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Get It, Got It ... And It's Good! - an interview with Christoph Niemann
By Ziggy Nixon
For some reason I think Christoph Niemann, the talented German artist now living in Berlin after a long stop-over in New York, wants us to think that he’s a little insecure. One review of a presentation of his even indicated that he stays up at night, tossing and turning, restlessly wondering if we’ll all “get it” in terms of his pieces. Well, for that reason, I’ve chosen the title above that I did. I personally very much get Niemann’s work, or, at least, I’ve convinced myself of that (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). |  |
If anything, I think he comes across as much more humble than as necessarily insecure, as he would lead us to believe. After interviewing him – as well as reading countless Internet inputs from fans of his work, enjoying his blog in the New York Times myself for several months and even reading on-line reviews of his children’s books – my only conclusion is that Herr Niemann is indeed a very personable, quite articulate and, perhaps, somewhat quiet fellow ... but I say that noting that we didn’t have the chance to discuss evil in a local pub (keep reading). Instead, Niemann strikes me as someone who is in fact very comfortable with what he’s doing and how well he does it. Nothing wrong with that, is there?
Niemann’s images bring out the best in graphic design and illustration.
 | He does more than incorporate a given style that someone might interpret and say: “Oh, that’s it!” in terms of his influences. Instead, if you look close enough, you’ll get a sampling of different flavorings from not only the Western world but other climes as well. |
And even if you have to look at a piece twice – perhaps because your brain is screaming at you subconsciously, for example, that the other bathroom door is marked for “Scotsmen” – then that’s okay, too. So sit back, enjoy, and perhaps even get a bit challenged once or twice along the way. Just don’t be scared, you’ll get it.
Christoph, why did you decide to move to New York?
Well, I had done some internships there while I was in college. I studied at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts, which is only about 20 kilometers away from my hometown. It was the perfect university for me. I realized though that a part of studying is that you should also get a sense of the world and even separate yourself a little bit more from your background.
For the last two summers while I was in school, I went to New York and that’s when I realized that it was a great city for me. After graduating – having got to know the city a little bit – I felt it was the right time to move there, since I had nothing to lose. I had absolutely no sense of luxury, I had no sense of giving anything up, because I’d just dissolved my student apartment and I could go with a suitcase and try it out. If it didn’t work out after a year then I could just come back to Europe.
Why have you decided recently to return to Germany with your family and settle in Berlin?
Ultimately, I found that the things that make New York great – the energy and the sense of inspiration and the drive that’s in the air – can make it a little difficult to start new things. In my case, I felt like it hindered me from making mistakes and I feel in order to advance yourself, making mistakes is crucial.
There’s something about New York where you have an idea and you make it happen without looking left or right. There’s no margin of error not only economically but also emotionally. And looking at the whole industry, I just feel that now is the time to really think about what you’re going to do in the long run and how you’re going to react to changes that are definitely coming, before these actually become real problems. Berlin seems to be a better place to explore and to start new things because the emotional and economic pressure isn’t remotely as tough as it is in New York. But in Berlin, you also have a big city and you’re surrounded by a lot of inspiration. And I am an urban person; I need to be in the middle of big cities. So that seemed like a good trade.
And there are, of course, other personal reasons. Even though it was a lot of fun with the kids in New York, we were also thinking about our families in Europe, too (my wife is also German, even though we met in New York). Plus, taking a 6-year-old on holiday to Germany was no problem. But once they’re 14, you don’t say: “Come on, let’s go visit Grandma in Germany.” They’d be like: “Yeah, sure, call me when you’re back.” But if you tell a 14-year-old: “Hey let’s go to New York for a month,” they’ll say: “I’m there!” We wanted them to have both cultures, so it seemed easier to have our base here in Germany, with visiting America as an option rather than the other way around.
From the blog entry: “My Life in Phone Cables”
How has the return to Germany affected your work, if at all?
I have to say I couldn’t imagine doing the blog in New York. I just don’t think I’d have the patience to sit down and work on something so elaborate and so complex. At least not repeatedly; like once, definitely, twice maybe, but not three, four, five, or six times in a row. This morning, for example, I was actually preparing some work for a children’s book and just space-wise that would not have been possible in New York. Because I’m painting and even though the formats aren’t huge, here I’m able to put like eighteen pieces of paper dripping with ink all around me on the floor. That would not have been an option in New York.
Can you explain more about your influences in terms of ‘art’ in general?
Like most graphic designers, I spent a lot of time drawing when I was young. My friends in school and I would also draw extremely realistically. It was kind of about proving with every drawing how well you could draw or how well you could depict something really crazy or really gross, but in a very realistic way. In school though, I was very fortunate to have a very good and well-known teacher named Heinz Edelmann – who was very strict but an excellent instructor – and he introduced me and all my student friends to the idea of a graphic design approach to illustration. This taught us that you certainly need drawing skills but then just as a designer would chose a certain typeface or a certain level of abstraction or realism to make or prove a point – you would use the same approach with illustration.
We worked within a variety of styles but it wasn’t that we went through the styles just for the sake of trying different styles. You would instead evaluate the situation and if the piece required a really cartoonish look in order to be funny, you used a cartoonish look, or instead you perhaps needed the style to be absolutely deadpan and so on. It was about coming up with the idea but then picking an appropriate style based on conveying the message in the right way. And that was something I only learned in school. Before I went to the Academy, I had absolutely no sense of that whatsoever. My approach prior to that was simply that I thought if I could paint more precisely, then that was better.
Your selection of books including both solo works and from collaborations seem to be somewhat broad in their variety. What inspired you for example to produce two such “innocent” children’s books as “The Pet Dragon” and “The Police Cloud” in comparison to working on a book titled “100% Evil”?
From the book “The Police Cloud”
Well, definitely having kids and becoming a parent helped. Before, I was very reluctant to do something like children’s books just because it seemed so predictable: “Oh I’m an illustrator, so I’ll do children’s books.” It seemed just to be the easy thing to do on top of your career, so I always stayed away from that. Still, I always take new media extremely seriously and I think there’s a lot more to book illustration than just drawing a simple story. It’s definitely not: “Oh it’s for kids so everyone can do it.”
But “The Police Cloud” was kind of an accident. It was a good night story that I shared with my boys, that started making sense after several tellings and I just wrote it down. There was something that I really enjoyed as well, namely the format of a book, which I absolutely love, because all my other work is so temporary. With an editorial assignment, you draw something and it’s basically in the paper for a couple of hours. After that, it’s being thrown out and they’re already working on the next one. So having something as “physical” as a book is a great treat.
From the book “100% Evil”. Click on the image to see a larger version
But “100% Evil” and these kids books have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The one is a story for kids and the other is more personal. “100% Evil” isn’t even a story for grown-ups, it’s really more like a personal project that we found a publisher for. We – Nicholas Blechman and I – had done other editions on [themes] like maps and architecture and even “sincerity”. And we initially always made only 100 copies; but then we felt there were too many people interested and we didn’t like to be so stingy with our few copies, so we decided we had to get a publisher.
What is actually more related is my work with the kids’ books and the blog. In both cases, it’s really about trying to find a story that transports a certain thought to as wide an audience as possible.