Nick Liefhebber

I’m an artist living and working in Utrecht, The Netherlands. I have my studio in the city centre which is connected to a print studio, I’m pretty lucky with that since it’s an important part of what I do as an illustrator. I make bold, fun and colourful illustrations, often full of detail and patterns. I do both commissioned projects and my own screen- and riso prints. Usually I work on a bunch of projects at the same time and my work can be found on record sleeves, packaging, apparel, promotional campaigns and exhibitions. I learned patterns can be a great and flexible asset which can be used on a wide variety of shapes and objects.

I make my detailed, heavy patterned colourful illustrations like a collage from paper cut shapes which I often vectorise and arrange in Illustrator. I developed this way of working when I started experimenting with screen- and riso printing. I really like symbols and I found out cutting shapes from paper works really well since you limit yourself and create flat contrast rich elements. With these simple symbols I build complex worlds and I try to tell abstract stories, it doesn’t have to be clear.