Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be a sculptor, illustrator, and graphic designer.
My name is Jonas Welin, a sculptor, illustrator, and graphic designer from Sweden. I always had an active imagination and daydreamed as a kid, and I found ways to express myself creatively and show my imagination to the world. Drawing has always been present in my life. As a teenager, I discovered my love of sculpting. I found it to be such a direct and expressive way of creating what I love. Later in life, when studying at university, I realized my creativity sparked up when creating with restricted requirements towards someone's wants and needs, and I discovered my passion for design.
Who or what influences your art?
Just moments from life influence me the most. It can be everyday things like random people on the street, something silly my kids said or did, or just random thoughts that pop up inside my head from living life.
What mediums do you use to create your art?
When I illustrate, I almost always do it on an iPad and do editing in Photoshop or Illustrator. When sculpting, I usually use air-dried clay to make my creatures and creations.
What types of clients do you work with in your illustration and graphic design work?
Most of my graphic design client work is doing web design for other freelance artists. Being an artist myself, I can easily understand their needs and help show them how to grow their business.
Being from Sweden, do you work primarily with European companies?
The majority of my clients are from Sweden, and I get most of them through word-of-mouth, but I also have clients from around the world.
Do you sell your sculptures on any online sites?
I do, I sell my sculpture on Etsy, https://jonaswelin.com/shop
You are also the creator of the designer resource website, CreativeHowl. Tell us how CreativeHowl started and what has been the most rewarding part of providing such a resource to the design community.
I started Creativehowl in 2017 as a side project to get into web design. I have always done a copious amount of research, in my private life and when working as an artist, I would spend hours looking up the best printer, acrylic paint, or whatever. This has always been hard coded into my personality and often it can be quite hindering and time-consuming. But the idea for Creativehowl was to turn this part of my personality and use it for something good. The content and resources I share on Creativehowl mostly begin from my research as an artist, and over the years it has evolved further, and now I also try to cater to my audience's needs as well.
I get messages all of the time thanking me for creating Creativehowl and how it has helped them in their creative business. That's always so rewarding to hear considering the vast amount of time I spend making these free resources. It also feels great that I can give illustrators and designers a place to show off their fabulous work on my platform.
What's next for you in your artistic endeavors and for CreativeHowl?
In the future, I'm hoping to work together with more companies in the kid's clothing industry. As a father of two, it's so inspiring to see all the fun patterns kid clothes have. And, I think my illustration style is a perfect match for the kid's market.
For Creativehowl, I would love to do more community-driven projects. It has been a lot of work but also rewarding managing the Illustrator Directory and Surface Pattern Designer Directory. It would be fantastic to do more projects like that, where I bring creatives together and shine a spotlight on them.
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