Last week I had a chance to take part in an online chat with Swedish graphic designer and illustrator Ingela P. Arrhenius, hosted by Orange Beak Studio.
Ingela P. Arrhenius (photo: artist’s Instagram)
I’ve always liked Ingela’s unique, graphic style of illustration, her bold but sophisticated colour palettes and carefully designed characters that immediately stand out even on the busiest, most colourful book shelfs. Listening to her recent presentation I learned so much more about her creative process and the range of her artistic curiosity.
A selection of toddler board books from the series “Peekaboo” and “Where’s …”, illustrated by Ingela Arrhenius for Nosy Crow.
Born in 1967 in Stockholm, Ingela has always loved the vintage aesthetic of the 50’s and 60’s product design and she incorporated a lot of those simple flat shapes and pastel colours into her work. I was fascinated to discover that while I grew up on the other side of Europe, I shared a lot of Ingela’s childhood inspirations, like the Franco-Belgian comic books of Asterix and Tin Tin and the Croatian animated TV series Professor Balthazar. Another thing we had in common was spending our art school years in pre-digital era, relying on traditional design techniques of cutting and pasting bits of paper. Ingela says this approach influenced her later work as a graphic designer and also shaped her artistic style as a freelance illustrator and toy designer.
Her first passion were patterns, home decor product and wallpaper - some of her designs from 30 years ago are still in production today.
Ingela Arrhenius’ wallpaper designs on Photowall
Other projects included posters, packaging, product design, museum gifts and toys - a lot of these commissions came from Ingela’s personal projects, her experimenting with different techniques and painting on various surfaces; whenever she felt she needed a creative boost she would pick an unusual object, a vintage toy, an old book of photographs or some other medium to find inspiration.
For example, she would use acrylic paint to draw on empty plastic containers like coffee goblets, paint faces on her children’s old wooden blocks or buy plain white plates and cups in thrift shops to decorate with her own colourful motifs. Lately she’s been working a lot with clay or printing her figurine designs with a 3D printer.
Some of Ingela Arrhenius’ personal projects; painted thrift shop porcelain and coffee goblet, wooden toys, inspired by her kids’ building blocks, 3D printed figurines, and in the background one of her paintings from the pandemic period when she would stay in her summer house and paint scenes from far away towns with the help of Google street view app. (Photo: artist’s Instagram)
A collection of toys and furniture for Vilac.
Ingela’s playful approach to art is very inspiring, she is constantly looking for ways to spark her creativity, staying open and curious, enjoying every moment of the process and through that joy producing something magical. As impromptu escapades as these personal projects are, Ingela takes them very seriously and often extends them into large series of products that she can exibit in her summer house - most of these ideas have since resulted in client commissions.
Photo: Instagram @ingelaparrhenius
Seeing this amazing range of Ingela Arrhenius’ work made me realise how important everyday artistic explorations of various materials and techniques are for an illustrator; we may think our work is only two dimensional but if we let our imagination stretch further, if we take time to cut paper, pick up some air dry clay or have fun painting on empty containers, who knows what new ideas will emerge.
A simple flat illustration can become a magical structure of overlapping pages, full of pull-out elements, flaps and textured materials that little hands love to touch and hold. A simple picture book character can become a toy, a wall decoration or a piece of furniture for a child’s room. As illustrators we can dream up a whole world of options and offer a wide range of products when we pitch an idea to an art director or publisher. That extra curiosity and playful approach to illustration can be a superpower!
Christmas street, written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by ingela P. Arrhenius for Candlewick Press
Feeling inspired? Take out some paper, scissors and clay and if you want more, you can join one of Ingela’s Domestika courses.
🌸Have an inspiring week,
See you next time!