Jonas Laugs Illustrator and designer from Lübeck, lives and works in Lübeck/Germany and Edinburgh/UK

I always knew that I wanted to work in some sort of artistic field, but I soon realized that much of the visual arts is too over intellectualized and abstract for me. I just want to paint pretty little pictures. So I studied Communications Design (which I still really enjoy, working on aesthetic representations is extremely satisfying) with a focus on illustration.

Ideally I try to spend a half hour every working day on a passion project. And because I usually wake up before my partner I tend to do it in the morning after my daily journaling (if there is no pressing deadline).

After we have breakfast together I keep working, and after lunch and a short break for some progressive muscle relaxation, I leave the house with my partner when she goes into work and I go for an hour long walk in nature or for a run, before working some more. I finish around 6pm for dinner and wrap up the day with some video games, watching media or (depending on how excited I am about my current passion project) I fiddle around with my work some more.

Favorite anything (band, movie, etc) is always impossible for me to say and always changing. I have been and still am a big fan of Mike Mignola (Hellboy), even if his style isn’t really reflected in my own work (and also am critical of some aspects of his work: Christianity = good, militarism, hardly any female characters etc). I also love Francesca Sanna, Matt Rockefeller, Owen Davey, Sam Bosma, Marian Churchland, Kyle Fewell and Jon McNaught (and back in the day David Mack and Yoshitaka Amano).

Given that I have ‘always’ enjoyed drawing it’s difficult to say. From kid’s drawings (a lot of ocean, ships and volcanos) and copies of Disney characters and Lemmings from the video games to the illustrations from my teenage years it’s a big mix of things.

Just like many of my colleagues, I draw most of my inspiration from nature, which to me, is deeply connected with mythology, fantasy, imagination and (human) history. For me, rocks, moss, trees, ponds and brooks breathe the question of who lived there once, lives there now and could live there. Closely connected with nature for me is also a more negative source of creativity, which is my anger and desperation about the greed and cruelty of (some) people, disregarding and destroying the planet, living creatures and other people. Political works are my way of trying to process the cruelty of humanity.

I often listen to music. Audiobooks or Podcasts are a little too distracting for me while I work. I love Podcasts, but I like being bale to give them my full attention. Same with illustrations. I don’t want to be distracted by exciting Podcasts or audiobooks.

Interestingly enough no ... There are various personal projects still in the idea phase that I haven’t gotten to yet for one reason or another (for example because I can’t think of a good ending), and I’d like it if some of those became reality. But I’m not particularly interested in any literary texts. Song lyrics on the other hand, that’d be great!

I’m afraid just like so many creatives, I find it hard to appreciate my own work (which makes marketing myself very difficult ...) so not really. ‘Duality’ definitely seems to be an illustration that many people like and I can agree with that.

I love being in nature, riding my bike, appreciate good food (making and consuming it) and good coffee. I like anime and manga, fantasy in all forms and I’m a big fan of video games and films (aside from the big blockbusters).

For me illustration is about bringing across information, like most kinds of graphic design. So illustration for me is a (somewhat more free, creative) form of design, although illustrations often have the honor of evoking immaterial things like feelings and emotions (which is really also a sort of information).