A Mental Collage
An interview with illustrator and muralist Nigel Sussman.
When Quango needed a muralist for a series of IoT illustrations, we decided to cast a wide net. Among the project descriptions we posted was a short, vague ad on the Bay Area Craigslist (because we knew the right person could be anywhere). Lucky for us, the right person was artist Nigel Sussman.
Sussman’s work ranges from labyrinthine product packaging and magazine covers to larger-than-life murals of cityscapes and pizza slices. No matter the material, his illustrations are expansive, intricate, and totally alive. It’s easy to get lost in his work — and that’s no coincidence. Sussman claims that his early doodling was heavily influenced both by Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo? book series and by the original SimCity computer game.
Although he has illustrated a wide and fantastical variety of subjects — including “Robinhood Cats,” vegetable cities, and giant pizza slices — Sussman’s highly intricate, detailed style blends well with themes like science and technology. He says these can be structured in such a way that the pieces become like infographics, allowing space for creativity with his approach. He aims to find “the balance between the structure and making it fun.”
That balance is truly evident in his work. Many of his shapes are organic. Not all of the lines are straight. This approach gives the illustrations an animated, free-form look, something he says is a byproduct of his training. Much like his childhood idol, Martin Hanford, Sussman does every illustration by hand. He says that an imperfect line is more interesting to him than one drawn with a ruler. If a line is perfectly straight, he adds, “then it might as well have been [drawn by] a machine.”
Sussman’s perfectly imperfect style is exactly what made him the right fit for our project — a series of illustrations packed with mechanical and technological themes. His approach? He started in the center and tried to create a “general hierarchy.” Years of designing for an ad agency taught him to recognize the “hierarchy of messaging”: things like how to find and center the most important message and where to place the CTA. As for the aesthetics of placement, he says, it “becomes a little puzzle. A mental collage.”
Initially, our project had Sussman designing only in the Bay Area — his home turf. But when the next phase of the project hit a snag, he came to the rescue, finding himself on a three-day, cross-country illustrating adventure to New York City. His challenge was two-fold: to create near replicas of his San Francisco artwork and to make illustrations designed specifically for a West Coast venue relevant to the new East Coast location. Sussman notes that it was the first time he’d had to create (almost) identical reproductions of his work. While it might have been a creative challenge, in the end, he produced stunning, inventive pieces for two of the world’s major tech hubs.
Check out more of Nigel’s work at his website — and join him on a hand-drawn journey from A to Z in his brilliant book, Alphabet Compendium.
Want to work with some of the biggest names in tech? Get in touch–we’re always looking to meet good people.
