Jan Robert Duennweller is the Professional winner of the Advertising Category. Here, he tells us more about his award-winning project.

RIMOWA commissioned me to create illustrations around the open theme “travel with purpose”. My approach to this brief was to feature the iconic grooves and to draw the illustration solely with stripes and lines. Stripped down to its iconic element, the suitcase dissolves into the scene, while still being recognizable. The illustration was featured on the companies social media channels.

Brief

It was pretty much a carte blanche. The only brief was that it should feature the case in an organic way and give an interpretation of the brand and travel in general.

Research

Before I started sketching I thought about stituations and sceneries related to travelling that I could built the image around. My initial idea came from the opening scene of the movie Jackie Brown, when Jackie is on the move to catch her flight and the camera follows her in one long shot through the airport. Just before she enters the plane she runs by a striped wall which triggered the idea to strip the image down to this one formal element, being iconic for Rimowa`s cases.

Materials

The illustration was drawn with ink and acrylic paint, using pens and brushes.

Process

After deciding on the idea I made a few sketches to find the right perspective. The lines in the background should create a feeling of movement while also creating a very abstract impression of space and architecture. I tried out various thickness of strokes for the floor and wall to find the right balance between heavy and light parts in the composition.

Challenges

It`s always challenging to find the right idea for a project and I mostly spent a good amount of time on it. Which can be consuming sometimes and is often countered with lots of coffee and occasional panic attacks 🙂

Insights

It was interesting to take a very formal approach which I seldom do. Usually I go with humour or more content-driven ideas. But this self set limitation turned out to be productive.

Distractions

I was contacted at a very busy time shortly before holidays and managed to send out my sketches just before I left. The two weeks off helped to resume the project with a fresh and rested mind to finalize the illustration.

Numbers

2 sketches, 1 color, 57 strokes, 23 emails

Advice

Trust in your own pace and process. Social media is great but it can narrow your perspective on the work you do. Because it can lead you to embrace the opinion of others too much and too early and hold you back from finding your own voice. Try to find someone whose advice and opinion you value and you can share ideas and discuss work with.

Future

I’ll be teaching illustration from the upcoming semester, which I am looking forward to a lot.

Dream Commission

To work for the Criterion Collection. Films have always had a big influence on me and I like their curation and the great attention and thoughts that go into the design.

Favourite thing to draw

Faces and People.

Workspace

have a studio in the same building I live with my girlfriend and our son. This means I don´t have to leave the house for work which came in handy during the pandemic but also turns me into a caveman sometimes.

Thanks

Thanks so much to the jury, I feel very honored and happy to receive this award. And to the WIA team for the great organisation and making it happen despite this challenging time!

Thanks to Yannis Henrion for the smooth art direction and accepting my sketches and finals without asking for any changes! And thanks to my family for being there and always being supportive!