Christoph Niemann (born 1970) is an illustrator, graphic designer, and

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

author. Since July 2008, Niemann has been writing and illustrating ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' blog Abstract City, renamed Abstract Sunday in 2011, when the blog moved to ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

''.

Personal life

He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart under

Heinz Edelmann Heinz Edelmann (20 June 1934 – 21 July 2009) was a Czech-German illustrator and designer. His art direction and character designs for the Beatles' 1968 animated film '' Yellow Submarine'' brought him additional recognition around the world. ...

. After finishing his studies in Germany in 1997, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. After 11 years in New York City, he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

with his wife, Lisa, and their three sons.

Career

Niemann is known for his Sunday Sketches, a weekly series of humorous drawings that play with scale and position. His compositions often take objects and turn them into something unexpected, for example a red pencil into a megaphone or a splayed book into a cat's whiskers. His work has appeared on the covers of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', '' Atlantic Monthly'', ''

'' and ''American Illustration'', and has won awards from

AIGA The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity ...

, the

Art Directors Club The Art Directors Club of New York is an organization for art directors in New York City. It was founded in 1920, and has grown as an industry group, promoting art directors' work through exhibitions and awards, including the annual DESI award for ...

and ''American Illustration''. Niemann is a member of the

Alliance Graphique Internationale Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is a club of the world's leading graphic artists and designers. There are 527 members from 43 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top co ...

. He has been a speaker at

Design Indaba Design Indaba is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africa in 1995 with a focus on design and under the slogan "A better world through creativity". Consisting of an online publication and a series of events and creative projects, ...

Conference twice, in 2006 and 2013. In 2010, he was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. In 2013, he launched his first interactive illustration at

Conference in Cape Town, in the form of an iOS application called Petting Zoo by Christoph Niemann. On June 21, 2013,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

used two of his images to celebrate the 2013 summer and

winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter ...

s as the

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

of the day. Niemann was profiled in the first season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

docu-series, '' Abstract: The Art of Design''. Niemann produced ''Traffic Pong'' in 2019, a video art piece that depicts a game of ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Al ...

'' superimposed over aerial footage of traffic over

Paulista Avenue Paulista Avenue (Avenida Paulista in Portuguese, '' Paulista'' being the demonym for those born in the state of São Paulo) is one of the most important avenues in São Paulo, Brazil. It stretches and runs northwest to southeast. Its northwest ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

. The vehicles would interact with the ball and affect the game at large.

Books

* (2000) ''Fresh Dialogue 1, New Voices in Graphic Design'' (with Nicholas Blechman, Paul Sahre and

Paula Scher Paula Scher (born October 6, 1948, Washington, D.C.) is an American graphic designer, painter and art educator in design. She also served as the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.Scher, Paula." (n.d.): Oxford University ...

). . * (2005) ''100% Evil'' (with Nicholas Blechman and

Chip Kidd Charles Kidd (born 1964) is an American graphic designer known for book covers. Early childhood Born in Shillington in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up being fascinated and heavily inspired by American popular culture. Comic books ...

). . * (2007) ''The Police Cloud''. . * (2007) ''The Boy with Two Belly Buttons'' (with Stephen J. Dubner). . * (2008) ''The Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters''. ** (2008) in German: ''Der kleine Drache''. . * (2009) ''Windsbraut'' written by T.C.Boyle, illustrated by Christoph Niemann. * (2010) ''SUBWAY''. . * (2010) ''I LEGO N.Y.''. . ** (2010) ''I LEGO N.Y.'' (German edition) . * (2011) ''That's How''. . * (2012) ''Abstract City''. (English edition) . ** (2012) ''Abstract City - Mein Leben unterm Strich''. (German edition) . * (2012) ''Der Kartoffelkönig''. . * * * * *

References

External links

*
''Ahora'': Interview with Christoph NiemannAbstract City
– a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' blog by Christoph Niemann
Video interview with gestalten.tvInterview with the99percentFresh Air interview on NPR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niemann, Christoph 1970 births Living people People from Waiblingen American illustrators German illustrators German stamp designers The New Yorker people