Interview MrStarsky x Anna Katharina Jansen

Can you introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do? How could we know you, or where could we have seen your designs before?

Hi – I am Anna (Katharina Jansen). Actually just Anna. But my second name is always with me, because there are about 100 thousand “Anna Jansen”s in Germany and therefore it’s impossible to “google” me. So I started with using my full name – although I often curse it. Too long for a business card – in mails more people call me “Katharina” then “Anna” and I always have to say “Yesss, Katharina with th”. So I’m probably forever “Anna Katharina Jansen” with 6 A’s. Nowadays I  draw for pretty much everything – except what I always wanted to do: magazines. But I probably only wanted to do this because I could never imagine that someone would use my illustrations in a children’s book, on fashion collections, children’s tattoos, blankets or wallpaper. All this and much more has already happened and it’s actually more exciting than “just magazines”.

What is your zodiac sign, do you believe in astrology , are you spiritually inspired?

My zodiac sign is gemini – and that’s pretty much all I know about horoscopes, hehe.

Can you tell something about the design for MrStarsky?  Do you have a favorite animal in your illustration?

My favorite animal in this project is definitely the lynx! On the one hand It was completely new to me that the lynx belongs to the zodiac signs and on the other hand it is probably one of the rarest illustrated animals, so I had admittedly respect for the task of depicting a lynx somehow cute-child-friendly – but nevertheless recognizable at first sight. Whether that worked out you have to judge ;-) He also wears a cap. And if you’re wearing a cap, you’re cool!

Apart from the lynx, I found it exciting to design a product, which basically already exists – so only because of my very own style it distinguishes itself from the other MrStarsky posters and arouses the interest from customers. I think we did quite well –  and we brought new wind to the series! I’m pretty happy with the freedom I was allowed to have in designing. That a dragon does not necessarily have to be green and a giraffe not only yellow – and of course that lynx are allowed to wear caps.

How would you describe your style?

I would describe my style as reduced and naive in a good way.
I try to reduce everything I draw to simple forms and don’t care at all about correct perspectives and proportions.
I have a strong preference for simple geometric shapes, stripes and check patterns, as well as a rather typical – also reduced – color world, in which very own laws apply.

Pink is a neutral color, yellow and green must never appear both in an illustration – preferably not even within a project – and rust brown just always fits.

How is such a project evolving? What do you do first, how is the process?

The approach is quite different – just like all the products with my illustrations are finally ending up. Sometimes there are very clear technical specifications, for example in terms of colours. For example, in textiles, colours are often limited to a number of 2 or 4. With the MrStarsky posters, I was happy to use the colours I wanted – the priority was more to draw the animals in my style. For this purpose, I look for different photos of animals first and often look at how other illustrators have translated these animals from the realistic photo representation into their own style. The important thing is, of course, not to steal, but to bring in your own handwriting! I now work completely digitally on the ipad – nevertheless I always start with sketches – which are actually the main work on the project. As soon as the forms are standing, it is basically just painting – like in a paintbook. In the end, the colors have to be decided. This often takes longer than the actual drawing process – there are simply endless possibilities and especially digital you are tempted to try about all of them once before you finally decide.

What do you need to be creative? Does it work better in the morning or in the evening? Are you very structured or do you take the day as it comes?

In order to get into a good work flow – There should be no appointments or tasks waiting for me in the corner of my eye. That’s why I can work the best during the night – after I did household tasks, phone calls, meeting friends, shopping, etc. Then I can totally decide by myself when I will start drawing. If it goes well, I can draw the whole night until the morning. If things don’t go well, I can also go to bed in good conscience, because people sleep at night. In productive phases it is often the case that I sleep from 6 o’clock in the morning until 12 noon. This rhythm is quite often ridiculed or felt as “not right” – but for me it is quite logical. And no matter how many times I try to organize myself differently, I keep slipping into the night work and feel pretty comfortable with it.

What’s the best part of your work?

Exactly what I described above! That I can do my work the way I want  and wherever I want. At my desk, in bed, on the couch, in the garden bench, on the train. And the variety – many processes are similar, but in between there are always completely new challenges that makes everything so exciting. Whether communicating with a customer with whom you don’t speak a common language leads to adventurous Google Translate agreements and still an insanely great project can be realized in the end.

How did you experience the Corona time, was/is it difficult or is there also a positive side?

My day-to-day work has not changed at all, as I always work from home and the majority of the contact with customers takes place by e-mail.

What is very, very bad is that I lost some great projects, because the situation with the customers was financially so uncertain that they withdrew the orders or postponed them indefinitely. On the other hand, at the beginning of the Corona era I also accepted so many projects that I already asked myself from time to time secretly if I could do it all – so it felt also a bit like a welcomed emergency brake and I can still learn myself to say a bit more often “no” or “yes, but only in a few months” to future customers.

What are the 3 most important things in your life right now?

Regarding the illustrations: that I don’t have to worry that there are always enough requests coming in – I’m always a little afraid that there will be a time I am not popular or wanted anymore at some point.  I have too often seen that, a style is no longer up-to-date, a new media is missed, something like that.
That I maintain a nice working environment and a healthy relationship with my work and that I am not accidentally arrested for inadvertently making any tax or legal mistakes.

Regarding the rest of my life: There is actually only one wish – it would be quite nice if it would soon run as successfully as my work currently does  ;-)