A short history of me

  • 2003: Dipped a toe into computer science II at the university. Dropped out real quick. Switched to communications design – a much better fit. 
  • 2003: Started freelancing as an illustrator. That never really stopped.
  • 2009: Graduated Dipl. Kommunikationsdesigner from HBK Saar. I illustrated Joanna Newsom’s song “Monkey & Bear” as propaganda posters.
  • 2011 – 2021: I explored leadership roles on the visual side of the games industry: concept artist, art director, team lead, creative advisor, talent scout, design director.
  • 2010s – 2020s: Taught design and concept art in various schools. I like sharing stuff and had the opportunity to do so there.
  • 2025 april – august: Selling strawberries, ’cause before starting university was the best time to try something completely different.
  • 2025: Let’s try the magic reset button in real life: started a dual study program in career guidance (Beratung für Bildung, Beschäftigung und Beruf – HdbA Schwerin, Agentur für Arbeit Berlin Süd
  • 2025 december: I quit the dual study program.
  • 2026: I guess it’s back to freelance

Currently

I’m always going through books, albums, and other things – here’s what stuck lately:

  • 20230127

    What if I made a card game? It’s battle-focused, very interactive, and the energy level of UNO. I need clearly identifiable colors, easy-to-read central elements, and status indicators. And what if I depict only characters, but all the characters are fruits? And they are all melee combatants, like Pummeler, Blademaster etc., because most fruits don’t do well with melee combat. And what if I did 13 cards, so 13 colors, 13 fruits, 13 melee types, and eight status effects? And what if I throw in a blender or a smoothie, …?

    I ended up sketching a bunch of characters and developing the color scheme. But I only drew four cards so far because I can’t figure out the actual game.

  • 20230126

    Unfortunately, yesterday didn’t go so well due to a bad headache that’s still persisting. So here are some more random sketches.

  • Stuff I like: Comic – Ultralazer

    I just got two volumes of the French comic book Ultralazer, published by Editions Delcourt.
    The book is created by three people, two of those are the two artists doing the artwork. Maxence Henry drew the characters, while Yvan Duqe drew all the backgrounds. You can see a few pages from the first book and some prelim sketches on this Behance site.
    I can’t say anything about the story; I don’t speak french. But the art is gorgeous.

  • 20230125

    The soundtrack while drawing this consisted of:
    Roque Baños – In the Heart of the Sea
    Philip Glass & Paul Leonard-Morgan – Tales from the Loop
    Emile Mosseri – Minari
    Oscar Araujo – Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

  • 20230124

  • 20230123 – I like the way you dance

    TLDR: Every now and then, I leave my wife a note on her desk with a compliment or anecdote on why I love her. I did that again last Saturday, and it inspired me to do some postcard designs.

    I’ll talk a bit more about the cards and process; if you want to read that, click on “Continue Reading”.

    (more…)

  • 20230120

    I sat down yesterday with the intent of drawing some Pulpy Logotypes. The one logotype I have was the last thing I drew on these two pages. I got sidetracked a little bit. I don’t know what it is about iterating on one thing past the “I’m out of ideas”-threshold repeatedly that appeals so much to me, but It does. I spent almost a whole day on “just one more” without realizing it.

  • 20230119

  • 20230118

    I spent some time yesterday evening windowshopping on websites of type foundries. That influenced this morning’s warmup doodling.

  • 20230117

    Yesterday was my monthly doctor’s appointment, and it zapped the energy right out of me. Also, I opened Affinity Designer again. I drew some small vignette sketches, and when I cleaned one in Photoshop, it did not come out as clean or simple as I wanted them to be, so I’ll try to do them in Designer.

    Anyways. Here are a couple of random figure sketches.