Career-View Mirror with Marilyn Bouma RGD Emeritus
Interview with Marilyn Bouma RGD Emeritus
RGD Emeritus Member Marilyn Bouma reflects on her career and memories dedicated to design and shares her pursuits and plans for the next chapter in retirement.
What memories from being a part of the RGD do you hold most dear?
My absolute best memories from the RGD are the DesignThinkers conferences. I attended them all! I was drawn to the title as I have always been a thinker. I studied Art History, Psychology and Russian Literature. I love authors like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who were always asking essential questions about the meaning of life. So many DesignThinkers presenters offered their own answers, which was so inspiring to me. It went beyond design. It was about life. I always appreciated that the world was coming to those of us designers in Toronto. When you work as a designer in the art world, there isn't a budget for travel to conferences.
What do you enjoy the most about retirement?
I am calling this phase of my life going back to my calling of being an artist. I always wanted to be one. I had a degree in PhysEd now known as Kinesiology and loved gymnastics. I also took dance and art studio. At the Art Gallery, I was the 2D designer for exhibitions about artists. My job was to enhance but never overwhelm the art. I call graphic design the invisible art.
Is there a particular achievement that stands out as a career highlight?
I designed a book called Free Worlds, based on the first exhibition that came from a Communist country, Hungary, that was liberated after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This was in 1991 and was featured in the ADCC Awards. The awards evening was the same night the Blue Jays won their first World Series…. Hard to compete with that moment in time but I was so proud to be part of that prestigious show.
Is there a particular project that you are most proud of?
A highlight was designing for an exhibition called "Small Wonders”… a difficult project with a challenging curator, featuring tiny prayer beads, giant photo murals, arcane biblical stories and a novel VR experience. It received an RGD In-House Design Award. But there were so many amazing shows - Man Ray, Memories Unearthed, Impressionism in the Age of Industry, Turner, Whistler, Monet… I worked with so many greats!
What new hobbies or pursuits have you taking up as part of your retirement plan?
I love art. I will continue to draw and paint what inspires me. This was a drawing I did from my first job in a small design studio in Toronto in the late 70s. My drafting table was beside this antique time clock. I felt trapped in time there, but there is a saying in my Netherlandish/Friesian background that says, “Time never stands still.” So I thought this too shall pass. I put my head down, did more paste-up, burnished down Letraset, perfected my ruling pen lines and learned how to operate a stat camera. This prepared me for the next step… my job at the Art Gallery of Ontario… for 44 years, during which I also had to transition from drafting tables to computers. I still have a healthy skepticism for computers as one did die on me along with the files I was working on at the time… Turner, Whistler, Monet… I redid everything from memory the following weekend. Similar to Tiit Telmet, I wanted to stay with Quark Xpress but I did pass his benchmark of version 3.3; I made it to 10. But then it all went to InDesign. It was like leaving a great relationship and learning InDesign was hard as it was all just a little different.
I love horses. I will continue to ride as well as pursue my ongoing fitness challenges. I ran 10 ks and half-marathons and participated in the World Masters Games in the 5k at high noon, in high altitude and was 6th… in the world at 50. Now I am pursuing yoga and hopefully tai chi. I was always a working mom, and now I can be there for my granddaughters, an experience I missed being an immigrant child.
Sayonara, Design World!
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