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Part of this is
I'm trying to figure out
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some of the big picture things.
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How aesthetically to tell your story.
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And even before that,
kind of what your story is, you know?
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Roll, camera.
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I've been thinking about
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how we would kind of
create the documentary.
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And in my general state of anxiety
right now, I came to this question:
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Is this about me, or is this by me?
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And you don't even see me drawing, right?
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We don't. We're just seeing
the top half of your head.
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So you can act with your eyes.
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When I design
the experience for the viewer,
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of course I want to come across
as good as I possibly can.
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'Cause we're vain and we have to be.
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And if it's about me,
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it's a little bit, just tug of war
of how much do you make me reveal
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and how much do I reveal
of stuff that I might not want to reveal.
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But, ultimately, it's not about me.
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Be an artist.
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Be an artist.
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I would say everything
that happens between nine and six
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is about work.
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I work mostly by myself.
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So I sit at my desk and I draw
and I design.
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So I'm there,
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and it's me and my art supplies
and my computer and my coffee maker,
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so it's kind of me, me, me.
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I'm such a control freak
that I would always love to sit down
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and come up with the perfect formula
for creating art.
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But it doesn't work that way.
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It's a little bit
of a painful realization,
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because, ultimately, it really is,
to a very large degree,
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staring at paper.
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And I have to trust
for kind of crazy moments to happen.
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I would say that abstraction probably is,
for me, the most important concept of art.
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Where you say,
"Oh, I'm just drawing a simple box,
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because I love things
that are not precious."
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But it's the idea of, like, I start
with a thousand different thoughts
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and then I, one by one,
throw them all out,
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until, at the end,
I have the one or two or three
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that are essential to the whole question.
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But the abstraction, for me,
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is this idea of getting rid of everything
that's not essential to making a point.
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This thing here, it's called
The Good Shape or The Good Form.
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So I take this flatiron shape
and I start doing things out of it.
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Men, women,
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bathroom, strongman, nuclear power plant,
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cowboys and Indians,
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all sorts of sports.
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So what did your teachers
make of you?
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I had a very, very difficult teacher,
Heinz Edelmann,
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who did Yellow Submarine,
The Beatles' movie,
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and did amazing posters and book work.
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Fantastic designer, but let's say
he did not teach by encouragement.
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The highest compliment that
you could hope for was,
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"Oh, we don't really have
a problem with that."
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That was like, "Yes!"
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When I grew up in South Western Germany,
I was always drawing.
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It was all about getting action
and proportion right.
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Drawing things very dynamic.
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And that was the goal.
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To kind of get there, to this, like,
hyperrealist, amazing painting.
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And this is kind of the notion
that I went to art school with.
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But the teacher I had at art school,
Mr. Edelmann,
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he made it pretty clear that he really
disliked this stuff that I was doing.
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So I was drawing hundreds of sketches
on just letter-sized paper,
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and each week, he would come in
and go through them
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and basically say, "Nope, nope,
nope, nope, nope, nope, nope."
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"Oh, this one's okay!"
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'Cause this is what we did in school.
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Take a topic, like a red clown's nose,
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and then just squeeze the hell out of it.
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Just do every single variation.
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Eventually, I realized that
it's not about something super simple
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like a black square or, like, one line.
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But each idea requires
a very specific amount of information.
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a lot of details,
a lot of realism.
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Sometimes it's really just
this one line. The one pixel.
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But each idea has one moment
on that scale.
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So, lets say you want to illustrate
the idea of a heart as a symbol for love.
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When you illustrate it,
as just, like, a red square,
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which is the ultimate abstraction
of a heart,
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nobody knows what you're talking about,
so it totally falls flat.
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When you go all the way realistic
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and draw an actual heart made out
of flesh and blood and pumping,
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it's just so disgusting
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that the last thing anybody
would ever think about is love.
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And somewhere between
that abstract red square
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and the real, kind of butchered heart,
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is the graphic shape that kind of looks
like that, and kind of looks like that,
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and it's just right to transport
this idea of a symbol for love.
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New Yorker covers are the biggest deal
for an illustrator, I think.
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Once you see The New Yorker cover once,
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you see the history, you see the artist,
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you see, most importantly, I guess,
the cultural impact.
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This was my... This was the first one.
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What was the date?
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July 9, 2001, the day I got married.
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Which is especially fantastic.
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What I love is that this is
what they put on the magazine.
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There's no headline.
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There's not even a story.
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This was July 4, 2001.
It was about the missile shield.
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The Dr. Strangelovian generals
who start World War Three.
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There's no story about this idea
inside the magazine.
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It's almost like the stage is pulled empty
and this is the image for one week.
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The second cover
might actually have been... this one.
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And, to a strange degree,
this might even be the most exciting one,
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because the first cover of The New Yorker
is the Eustace Tilley,
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this New York dandy with a top hat.
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And we said,
"Let's try to do an icon of an icon."
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Making the butterfly just a blue square,
makes absolutely no sense
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unless you know the original.
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I've done 22, I think.
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The thing is,
I never even thought about 22.
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You think that
when you've done two or three,
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all of a sudden it becomes, like,
"Oh, it's just another job."
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It's not, because it's extremely exciting,
but it never becomes easy.
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So tell me about
this New Yorker cover you're working on.
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I'm doing this virtual reality cover,
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which... It's more like augmented reality.
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So the idea is I have this magazine open,
on the front or on the back,
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now I approach it
with my phone or with my tablet
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and then this whole three-dimensional
animation comes out.
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And you're just like, "No way!"
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There's a lot of kind of levels
of metaphors and drawing to work.
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And 3-D and 2-D and back and forth,
and it's kind of like physical and...
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And I also knew I couldn't plan.
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I couldn't have one idea
that just solves the entire thing.
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I had to start somewhere and then say,
"Okay, is this strong enough
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or flexible enough
to just go to the next step?"
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So the magazine, in theory,
opened like that.
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But I don't look at a magazine like that,
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I think nobody ever looks
at a magazine like that.
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So I thought, when I have a magazine,
I might look at it like that,
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so, really seeing it
as the inside-outside world.
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And I was thinking,
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"What's... What's like a very
New York inside/outside scene?"
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I realized that a subway...
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I have the windows,
I have people sitting in there
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and then the whole subway can be...
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Yeah, that's the idea of the magazine
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as the plane
that the person walks through.
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You can see it from the inside
or from the outside.
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It's a New York City cab, off-duty,
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which you can see...
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It's off-duty here.
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This is... Let's make it busy.
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This one's busy.
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It looks better, though,
all black and yellow.
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My favorite colors.
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It's the restriction with Lego,
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the restriction of...
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just very low resolution...
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It's almost like
a three-dimensional pixel drawing...
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that I enjoy so much.
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Why have you done so much New York work?
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Well, it started with my connection.
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It was the first city I went to
by myself...
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and I think there's only one city
in your life that you go to by yourself...
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and you own that.
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There was no uncle, there were no parents
that paved the way.
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It was like my place.
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I moved to New York in '97.
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To my surprise, when I went there
and showed my book,
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I realized that people understood
99% of my work.
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Going to a country
that's a few thousand miles away,
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and everybody gets everything
is really amazing.
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In a very odd way,
I felt very much at home
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just being so immersed in
American culture as a kid.
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From music, to art, Magnum P.I.
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Staten Island Ferry.
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If you've been on the Staten Island Ferry,
you know that this is it.
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This is the essence
of this kind of first tourist moment.
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For me, this style is based on culture,
on shared experiences.
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This is more interesting than coming up
with a visionary new way of speaking
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that people then have to decipher.
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There's this one Starbucks,
and I love sitting in that window,
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and that's been a place
I've been sitting at
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from my very first time coming
to New York.
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I always felt like, "That's where I want
to sit and kind of look out."
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And I've, a couple of times,
tried to work from there,
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because that's how I see myself, you know,
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like the artist
being in touch with the city...
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And then we have
this kind of emotional exchange,
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people walking by...
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It doesn't work at all.
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The impact on the work is zero.
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It's even actually confusing,
and I can't really focus when I sit there.
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This is the moment where I realized
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that kind of, like, my real life
and my work life, they don't really mix.
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I see what you're saying.
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I'm just trying to kind of solve it
from a visual storytelling point of view.
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I mean, I guess, the way
I see some of these things,
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it's almost like these very quick montages
of very close shots,
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you know, done very quickly.
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Just...
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Getting through the day,
its ritual, like brushing your teeth.
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I mean, again we can try...
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You know, like, the idea of a camera
in our bathroom...
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makes me feel extremely uncomfortable.
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Okay, well I don't want that.
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And so we can do it,
but it would be more like a painful thing
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and I could not possibly imagine
how I would ever want to see that myself.
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I'd much rather draw it than show it.
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When I started working,
I worked mostly under deadline.
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For the first ten years,
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if I would have to separate my business,
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it was 30% "We need Christoph
to make a nice drawing on this and that"
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and 70% of, like,
"Oh, no, something went terribly wrong.
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We have another 12 hours,
let's call that guy,
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he will make a somewhat
unembarrassing solution
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00:16:34,452 --> 00:16:37,246
that will save our butts for deadline."
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00:16:37,788 --> 00:16:40,541
And I love that.
I love this kind of tension,
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especially in editorial,
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but a lot of the calls I got
were out of desperation.
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So I think Chuck Close said,
"Inspiration is for amateurs.
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Us professionals,
we just go to work in the morning."
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The one thing
I really love about that quote
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is it relieves you of a lot of pressure.
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It's not about waiting for hours
for this moment where inspiration strikes.
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It's just about showing up
and getting started,
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and then something amazing happens
or it doesn't happen.
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All that matters is you enable
the chance for something to happen.
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For that you have to sit at your desk
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and you have to draw and do
and make decisions and hope for the best.
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It's so scary when you have
half an hour to do something.
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That of course, creating a process
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that allows you to do
unembarrassing stuff on command
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is the only way you can survive.
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If you create an armor
of craft around you.
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The one thing that's dangerous
about focusing on craft
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and working very hard
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is that it can keep you from asking
the really relevant questions.
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I'm trying to get good at something,
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but is that thing that I'm trying to
get good at the real thing?
238
00:18:31,819 --> 00:18:36,115
It's the subway track
with the knobs on the side of the tracks.
239
00:18:37,658 --> 00:18:38,576
Put...
240
00:18:40,828 --> 00:18:42,204
someone standing there.
241
00:18:44,332 --> 00:18:48,085
So when you stand there
in the middle of the night,
242
00:18:48,169 --> 00:18:49,837
'cause you missed the last G train
243
00:18:50,546 --> 00:18:52,256
and you just look at the critters,
244
00:18:53,382 --> 00:18:55,384
your friends and your enemies at once.
245
00:18:58,179 --> 00:19:00,139
The yellow is the perfect New York color.
246
00:19:00,222 --> 00:19:03,142
It's the taxicabs,
it's the side of the subways....
247
00:19:06,020 --> 00:19:08,147
The contrast is just so perfect.
248
00:19:20,951 --> 00:19:22,620
I met my wonderful wife,
249
00:19:22,703 --> 00:19:24,664
we got married and had kids.
250
00:19:26,457 --> 00:19:30,920
We have this routine of, like, waving
at each other when she leaves and comes.
251
00:19:34,423 --> 00:19:35,591
Have fun.
252
00:19:36,175 --> 00:19:38,678
We're all waiting for you
to leave the frame!
253
00:19:39,428 --> 00:19:41,097
It's totally okay.
254
00:19:42,723 --> 00:19:44,266
See you in a bit.
255
00:19:46,477 --> 00:19:50,981
I guess it started
with me and my wife.
256
00:19:51,565 --> 00:19:56,529
And then we have one kid,
and then it's really more like that.
257
00:19:57,571 --> 00:19:58,948
Then you have a second child.
258
00:19:59,031 --> 00:20:00,741
You think they're like the first one
259
00:20:00,825 --> 00:20:03,411
because you're doing the same thing
you did with the first one,
260
00:20:03,494 --> 00:20:05,413
but the second one
turns out totally different.
261
00:20:05,496 --> 00:20:07,957
But then the third one is more like that.
262
00:20:29,145 --> 00:20:30,312
I did a book
263
00:20:30,396 --> 00:20:33,065
based on the experience
of riding the subway with the kids
264
00:20:33,149 --> 00:20:36,569
and how they just
totally absorbed this idea.
265
00:20:36,652 --> 00:20:39,280
And I think what they liked
about the subway,
266
00:20:39,363 --> 00:20:40,698
what I like about the subway is,
267
00:20:40,781 --> 00:20:43,451
in a strange way,
you're in this huge city,
268
00:20:43,534 --> 00:20:45,536
but it's the one thing
where you're in control.
269
00:21:04,764 --> 00:21:06,265
Sometimes we're like that.
270
00:21:10,519 --> 00:21:11,854
Sometimes like this.
271
00:21:14,523 --> 00:21:17,234
I guess we hope
to be like that more often.
272
00:21:18,736 --> 00:21:22,865
That seems like a realistic rendering
of family life.
273
00:21:30,581 --> 00:21:33,501
I'm trying to come up
with something for The New Yorker.
274
00:21:35,419 --> 00:21:37,505
I'm doing this virtual reality cover,
275
00:21:38,380 --> 00:21:40,800
and basically this is
something I've never done.
276
00:21:42,968 --> 00:21:47,056
In this case, not only do you work 360,
but you work 360 in all directions,
277
00:21:47,139 --> 00:21:49,558
so you can look at it
from all different angles.
278
00:21:57,608 --> 00:22:01,487
For anything decent I've ever done,
279
00:22:01,570 --> 00:22:05,407
I distinctly remember
being in a tense, grumpy mood.
280
00:22:09,620 --> 00:22:13,707
Worse than that, I get suspicious
when having too good of a time working,
281
00:22:13,791 --> 00:22:16,961
since I know that this doesn't bode well
for the outcome.
282
00:22:27,846 --> 00:22:30,432
When you draw in two dimensions,
you can cheat.
283
00:22:30,516 --> 00:22:33,143
You can just hide
anything you don't like behind a wall.
284
00:22:33,769 --> 00:22:36,146
And in this case,
you can look behind the wall
285
00:22:36,230 --> 00:22:38,607
and you can see all the mess
that's behind it.
286
00:22:38,691 --> 00:22:40,985
It's like an endless compromise.
287
00:22:42,778 --> 00:22:47,032
The elements are not this kind of, like,
highly-rendered 3-D world,
288
00:22:47,116 --> 00:22:49,535
which I really detest visually.
289
00:22:50,536 --> 00:22:52,413
You know, where everything has highlights
290
00:22:52,496 --> 00:22:54,999
and everything feels
like this smelly plastic.
291
00:22:55,624 --> 00:22:56,750
I want an ink drawing.
292
00:22:56,834 --> 00:23:01,380
I want, like, a flat ink drawing
that you can walk into
293
00:23:01,463 --> 00:23:03,090
and that kind of surrounds you.
294
00:23:05,467 --> 00:23:07,386
There's too many lines in that side.
295
00:23:08,387 --> 00:23:11,557
Just throw in something
that you think you would regret,
296
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,893
and that's usually
the most interesting part.
297
00:23:16,729 --> 00:23:19,398
When all fails,
just put in some water towers.
298
00:23:20,232 --> 00:23:21,984
It's always a great trick.
299
00:23:23,694 --> 00:23:26,488
And this is so wrong with that dry brush.
300
00:23:26,572 --> 00:23:29,241
I wish I could rip out
the rest of the painting
301
00:23:29,325 --> 00:23:30,451
and do more of that.
302
00:23:33,621 --> 00:23:36,248
Obviously I'm playing around
for the camera now.
303
00:23:36,707 --> 00:23:37,791
Dun, dun, dun...
304
00:23:40,252 --> 00:23:42,713
Okay, next scene.
305
00:23:45,841 --> 00:23:48,302
I'm convinced
you always have to change direction
306
00:23:48,385 --> 00:23:49,595
while things are good.
307
00:23:50,929 --> 00:23:53,849
I was in my mid-30s, was extremely busy.
308
00:23:55,476 --> 00:23:58,354
I felt fulfilled, but exhausted.
309
00:24:00,981 --> 00:24:03,651
And I still think New York
is the best place to work,
310
00:24:05,694 --> 00:24:09,740
but I feel like it's not a good place
to refill your kind of creative tank.
311
00:24:13,535 --> 00:24:16,163
And I find it harder to reinvent.
312
00:24:20,167 --> 00:24:24,213
I sensed that the only way to grow
required that I loosen up.
313
00:24:27,257 --> 00:24:29,677
And it was in the mid-2000s,
314
00:24:30,886 --> 00:24:35,808
my wife and I agreed that the only place
that we could imagine to move to
315
00:24:35,891 --> 00:24:36,934
would be Berlin.
316
00:25:33,323 --> 00:25:36,076
There's all these
kind of crazy galleries
317
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,872
that do stuff that makes absolutely
no sense whatsoever economically
318
00:25:39,955 --> 00:25:42,124
and it's just totally a different mindset.
319
00:25:44,877 --> 00:25:48,630
Berlin makes it easy not to worry so much
about the feasibility of an idea.
320
00:25:49,173 --> 00:25:52,968
So my kind of, like, most intense phase,
in terms of my work,
321
00:25:53,051 --> 00:25:55,262
actually happened when I moved to Berlin.
322
00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:18,744
In a perfect world,
in this documentary,
323
00:26:18,827 --> 00:26:20,913
and this will probably make you queasy,
324
00:26:20,996 --> 00:26:25,751
there would be a moment where
there's a sense of unadulterated reality.
325
00:26:25,834 --> 00:26:27,044
Just a glimpse.
326
00:26:28,086 --> 00:26:29,505
I...
327
00:26:30,798 --> 00:26:34,802
It would feel so completely out of place.
328
00:26:34,885 --> 00:26:38,972
Like, it would be the farthest thing
from me ever showing anybody
329
00:26:39,056 --> 00:26:40,390
how I brush my teeth.
330
00:26:41,058 --> 00:26:43,811
When you show the real thing, you kill it.
331
00:26:44,311 --> 00:26:47,731
You make it impossible to then look
at these things in the abstract.
332
00:26:47,815 --> 00:26:53,362
It's like in... I think in Charlie Brown,
you never see the grown-ups,
333
00:26:53,445 --> 00:26:55,864
you only hear these muffled voices,
334
00:26:55,948 --> 00:26:57,699
and that's perfect, that's amazing!
335
00:26:57,783 --> 00:27:00,410
The one moment you zoom out
and show these grownups,
336
00:27:00,494 --> 00:27:03,747
they could be designed perfectly,
they could be written perfectly,
337
00:27:03,831 --> 00:27:05,874
but everything else
would be crashing down.
338
00:27:05,958 --> 00:27:09,628
So, in a way, I feel like
we already zoomed out and showed,
339
00:27:09,711 --> 00:27:11,630
even though I don't know
if I'm a grown-up,
340
00:27:11,713 --> 00:27:15,008
but that's already far too big
of a zoom out.
341
00:27:15,092 --> 00:27:17,427
And if you go even further there...
342
00:27:17,928 --> 00:27:23,350
So much of your daily routine
and life inspires your work.
343
00:27:23,433 --> 00:27:26,103
It just seems
like we should be able to see it.
344
00:27:29,189 --> 00:27:31,024
Well, yeah. I guess. Yeah.
345
00:27:33,569 --> 00:27:36,446
Okay, honestly nobody wants authenticity.
346
00:27:36,530 --> 00:27:39,032
Authenticity is like changing
your kid's diapers.
347
00:27:39,116 --> 00:27:43,203
It's a cute idea in the abstract,
but the real deal is just...
348
00:27:44,413 --> 00:27:46,707
All I care about
is what's happening on the page,
349
00:27:46,790 --> 00:27:50,669
because I want people
to really think about themselves.
350
00:27:52,921 --> 00:27:55,257
What went into creating the art?
351
00:27:55,340 --> 00:27:58,552
But people want to see you
in your real life.
352
00:27:58,635 --> 00:28:01,680
We can't just film you
at your desk the whole documentary.
353
00:28:10,647 --> 00:28:13,108
Anything that's happening
between nine and six
354
00:28:13,192 --> 00:28:14,568
is kind of the essence.
355
00:28:16,737 --> 00:28:19,323
But some stuff has to happen
outside the studio.
356
00:28:20,324 --> 00:28:22,159
Like going to a museum.
357
00:28:27,539 --> 00:28:31,960
The gateway drug is not creating art,
but experiencing art.
358
00:28:47,601 --> 00:28:49,728
Having the whole world explained,
359
00:28:49,811 --> 00:28:52,189
or even better, turned upside down,
360
00:28:52,272 --> 00:28:56,443
just by looking at
a few strokes of oil paint on canvas.
361
00:29:00,322 --> 00:29:02,366
That's the greatest thrill I know.
362
00:29:09,873 --> 00:29:12,042
If experiencing art is so amazing,
363
00:29:12,125 --> 00:29:14,628
how great must it be
to actually make this stuff?
364
00:29:16,213 --> 00:29:18,382
And that's how they lure you
into art school.
365
00:29:34,815 --> 00:29:37,818
Everything I do
is kind of creating information,
366
00:29:37,901 --> 00:29:42,823
creating usually images that do something
with what the viewer already knows.
367
00:29:42,906 --> 00:29:47,911
Really the idea of, like, their experience
and my experience coming together
368
00:29:47,995 --> 00:29:50,247
and the images are the trigger.
369
00:29:53,834 --> 00:29:59,172
But the big, big problem with routine
is everything starts to look the same.
370
00:29:59,965 --> 00:30:04,970
So I'm constantly trying to reinvent
how I approach image making,
371
00:30:05,053 --> 00:30:06,888
how I approach storytelling,
372
00:30:06,972 --> 00:30:10,183
because the audience changes all the time,
I change all the time.
373
00:30:17,607 --> 00:30:20,319
When I was 12,
I taught myself to juggle.
374
00:30:21,653 --> 00:30:24,573
At any given moment,
there's one ball in the air.
375
00:30:24,656 --> 00:30:28,285
And this is something that I hate so much,
this idea of no control.
376
00:30:29,786 --> 00:30:33,707
But this approach of not planning
opens a new door.
377
00:30:36,501 --> 00:30:41,882
It's really, really hard,
but it just leads to these magic moments.
378
00:31:02,694 --> 00:31:05,447
I started an Instagram project
called Sunday Sketches.
379
00:31:06,698 --> 00:31:08,408
In terms of the response I've got,
380
00:31:08,492 --> 00:31:11,328
they've been some of the better stuff
I've been doing,
381
00:31:11,411 --> 00:31:14,831
but on the other hand, they're
the most useless things I've ever done.
382
00:31:18,877 --> 00:31:21,380
There's almost zero control there.
383
00:31:23,632 --> 00:31:25,675
For my professional work, I need control
384
00:31:25,759 --> 00:31:29,054
because I need to be able to tweak,
to adjust, to plan.
385
00:31:34,184 --> 00:31:36,645
But these Sunday Sketches
are un-plannable.
386
00:31:38,230 --> 00:31:42,401
All the good ones just happen
by me just staring at something.
387
00:31:43,985 --> 00:31:46,405
Like moving around the light,
and all of a sudden,
388
00:31:46,488 --> 00:31:50,534
there's a highlight or a shadow and then,
"Oh, now there's something happening."
389
00:31:51,785 --> 00:31:53,203
You can't sketch that.
390
00:32:03,630 --> 00:32:04,673
I never was a reader
391
00:32:04,756 --> 00:32:06,508
because I never want
to escape from anything,
392
00:32:06,591 --> 00:32:08,844
I want my real life to be interesting.
393
00:32:10,095 --> 00:32:11,805
But then I read a book,
394
00:32:11,888 --> 00:32:14,975
The Invention of Slowness,
I think is the title.
395
00:32:17,853 --> 00:32:21,815
It's about a guy who is
so incredibly slow in his perception
396
00:32:21,898 --> 00:32:25,193
that he can...
He actually sees shadows moving.
397
00:32:28,780 --> 00:32:30,073
It's a good fiction book,
398
00:32:30,157 --> 00:32:32,951
but the amazing thing
that I remember from reading that book
399
00:32:33,034 --> 00:32:35,287
is, whenever I looked up from that book,
400
00:32:38,790 --> 00:32:42,752
I felt I had this view from the book
in my real world.
401
00:32:53,889 --> 00:32:56,433
This book made my life more interesting.
402
00:33:02,105 --> 00:33:03,398
This is also in art,
403
00:33:03,482 --> 00:33:06,818
something where you're not creating
an artificial world.
404
00:33:09,070 --> 00:33:12,115
You're taking the things you know,
405
00:33:12,991 --> 00:33:15,785
and then you break them down
into little elements.
406
00:33:17,996 --> 00:33:19,456
And I rearrange them,
407
00:33:21,750 --> 00:33:23,585
and all of a sudden make a statement.
408
00:33:25,545 --> 00:33:28,673
Not with a monster
or a dragon,
409
00:33:29,341 --> 00:33:30,342
but with a pencil.
410
00:33:40,435 --> 00:33:42,354
I came from, you know, print media.
411
00:33:43,188 --> 00:33:45,565
You just felt like it's always
going to be there,
412
00:33:45,649 --> 00:33:48,235
people always need images
and they always need to be drawn,
413
00:33:48,318 --> 00:33:50,445
and if you've figured it out, you're set.
414
00:33:51,947 --> 00:33:54,032
And all of a sudden, it wasn't anymore.
415
00:33:54,783 --> 00:33:58,578
It was about web long form pieces,
it was about animation.
416
00:34:00,038 --> 00:34:03,875
Of course, it's our job to see
if there's some relevant way
417
00:34:03,959 --> 00:34:06,211
that I can contribute to this new angle.
418
00:34:08,046 --> 00:34:11,466
So this is all of us, all the time.
419
00:34:14,928 --> 00:34:17,138
So this is an app I did
over the last four years,
420
00:34:17,222 --> 00:34:20,016
and I wanted
to do something interactive...
421
00:34:20,684 --> 00:34:21,768
But the big question is
422
00:34:21,851 --> 00:34:27,148
the moment I give too much decision-making
to the viewer over what can happen...
423
00:34:28,191 --> 00:34:30,068
Often, the viewer
might have different ideas,
424
00:34:30,151 --> 00:34:31,403
and you want to be surprised.
425
00:34:31,486 --> 00:34:33,029
That's the whole point of books.
426
00:34:33,113 --> 00:34:36,366
You want some surprise.
You want something unexpected to happen.
427
00:34:43,999 --> 00:34:50,630
But here, in my literary section,
I have all these literature references,
428
00:34:50,714 --> 00:34:52,966
like Don Quixote and Kafka,
429
00:34:55,385 --> 00:34:56,511
Moby Dick,
430
00:34:57,596 --> 00:34:58,972
a little Jane Austen,
431
00:34:59,431 --> 00:35:00,265
and Homer,
432
00:35:00,348 --> 00:35:03,476
and hopefully kids enjoy that scene
as much as grown-ups.
433
00:35:11,026 --> 00:35:11,860
Some people love it,
434
00:35:14,446 --> 00:35:16,031
and probably some people don't.
435
00:35:16,990 --> 00:35:18,199
Some people love it,
436
00:35:19,534 --> 00:35:20,869
some people don't.
437
00:35:20,952 --> 00:35:22,037
That's life.
438
00:35:36,468 --> 00:35:41,890
I'm wondering, it almost seems
like, you know, the creator of your pieces
439
00:35:41,973 --> 00:35:44,017
and you, as editor of your pieces,
440
00:35:44,100 --> 00:35:46,686
are two different people.
441
00:35:46,770 --> 00:35:47,771
Yes!
442
00:35:51,941 --> 00:35:55,320
I need to be in control
and I need to have a very clear sense
443
00:35:55,403 --> 00:35:58,490
of where I'm going and why
something's working and not working.
444
00:36:01,117 --> 00:36:05,955
On the other hand, I've also realized that
being more free-spirited is necessary.
445
00:36:11,086 --> 00:36:14,798
I've found that I need to develop
these two personas separately.
446
00:36:15,465 --> 00:36:20,679
Be a much more ruthless editor
and be a much more careless artist.
447
00:36:28,103 --> 00:36:33,233
This I find physically exhausting,
but there's good stuff happening there.
448
00:36:48,665 --> 00:36:53,461
I take very specific time off
for this kind of, like, free creation.
449
00:36:55,714 --> 00:36:58,842
Because I know it's basically impossible
to do under deadline.
450
00:37:02,303 --> 00:37:04,848
Literally, just sitting
in front of a piece of paper
451
00:37:04,931 --> 00:37:08,268
and just doing stuff and being fearless.
452
00:37:11,062 --> 00:37:15,233
There's something there that I need to,
kind of, go back and investigate further.
453
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,992
Creatively,
I'm extremely dependent on these sparks.
454
00:37:26,953 --> 00:37:30,999
And it only works with loosening up,
without an assignment, without deadline,
455
00:37:31,082 --> 00:37:32,876
with just kind of creating
456
00:37:32,959 --> 00:37:36,546
and not worrying so much
about where the whole thing goes.
457
00:37:39,758 --> 00:37:42,343
But I think it has never happened to me
458
00:37:42,427 --> 00:37:45,221
that I tried something new
on a big deadline.
459
00:37:46,473 --> 00:37:49,184
And what's your deadline
for The New Yorker?
460
00:37:49,267 --> 00:37:50,351
Two weeks.
461
00:37:50,435 --> 00:37:54,272
It's going to be insanity.
Totally stressed out.
462
00:37:58,693 --> 00:38:00,695
I've seen a lot of VR stuff,
463
00:38:00,779 --> 00:38:03,656
and it's always, like,
"Oh, wow! This is so interesting,"
464
00:38:04,616 --> 00:38:08,411
and then, 25 seconds later,
I completely lose interest
465
00:38:08,495 --> 00:38:10,789
and this is the great challenge right now.
466
00:38:14,459 --> 00:38:18,505
This is not, like, a coy thing to say,
"Oh, I don't believe I'm talented."
467
00:38:18,588 --> 00:38:22,967
This is real,
like, being absolutely painfully aware
468
00:38:23,051 --> 00:38:26,679
of how you're not good enough
to do something on command.
469
00:38:35,438 --> 00:38:38,107
Your general notion
is that doing something nice
470
00:38:38,191 --> 00:38:39,818
makes you more confident.
471
00:38:40,568 --> 00:38:43,238
With ideas,
I often find it's the opposite.
472
00:38:44,113 --> 00:38:47,575
With every good idea you have,
it actually becomes more difficult,
473
00:38:47,659 --> 00:38:49,911
because it's so hard to then repeat.
474
00:38:49,994 --> 00:38:51,371
Of course, you can't repeat.
475
00:38:55,917 --> 00:38:57,627
This is, like, where the pain comes in,
476
00:38:57,710 --> 00:39:01,840
when I talk about not being good enough,
or being afraid that you're out of ideas.
477
00:39:04,717 --> 00:39:07,512
You measure yourself
against a lucky moment.
478
00:39:09,138 --> 00:39:11,266
And this is, like, really, really painful.
479
00:39:13,142 --> 00:39:15,603
You had this one kind of spark
three years ago,
480
00:39:15,687 --> 00:39:17,689
and then a client asks you to do it again.
481
00:39:19,148 --> 00:39:20,692
And you think, "How can I?
482
00:39:20,775 --> 00:39:21,901
I won the lottery then.
483
00:39:21,985 --> 00:39:25,947
How can you ask me to win the lottery,
under pressure, with a gun to my head?"
484
00:39:26,030 --> 00:39:29,868
And this is something that,
before I consciously thought about it,
485
00:39:29,951 --> 00:39:32,203
I just realized, "Oh, God, I'm miserable."
486
00:39:40,461 --> 00:39:41,963
But when I realized
487
00:39:42,046 --> 00:39:46,342
that my fears threatened
to take a toll on my work,
488
00:39:47,010 --> 00:39:49,178
I decided I had to deal with them.
489
00:39:51,764 --> 00:39:54,434
Relax; don't be so hard on yourself.
490
00:39:55,268 --> 00:39:56,936
I actually totally disagree.
491
00:39:58,396 --> 00:40:00,398
You have to practice and become better.
492
00:40:01,274 --> 00:40:05,028
Every athlete, every musician
practices every day.
493
00:40:06,029 --> 00:40:07,655
Why should it be different for artists?
494
00:40:31,137 --> 00:40:33,598
I sometimes imagine
what would happen
495
00:40:33,681 --> 00:40:37,936
if I had to face
the 2006 version of myself
496
00:40:38,019 --> 00:40:40,897
in some sort of creative bar fight.
497
00:40:41,940 --> 00:40:44,901
Maybe I've lost some of my youthful spark,
498
00:40:45,443 --> 00:40:47,654
but I'm confident I would kick my butt.
499
00:40:54,994 --> 00:40:58,414
The assignment was
to do an augmented reality cover.
500
00:40:59,332 --> 00:41:01,793
In a way,
we have that augmented reality cover,
501
00:41:01,876 --> 00:41:04,295
but this already is
an augmented reality cover,
502
00:41:04,379 --> 00:41:08,007
because you can look at the same scene
from two sides.
503
00:41:08,091 --> 00:41:09,175
I'm inside the subway.
504
00:41:09,258 --> 00:41:13,388
So, essentially what I do with the iPad,
I do with the physical magazine.
505
00:41:13,471 --> 00:41:16,849
As if the magazine is
the door of the subway.
506
00:41:16,933 --> 00:41:20,520
So this is an extension of that,
rather than the other way round.
507
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:28,987
Yeah, yeah.
508
00:41:31,906 --> 00:41:34,617
I know how complex it is
to put these different things,
509
00:41:34,701 --> 00:41:36,494
like the 3-D and the animation together,
510
00:41:36,577 --> 00:41:41,624
that I'm surprised
how close it came to what I imagined.
511
00:42:54,906 --> 00:42:58,576
The idea of pop music is not
to invent a new story,
512
00:42:58,659 --> 00:43:03,039
but to tell the same story again
in a new and interesting way.
513
00:43:04,791 --> 00:43:06,417
We don't buy new pop songs and say,
514
00:43:06,501 --> 00:43:10,671
"Oh, there's somebody singing about love,
nobody else has dared do that until now."
515
00:43:12,173 --> 00:43:15,093
People have been singing about love
for 500 years.
516
00:43:19,055 --> 00:43:21,474
And it's the idea of, like,
making it different,
517
00:43:21,557 --> 00:43:24,435
that you feel,
"Oh, I never actually until now,
518
00:43:25,686 --> 00:43:27,897
nobody has ever gotten it right."
519
00:43:38,407 --> 00:43:41,869
I love the idea of bringing
these familiar scenes back in,
520
00:43:42,870 --> 00:43:45,581
but just making them
appear to be totally different.
521
00:43:45,665 --> 00:43:46,999
New and true.
522
00:44:05,476 --> 00:44:06,936
In the best moments,
523
00:44:07,019 --> 00:44:10,106
what happens
is that design celebrates the world.
524
00:44:14,986 --> 00:44:18,239
When I look at a piece of art
that references my fears,
525
00:44:18,322 --> 00:44:19,949
my anxieties, my hopes,
526
00:44:21,242 --> 00:44:26,497
and I can say, "There was this one drawing
that made me realize that I'm alive
527
00:44:26,581 --> 00:44:29,167
or that I love other people
or that I'm afraid."
528
00:45:02,658 --> 00:45:05,536
My goal is to speak visuals...
529
00:45:06,078 --> 00:45:08,456
like a pianist speaks piano.
530
00:45:09,415 --> 00:45:11,250
And like somebody controls the keys
531
00:45:11,334 --> 00:45:13,961
and can convey different ideas,
different emotions,
532
00:45:14,045 --> 00:45:15,504
through that language.
533
00:45:22,053 --> 00:45:28,059
I have to constantly battle to try to
kind of refine the act of speaking.
534
00:45:30,937 --> 00:45:34,315
Taking the world and putting it
into images and conveying them.
535
00:45:36,317 --> 00:45:38,653
And for that,
I have to constantly produce.
536
00:45:39,528 --> 00:45:42,281
It's not done,
because the whole idea of being done
537
00:45:42,365 --> 00:45:45,243
is kind of the opposite
of what I'm trying to achieve.
538
00:45:46,744 --> 00:45:48,287
Gute Nacht.