Debra Li

    debra_lidan@163.com

    HAILING from a land of lakes, islands and forests, Helsinki artist and illustrator Janine Rewell gave a lecture at Guan Shanyue Art Museum yesterday afternoon sharing the stories behind her exhibition.

    The displayed works include those commissioned by clients, such as Kipling and a new series about her childhood summers in Finland.

    They capture moments of playtime — saving ladybugs from drowning, selling flowers to buy ice cream, and rowing in the lake by her family’s cottage.

    “It will be interesting for the Chinese audience to see what the Finnish countryside is like,” said the 29-year-old.

    The new series is also on display in Finland at Visavuori Museum this summer.

    Born into a family with generations of artists, Rewell fixates on geometry. Her style is characterized by pure vector lines flirting with decorative shapes that bloom into bold and colorful composition. Her illustrations are presented in body painting, commercial campaigns and at art galleries.

    “Good design moves the audience,” Rewell said. “Good design doesn’t stay in the hands of the first viewer, who will share the story and images. Knowledge of the design starts moving forward at its own pace, hand to hand, from context to context, from need to need.”

    Rewell started doing illustrations in high school. Having experimented with a lot of different styles, she chose to concentrate on vectors 10 years ago.

    Soon after she began her graphic design studies in the University of Art and Design Helsinki. She fell in love with art deco graphics in 2005.

    “Their strong composition and bold, simplified geometrical forms, and added decorative details are something that inspire my work to this day,” she said.

    “The art deco illustrations caught my eye because they were such a contrast to the ongoing trend of photoshop effect based collages. Back then, the Western illustration trend was all about using the computer software. It felt like the more you could use effects in photoshop, the trendier it was. I started developing my vector style, creating rules for myself ... and that way I was making the style recognizable. I simplify elements to their basic forms, stripping away everything unnecessary.”

    The first few years Rewell was working without an illustration agent and contacting magazines and clients herself while pushing her online portfolio. It’s important for a young designer to have his or her web portfolio and keep updating it, Rewell said. “This has been vital for my career.”

    Continuing to work as a freelance illustrator in university, Rewell signed with Agent Pekka, who is still doing most of the marketing for her. During summer vacations, she interned at advertising and design agencies. “That kind of experience helps a young designer understand how the machinery of marketing and advertising works, as well as building useful connections.”

    After she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009, Rewell found it easy to become a full-time freelancer. “In history, most artists concentrated on developing their styles for decades. Now the life pace is so much faster and we don’t have style directions, but rather trends that change really fast. I personally think that in order to become a master in your own style you have to practice it for a long time and let it grow,” she said.

    “I wasn’t the inventor of geometrical vector illustration but I was among the first wave in 2006, and by 2010 I was faced with a huge amount of new competitors. Designers who picked up the style started doing it as well. What originally had been a new style … was now very common … So on the side of the original solid color vectors, I started playing with textures and gradients, adjusting the tone of my style.”

    Rewell said it’s important to make a clear distinction between visual arts and illustration.

    “An illustration piece has a function of delivering a message. When I was judging the China Illustration Biennale last winter, I noticed that many illustrators had the approach of an artist rather than a designer.”

    She also said Chinese designers need to develop original approaches and styles. “There are a lot of technically talented people but that is more craft than creativity. In order to rise above the average and get your designs and brands seen, it’s important to be unique and original.”

    There are almost no illustration agencies in China, which, according to Rewell, would serve as an important link between the advertising world and the illustrators.

    “Having an agent or producer just makes the designer seem so much more professional in the clients’ eyes. There are contracts and official cost estimates to everything, and the agent makes sure that nobody violates my copyrights and they insure that the clients are getting what they pay for. And best of all, I save so much time not having to do all the producer’s tasks. I can concentrate on illustrations.”

    Rewell thinks there are advantages to being a female designer. “There are a lot of consumer brands directed at women and those brands like to commission women to design their campaigns, because — naturally — we have a better grasp of the target group.”

    But she hates worrying about her clothing when appearing in public. “It’s a bummer that women still have to dress up as unfeminine as possible in order to be taken seriously,” she said. “As designers, we want to leave a mark, improve the world towards a more visually beautiful and clear entity and inch it closer to its full potential.”

    Janine Rewell — Illustration Exhibition

    Time: Until June 13 Venue: Hall A, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, 6026 Hongli Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路6026号关山月美术馆) Metro: Longhua or Longgang Line, Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit B