Meet Your Inner Child: Designer of the month Lunaticchili

Halszka from Hamburg illustrates beautiful designs for the child in all of us. Take a peek inside her studio in this interview.

Name: Halszka

Age: 38

Lives in: Hamburg

Profession: Freelance illustrator

Software: Procreate

Hardware: iPad

With Spreadshirt since: 2018

Hello Halszka! So, you’re a freelancer. How do you live as a freelancer and what does your daily routine look like?

I get up like everybody else and go to work in my studio. Besides drawing, there is a lot of acquisition and paperwork. But there’s always time for a little snack with my studio colleagues. I probably work more than a typical employee, but I really enjoy being able to organize everything myself. I prefer to start at noon because I am a total night owl and I often work late into the night.

Your Showroom Lunaticchili is full of illustrations for children. How did you focus in on these themes?

I don’t even know if I illustrate just for children. Maybe also a little bit for the inner children in all adults.

Do you have a favorite out of your designs?

Definitely the Lachmöwe!

Is there an exciting or funny story behind any of your designs?

The animal designs all come from my husband giving me very silly ideas on different themes. For example, he spun the idea of “beach holiday” into a bad-tempered ostrich at the North Sea.

Which illustrators inspire you?

Too many! I must follow over 100 great illustrators on Instagram. But I think I am most inspired by Franquin, the inventor of Gaston Lagaffe.

What’s your creative process like?

The ideas usually come spontaneously. I work completely digitally on the iPad with Procreate.

You have different characters that appear again and again in your illustrations – for example the redheaded girl. Where do they come from?

The redheaded girl, Lilly, is my inner child. She doesn’t look like me when I was a child, but she’s how I would want to be if I could be a five-year-old again. I like to send her off on adventures with her dachshund Toddles.

Did you participate in Inktober this year?

Yeah, I did 19 days. The rest was unfortunately full of work and the flu. All my Inktober designs featured Lilly.

Have you also illustrated children’s books?

Yes, for Christmas I had the chance to illustrate a beautiful Christmas story.

What are your plans for 2020?

I hope to continue like this. 2019 was a nice mixture of work, travelling and gathering inspiration. In 2020 I want to spend more time on my Showroom.

Can you share three tips for illustrators who want to sell their designs on Spreadshirt?

You never know what will work well if you don’t show it!

Don’t take it personally if your favorite design doesn’t perform well.

Trivial, but true: always keep at it and keep developing, but don’t bend too much. It doesn’t work!

Thanks for the interview, Halszka! We wish you all the best for 2020 and much success with your Showroom.

Check out Lunatichili’s illustrations now and follow her on Instagram.