The Art of Children Books, Illustrations and Creativity

Interview with Magdalena Wierzbowiecka

So far, in the Creative People section you could read interviews with people connected with photography. Today I would like to introduce you to someone from a bit different industry, someone who by virtue of her extraordinary passion inspires many people.

Magdalena Wierzbowiecka is a Polish designer, who thanks to her openness to people and creativity in the selection of her tools can enchant the viewer. In addition to running her own business, she shares her experience with students of the Design Institute at the Technical University of Koszalin, where she assists at the Visual Communication Laboratory and the Illustration and Typography Laboratory. She has created a series of educational artistic books for children, which unique artwork is well recognized.

About the tools she uses in her work, where she draws her inspiration from, and what plans she has you can learn by reading the following interview.

Marcin: When did you first become interested in design and illustrations? How did it happen?

Magdalena: I surely won’t be too original saying that always, but it’s actually since I remember that art has been close to me in different forms. I’m sure that thanks to my parents, who cultivated my interests since I was a child, I begun consciously directing my path into things connected with art. Studies, people full of ideas and joy of life, it all allowed and still allows me to develop my interests around it, and even more clarify its scope, which makes it even closer to me.

The Dreams workshop

Marcin: Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Magdalena: For me, inspiration can come from everything, both what surrounds me, and what I feel: love, joy, cracked pavement, damp patch on the wall, people on the street, on the bus, the seasons and so on. And it’s not important to accurately calculate all elements because we get inspired by many more things that, unconsciously, we omit somewhere along the way. We are obsessed with a creative frenzy, thinking that we are already confident of our idea. Sometimes, behind those seemingly simple things is the best resolution for our implementations. I think that being an observer is a very important feature so we can discover what waits to be discovered and see anew something that we meet on our daily path.

The Puffy Sheep

Marcin: How did you come up with an idea for the series of children’s books The (Little) Pearls of Wisdom? What tools did you use to create them?

Magdalena: At the beginning there was… the text, which came up really naturally and quite quickly, with no major dilemmas, headache or questions: why do I really create this? Only afterwards did the idea come up to create illustrations to the piece and compose a children book that turned out to be my thesis project.

After the studies I managed to establish cooperation with a publisher that wanted not only The Puffy Sheep [ed: the first book] but also 2 other books that would create a publishing series. I called them The (Little) Pearls of Wisdom. Texts are minimalistic and have educational nature—hence the name for the series—and at the end of each book there are interactive tasks that refer to the content.

It was my first adventure in creating my very own book where from the beginning to the end I could plan its every detail. When it comes to technique, I always combine traditional tools and then I use the possibilities of a computer using photographs of my works.

One of illustrations to Julian Tuwim’s texts

Marcin: Do you meet with incomprehension of your art, or you workflow? How do you deal with critique?

Magdalena: I assume that if we like doing something, we should just go forward, and critique should only (if it’s valuable, wise and constructive) affect our further development. In fact, criticism is a very subjective thing, and its usually a point of view of one person who is guided by their experience, knowledge or taste. Having that in mind, it’s good to find the golden mean in this case so that we don’t get on high horse or walking around disheartened, because then we won’t be able to see what we have to do.

Marcin: Much of your work begins on a computer screen, but at the same time the end products are printed books, maps, posters or even whole rooms covered with your illustrations. Are you dreaming of any new ways of using your art? Any particular products or spaces?

Magdalena: I would really like to combine modern elements with things that already existed and people would gladly come back to and rediscover. I’m interested in the way that art engages in a dialog and draws us into a ‘game’ in which we want to be involved. Such interaction and direct contact with the recipient, e.g. in a public space, is something very valuable and genuine as it touches the spontaneity of our reactions.

I have many ideas waiting for implementation, but sometimes even a month of time can change the way we want to provide the same values. So the process between the planning and the execution can take a long time. I’m sure my next project will be a book that focuses on our senses and develops them through play. But until it is ready, there is nothing to see, feel or talk about.

…from a stain of spilled paint the entire picture is formed.

Marcin: What was the most crazy (or unusual) project that you accomplished?

Magdalena: Certainly, each of illustrator workshops with children that I conduct is just such a project. I always try to make workshops topics only a small guideline to encourage children’s vivid imagination. When the creative frenzy begins and every possible material in reach of small hands attack the whiteness of a clean paper, I can only support them and try to keep their so changeable enthusiasm of the small impatient. We are not limited in technique—usually it’s mixed because you can find basically everything on illustrations: plasticine, yarn, pasta, newspapers and of course some traditional work tools like paint or crayons.

I sometimes show that unintentional paint patch or crooked line are not a reason to lament but one of the best effects. When all works are ready, we begin the computer post-processing where everyone can have a further impact on the final result—here I begin to play for good. Some works change almost entirely, others only slightly, however, always with the approval of young authors. If someone wouldn’t be happy with the result—we work as required. For each illustration, we create a text, which is sometimes fun to tears or comes close to abstraction.

These workshops show us adults how much we want to get closer to the world of a child, and children (ironically) try to mimic the reality as faithfully as they can. It is the children from whom we can learn a lot, especially the joy and sincerity.

When we think that nothing can surprise us and our imagination stopped at the border “not proper for adults,” it turns out that from a stain of spilled paint the entire picture is formed, dogs are conquering the outer space, goldfish grant wishes and dreams become reality. All you need to do is to get drawn into that magical world and everything becomes easier.

Marcin: Thank you for your thoughts.

I would like to add that Magdalena is a designer of my new logo and helped a lot with websites design. As you can see she not only inspires her students and children, but also me, and, I hope, she will inspire you as well.

You can find more from Magdalena Wierzbowiecka on her Illustrations and Graphics website.