Today I share a story about stories within stories pertaining to the illustration and written work of my guest, Raymond Biesinger.
Raymond Biesinger is a Montréal-based illustrator, artist, and best-selling author who has been part of more than 1000 assignments on five continents since 2002.
Raymond’s past clients include Billboard, the Economist, Fast Company, the Globe & Mail, GQ, Harvard Business, the New Yorker, the New York Times, PRINT, Real Simple, Time, WIRED and many, many more.
In this conversation, you’ll hear about the ways that storytelling is baked into Raymond editorial, commercial and personal projects. We do a deep dive into one of Raymond’s poster projects that took him 20 working days to complete through ‘chasing the density dragon’.
You’ll also hear Raymond’s creative process and the tools he uses, the way imperfections play a vital role in the spirit of his work, and ultimately how layers of narrative make Raymond’s work clever, complex and consistently exciting.
Let’s listen in…
About Our Guest:
I’m a Montréal-based illustrator, artist, and best-selling author very into editorial and commercial work, and I’ve been part of more than 1000 assignments on five continents since 2002. Other interests: minimalism, maximalism, world and local history, equality, diversity, economics, music, science fiction, historic buildings, pictorial maps, Canadiana, wall art, preserving a 145-year-old home, etc. I’m also a proud member of Illustration Québec, which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together and support illustrators.
You can think of much of my work as a collage that doesn’t look like a collage—pieces made from real-world lines, shapes, and textures scanned into a computer that’s used as an infinitely-forgiving Xerox machine, glue, and scissors. These “collaged” components lose their recognizability in the process, but through repetitive use bring flaws, eccentricities, and geometries that form a unique visual vocabulary.
Music: Smooth Criminal by John Bartmann, Licensed Under CC0 1.0 Universal
Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle