Cachetejack is Nuria Bellver and Raquel Fanjul, a Spanish freelance illustration duo with a nomadic lifestyle working together since 2011. The crew has always been about more than just the illustration, making women professionals more visible and celebrating simple pleasures of life. Cachetejack explores, discovers and brings hidden gems to the surface while making progress in a variety of mediums like books, magazines, clothing, painting and illustration. We asked them some questions to get to know the creative duo better.
Cachetejack will speak at the Forward Festival Vienna in September. Next to them, you will be able to hear Creatives like Alice Isaac, Fons Hickmann, Ju Schnee and many more.
First off, back at your Art Uni time, how did you end up creating a duo and what do you think made you such a good pair? What did you see in each other that made you want to start working together?
It was in our last year of uni 2011 that we wanted to work together. We were so angry with the university system that we decided to create art manifestos to stir our minds and those of our classmates, that’s how Cachetejack was born as a secret persona who wrote art manifestos. We were united by our humor and critical sense when it came to seeing the world.
How did things begin to kick off for you at the very beginning? And so how do you approach and percept your work now?
In the beginning, we started to try many ways of discovering our own style. We have made progress in the synthesis and learned how to focus on where we want to head to. There was a lot of chaos and obsession, but, on the other hand, a lot of enthusiasm and energy that are helping us to stay afloat today.
Cachetejack has a strong and humorous identity in terms of the work you make and some of that seems to come from your bio. Where does your love for drawing stem from?
Humor comes from our personality and us being together, it multiplies. We have always considered that the image must have a clear and direct message, and we prefer to use it with humor. The less good things also go better with humor and it is accessible to everyone.
Your latest NFT ‘ Goddess Temple ’ of the collection ‘The pleasure is all ours’ is dedicated to women’s visibility and their eternal power. How would you describe being a female artist in a creative industry? Would you like to change or tuck in anything about it?
Being women artists within the NFT world where the majority are men, we wanted to focus on the visibility of women and our rights and freedoms, to expose female pleasure without hesitation. We work in our daily lives to respect our environment and ourselves and we have to do the same in the professional world. It is a commitment to ourselves.
What do you think is the key to a successful artistic career? And what does it mean to be successful for you?
The key to success is believing in yourself and trusting in what you have inside. Be true to your instincts and be honest with yourself, be ready to stumble many times so as to get back up again. Also enjoying what you did like as a child is being successful.
In your opinion, what makes a creative concept outstanding?
When something excites us from within, stimulates our senses and stands out.
You both are originally from Spain. Any hints for the best spots where to enjoy art there?
In Spain, everything you can see around inspires you: a lot of humor, irony, people and, of course, their expressions in the way of talking. The sun and the blue sky are also always inspiring because you feel a lot of energy. The cheerful color and lifelong traditions such as long meals with friends and family make time enjoyable and shared. In terms of the illustration world in Spain, we have been to many self-publishing festivals like Gutter fest (Barcelona), Graf, Tenderete (Valencia), or urban art festivals like Festival Asalto (Zaragoza) and Poliniza (Valencia).
You work across a range of different commercial projects as well as gallery shows, exhibitions, workshops and talks. What do you prefer doing the most? When are you at your happiest?
We like to have a balance between these two things: having commercial jobs (where we expose our style & message) and our drawings. We also need our creative side totally free while playing around without judgment. We really enjoy making our exhibitions and experimenting with unlimited creativity in any medium.
What will the future of illustration look like?
We observe that more people resemble each other, that their styles are being unified and very few people take their time and dedicate themselves 100% to be unique in the world of illustration. We hope that in the future quality and respect for art and not TRENDS will be valued more.
We were wondering if you had any advice for anyone from the creative industry on how they can make a better effort to educate themselves?
Our advice is to listen to yourself, trust your talent and experiment without fear.
Creating a duo such as yours is a dream for many artists. What are your hopes for the future now, despite what you have already achieved? What’s up next for Cachetejack in the nearest few months or years?
Cachetejack still has a lot to tell and many ideas to show. We would like to enter the world of art with sculptures, parks and paintings. Cachetejack is on a large scale!
As one of our Forward Festival speaker, Ju Schnee rocked in 2022 the Forward Stage in Berlin. Ju originally comes from Graz, where she studied communication design. After she finished her studies she worked for a while as a freelancer. Then she decided to move to Berlin in 2020 and devoted herself entirely to art. After that, everything concerning her art went pretty fast. She has been exhibiting internationally in Germany, South Korea, Switzerland, Spain, France and Belgium. Since 2022 next to her studio in Berlin she is also located in Austria, Vienna.
the best-known graphic designers, Mario Lombardo shaped the design scene in this country for many years. In the age of digital aesthetics he has shifted the focus onto -experimental and craft activities, at the same time breathing new life into print media. His passion for craftsmanship continues to this day. After his studio had grown more and more, he decided after several successful years to go a different way.
Ju Schnee is one of the first artists to combine augmented reality with oil paintings. She has been experimenting with different media for several years, combining traditional paintings and sculptures with NFTs, AR and AI.
As one of the best-known graphic designers, Mario Lombardo shaped the design scene in this country for many years. In the age of digital aesthetics he has shifted the focus onto -experimental and craft activities, at the same time breathing new life into print media. His passion for craftsmanship continues to this day. After his studio had grown more and more, he decided after several successful years to go a different way.
Today, two tasks determine his daily work - on the one hand, the perfume house Atelier Oblique, which he founded in 2016, and on the other hand, he still works as a graphic designer, but today as a one-man army, without any employees at all.
(c) Grilli Type[/caption]
Tobias Rechsteiner has been at the Forward Festivals multiple times, sharing his insights at workshops and talks. He is not only the Account Director of the independent Swiss type foundry Grilli Type, but also the designer of their recognizable and iconic fonts GT Hapti, GT Zirkon and more. He describes himself as a cliché Swiss perfectionist combined with a certain bit of scrappiness that’s due to the influence of his life in Berlin. His unique approach comes from his numerous experiences as a designer as well as his education in business administration. The unusual path from designer to type designer to businessman and designer at heart is one of the many aspects that make Tobias an impressive and interesting person.
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(c) Hannah Schierholz, taken at Forward Festival Vienna 2021[/caption]
Anthony Burrills work is instantly recognizable. The simple big letters, the clean but broken up lines, the black and white asthetic. When you see one of his designs it will hit you immediately that this has to be one of his works you are looking at. The graphic designer combines his love for analogue craft skills with positive messages. His pieces all bear the marks of his letterpress process and all its unique happy accidents. You will also find many of his works held in the permanent collections of various museums and exhibited all around the world.
Sarah Illenberger has held talks, not once, not twice but three times at Forward Festival in 2017 and 2018, visiting Munich, Zurich and Vienna. During the Forward Festival in Vienna, Sarah Illenberges and Sven Jürgensmeiers schedule didn´t quite align for the two to have a proper sit down to talk about Sarahs creative journey and how she became the tinkerer of many things for her visual art and design. But we are very happy that they did manage to meet in her workshop in Berlin to discuss all the unconventional ways Sarah likes to experiment with materials and how she comes up with her ideas.
When Sven Jürgensmeier met her in her creative workspace he realizes quite quickly that
Sarah Illenberger is many things: a little bit chaotic, adventurous and unique in her use of materials to tell stories through her visual art, but most and foremost, she is extremely likable. Which makes this conversation all the more pleasant to follow.
Mirko Borsche is one of the biggest names in the german graphic design landscape. Not only is he the creative director for ZEIT Magazine, which is published every friday, he has also worked with many of the big names like Balenciaga, Rimowa, Highsnobiety and Supreme. Just to name a few. And another thing: he often says exactly what he is thinking, even if that might ruffle some feathers. Similar to his direct way of communicating, his art style can be described as straight forward and bold, while also preserving a distinct timeless notion. It really shows that his creation process is an extension of his personality. Which is probably exactly what makes him so successful.
In his conversation with Sven Jürgenmeier, Mirko Borsche starts at the very beginning. We are taken back to his youth in Munich and the influence that Graffiti had very early on in his life and career. Walking the memory lane, Mirko and Sven reflect on the graphic designers education, his early days as a young designer and how he dealt with the fame that came soon after he got some footing in the industry. We get to follow Mirko Borsche trough the processes that shaped him up and molded him into the designer he is today.
(c) Sven Jürgensmeier[/caption]
Esra Gülmen is a Berlin-based artist and designer from Turkey. During her time in big advertising agencies, she has won many awards and worked for all the big names out there, like Coca-Cola and McDonalds. What makes her work so special is the same thing that comes out in her art – and that’s her humor. She has a way of repackaging complex and sometimes touchy topic and ideas and showing them in a witty and poignant way.
Although Esra was very successful in the advertising industry, she recently committed all her time to make art. At the time the podcast with Sven Jürgensmeier was recorded it wasn´t all entirely official yet, but you can still tell that she was done and over with working in agencies and wants to delve more into the creative processes that make her art so relatable, on point and unique.
Were all of the illustrations you drew in your artist book brand new and created exclusively for 100for10?
90% exclusive, yes. My plan for the book was this one: I just got two new sketchbooks and filled them up to the very last page with new illustrations, so I would then have enough pieces for the book. I also found the idea of being able to show two original books at the end very tempting. And the plan worked out very well.
Are the illustrations coherent, or does each one of the artworks stand for itself?
They tend to stand alone. The book is intended to give an insight into my style and their variations.
What was your main source of inspiration for the illustrations?
I always like to gather my inspiration from different sources. While I was working on the book, I found a lot of inspiration from nature, as I've spent a lot of time in the countryside over the past year. These influences were then mixed with various science fiction artists of the 70s and 80s. Art Nouveau has also been a great source of inspiration for me for several years.
How much time did you spend drawing all of them?
100FOR10 contacted me in May 2021. I started right away and finished it by the end of 2021.
Are there times when you lack inspiration? If yes, what helps you get out of that state?
Of course I also go through such phases. An ideal situation for this to happen is when you would have time to spare anyways and then you can take advantage of it and give yourself time to think ideas through and not torment yourself by feeling pressured. However, if inspiration is lacking at certain a moment where the job is pending and you can’t think of a brilliant idea, it always helps me to put everything down and go for a walk. It doesn't matter if it’s stormy or sunny, walking is good for body and mind. Usually after a walk, when you get back to your workplace you definitely have at least a rough idea.
Could you tell us a little bit about your illustrating process and how you get into your workflow?
I have two ways of starting. Firstly, I draw very rough sketches with fine-liners on cheap copy paper, therefore I also don't feel wasteful. The second part starts directly on the Cintiq. As soon as the sketch is ready, it is either scanned and then a second layer of lines is depicted in Adobe Illustrator, or the second layer is switched on directly and worked out. As soon as the lines are all in place, I’m creating the shadow areas. As a third step, I put a layer under the line and shadow layers and create a colour composition.
For this book, however, as I already mentioned, I drew all the illustrations analogously in sketchbooks, scanned them and edited them in Illustrator so that they were clean and all in the same shade of black.
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