This is my whimsical cover art for today’s New Scientist on the topic of Wikipedia authors that are overall white males from Western countries, which leaves out much of the rest of the world. I did a few more interior illustrations in that same style.

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I have illustrated an article for today’s Süddeutsche Zeitung weekend special (SZ Wochenende) on e-book writers, showing on a full page multiple writers in a wimmelbild setup, crowding an e-book reading device, and chipping in to write a novel together.

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Why on earth should one tackle a problem while it is still small and can be handled easily? Why not wait until it has grown to larger size instead?

In his provocatively humorous book, Problem Lovers, Johnatan Briefs, a business coach, lays out an anti-success strategy along the lines of Paul Watzlawick’s infamous Pursuit of Unhappiness.

I have created the book’s jacket design using an illustration of a surfer falling off a great Kanagawa-style wave. The title has also come out as an audio book.

Jonathan Briefs: Ich habe keine Lösung… aber ich bewundere das Problem – Provokatives Coaching für den Berufsalltag

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In this spot art for The Christian Science Monitor, I visualized an article on a contageous book – a book that is quickly catching on among the public.

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A new book from dtv publishers is out that I reated the cover art for.

Everybody’s doing it – we simply love to lie, usually 20 times before breakfast alone, according to the author’s in-depth research. But even though we are surrounded by lies all day, they are generally considered a bad thing. Puzzled and outraged by this cruelty, the author, both a journalist and a notorious lier in his own right, pays tribute to the lie.

I have created the jacket cover illustration showing a middle-aged Pinocchio growing a long nose.

Wolfgang Limmer: Männerlügen – Warum FRAUEN immer die Wahrheit wissen wollen und MÄNNER behaupten, dass es sie gar nicht gibt (Men Love to Lie)

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A new book with my illustrations has come out. Written by Joja Wendt and Kester Schlenz, it is called Der kleine Flügel, which might be loosely translated into Grand Piano Little: A Musical Fairy Tale.

This modern fairy tale tells of the dangerous adventures of a little grand piano who is setting out to combat the vicious organ king who reigns a magic tower that houses all the musical instruments.

Joja Wendt is a concert pianist who was discovered by Joe Cocker, and Kester Schlenz is a bestselling author and a journalist working for Stern news magazine.

My cover illustration in whimsical style shows the the little grand piano, the story’s main character, in full flight. I have also created interior illustrations of instruments for the book. >MORE

I created this spot illustration on international mystery novels for The Christian Science Monitor. I went for a fun-looking black cat strolling around in-between crime books.

>BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS

A new book is out that gives advice on all things love. In the author’s experience, love matters tend to be obstructed by partners making the same mistakes over and over.

He argues that many are not aware of the essential physics of relationships, from how they are typically starting out to what causes them to they fail, and aims to remedy that through his book. Relationships, in the author’s view, follow along basic patterns that both partners need to understand before sucessfully engaging in a love affair to last.

Martin Rauh-Köpsel is a psychologist, an educator, and an expert advisor for German television.

I have created the book’s jacket design using an illustration of a heart-shaped roundabout with various exits. >MORE

Martin Rauh-Köpsel: Die Liebe ist ein Kreisverkehr – Wie Sie im Beziehungschaos die richtige Ausfahrt nehmen (Roundabout Love: Taking the Right Exit)

A new book from Random House discusses the effects of traumata, and ways to heal. In the author’s view, love is among the essential symbiotic needs of man which may be shattered by a traumatic event that typically includes major physical violence. Traumata can lead to behavior of avoidance, dissociation, hallucination, aggression, and submission.

Franz Ruppert, the author of Trauma, Angst und Liebe (Trauma, Fear & Love), is a professor for psychology who has authored a number of books already. I have created the book’s jacket design in a color-and-type-only setup. >MORE

This is my latest cover art for The Writer magazine. It is on a writer’s demons. >MORE WHIMSICAL

I have created the jacket design and the cover illustration for Sarah Diehl’s novel Eskimo Limon 9. Published by Atrium, it shows a German forest against the backdrop of a starry night sky.

Diehl’s first novel tells the story of a Jewish family from Israel who is moving to a small provincial town in Germany where everybody is well-meaning and trying hard to be as politically correct as possible.

The book title refers to the American Pie style Israeli cult film from the 1980’s which led to a series of sequels. It also lends to the whimsical culture clash setting described in the story that reveals that Germans seem to know all about the holocaust, but nothing about Jews. >MORE

Richard David Precht’s bestselling book on philosophy has just been released in a paperback edition.

I have created the cover illustration and signature jacket design for Wer bin ich, und wenn ja, wie viele? (Who am I, and if so, How Many?)

Precht’s book has sold more than 1.3 million copies to date in Germany alone. >MORE

This book from Kösel Verlag (Random House) gives an account of today’s defective mothers who seem inapt to properly raise their children, fighting fierce combats over whose child is the best (and deserves the best, for that matter).

The authors share delightful insight into a bizarre world of its own, the world of combatant mothers who compete to know what is best for their offspring every step of the way, and who are willing to fight as many battles with one another as it takes to serve their cause.

I have created the book’s jacket design, incorporating the silhouette drawing of a mother pushing a tank-shaped buggy. I have also conjured up a number of interior illustrations for the individual chapters.

Christine Koller & Claudia Ries: Vorsicht, Zickenzone!
- Kleine und große Biestigkeiten unter Müttern
(Babies First! Stroller Moms Gone Berserk)

>MORE BOOKS

This is my latest book jacket cover design for Random House - a guide on fixing the sugar fix. In Martina Fontana’s Voll auf Zucker! – Wie Sie die Sucht nach Süßem überwinden (Sugar Junkie: How to Beat the Urge), the author discusses measures to counteract the urge to consume sugar, and advocates a healthier lifestyle.  Fixing the sugar fix, she argues, is a matter of mind, not body.

My cover illustration shows a giant lollipop that looks very much like a signalling disk. I have also created a few cartoon-style interior illustrations for the book that show a “sugar devil” in a variety of suggestive settings.

A new book on genetics that I have created the jacket design for has been published today by Herbig Verlag.

Entitled GENius, this book provides a cunning overview of the field of genetics, from pea plants to drosophila fruit flies to the famous Dolly sheep, and up to man, and the decoding of his genome.

Written by Ernst Peter Fischer, a professor for science history who has authored a variety of books already, GENius gives an account of the fast and furious success story of modern genetics, and sheds insight into the masterminds behind the science.

I have created the jacket cover illustration displaying a number of brightly colored sheep. >MORE

Ernst Peter Fischer: GENial! Was Klonschaf Dolly den Erbsen verdankt – Ein Streifzug durch die Genetik
(By George, it’s GENius: Exploring Genetics)