Bewitched Graphics is the pseudonym of Graphic Designer, Illustrator, and Printmaker Benjamin Nickel from Hamburg, Germany. From his home studio located in the heart of St. Pauli, Hamburg’s famous red light and nightlife district, Ben works on graphic design and illustration project mostly for the music industry, and in his spare time he is dedicated to collecting vinyl records and, of course, printmaking.
“Ever since I can remember I was fascinated by visual arts, paintings, comic books, cartoons and motion pictures as well as music or let’s say, sound,” says the illustrator. From early on, he realised that these art forms, especially in combination, can trigger and transport all kinds of feelings and emotions. Although he originally wanted to be an artist, Ben studied design and became a graphic designer and illustrator, “simply for economical reasons”. After earning his degree he worked for various agencies, working on his own creative and artistic projects by night or at the weekend. In 2013, after working four years as creative director for a big radio station, Ben was close to burn out. Thus, he decided to focus more on what he really wanted and moved to Spain to start working on a freelance basis. After spending three years in the Spanish sun, he moved back to Hamburg and is now lucky to work for clients in music industry, have his own studio where he can create graphics and lino prints, and have a shared silkscreen print studio downstairs with a bunch of other creative talents; “It feels like I’ve finally arrived”.
At the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic work and job offers went down dramatically leaving room for new projects and ideas. Out of this situation, and the fact that he always flirted with the idea of leaving the desktop more often, Ben began to reminisce of his school days where he first came across linocut printing. He describes; “I thought: Uh, I liked Lino when we did it in ground school. It was fun and easy. After a bit of satisfying work you have an immediate result and with a little effort it’s possible to even do complicated multicolour or pattern experiments. Let’s give it a try!”
Ben’s first idea was to use lino printing in the same way in which silkscreen posters are used by music groups. However, with no concerts happening at that time it was obvious that his first works would just be neat experimentations on the medium, and not necessarily music related. Ben states; “The idea is still there and if hopefully this summer will see concerts and posters again, I’ll be ready to carve and cut like crazy. Till then I’ll make prints for my web shop that also came into life because of corona. Just recently I got a SNT-170 Etching Press allowing me to print easier and faster as well as experimenting further on.”
It was the year before Corona that Ben discovered Riso printing, and “immediately fell in love with the colours, the process, and the way the prints look”. He tell us; “I think of Riso as a perfect match somewhere between Silkscreen Printing and Photocopying”. Not able to create his own silkscreen prints at that point, let alone have his own Riso printer, Ben took a dive into the Risoverse via the brilliant Drucken3000 from Berlin; “It opened a whole new perspective and the impact Risography had on my work in general was pretty strong”. For example, when it comes to digitally colouring his illustrations, Ben still only uses layers of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, and gets all other colours by multiplying these four basic colours. He describes; “Of course there’s a lot of exceptions to this rule but it became kind of my signature in illustration now. Most of my digital illustrations have a retro or vintage print touch to them and that’s a result of how I use colours along with a few other effects of course.”
Depending on the project, Ben switches between many tools and techniques, using classical analogue tools like paper, pens, and ink, as well as digital techniques; “Basically I do cherry picking techniques and tools in favour of getting an artwork done. I like to disregard rules and common practices as well as I stick to them at times…”
His work is very much influenced by Pop-Art, Psychedelia, Mysticism, and the Occult, but like his very wide taste in music, it’s not limited to these few themes. He also draws inspiration from modern graphic design, Brutalism, Art Nouveau, comic books, and even matchboxes he gathered whilst in India. Ben concludes; “I think my personal work is also a kind of reflection of what goes on inside my head and of the varieties of ideas and interests that I have.”
www.bwtchd-grfx.com
@bwtchd.grfx
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