PHILLENNIUM BLOG - Philipp Zurmoehle’s Design Blog

David Foldvari’s illustrations are somewhat special.

Ludvig Bruneau Rossow is doing some wicked graphic design in Oslo under the name of Bureau Bruneau.

Toshikazu Nozaka is surely inspired by traditional japanese arts, but gives it a little bit of a twist.

This is the first of a series of interviews I will post on my blog. Enjoy Finnish illustrator Ville Savimaa talk about his inspirations, bears in heaven, childhood memories and violence!

Philipp Zurmöhle: Let’s start with a standard question. What’s your main inspiration? Is it certain artists, arts or people? Or even something totally different?

Ville Savimaa: Lately I have been waching my works at night time, just before going to sleep. It’s interesting how you see different characters and shapes in those old works. It’s a great way to open my eyes if there is difficulties to get started with something new. One big thing is to have enough rest. It’s impossible to create anything fresh, if my mind doesn’t really feel what I’m doing. Of course I’m inspired by many contemporary and modern artists. For example Picasso and his cubistic paintings have been a great inspiration at one point and I have to say that I really admire Klaus Haapaniemi’s works, too. But after all its important to be honest to myself and blow my own spirit into these works that I’m doing. Otherwise it’s kind of pointless for me to draw.

I think it’s interesting to connect the creative output to taste in music. What music do you listen to and do you think it influences your work?

Yeah… music influences a lot of my work and it’s a very important part of my life in many ways. Sometimes I achieve clients needs or my personal goals by picking up the right kind of music. The music kind of leads me to the right goal. Lately I have been listening to artists like: Bear In Heaven, Animal Collective, Chet Baker, Sonic Youth and Piano Magic.

Looking at your illustration style, I would suggest that you’re inspired by traditional scandinavian imagery. Is that true and can you explain details about these arts or stories?

One of the most famous story books in Finland is Kalevala. It’s a collection of stories from the nordic and baltic areas from the mid-19th century. The whole book has been kind of a mistery to me from my childhood till these days. I know some stories loosely but it’s nice to fill the holes in the stories by myself. It’s a great inspiration. One nice detail from the book is that the world has been born from a birds egg. I’m also a big fan of Akseli Gallen Kallela who painted some works based on this book.

Do you think the scandinavian countryside and nordic circumstances of life affect your work?

For sure. I grew up close to nature and for a young boy every small cave and broken tree was a great treasure. These childhood memories definitely show in my works.

Your illustrations sometimes have a melancholic or even a violent touch. Would you agree to that? Where does that come from?

The violent side of my works represents more the impossibility of this modern world than violence itself. In my works I try to describe these fragile elements that keep life exciting like: desperation, hope, misunderstanding, freedom and surprises.

Do the creatures and items in your illustrations have deeper meaning or do you choose them randomly?

Well, almost every time I just start to draw one certain feeling or loose vision and keep following my instincts. It’s always a discovery during the process, and that’s nice about drawing.

How do your illustrations come to life? Do you plan the whole picture before you start or does it evolve during the process?

I always begin with pen to paper. It’s easier for me to find my personal lines without the computer. After sketching I complete the image digitally. At the moment I find it easier to work in digital surroundings because processing is much more flexible and I also like how the sharp lines separate different colours or halftones. Yes, images are evolving during the process, but quite often the main elements stay as they were in the first sketch.

- Ville Savimaa himself

When did you start to do art? Is it something that was always part of your life?

I always had this need to create stuff. When I was 6 or 8 I used to produce pieces of wood without doing anything specific, just wanted to create something. Not sure if it was really art but it just explains my nature. Later on when I was 16 I started to write short stories and lyrics for our band. I discovered drawing a little bit later. I was around 19 when I did a calendar with my former girlfriend and we illustrated every month. I remember the feeling how the images were just floating out on the paper. It felt like laughing or crying, the most natural thing to do.

Do you like to work on your own or do you have people around?

I’m renting one table in a room with different artist. There is four people in the same small room. I prefer working alone but at the moment it’s not possible because of money.

Is there any exhibitions coming up showcasing your work? Any interesting clients you work for?

No exhibitions at the moment. I just try to create more interesting stuff, but I’m looking forward to the next change. Yeah, soon I will start to illustrate a snowboard for Apo Snowboards. That might be lot of fun. Something colourful with passion. Another very interesting co-operation was working with adidas. I made a few prints for t-shirts.

Thank you, Ville! I’m curious to see more of your work in the future.

Make sure to check out Ville Savimaa’s works on his portfolio website!

Sam Thomas’s t-shirt illustrations for AllSaints Spitalfields are seriously amazing. Take a look as his Behance profile!

Painter Michael Steele from Melbourne seems to be inspired by a lot of things that seem familiar to my generation. Nice works.

These Non-Format guys just can’t stop being the coolest out there!

I drew a scene in Gion, when I went to Japan two weeks ago. A coloured gallery quality giclée print is now available for sale: Night Falls In Gion on Society6.

French artist Amose put some amazing new work on his Flickr page and if you happen to stop by in Hannover, Germany you can visit his solo exhibition at Nice/Nice Exhibition Space until July 10th.

Kristina Collantes from California has a nice unique illustration style.

Finnish illustrator Jesse Auersalo put some new works on his site and they are as brilliant as always.

Two of my original artworks are now available on Arcademi. You can either get the monkey drawing “Big Pride” or “I Think I Love You” from the Snyrt series. Or you can get both.

Emily Forgot alias Emily Alston from the UK should not be forgotten to be mentioned here.

Gifted chinese illustrator Shan Jiang is currently based in Brighton, where he’s participating in the interesting Brighton FreakShow exhibition. Nice stuff there.

Some cool artworks by Gideon Chase. Seen on Design For Mankind.

Jonathan Zawada has works from a lot of design fields in his portfolio and in a lot of them he’s really good. Don’t miss his drawings section on Flickr. Seen on Arkitip.

Look at cool photorealistic illustrations by Minni Havas from Finland.

Artem Gridin’s portfolio contains some unique graphic design pieces.

My Seven Monkeys poster is now available as a gallery quality Giclée print on Society6. You can get it in 3 different sizes.

Le Creative Sweatshop from France are doing very impressive paper cut objects and installations.

German design pro Sebastian Onufszak has a neat new website.

Andy Gilmore and his shape and colour experiments are definitely inspiring. Check out his blog for more experiments.

I like the style of Tim Green’s collage pieces. Look at his stuff on his own Werk page or on Society6.

Some of my designs are now available as gallery quality giclée prints on Society6. The poster sized images are printed on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Nice…

Halvor Bodin is a colourful figure in the norwegian design scene. Take a close look at his great body of work.