Meet the Illustrator: Jonas Mosesson

Self-portrait ilustration by Jonas Mosesson

Our latest collection features illustrations from Swedish artist Jonas Mosesson. He describes his artistic style as simple, yet these simple illustrations have allowed him to explore a diverse range of subjects without veering from his core style. We chatted with Jonas to hear more about his artistic process, his thoughts behind his pieces for our Working Smarter collection, and his advice for aspiring illustrators.

What gave you inspiration as you created artwork for the Working Smarter collection?

The main theme of working smarter through collaboration really resonated with me. I tend to be very literal in my ideation process, so for help capturing and visualizing the abstract nature of the theme, I reached out to David Saracino – a brilliant illustrator and friend of mine. David has a lot of experience with editorial illustration, and I figured he could help me come up with smart concepts for the articles. That alone was inspiring to me – the fact that sometimes you are able to play to your strengths and sometimes you need to ask for help to cover your weaknesses.

Tell us about your process and the tools you use.

Oddly enough I haven’t put pen to paper since I was twelve years old, when I realized I loved using a mouse much more than a pencil. Maybe it was because you could undo your mistakes with a mouse, and I never had the clean lines of a lot of people those I idolize. Usually my stuff looks absolutely awful at first. Then I work on it enough that it doesn’t look awful anymore. Usually, I just start drawing in Illustrator and see where it takes me.

How would you sum up your approach to illustration?

I like to keep it fun. And minimal. Honestly, I think my minimalistic style came from being lazy and not enjoying doing detailed background work. I think my style grew out of that. But often times illustrations bore me, so I try to do illustrations I would find funny if I saw them myself.

What do you hope people experience as they view your work? What should viewers look for?

I hope people think it’s fun. Light-hearted. Not complex. So many things in life are boring and serious already. I don’t have the smarts to go deep, but I think I have the heart to make life fun.

What is your favorite piece in the collection and why?

I really like how the Personalization piece came out, especially because the article talks about data and this gets the idea across without using any tech tropes. Also, I like drawing hands lately; I’ve always found it one of the hardest things to do.

As an artist, how are you “working smarter” today than you did 10 years ago? How do you see yourself working smarter in the future?

To the point I made earlier, I’ve realized you can easily get isolated in this line of work. Lately I’ve made conscious efforts to remedy that by finding a space where I get to work with people I look up to, but also reaching out to artists I idolize, even if they’re total strangers. Behance has upped my game so much; just seeing the amazing talent in the community is truly a gift and a curse. I often find your heroes will actually be nice enough to let you pick their brain, which is awesome.

What advice would you give to other aspiring illustrators and designers?

Don’t be afraid to actually do what you like. Find what your thing is. So many people are doing what they think they should be doing, which means a lot of what I see looks alike – both in terms of trends but also ideas. Don’t be scared to be a little weird – it has worked wonders for me.

Read more from our Working Smarter collection.