, the book begs to be touched and held. Bantjes is clear that this was part of the book’s design, that it was her “intent to make something that is necessarily a book, and which could not be as rich of an experience on the web as it is in your hands…it has been specifically designed for print, and certainly designed to be read comfortably, while curled up in your favourite reading spot.” (7/8) In this age of e-books, online newspapers and screens replacing pages, such a tactic calls for a re-embrace of the beauty found in print. What tangible aspects of reading a book do you miss when you’re reading online? Do you find the same level of enjoyment in reading online as you do reading physical books? 

Reading I Wonder is a sensuous experience; from the satiny embossed cover to the gilded pages and shimmering gold ink, the book begs to be touched and held. Bantjes is clear that this was part of the book’s design, that it was her “intent to make something that is necessarily a book, and which could not be as rich of an experience on the web as it is in your hands…it has been specifically designed for print, and certainly designed to be read comfortably, while curled up in your favourite reading spot.” (7/8) In this age of e-books, online newspapers and screens replacing pages, such a tactic calls for a re-embrace of the beauty found in print. What tangible aspects of reading a book do you miss when you’re reading online? Do you find the same level of enjoyment in reading online as you do reading physical books? 

“But nowadays, instead of looking at books, people read them.”  George Bernard Shaw seems to be describing I Wonder in the quote, but suggests that people have forgotten how to enjoy the tangible, visual qualities of books. How true do you think his words ring today? Have we forsaken well-designed books for content? What an example of a book you read recently where you felt you were looking at it as much as reading it?

“But nowadays, instead of looking at books, people read them.” 

George Bernard Shaw seems to be describing I Wonder in the quote, but suggests that people have forgotten how to enjoy the tangible, visual qualities of books. How true do you think his words ring today? Have we forsaken well-designed books for content? What an example of a book you read recently where you felt you were looking at it as much as reading it?

Chances are you’ve had the experience of trying to accomplish a specific task, and then in the process of doing it getting so sidetracked and distracted that you end up doing something else, hours later, unsure of how you got there in the first place. Bantjes captures this predicament visually with her signature humour in the chapter of I Wonder called “Assembling Two IKEA bookshelves.” The reader follows her on a wild goose chase around her house as she deals with the panoply of small distractions that stand between her and the bookshelves being assembled, taking her farther and farther away from the original task. Do you have a unique way of visually mapping out your thoughts or actions like Bantjes does? What does it look like? Describe the visual form you use below, or upload a picture and share what your thoughts or actions look like with us!

Chances are you’ve had the experience of trying to accomplish a specific task, and then in the process of doing it getting so sidetracked and distracted that you end up doing something else, hours later, unsure of how you got there in the first place. Bantjes captures this predicament visually with her signature humour in the chapter of I Wonder called “Assembling Two IKEA bookshelves.” The reader follows her on a wild goose chase around her house as she deals with the panoply of small distractions that stand between her and the bookshelves being assembled, taking her farther and farther away from the original task.

Do you have a unique way of visually mapping out your thoughts or actions like Bantjes does? What does it look like? Describe the visual form you use below, or upload a picture and share what your thoughts or actions look like with us!

The Politics of Ornament is a beautifully decorated chapter of I Wonder that features quotes by theorists and philosophers, which exemplify the way in which ornament has been seen as a crime in the past 100 years of design history. This desire to beautify our material creations is equivocated to “a superabundance of trashy food,” (51) detail is described as “sickening vulgarity,” (51) and there is a rejection of “the tortured, laboriously extracted and pathological nature of modern ornament.” (53) Adolf Loos even goes as far as to claim that “Un-ornament is a sign of mental power,” and that “The less civilized a people is, the more prodigal it will be with ornament and decoration.” (54) Bantjes is poking fun at these ideas by surrounding them with flourishes and intricate designs, visually enhancing words which directly vilify decoration. Using her embrace of ornament as a point of inspiration, think of an object that is part of your everyday life that you love because it is ornamented, whose beauty causes you to enjoy using it. Describe it below and upload a photo of it if you wish.

The Politics of Ornament is a beautifully decorated chapter of I Wonder that features quotes by theorists and philosophers, which exemplify the way in which ornament has been seen as a crime in the past 100 years of design history. This desire to beautify our material creations is equivocated to “a superabundance of trashy food,” (51) detail is described as “sickening vulgarity,” (51) and there is a rejection of “the tortured, laboriously extracted and pathological nature of modern ornament.” (53) Adolf Loos even goes as far as to claim that “Un-ornament is a sign of mental power,” and that “The less civilized a people is, the more prodigal it will be with ornament and decoration.” (54)

Bantjes is poking fun at these ideas by surrounding them with flourishes and intricate designs, visually enhancing words which directly vilify decoration. Using her embrace of ornament as a point of inspiration, think of an object that is part of your everyday life that you love because it is ornamented, whose beauty causes you to enjoy using it. Describe it below and upload a photo of it if you wish.

The chapter of I Wonder entitled Cemeteries is a testament to Marian Bantjes’ fascination with these repositories of the dead, and features photographs she has taken in these spaces as well as tinfoil art. She describes her interest in saying that “There is something deeply compelling in markers of remembrance and the contemplation of those who are remembered beside those who have been forgotten.” (85)


 Is there someone in your life who has passed on whose memory you’d like to perpetuate by sharing it with others? Write a short obituary for this individual and share it with us below in the form of a comment. 
Stefan Sagmeister, speaking about Marian Bantjes’ typographic works, says that “It is their beauty that makes me consider their meaning; it is their beauty that makes me keep at them.” (Introduction, xv) What kind of writing would you like to see beautified in order that you might better understand it? What types of writing do you think merit being ornamented visually in order that people might pay more attention to it?

Stefan Sagmeister, speaking about Marian Bantjes’ typographic works, says that “It is their beauty that makes me consider their meaning; it is their beauty that makes me keep at them.” (Introduction, xv)

What kind of writing would you like to see beautified in order that you might better understand it? What types of writing do you think merit being ornamented visually in order that people might pay more attention to it?

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