Marian Bantjes's hyper-articulate TED Talk speaks to personal graphic design and, in a nutshell, its valuable place in society. If you haven't already watched this video, set aside 16 minutes to do so right now! (Her valentines are awesome!) 



But if you're pressed for time, here's the crux of her talk:

"Just in the way that I'm inspired by books and magazines of all kinds, conversations I have, movies, so I also think, when I put visual work out there into the mass media, work that is interesting, unusual, intriguing, work that maybe opens up that sense of inquiry in the mind, that I'm seeding the imagination of the populace. And you just never know who is going to take something from that and turn it into something else, because inspiration is cross-pollinating. So a piece of mine may inspire a playwright or a novelist or a scientist, and that in turn may be the seed that inspires a doctor or a philanthropist or a babysitter. And this isn't something that you can quantify or track or measure. And we tend to undervalue things in society that we can't measure.

But I really believe that a fully operating, rich society needs these seeds coming from all directions and all disciplines in order to keep the gears of inspiration and imagination flowing and cycling and growing. So that's why I do what I do, and why I spend so much time and effort on it, and why I work in the commercial, public sphere, as opposed to the isolated, private sphere of fine art. Because I want as many people as possible to see my work, notice it, be drawn into it, and be able to take something from it."

Fun fact: Marian designed our Girl Show flier in 2005!