Nadine Spengler

Here: Current works → The freelance illustrator Nadine Spengler, who is based in Zurich, presents a series of children’s books published by the SJW, a foundation dedicated to making literature accessible to children through inexpensive, high-quality books. Spengler illustrated So ein Mann. So ein Haus, including Braille script, by US author Robert Lax; the play Ein Krippenspiel. Bruitistisch by Hugo Ball; and Hermann Burger’s Büchernarr.
In the same collection, her book Der Lebhag was one of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books in 2013.

There: Cutout and colours → Over the years, Spengler has developed a technique that mixes analogue and digital techniques as a montage, starting with cut-out paper elements, sometimes inked or stained, navigating between traditional papercutting and the Matissian Jazz style. Once digitised, the elements are montaged; and it is only in the last step, printing, that the colours come in, through two or three layers of full-tone printing

Everywhere: Visual dramaturgy → Spengler sees her illustration work as a dramaturgy working with the text, and composes the book from its design concept right through to the printing process. Her reduced but playful montage technique is also present in a series of posters for the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur in 2017, designed together with Theres Jörger and Meierkolb.

Nadine Spengler → (*1972), Based in Zurich, www.nadinespengler.ch

Education → Graphic Design (1995), HGKZ, Zurich

Project(s) → Works, 2018–2019