Together with OHNE DEN HYPE, Forward welcomes you inside the mind of creatives, artists and designers! In intimate and personal conversations with Forward-speakers, industry legends and creative shooting stars, the podcast revolves around personal topics – completely without the hype that usually surrounds them. This tenth edition focuses on the life and creative work of type designer Ju Schnee who talks to Sven Jürgensmeier about how she always wanted to be an artist but thought it was just an unrealizable dream for a long time.
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.
In this episode Ju Schnee and Sven talk also about galleries, self-promotion, the year of learnings, how to create an identity and cover your old tracks and she revealed to him how she found her own style, which she calls wobbly, which is very lovely as a description.
Go listen to the full episode and get a glimpse into the mind of Ju Schnee with us.
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.
Get Miró’s book 
Although he has lots to do, he took his time for the podcast interview and the entire atmosphere with him can be described as very relaxed. Contrary to expectations, Eike surely is not a hectic person or the type to rush.