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When you look at the design work of Sven Palmowski aka A_mar_illo, you are struck with an innocent quality which tugs at your child-self and makes you just smile. Perhaps this innocent quality is the secret to Sevn's success as a full time illustrator for various children's books and educational material. We had the chance to catch up with Sven last week via email:

Tell us a bit about how you came to be a freelance illustrator?

When I finished studying at the academy of art, I wanted to get back to traditional drawing skills and use them for the practical purpose of make a living out of it. I didn´t believe I would be able to do so in plastic arts, which were dominated by very conceptual stuff in the nineties, so I started again to draw a lot while trying to get into comics and illustration, which was really hard in the beginning. But finally I got the first little jobs in advertising and after a while for publishing houses.

You grew up and studied fine arts in Germany, How does German culture influence your work?

I think the influence of new media and internet is "globalizing" the contemporary design: An argentinian or french (or whatever) illustrator can perfectly do the same job for a canadian or italian (or whatever) magazine, website or fashion line. But of course there are still national design styles having their very own peculiarity, like those of Japan or Brazil for example. And probably there is some german influence in my style too, maybe just the kind of humour in it, or simply the fact that I work in a quite systematic way.

What brought you to your current residence in Barcelona, Spain?

In 2003 I had to look for a new apartment and at the same time I figured out that the internet was becoming the main medium of communication with my clients, Let´s say I was in the situation to catch a map and point the finger on a spot by chance. So I decided to give it a try and went to Barcelona with my powerbook and the idea to stay there for half a year or something. Actually, after a while I found myself very happy with my new residence and also very quickly "engaged" to my small spanish-german family ;) Besides after 4 years living in Spain I still work for my former german clients and I don´t even have to go to meetings there anymore.

Your portfolio site is divided between two types of illustrations - those for pleasure and those for your "nine-to-five" job. How do these two styles differ? Do you find more gratification in the illustrations you do for pleasure?

Though I´m a freelancer, I call my illustrations for schoolbooks and textbooks my "nine to five" job. I do them for several ongoing series of educational material which guarantee some economical security for me as an artist, but they have to follow lots of restrictions like educational issues, communication with the target group or even political correctness. On the other hand there are my "free" works like those you can find here on Design By Humans. They are my very own creations in the first place and I put more personal passion into them, I guess, but fortunately I find gratification in both fields.

What is your typical process for creating one of your illustrations?

I always begin with a rough pencil sketch which is the base for a clean and precise ink pen drawing. Followed by scanning, using Photoshop on my Mac with tons of customized brushes and a simple old fashioned Wacom graphic tablet. Sometimes I leave nothing of the original drawing except for the colour fields between the outlines which creates sort of a screenprint look.

You have described your free illustrations as "creatures of my mind, born of their own aesthetics." What was your idea behind the piece entitled "treepeople" - a recent Shirt of the Day winner here at Design by Humans?

I think "treepeople" turned out to be "knotty", weird and simple at the same time and it´s a perfect example for a piece which is born of it´s very own aesthetics. I always change a lot from the beginning of a drawing until it´s final result like positioning, compostion or details, but the original drawing of "treepeople" is quite as you can see it on the T-shirt just in black and white, which means it was perfectly apt right off.

How do you pick your color palettes for your illustrations?

Depending on the theme of the illustration, I pick one of these favourite colour palettes I often use: One is dominated by browns and earthy tones combined with blue tones. Another one is a clear domination of magenta or pink combined with white. Or sometimes just a black and white drawing combined with some strong 100% yellow highlights.

Who or what influences you?

I´m very influenced by the impulses of music, fashion or even TV. I love illustrators like Jeffrey Decoster, Thomas Lee Bakofsky or Catalina Estrada and also artists like David Hockney, Max Ernst or Francis Bacon.

What would be the most important piece of advice you would share with aspiring illustrators and designers trying to "make it"?

Be as stubborn as you can, create networks, take advantage of the internet. In the beginning this might be more important than making money right off. Working at McDonalds during daytime and drawing illustrations at night is not a shame at all, it´s romantic;)