Stephan Schmitz gave an interview for Bored Panda and told us the main goal of his illustrations: "I love to surprise the viewer. To catch someone's attention with an illustration, I like to play with our viewing habits. I try to achieve that by combining objects, symbols, or scenarios, by working with negative space, or by tinkering with the rules of perspective. In the best cases, the image produces an 'AHA' effect for the viewer. I think, once you've got someone's attention through an image with this method, it will automatically make him/her think about the subject. Even if it is only for a couple of seconds."
"I've loved drawing since I was a kid and always wanted to become a comic artist. As a boy and later as a teenager, I used to copy the characters of my favorite French and Belgian comic books and invent my own stories with them. I didn't know about illustration in the way I work today until I was around 20 years old and had to decide in which direction I wanted to move forward in art school. I studied illustration in Lucerne, Switzerland, and later art education in Zürich, Switzerland."
"The most difficult but also most intriguing part is coming up with new ideas. How can I twist a scene, landscape, a room with a person in it, in a way that it tells a story to the viewer? A story in one image with a pun at the end... Again, I am talking about the 'AHA' effect here. I think it is very satisfying for the person looking at the image to decipher the image and understand what the artist meant by it. Basically like understanding a joke or seeing a magic trick."
Stephan tells us about the topics he covers: "Usually the client comes to me with a subject. This covers pretty much everything from finance, health, politics but also cooking psychological topics and digitalization. In my personal work, I like to come up with ideas that revolve around interpersonal relationships, self-perception, and psychology in general."
The artist describes his style: "I used to say it's a graphically reduced style with a subtle palette of colors. Basically, a very typical editorial style. Although I have been getting into more complicated compositions and details in some of my recent work. Also, the color palette got much bolder and brighter than it used to be some years ago."
"I started working in this style and with idea-based images in 2014. I get asked from time to time if I think that it will get boring at some point. I don't see that point yet. I try to keep evolving and have been evolving since 2014. At least that is how I feel. I am rarely 100% satisfied with the outcome of an image. So there is always a little voice telling me: 'well... that could have been done better... maybe next time...' It's this voice, this feeling that can be very depressing but also very motivating. I try to keep that in balance as well as I can."
Stephan tells us what motivates him to keep moving forward: "That little voice... Haha! But also the feeling that basically, I got the job of my childhood dreams. I can draw all day long and I get paid to do that. I won't become a millionaire in my lifetime but... again... I get paid to draw and to come up with ideas... How wonderful is that? So even when I am having a bad day I try to remind myself of that. I work in a beautiful shared studio space with wonderful artists and I love my job. That is worth a lot, I think."
"My mother's advice: 'When you really love something, you will eventually get good at it. When you're good at something, people will pay you for it.' I think you have to find a way of working, a style, a voice, whatever you want to call it... Something that you love doing so much that you will do it either way: If they pay you or not. When I got to that point and found out what kind of work I loved to do, I pretty soon started getting paid commissions," said the artist when asked to advise people who want to get into art.
"I was born in the Dominican Republic in 1983 to a German father and a Swiss mother. Both development aid workers. When I was in primary school, we moved to Paraguay. I had a wonderful childhood there. We later moved back to Zürich, Switzerland where I went to high school and of course later to the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
After university, it took me more than 4 years to get enough work to make a living off of it. I was still finding out what kind of illustrator I wanted to become... so I had different day jobs... I worked as a gardener and at a local cemetery, in a beverage warehouse, later also as a high school teacher... Today I live and work in Zürich."
"Thank you so much, everybody out there. It is incredible that so many people around the world get to see my work. It's just fantastic and some years ago I would never have dreamed that this could become true someday. Be kind to each other! Cheers from Zürich!"
What do you think about these illustrations? Did you relate to any of them? Did they make you think, or not really? Tell us in the comments down below and don't forget to upvote your favorite ones. Also, go follow Stephan Schmitz on his social media accounts and show the artist some love if you enjoy what he does! Spread joy and happiness and always try to be kind.
