Creating optimism
For your new motifs you have chosen a positive representation of the future. How did you come up with the idea?
The idea came to me because of the rapid change we are currently going through. The pandemic that affected us all created a completely different awareness of medical issues. In addition, artificial intelligence has made many people think differently in the last year. Even cars can now drive autonomously. All these aspects inspired me to represent a city of the future.
Why did you decide to leave out critical topics such as climate change or wars?
I consciously decided against it and wanted to show a positive future scenario for a change. We all know the negative sides that progress brings with it and are confronted with climate change and the current world situation every day. Yet we have so many things around us that work better than they did 100 years ago. It's important to me to pick up from there and not just focus on the negative topics!
What modern gadgets and elements does your vision of the future include?
I tried to incorporate a lot of different things into the motif that, to me, represent a city in the future. These include, among other things, air taxis, medical robots, electrically powered means of transport and parcel drones. You can also see wind turbines and many plants that are supposed to symbolise an environmentally friendly future.
What effect do you hope viewers will have when they see your illustrations?
Of course, I hope for a positive effect - also through the cheerful, bright colours that represent a healthy, peaceful and clean world!
What role does art play in public spaces in your smart city?
I am very interested in street art and would like people to become even more open to it. Perhaps in the future art can even fulfill more functions and help to better communicate social issues that affect us all.
Your style is looser than usual, with more surfaces and fewer outlines. How did this style development come about?
On the one hand, of course, I always like to try out new things, and on the other hand, outlines always set boundaries and everything is clearly separated from each other. With the many surfaces and the omission of lines, it now seems less static to me. Nevertheless, I tried not to do without lines completely because I didn't want to go away from the drawing completely.
Finally, a few personal questions: What drives you as an illustrator?
The flexibility to immerse yourself in a wide variety of topics is what drives me the most. Illustration gives me the opportunity to explore whatever interests me at the moment!
What are your goals as an illustrator? Are there any projects you would like to implement in the future?
I am very interested in graphic reports and can well imagine starting a book project in this direction. I would also like to do more applied work in the future and concentrate more on the editorial area.
