Bjorn Lie Lecture

Bjorn Lie is a Norwegian Illusrator who has worked in many fields of illustration for over 14 years - inluding editorial illustration, design, textiles, packaging, branding and picture books. He balances between commercial and artistic work, but feels it is also important to keep up with personal work. Adapting his workstyle to target different audiences, Bjorn's work has been published internationally.
          The visual language of his work consists of four major themes: characters, humour, nostalgia, and nature.

• Characters - He has designed crowded street illustrations/covers, and created his own comics and magazines featuring original characters.

• Humour - Being inspired by Folk Art Illustration, he created work around that style. He later visited "Yeehaw Industries" - the company that inspired this work.

• Nostalgia - He likes to think of himself as old-fashioned, as he has been inspired by the naivety of old magazine advertisements, often parodying them in his illustrations.

• Nature - Some of his work is based on Norwegian trees and forests (mostly printed on his textile work). He made a children's book based off Skiing, called "Slush Mountain."

In his youth, Bjorn was also inspired by graffiti art and comics, later discovering Sandman and the work of Hando Kjendo. He studied at Falmouth University, and upon graduating, found the then-new Internet to be instrumental in him getting illustration work. 

In 2003, Lie moved to Bristol,, using the time to make two further children's books. One of these was "The Wolf's Whistle," which combined elements of limited colour with the cinematic style of Film Noir. He also collaborated with NOBROW on several illustrations. One other example of work he produced while in Bristol is his comissioned branding of the 'Jackson and Rye' restaurant. This included illustrated designs for their menus, coasters, serviettes and even business cards.

His work on picture books is particularly extensice. Bjorn made a Norwegian story about loneliness, using limited colour and a more subtle approach to the image's composition. Inspired by Eric Ravillious, he combined avant-garde illustration with Japanese block print techniques. Other techniques, compositions and colours were considered before he settled on this style for his picture book.

Bjorn makes time to experiment with his personal work. In this, he often creates scalpel drawings and etchings, and works to avoid overworking an image. He is most fond of experimental with the botanical drawings of Ernst Haeckel. These microscopic studies found Bjorn other commissions, including using the studies for more clothing work, as well as for The New York Times newspaper.

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