Interview with Von Glitschka

posted by: Iaroslav Lazunov, in Articles / Interview/ Comments: 0

Our guest today is a famous designer Von Glitschka. Von is also famous because of his books, which are devoted to vector graphics. "The best way to improve your design as a creative is to improve your drawing skills. The more you do it, the better you get” — he says. Learn more about Von, his books and illustrations after the jump.

Hi, Von! I’m happy to welcome you at Vectortuts+. I’m sure that most of our readers already heard or read about you. Anyway I would like to ask you to tell us about yourself.

I’ve been drawing my whole life since childhood. Grew up on pop culture like Sid & Marty Kroft, Battlestar Gallactica, Star Wars, Old Japanese monster movies, MAD Magazine. But the artists that influenced me a lot were ones like Richard Scary, Jim Flora, and Norman Rockwell.

I went to the Burnley School of Art in Seattle, which became the Art Institute of Seattle. I graduated in 1986. The first five years of my career were non-computer. Paste up boards, press type and stat cameras. In 1991 I got a new job at a small design firm who were leasing a few Apple computers and that is where I got my first taste of digital.

You name yourself an Illustrative Designer, what do you mean by that?

For my entire career I’ve held distinctly design oriented jobs. Within the framework of design I’ve always leveraged illustrative skills to solve visual problems. Utilizing Illustration centric graphics and motifs in context of a design specific projects. After working for others for 15 years, I went out on my own in 2002 and quickly developed a niche as a creative hired gun for other agencies, where I continue to do illustrative solutions in the context of their clients design projects.

Most who only do design tend to refer to me as an illustrator, and those who do illustration and don’t design tend to call me a designer. So I decided to title myself an "Illustrative Designer” because it defines what I do. It also reinforces my conviction that designers should be drawers whether or not they ever want to become full-blown illustrators.