Studio Visit: Illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli
Connecting with the talented artist ahead of her talk at Design Indaba
Specializing in editorial illustration, Olimpia Zagnoli is one of the most important Italian artists of her generation. Her style is bold, playful and immediately recognizable—whether it’s on the cover of The New Yorker, within the pages of La Repubblica, on fabrics for Marella, or as part of a Prada campaign. We were delighted to visit Zagnoli at her Milan studio, ahead of the 25th edition of Design Indaba (in Cape Town later this month), where she will be speaking.
Romantic as the concept may be, it’s also how Zagnoli functions on a practical level. “Speed helps me a lot because I work well in emergency situations. This is what happens to me before exhibitions. If the exhibit is held in 10 months, I spend nine and a half months thinking about what I will have to do, without any kind of inspiration or idea. When the exhibition is two weeks away, it is very easy for me to come up with an idea and an almost adrenaline-like desire to go to the studio. I have a great esteem for my colleagues who make comics or write books, because it takes years and this does not match my personality.”
Zagnoli’s remarkable talent for storytelling with just a few shapes and colors means every line, angle, and hue is thoroughly considered. “The human figure is a recurring subject of my work. I try to add a small story to each portrait—a story that maybe I only imagined myself,” she says. “I work a lot with multiples and even if I often make mouths, eyes or hair similar to each other, every time I redraw them from scratch, perhaps changing the fold of a smile, an expression or another tiny element. For me, the story is told in the detail.”
We are used to thinking that the sky is blue or black, but seeing a fluorescent green sky is a very rare and precious thing
Along with the human form, travel also inspires Zagnoli, and she believes it’s essential to her overall process. “Some time ago I travelled to Mexico because I needed to change my color palette. I had become attached to a certain type of color balance and, after that trip, I almost immediately introduced new colors into my work. Once I happened to go to Norway where I saw the Northern Lights. This manifestation of pure color in such an unusual environment forces us to change all certainties. We are used to thinking that the sky is blue or black, but seeing a fluorescent green sky is a very rare and precious thing.”
“Maybe [with an illustration] I’ll tell the story of a lady who has decided to dress purple from head to toe and for me it is interesting because it means that there is a story, a will. It means that one day she decided that she would dress this way, go shopping, buy only purple flowers. For those who create images these choices require an action, a simple click changes the color and therefore completely changes your story.” She continues, “At Design Indaba I want to tell how my thoughts are translated into images, and explain the responsibilities of those who create images—even simply through color choices.”
Design Indaba is on 26-28 February in Cape Town, and tickets are available online.
Hero image by Paolo Ferrarini
COOL HUNTING always gets permission to use the images we publish; however, as an independent publication, we cannot afford to continue fighting unfair claims of copyright infringement, so the images have been removed from this post.
