I made this series of illustrations for this week's issue of German Der SPIEGEL. The article is titled "Turbodenker und Gedankendiebe" ("Turbo-thinkers and Thought-thieves"). It examines the claims of some recent, very successful books that predict societal upheaval caused by the nascent technology of brain modifications, thought reading and artificial intelligence.
The opening image, especially the glasses, is very much inspired by a photograph of the model Twiggy from the 1960s. Unfortunately, I do not know the photographer.
Art direction by Claudia Jeczawitz.
Paper Backups
Most of my work is digital and I try my best to keep backups. Of course illustration is ephemeral by design and still, I feel a bit uneasy about the fact, that all these drawings could just be wiped out at one point along with the couple of hard-drives they are on (the magazines and newspapers they were originally in, gone long before that of course).
So I started a couple of years back to make books of all the final drawings. Usually, about two years worth of illustrations fit into one of these. Here is a flip through the 2015-2016 book.
Illustration for Psykologi
This is the latest illustration I did for Finnish Psykologi magazine. The quote illustrated this time was "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." by Desmond Tutu.
Art direction by Johannes Rantapuska.
IBE-UNESCO In Focus
I added the illustration series I did for the International Bureau of Education's In Focus publication to the work section of the site. The IBE is a part of UNESCO, and even predates it. It was the first intergovernmental organization in the field of education and established in 1929.
The graphic design was done by Spanish design studio biografica. They have since then re-grouped as multiple studio.
This is one of the most beautiful publications I have worked on so far. I like the understated layout and typography with attention to detail. I am very happy to have been part of this.
Tobacco Atlas published
For the last half year, I have been working with RadishLab on the sixth edition of the Tobacco Atlas. It is a resource that tries to gather in one place everything policymakers, medical professionals, and anyone interested needs to know about the current state of tobacco consumption and its effects in the world.
I added a selection of the drawings to the work section.
The Tobacco Atlas was published in print, but all the information of the print version was also carefully prepared and adapted for the Tobacco Atlas website. There is a feature, that gives an overview of the current state of tobacco consumption in many of the world's countries. Check out your own.
A new website
Here we go - a new website. I wanted to simplify things again. The Wordpress of the old site felt cumbersome to me, so I decided to go with Squarespace this time. I also plan to post more regularly in this blog again, and maybe also publish more work I have done recently, that might not necessarily go into the main portfolio.
Fingers crossed!