Emiliano Ponzi is an illustrator based in Milan, Italy who has been creating editorial illustrations, animations, books and more for the past 15 years. His stylish, elegant illustrations frequently appears in Italian and European publications, as well as The New York Times and The New Yorker. Ponzi recently published a remarkable children’s book, The Journey of the Penguin, which he wrote and illustrated. His work is currently on display at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, as part of a two-person show with Olimpia Zagnoli. The exhibit, Una Storia Americana, runs through March 11. Don’t miss it!

MY LIFE:
I live mostly in Milano, Italy, and have been working as an illustrator since 2001.

My mother was a teacher and my father used to work in a bank, so there were no artists or illustrators around in my family. I do have a sister who is much more talented than me in drawing.

I began learning my techniques when I was in art college, at the European Institute of Design in Milano.

MY WORKSPACE:
I’ve worked from home for 14 years. The first 10 were in a very tiny apartment that I shared with my roommate. Then four years ago I bought a house big enough to have a whole studio room. But after a studio experience in New York, I felt the need to break the solo working mood and to start 2016 sharing a place with other people. Now I’m in a beautiful studio with an advertising agency and a production house. I love to have very focused people close to me.

HOW I MAKE MY ILLUSTRATIONS:
I start writing words on paper along with some doodles, drawing loose shapes and ideas, drafting the composition. Then I move over to the computer and create the real sketch that will be sent to the client. After I receive the feedback from the client with the sketches they want me to work as final, I redesign everything just with a black outline (characters, backgrounds, clouds…). I need it as a guideline to color shapes; once everything is done I remove the outlines and I add some textures to give the illustration a warmer feel. I work with Corel Painter software—90% of my work is done using the computer.

MY FIRST BIG BREAK:
I never think that a career is a “one changing life moment”—rather it’s mostly a constant building process. The success of an artist is a slow path that includes the maturity of style, the consciousness of the creative processes and the awareness of limits and potentialities of one’s own work.

I can recall a couple of moments that made me think I was reaching success. One was my first New York Times assignment, in 2004. The other was being awarded the Gold Cube at the Art Directors Club of New York in 2013 and the subsequent publication of one of my illustrations on the cover of their magazine.

MY INFLUENCES:
One of the artists I feel close to is Edward Hopper. Also the work of Rene Magritte, the photos of Wim Wenders and Gabriele Basilico and the paintings of Mario Sironi.

MY MOST ADMIRED CREATIVE PERSON:
I want to praise the work of Istvan Banyai, because his illustrations stand the test of time and always look super modern.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF WORKING ALONE:
The fact that succeeding or failing is completely on my shoulders. I can’t blame anyone else if I make mistakes or if I am not happy about my career. This is a 100% self-responsibility job.

A MEMORABLE ASSIGNMENT FROM THE PAST YEAR:
The Journey of the Penguin, a book I created for the 80th anniversary of Penguin Books, is a job that gave me a lot of satisfaction. I proposed the idea to Penguin and they basically gave me all the freedom I needed to create the story and images. Working on it made me feel like a real author, able to build not just illustrations, but a complete project with a consistent narrative and visual storytelling.

MY FAVORITE ART DIRECTOR:
I'd say Nicholas Blechman (fomerly art director at The New York Times Book Review and now The New Yorker's creative director). I had the pleasure to work with him for about 10 years on Book Review illustrations. What I liked about working with him was the lack of pressure and the sensation we were building images together. He never forced me to go in a specific direction and all decisions come up after a dialogue, I was never pushed in any sense or invaded with ideas that I didn’t feel were mine. Nicholas never gave me the sensation he was carrying a dogmatic truth (many art director deeply think that). The workflow was very straight, without any bloodbath or unnecessary wasting of energy—he genuinely guided me.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE ILLUSTRATORS:
I love the work of Lorenzo Mattotti because of the pathos he creates with his pastel images. Brad Holland, who brought fine art into illustration in such a fresh and modern way. Igort is an Italian comic artist who moved to Paris; his atmospheres are amazing and he has a unique way to narrate stories. I like very much the erotic drawings by Tomi Ungerer. There are so many good American and French illustrators and comic artists of my generation, from Icinori to my friend Josh Cochran.

OTHER WORK:
As I mentioned I did a book for Penguin Books.

I did an installation back in 2010, “The Sunrise Hotel,” at a very well-known gallery in Rome.

Once or twice a year I work on animation projects, such as this “Voices for Freedom” spot for Amnesty International.

I teach one week per year at the MiMster school in Milan where illustrators are trained with real and published assignments.

I give lectures, both at schools, including SVA in NYC and SCAD in Savannah, and at illustration festivals such as last year’s “ilustratour” in Madrid.

And I’m about to start working on some kinetic sculptures for the next Milano Design Week.

HOW I STAY CURRENT:
It’s impossible for me to have a clear idea where I’ll be in 15 years. It’s like walking through a fog; the environment is revealed as you keep walking one step after another. What I do know is that it’s important to keep moving, never standing still. For me the key word is “evolution.” This job is a never-ending ongoing process; if you stop evolving you are done. I like to imagine it as a glass of water with holes—it doesn’t matter how much water you can keep putting in it, it will never be totally full.

HOW I PROMOTE MYSELF:
I never had a business card. I found that the most successful way to promote is doing a great job. Of course I use social media, I do networking and sometimes I send newsletters—all the tools that can spread my work to a wider audience.

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT:
My most important suggestion is to not follow trends. A trend is something popular for a given period of time. Your goal should be to create work that is able to last. Sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper still gives me the same sense of challenge that I had 15 years ago, even though I created thousands of illustrations since then. It’s fundamental for an artist to bring a new and dynamic sense to their work every day.

See more Emiliano Ponzi illustrations, new work, and updates here:
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