Jessica Benhar

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now based in Sydney, Jessica Benhar is an illustrator, printmaker, and Design graduate of the University of New South Wales School of Art & Design.

Initially wanting to become a graphic designer, it was in her last year of study after repetitive injury struck that Jessica decided to look outside of the computer to create work. She tells us; “I loved printmaking in high school and it felt natural to take it up again. In the graphic design world at the time, I remember seeing a trend of fashioning old woodcuts and etchings into modern collages. I loved the idea of referencing the past but I wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t just copying and pasting.” From this initial idea, Jessica made a lot of library visits and photocopied books on heraldry, natural history illustration, and ex libris. She then started to come up with her own ideas; “At the time, I remember this feeling incredibly difficult but slowly and painfully my style evolved”.

After creating a lot of personal work, Jessica eventually started to gain the interest of clients. Her experience with graphic design made her feel comfortable working to a brief. She comments; “I thoroughly enjoy the process of working with clients and coming up with solutions for them. These days I spend a good part of my time doing client work, and during quiet periods or if I have a burning idea, I’ll make time for personal work.” Today, Jessica largely works with design studios or individual businesses to create logos or illustrations for branding.

Her design process typically starts with research. Sometimes she’ll visit her local library, but these days Jessica more frequently digs through online libraries and museum archives for inspiration. She also finds inspiration in tattoo artists, who have a similar emphasis on linework. Having amassed quite a collection of reference images over the years, once she has an idea in mind, Jessica will then make a series of loose sketches. She then takes a developed sketch into Adobe Illustrator and further refines the illustration before it’s traced onto the lino block and printed using Pfeil linocut carving tools and Jack Richeson lino.

@harkenback
www.harkenback.com.au

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