ON THE CONTINUOUS SEARCH

Jan Paul Müller draws and paints – Be it on paper or canvas, but not exclusively. He keeps a diverse platform by portraying his artistry on walls, shoes, bikes, and notebooks. He designs posters, T-shirts, art prints and paints in public spaces. Trained at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach, the artist has developed his own distinctive style: in addition to more abstract paintings, he creates dynamic drawings full of stories that fascinate the eye with their unbridled richness in detail that cannot be grasped at first sight. Fascinated as a child by books such as “Where’s Waldo?”, the artist experimented with figurative All-Over-Patterns that invite the viewer to discover them again and again. The artist is also inspired by monumental, historical paintings that depict a complex multitude of simultaneous scenarios. Here the pleasure of drawing goes hand in hand with the pleasure of searching and seeing. In Müller’s works, playful cityscapes are combined with witty figures to create an organic flow that sends the eye on a journey through a thicket of forms.

Over the years, the artist has perfected his technique. While testing certain motifs on the basis of sketches, conceptualising figures and experimenting with different forms, he is able to work extremely quickly, freely and intuitively when actively drawing. This ability to find images spontaneously is particularly evident during live performances, when the artist draws in front of an audience.

Müller regularly works with several notebooks at a time – tied to different places and times. Mainly using them in his travels, in particular by train, to record and collect spontaneous ideas and experiment. While Müller now uses digital devices for text, it is still the analogue memory of ideas that accompanies the artist’s process of drawing.

So we’re all the more delighted that Müller has chosen to design covers for nuuna again and again. The city books he designs, which capture the hustle and bustle of London, Berlin, Paris or Frankfurt, have been bestsellers in our range for years and are a popular way for travellers to record their impressions and feelings during their trips. We recently invited him to design two motifs for us on the theme of pride and diversity. For us, it was important to celebrate a joyful approach on the topic and focus on the feelings of happiness that come from standing together in solidarity, mutual acceptance and love. Müller’s style is particularly well suited for this. After all, the artist’s designs, with their lightness and comic-like nonchalance, are one thing above all else: fun.