Francesco Ciccolella
Francesco Ciccolella is an Austrian illustrator and graphic artist based in Vienna.
Curator’s note: Sometimes, less is more. Francesco Ciccolella is a master at packing meaning and substance into the simplest of visual forms. Though his work may well seem stylistically simple at a glance, dig a little deeper and you’ll find layers of wit, humour and often, a deep conceptual message that will be sure to stick with you. In this feature, we scratch beneath the surface of Francesco’s own creative journey, to see if like his work, there’s a little more than meets the eye…
Portrait of Francesco Ciccolella. Credit: Carolina Frank
Where it all started…
I moved to Vienna in 2010 and have lived here ever since. Vienna has been named the world’s most liveable city by various studies for years. A good medical, educational and social system, public transport, culture and nature make a decent life affordable for all. I think that’s good for the creative scene here as it allows for failure and experiment without having to worry too much.
I also studied Graphic Design at The University of Applied Arts in Vienna but Illustration wasn’t necessarily a big part of the class I studied in. Instead, we were free to decide for ourselves what the focus of our studies would be. I studied with amazing people who now work as photographers, writers, artists, musicians, illustrators and of course designers. Compared to many of my classmates I was pretty young when I started so for me university was five years of self-exploration. I think in the end, University is what you make out of it. The more time you’re ready to invest, the more you can get out of it.
Francesco Ciccolella for The Guardian
Francesco Ciccolella for The Observer Magazine
At some point during my studies I started to explore something that I had always been doing, which is creating images, as a form of communication. That’s when I discovered illustration as a possible career path. Christoph Abbrederis, one of my tutors and now a dear friend, helped me with that. I built a portfolio, got in touch with people, showed my work around and was lucky enough to enjoy a pretty smooth transition from uni to work as my first commissions started to roll in a year before graduation. I really enjoy working within the restraints that come with commissioned projects and I’m always curious about finding new ways to respond to specific briefs.
One of those first high profile commissions came from Maggie Murphy, the art director of the Guardian Weekend Magazine, who asked me to do an illustration for an article in the magazine. I remember both the joy and anxiety that came with it.
On working with others…
Thereafter it’s been a snowball effect since and it’s great to see that many of the art directors I worked with over the years do regularly come back with more projects. It is flattering for an illustrator to work with big names, but I’ve learned through the last years that ultimately it’s not the big names that make a project good and interesting to work on but the people you collaborate with.
Francesco Ciccolella for Focus
In fact, though there are many famous names I could list who inspire me. People from both past and present whose work I’ve studied and whom I’ve learned from. I’m insatiably addicted to discover new things constantly.
It’s ultimately also the people around me, my friends and studio mates, and the one’s I work with, my clients and collaborators, who have the biggest impact on my work.
I guess that’s why I actually enjoy the business side of it and the networking that goes along with it. Working as an illustrator can be pretty isolating and lonely sometimes so I think communicating with clients is a nice addition to the workday.
My visual approach…
However, once that’s all taken care of and I get down to the work itself, my actual approach is pretty much the same with every client. It usually starts with the brief. Depending on the context this can be a title, a synopsis, an article, a book, a brand slogan, an advertising message, an empty gallery space or anything, really. Focusing on what needs to be conveyed I start working on small thumbnail sketches with pencil on paper. I really couldn’t do that on a computer and need to use my hands as a kind of thinking tool.
Francesco Ciccolella for Der Spiegel
Francesco Ciccolella for The New Yorker
The idea itself could come from anywhere. Sometimes the idea is in my head and I put it on paper. Sometimes a drawing’s on paper and an idea strikes as I look at it. It’s a back and forth between thinking, drawing and seeing. It’s this part of being an illustrator I enjoy most and it’s fair to say that in my case (at least) the same amount of time that goes into drawing goes into thinking. So I guess the idea manifests itself in the little thumbnail sketches I create. No other person can possibly read those thumbnails so I usually have to create more elaborate sketches I can send to clients afterwards.
Once the idea and composition is right the colour comes in and I create shapes by tracing the lines from my hand-drawings. I think the look and feel of my work would be a totally different one if I’d skip that first analogue part. While this is what a typical project looks like I appreciate that every project has its subtle differences in terms of process. It gives me the feeling to keep evolving.
I try to stay with the message no matter what the topic is. Be it in editorial, corporate or publishing. Of course different contexts allow for more abstract, funnier or more poetic solutions than others but it always comes down to the question: What do we want to communicate? While I think a good illustration needs to convey a message I’m eager to create images that can stand for themselves and do not necessarily need you to read the whole story in order to resonate with you. That’s why I like to add a moment of surprise, a surreal twist.
Francesco Ciccolella for Parma Italian Capital of Culture 2020
The style of my work seems to be constantly evolving. What stays the same is the desire to create work that communicates. I’m interested in semiotics, what an image conveys, the visual metaphors I use and how a story is told. I think the beauty lies in the purity and clarity of the message and the empty space you leave around it in order to contrast it.
There’s a very wise quote by Bavarian comedian Karl Valentin that goes something like “There are three sides to everything: a positive one, a negative one and a funny one.“ Humour is a wonderful invention to make unpleasant or boring content easier to digest. Simply by putting a smile on our faces. I find it important – both in my work and in life – to be able to have a laugh at oneself. And I try to cultivate that.
To conclude…
I now consider myself very lucky to have found something in life that I really enjoy doing and I don’t need to differentiate between occupation or passion. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot that I still want to achieve.
I’d love to do a series of book covers - all of an author’s writings. Or a series of theatre posters - all of a season’s plays. I’d also like to explore more spatial work. A new exhibition or objects perhaps. There’s so much to do! Let’s see!
Francesco Ciccolella for Inc Magazine