- The Design View: How did you first get into illustration?
- Janine Rewell: Illustration was always my favorite thing. I went to Visual Arts high school in Helsinki. It was very good because there we had courses in different fields of visual arts and could explore our talents. At that point I wasn't sure if I could make a living out of illustration so I thought it's good to have some other profession as well. I continued my studies at University of Art and Design Helsinki (UIAH) in graphic design department. Those two professions complete and balance each other very well. While studying I first started to freelance illustrate to small magazines in Finland and after a while my style got so popular that I was basically financing my studies. When I graduated I already had a lot of connections and experience so it was easy to continue freelancing full time.
- The Design View: How do you normally start work on a project?
- Janine Rewell: I do rough sketches with pencil, but the final illustrating always happens with a computer. I have never been very good at drawing by hand and as soon as I learned to use the right software, I knew that would be the tool for my creations. I wouldn't be able to do what I do without my computer. I draw the vector shapes in Adobe Illustrator and sometimes I continue working on them with Adobe Photoshop.
- The Design View: How would you best describe your style of illustration?
- Janine Rewell: My vector-based illustration style combines pure geometrical forms with decorative elements and intense colors. Lately I've been working with a lot of textures as well. It's often described as absurd yet naive, with a modern Slavic touch.
- The Design View: You are currently represented by Agent Pekka but how do illustrators normally get represented by an agency, what is the normal procedure?
- Janine Rewell: The founder of Agent Pekka contacted me when they were putting up the illustration agency and asked me to join the team. I guess it usually goes the other way around. Normally illustrators email a portfolio to an agency. But the problem is that there is so many inquiries that many times the agents forget to reply. So it's good to make personal contact, call them and ask what they thought fo the portfolio and try to arrange a meeting.
- The Design View: You recently won a bronze Design Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009, please tell us what that was like?
- Janine Rewell: Advertising agency Taivas commissioned me to design a pattern for Finland’s largest food production and processing company, Atria. The ad agency had submitted the work to Cannes Lions without even telling me. So when I heard it's on the shortlist I was really surprised! We thought it's highly unlikely that my work would receive any awards since the amount of shortlisted work is huge and the Finns succeed very seldom in Cannes. Getting that award definately gave me more professional recognizability and hype around my for work.
- The Design View: Scandinavian design is well known world wide, but what would you say make's Finish design so good?
- Janine Rewell: I think Finnish design is so succesfull because it is so user-centred. Finnish design field has been affected strongly by the structure of our welfare society that tries to minimize differences between different social classes. High end design market haven't had demand here in Finland because we haven't got a rich upper class that can spend a fortune on unnecessary design objects. The law of demand has been created by the big middle class. To reach the audience Finnish designers has had a very functional and pragmatic approach to design.
- The Design View: What do you love most about illustration?
- Janine Rewell: I love most the way the geometrics simplify the reality.
- The Design View: Favorite website(s) you would recommend?
- Janine Rewell: Janine Rewell - Pekka Finland
- The Design View: Any words of wisdom you would like to share with us?
- Janine Rewell: Don't loose the fun side of designing, because that will kill your work.
- For more information about Janine Rewell, please visit:
- http://www.janinerewell.com/
Please note: The Design View would like to thank Janine Rewell for this interview. All work featured within this interview is copyrighted by Janine Rewell. The Design View has written permission from Janine Rewell to use the selected pieces for this interview. You may NOT copy or redistribute any of images within this interview without the written permission from Janine Rewell. For more information please contact: Janine Rewell
