Wobby #34 – Color Meets Detail: Designer Dreams
“To create an ideal dreamworld, a utopia in illustration; that is a great opportunity for me as an illustrator” - Melcher Oosterman (NL).
By Simone Vos
For Wobby #34 Melcher created the cover and four illustrations in a really colourful style. We interviewed Melcher about his work and inspiration, along with Loulou João (BE), responsible for the centerfold.
“I started thinking about my dreamworld, what it would be like. What if the world was a blank page and I could design it the way I wanted? Like the ideal city, a great place to live. I decided to create two alter egos: a cat and a frog. They design the world together in the four pages I made for Wobby. The cover is like the result of their design. A green city, a lot of nature, flying cars, a lot of bicycles and great public transportation. It’s my ideal world seen through the eyes of the cat and the frog”, says Melcher.
Melcher studied at the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam and is an illustrator. His style is very vivid and colourful, and he gets his inspiration from the smallest things. “I’m very open for new inspiration and trained myself to look at the world without judgement. I see the beauty in everything, there are a hundred ways of looking at a flower for example. It’s how a child looks at the world, full of excitement and curiosity. I like to see the good in every small thing”, he explains.
Left page by Melcher Oosterman for Wobby #34
Many of his commissions come from his connections on Instagram, which functions as a big community for him. Melcher also works for different Dutch media like De Correspondent and for Vice in the United States, and is employed by publicity agencies for several companies. And he does a lot of autonomous work too. “When I feel like I want to share my work, I post it online. I know that some clients like a specific style, so when they ask me, they really want my own style.”
For Loulou, a 3D- visual artist, her own style is also very important. She studied illustration at the KASK in Ghent but gravitated more and more towards animation. “When I describe my style to people, it would be like a hyper fem, super cute, visual style. Like candy-coated objects, very girly girly. It’s like the Barbie 3D-movie”, she tells us. “And because I’m an afro-Belgian woman, I also like to represent the soft woman with African roots. I think that African women are displayed too often as tough; there is also a soft side. In my work I try to show subjects like mental health and discrimination, but not in an ‘in your face’ way. It’s softer and cuter in the visuals, but people could feel the undertone if they’re open for it.”
Says Loulou, “the illustration I made for Wobby #34 is about my alter ego from the digital world I once created. I built a digital world at the beginning of my career: the Focketverse. It’s my alter ego in a bubbly dress, with robot arms and unsharp pixels. In Blender, the 3D-software I use for animations, I created this world. It’s totally different from 2D-animation The timeline is different and the way you build up scenes and transitions also. I’m still learning, it’s a very interesting world”.
Centerfold by Loulou João for Wobby #34
Different perspective
“I like to show a different perspective in my work. When Nickelodeon asked me to work with them and wanted me to create a parent couple for an animation, I made a non-binary couple. Just to let them see that it’s not standard in society to create a straight couple”, she explains. “I get the impression that clients ask me specifically for my style and my way of thinking. Sometimes I must compromise, but never too much.”
For Melcher it’s the balance that’s the most important in his work and how he makes compromises. “I want to have a lot of time for my own autonomous work. That’s very important for me. I work on commission, but always keep in mind to have enough time for myself.”
Loulou has a great project for herself that takes a lot of time. “I’m making a short movie, it’s really something for myself and from myself”, she states. “I want to take my time, to make a great script and to make it really mine. I got funding from the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, so it’s a slow process. But that’s fine because it’s a great way to discover this new world.”
Wobby #34 – Designer Dreams is now available in our webshop.