Illustration
The origin of all of my creative endeavours stems from my passion for illustration. I can remember pausing old Disney animation tapes, in order to draw the Disney monsters when I was only a little boy. In high school I was known for drawing caricatures of all of my classmates. This habit evolved over the years. After toying around with Photoshop since my 13th, creating websites, and stick figure animations in Flash, I'd decided that this could be something I could make a living with. In my first years of college, I'd spend most of my after-school hours trying to figure out the Wacom Cintiq the school had set up in an empty room, but gradually, I would get to experiment with a wider spectrum of media. Nonetheless, illustration holds a special place in my heart.
CAFÉ ALTSTADT POSTER
After closing for two months to do renovations, legendary Eindhoven Café Altstadt re-opened their doors. To celebrate this rebirth they organised a ten-day celebration, for which they were in need of a shiny new poster. Combining the steam-punk style with a feminine bikergang-vibe seemed for me like the perfect way to speak to the alternative youth visiting the Café.
Victoire - Wa Dachte (feat. Kleine Crack & Joost Klein)
I was asked to design the single cover for this collaboration between the three prolific Benelux rappers Victoire, Kleine Crack & Joost Klein. Only being able to take inspiration from their mysterious music video, it turned out to be quite a challenge to create a worthy image that captured the vibe of the fantastic universe that Victoire creates.
‘JAGERS’
Film Poster
Director/Actor Karel Konings & Writer Maarten Sleegers asked me to help them on their first collaborative short film named ‘Jagers’(Hunters). The story follows a group of adolescent men on the hunt for pedophiles. When the lead character runs into a familiar face, things turn complicated.
Next to designing the poster, I was tasked as a First AD on set. For four nights we set out on cold, deserted parking lots on the border of Belgium and Limburg to shoot. The result is a staggering, suspenseful short capturing a vigilante culture of the Benelux that kept it’s civilians in its grip.
Baklap Drive-in Show Event Poster
Being the director of my first mid-length film ‘Buckle Up a.k.a. Baklap’, I couldn’t wait to start designing the film poster. After I came up with the concept of showing the movie in the form of a Drive -in theatre, I became even more excited.
It is truly a dream come true seeing your design hanging all around the city you grew up in.
Fun fact:
We even placed these posters right over our local alt-right-movement’s political campaign posters. This way we had six weeks of exposure for free, whilst kicking the alt-right movement in their marketing-nuts.
More about the Drive-in Show here: www.baklap.com
‘Vader Honger’
Filmposter
Oftentimes I’m approached by filmmakers who are in the process of pitching films in order to find funding. Usually they’re in need of some sort of image that can give their investors the idea of who’s in the movie and what kind of feeling the film will aspire to emit.
Here’s an example of such a concept art piece. I was asked by Dutch director Aswin Baaijens to portray his story ‘Vader Honger’(translated ‘Father Hunger’). The movie is planned to star Dutch rapper ‘Fresku’ and is scheduled for shooting in the Summer of 2022.
DROELOE 2021 Tour Poster
Client: DROELOE
Future-Bass Artist Droeloe approached me to illustrate his announcement for his 2021 Tour. The goal here was to enter a new phase in the Droeloe Legacy, without diverging too much from their original artworks. The theme ‘introspection’ gave rise to the application of the ‘Droste Effect’ in this poster. Droeloe’s transition from a duo to a one man show forced him to look deeply into his own core identity, a message he felt we had to portray in this piece.
De Nul
Film Poster
Production Company: DPPLR
Client: Joris Weerts
Talented director & colleague Joris Weerts asked DPPLR to involve me in making the promotional poster for his 2020 film: De Nul(translates as “The Zero”)
The Zero tells the story of a long lost son trying to connect with his father. Who has become a cult-leader on a farm in the middle of nowhere. The one thing that connects them; the mother, has past and they both struggle to reinterpret their relationship.
https://dpplr.nl/project/de-nul/
BUT Film Festival 2018
Poster
Client: BUT Film Festival
After having worked for BUTFF for several years, seeing the amazing illustrated posters they would use, I was given the opportunity to create one myself. With this year's theme being an ode to the sexploitation genre, featuring highlights of queer and soft-porn films, my aim was to make a subtle yet sexually explosive image. For me, this poster also serves as an ode to the hand-painted posters that would hang in the dark alley's of the 110th street of New York in the 60's & 70's.
www.butff.nl
Brainwash Event Poster
Client: Brainwash Festival
During my internship at The School of Life Amsterdam, I've had a great deal of time to experiment and figure out what role I would like to fulfill in their organisation. On one sunny morning at the office I was asked to make sketches for a wall-painting for in the office. I chose to use a quote from Godfried Bomans, and accompany it with a portrait of the man himself. Once they saw the portrait, they were immediately inspired to use my portraits for their larger speaker-events. Here you can see a portrait for Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher who's well-known for playing around with- and reflecting on the communist philosophy that Stalin incorporated in his dictatorial ways. Therefore, as an inspiration I used the portraits made of Stalin to create a vivid and provocative poster.
As seen below the portrait is now on the cover of Slavoj Zizek’s latest book ‘Heaven in Disorder’.
Backspace
Albumcover
Client: Lucas Thijs
Lucas asked me to design the cover for his debut album. I chose to paint a portrait of him drifting away in thought. All of the songs on this album felt very personal for him, having worked on it for years and featuring intimate lyrics about the people closest to him. For me this meant that the cover also needed to become a delicate piece of work.
Read more about his album here.
MOON CHILDREN
Film Poster
Client: Marlyn Kist-De Ruiter
Marlyn Kist-De Ruiter is a very talented young filmmaker from Amsterdam. For her short film 'Moon Children' she was looking for a poster which could be reminiscent of the 1930's magician show posters. The poster had to feature the lead character Leo, alongside his desired assistant and the side-characters surrounding her. In the film, the poster hangs on Leo's bedroom wall, and changes over time. Since the film has yet to be published online, I've included a link to the successful crowdfunding page for a glimpse of the film: Moon Children.
Thinking Portraits
With the portrait-painting experience I'd gained from working for The School of Life, I would later go on to create a project of my own. With this project I intend to illustrate portraits, alongside showing the process, of modern-day thinkers. The project's aim is to get philosophy-aficionados interested in the philosophers that are actually still alive and working.
You can find these portraits here:
Thinking Portraits
DAS
Film Poster
Client: Jelmer Wristers
Director Jelmer Wristers graduated with his award-winning film 'DAS'. The film revolves around two characters who's lives have been thoroughly changed by the death of an old man. The story mainly focuses on the experience of a young man, who lives right next to the man who's body, after his death, had remained undiscovered for more than two weeks. The challenge here was to create an abstract portrait of the young man in his most extreme of depressive emotions.
You can view a teaser of the film here.
In De Zomer
Film Poster
Client: Revolver Amsterdam
Director Ilia Ten Bohmer & Producer Charlotte Spronk contacted me during the pre-production of their new award-winning film "IN SUMMER". The film shows the story of two sisters, who, after losing their father, have to accept their differences. The goal of this poster was to subtly show how the older and conservative sister finds it hard to bridge the cultural gap that stands between her and her younger sister. Because I started before it was even shot, the whole concept of the poster changed after shooting the film. I ended up creating two posters, of which one we decided to reuse as backgrounds for the ending titles.
Read more about the film here.
Het Uur Tussen Hond & Wolf
Film Poster
Client: Jacob Dijker
For this film poster I was asked to make an eerie poster that carried references to Dutch Socialist Party Posters from the seventies.
The plotline of the film goes as follows:
A retired politician who’s still active as a political writer gets a surprise guest one Sunday Afternoon. The guest seems to be a great fan of the writer, yet brings an unsettling message to the table.
My goal here was to use broad strokes, along with only three colors, while rendering the messenger in an awkward, untrustworthy way.
The film starred on the NFF, you can read more about it here.
REFORMIST
Album Art
Client: Metal Band Reformist
Eindhoven-based deathcore/metal group “Reformist” approached me to design the logo and album cover for their first album release “Reform, Rebuild”.
An album that tells the story of our planet being conquered by a disease, destroying all life in its path. I was working on this piece literally a year before the COVID-19 crisis broke out…
A rather prophetic project.
15 Meter Mural
Client: Brand Bier
Location: Soul Kitchen Eindhoven
After creating the branding for the restaurant Soul Kitchen, I was asked by owner Thomas Thijs in collaboration with representatives of Brand Bier to create multiple murals in the restaurant. These murals depict frequent visitors and key employees in the restaurant. Seen as the restaurant is a social workplace, the goal was for the murals to create an inclusive environment; one where the clients of the social workplace were included in the design of the restaurant just as well as the other employees and even the owners of the restaurant.
Click here to see the full murals, branding & design process.
Miscellaneous Portraits
Interested in more of my illustration work?
Visit www.elswijktom.tumblr.com
Watch my Process
Sometimes I record my painting process, and here are a couple of video’s in which you can see how I render an illustration.