SIMON BERNDT

Simon Berndt (of One Horse Town Illustration Studio) is a talented Cape Town-based illustrator and designer. He’s been widely published all over the world and has various big clients in the USA and Europe.

We caught up with him to chat about his aesthetic, why music has a big impact on his work and what he does to switch off.

Firstly, describe your design style to us. When I think about my work, I would describe the style as drawing on a lot of older inspiration, a classic style with more modern execution, even though everything I do these days is digital. Much of the stuff I do ––because it’s getting screen printed –– is inspired by older handmade printing techniques. I often work with pretty limited color palettes to reflect that and just based on the fact the work is screen printed, that feeds into that as well. My work varies, but first and foremost I would say I’m a poster artist, which feeds into the other work I do. A lot of the work I do is very much inspired by the 60s and 70s kind of psychedelia and psychedelic art with the patterns I use and color choices.

Of course, for a lot of the poster stuff I do, the brief will inevitably lead into the stylistic approach I take, so it can be quite varied, it’s definitely a truer reflection of my overall style but it can be manipulated to fit different briefs and clients – whether it’s gig posters, or more like product or packaging orientated.

Where do you draw the line between illustration and art? Is there even such a line?

There’s more of a line between art and commercial art. A lot of the stuff I do is for commercial purposes. Then I’d probably even draw a line between art and poster art - so commercial art can be quite varied because you can get illustrations that are definitely ‘art art.’ As I said, my stuff is either commercial art or poster art for the most part, which I’m doing as an illustrator. Here the influence of graphic design comes in, because you’re often dealing with the relationship between illustration and typography, which is also a big part of my work.

Commercial art is also often a piece of communication that’s been ‘designed’ – whether it’s a poster or a magazine cover or an ad. That’s where the lines are kind of drawn when it comes to art and illustration. But what I love so much about poster art, what’s drawn me to it throughout my career, is that it marries all those disciplines together, it’s a piece of communication, it’s a piece of art, especially when it’s getting hand printed and screen printed and all the incredible processes and quality of screen printing that exists now, you really do end up with something that very tactile and can perform and function as a piece of communication but also easily be framed and put up on a wall and be a really striking piece of artwork.

A lot of the work I do is very much inspired by the 60s and 70s kind of psychedelia and psychedelic art with the patterns I use and color choices.

You’ve said before that music has a big influence on your work. Is this still the case?

Very much so. There was a period with my work when I started as an illustrator and I was working in a small studio that we created, myself and two other guys, that’s where the name ‘One horse Town’ first originated and why I still work under that moniker and not under my name. Both those guys immigrated to the UK and I was faced with a bit of a crossroads with my work, which up until that point had largely been in the advertising sector. I made quite a concerted and mindful decision at that point to pivot and see what I can do in terms of breaking into that kind of music side of things with my art and that was also around the time I got involved with Psych-night. Psych Night eventually became EndlessDaze Fest and through that, I created an opportunity for myself to do more poster work and start doing more work in the vein and style that I wanted to pursue and push.

That really gave me a great launch pad. And then when we started bringing down international brands and we started doing the festival, it really put my poster art and my music-orientated art on an international stage. So through social media and working with those kinds of bands and promoters, I was able to reach a much bigger market with my poster work, which opened up the kind of stuff I’m doing today, which is almost exclusively international, mostly in the US and in Europe.

Music has always been a part of my life - even though I’ve never picked up an instrument- in some way or another, so for me to find a way to be involved in music, through my work was always an ambition of mine and a way to have a sense of contributing to something in the way I’m really passionate about without actually being a musician.

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on quite a bit of music stuff –– a couple of festivals, there’s a festival in Austin, called the Ripple Fest, which is a new festival that’s come on the scene. I’m also working on a comedy festival in Canada on which I’ve worked for quite a long time now, doing their main poster stuff. I’m also slowly developing another poster concept for Deep Purple again, working with them on a concept that’s been in the pipeline for a while, it’s quite a complex concept which is really cool.

How do you switch off from work and the admin hustle of running a ‘freelance’ business?

Working for myself this (switching off) has become rather important to me and balance within my lifestyle is something I really value. I work super hard to make sure that I have space to do the numerous hobbies and activities that I really enjoy: I love to cook, that is something I enjoy doing after a busy day of work. I’ll just pop on a podcast or some music and spend some time in the kitchen, it’s a great way to disconnect. I do believe it’s really important for me to have activities where I’m mindfully engaged in being creative, but a step away from my work and something I can completely put myself into and switch off. I’ve been doing Kung Fu for almost 20 years, I do that twice a week and then I have gotten into yoga in the past few years, which I do once a week. Because my work is desk-bound (and at home) I also feel that it is important to be involved in things that has some sense of community around it, which make yoga and Kung Fu very important.