Level 2 Berlin Study Visit, Report and Photos

Earlier in the year 2nd year Falmouth Illustration students travelled to Berlin. Here is an outline of how the week went from Natalie Hayes, our Level 2 Course Co-ordinator…

‘On the Monday of the trip Linda and myself took 20 students to visit the illustrator Sophia Martinek , who spoke at length about her work. She was able to show the students a range of projects, from publishing to editorial and music promotion. It was interesting to hear from her that she doesn’t get much work from Germany, but that she regularly works for British and American publications such as the New York Times. She also spoke about a nine month project where she produced over 100 illustrations for the book ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ by Arthur Conan Doyle, published by Rockport Publishers.

In the evening we went to an Exhibition of the work of Professor Henning Wagenbreth from the University of the Arts Berlin. The exhibition was at Re:Surgo Gallery, which is an independent gallery run by printmakers. Henning spoke to a group of 20+ students about his work, his methods and the large scale production of his screen prints. The gallery also sells beautiful printed books .

On Tuesday afternoon we took a group of 15 students to the independent publisher Reprodukt. They are primarily responsible for publishing graphic novels and comics ranging from serious titles including ‘Irmina’ by Barbara Yelin to translations of books such as the Hilda series, originally published by Flying Eye Books. We met with Klara Gross who spoke to the students at length about the titles, and took many questions from the students about getting work published.

On the Wednesday morning we took 20 students to visit the Illustrator Jacob Hinrichs in his studio. He showed several of his recent projects to the students, including the substantial graphic novel ‘Hans Fallada’. He also spoke of his experiences of working on Editorial projects for a range of clients, including The Guardian and The Times and spoke of the importance of Illustrators valuing themselves by charging fees reflective of the quality of the work and time spent producing the work.

On Wednesday evening all students (37) were the guest of the Illustrator and artist Patrick Thomas who gave an extensive illustrated visual presentation, documenting his journey from the RCA, through to his current practise creating prints, exhibiting and teaching. Highlights included examples of his work for the maverick designer / artist Mariscal and designing logos for the clothing company Desigual.’

Thanks to Natalie, Linda and everyone involved in organising this fantastic trip. Apologies that it has taken longer than intended to get this up on the blog.