Emiliano Ponzi

After graduating from high school, which is an unusual choice for those who work in your field, at the end of the 90’s, you moved to Milan in order to pursue your dreams. Tell us about your experience as a very young illustrator in a new city.

It wasn't easy at first. Once I graduated from the European Institute of Design, a ‘career’ was to be built. There were so many sensations in between: insecurity, fear, desire to demonstrate what you’re able to do knowing that you’re still little. What’s called ‘mess' is nothing, but a series of successful and failed attempts to start a path and build some kind of experience that works a bit like foundations, to then move forward with my own plans. All this process goes on in parallel to a personal and cultural growth...the pursuing of self-knowledge.

With what words would you define your art to those who have the opportunity to meet you for the first time?

It's a very complex question. A simple answer, like ‘the illustrator’, would perhaps trivialize it a little. I’d like to answer, saying: ‘I spend all day drawing because, when the night comes, I feel satiated’.

If you were to make your self-portrait, what colour would you paint yourself with?

I’d choose a very light colour and a very dark one, because we’re all made of lights and shadows.

The power of an image consists of communicating a message and evoking spontaneous and immediate mental connections. Your illustrations remind me, on the one hand, of the rarefied atmospheres of metaphysical painting and, on the other, the clear mark that’s typical of comics. What were the artistic movements or the most enlightening authors for you?

Any form of visual art can be a source of inspiration. From Hopper's atmospheres to the Bauhaus graphics. For me, both the pure technique and the communicative will of an artist , and therefore his vision of the world, are fascinating. I love Hockney, Alex Katz, Kerry James Marshall, but also Gorge Condo, Antonio Sant'Elia, the Japanese manga, the contemporary and old Italian comics.

The ability to tell a story is shared between illustration and other disciplines based on images and words. What relationship do you have with filming and literature?

In almost all the works I do, I start with a text: the applied art of illustration is the ability to understand and decode that text, be an alchemist and transform it into shapes. In a sense, the word is very important. I’m also the author of two of the picture books I illustrated: ‘The Journey of the Penguin’ for Penguin Book USA and ‘The Great New York Subway Map’ for the Moma Museum in New York City. The most complex part is finding the right tone of voice to speak to a certain type of reader. Writing, as the great writers teach, but also the great editors of publishing houses, is a careful construction of logical passages. It’s the ability to progress at the right time.

Your first monograph ’10 × 10’, published by Corraini in 2011, has also been sold out in the second reprint. Did you ever expect this success? For a writer, it’s sometimes difficult to compare yourself to previous bibliographic successes and encounter a crisis, even an illustrator has challenges to overcome themself to achieve success. Would you agree that it’s a concept of taking a ‘risk’ on yourself for the job?

‘10x10' was a bet that went very well. Every book I make is always different from the previous one for the concept and target, so it's difficult to make a comparison with a writer, imagining the activity of a novelist. For each individual project, the measure of ‘success' is based on the degree of personal evaluation: how satisfied am I? What did I learn? How much evolution can I see if I compare the images of the current year with those taken last year?

Your portfolio speaks Italian, but also English (or rather, American English), from commissions of The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post to the books you illustrated, of which I quote ‘The Great New York Subway Map’ and ‘American West’. Tell me, what does America really mean to you?

America has indoctrinated the world, including fashion, cinema and lifestyle. It did it in the right way and it sold itself very well. So, there’s a bit of an American dream in each one of us. It’s quite difficult to look at the USA from top to bottom, but rather the opposite is likely. It’s a country that represents a promised pagan land, a boundless world that partly embodies a man's maximum ambition, where everything is potentially possible. For me, it also means a bigger sky to look at.

With ‘Imaginary Journey’, the theme of the journey returns. In 2019, you designed a capsule collection of luggages for Mandarina Duck. It’s a new collaboration, far from the traditional publishing world. How has working with a fashion company been like?

Working for publishing, fashion or advertising is no different. What leads to the genesis of an image, beyond its ultimate destination, is always the result of the same ‘modus operandi’. The method is the common denominator. The one with Mandarina Duck was a new and also very virtuous experience: even there I started from writing, from understanding what my audience was and how to best interpret its desire to travel during the spring and summer months. It was great to see the designs declined on the whole line of suitcases, bags and backpacks.

You travel very often, what’s the fundamental kit without which an illustrator can’t survive?

Notes, a pencil and melatonin!

Another recent and original project is "Live sketching on the road”, a part of Ulisse Fest (the LonelyPlanet travel festival, E.D.) consisting of a series of live drawing workshops. First of all, how are you as a teacher? And what’s the fundamental lesson you teach the students who participate to your courses?

Teaching is always a big responsibility because what works for you may not work for another one. When teaching is about techniques, everything is much easier, but when it comes to teaching inspiration, the filter with which you can look at the world, it's all another approach. I always try to explain my way of thinking or at least try to push towards the construction of a method, which can also be strange as long as it makes sense.

You started your studies when the internet was still in the gestation phase. In the digital transformation era, how has the work of a visual artist changed? Have you already had the chance to develop projects that integrate art and technology?

In addition to creating commissioned illustrations for social platforms, I’ve already worked with virtual realities several times. It’s very interesting and the interaction between the maker and the user always gets closer, almost intimate.

How does your typical workday unfold?

As an employee under the Soviet regime (by choice, not by compulsion), I wake up around 6/6:30 AM, I have breakfast, I quickly read Italian and international online newspapers, I take my dog to the park and then I go to the studio, where I work until 8 PM. Then, I have dinner, I go home and, eventually, read or watch Netflix.

Fashion chapter. Which look best represents your personality?

I dress quite as if I were wearing an uniform. That’s due to a bit of laziness and, partly, because dressing with colours turns out to be complex. I prefer total black looks or black with just a touch of white.

Let’s close the interview by touching your emotional chords. What’s your biggest dream?

My dreams change every night, we'll find it out tomorrow.