Visit by Pierre Thomé, Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst
Visit by Swiss illustrator Pierre Thomé, Head Illustration, Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst. [dated August 2010]

Swiss illustrator Pierre Thomé, Head Illustration, Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst will be visiting India to represent Switzerland at Jumpstart 2010 as well as to conduct workshops at Jamia Millia Islamia and National Institute of Design. Ahmedabad. The Jumpstart Series is being organised by the German Book Office. Workshops and seminars organised will look at all aspects of publishing, writing and illustrating children’s books.

> JUMPSTART 2010: Joining the dots 
Delhi: 20-21 August 2010 
Venue: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts 

Ahmedabad: 23 – 24 August 2010 
Venue: National Institute of Design

> Add-on workshops on illustration with Indian partner Orijit Sen Visual essay - workshop /The illustrator as author to be conducted jointly by Pierre Thomé and Orijit Sen Delhi: 17, 18 & 19 August 2010 Venue: AJKMCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia Ahmedabad: 25, 26 & 27 August 2010 Venue: National Institute of Design

Partners: 
German Book Office 
National Institute of Design 
AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Milia Islamia

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What is illustration? 
To me, illustration speaks the silent voice of beauty, accompanying a text or commenting on it through the vibrant fabric of patterns, structures and rhythm. A playful symbiosis of mysteries and meanings – of what you understand and what you feel. (Following the drama unfolding along lines and contrasts, our mind leaps easily from abstraction to realism).

After half a life spent in illustration, and lately teaching illustration, I see pictures as a language and our role as illustrators as that of a translator. (Everybody can enjoy pictures, looking comes naturally to the curious mind, but to be a successful artist requires a relentless search for perfection). I don’t care about style but take great pains to find the appropriate tone for each audience, to give every story its unique form. Starting from scratch, imagination should guide the hand in pleasant and unpredictable ways, but in the end – if you are looking for a distinctive voice of your own – perseverance and work will solve most problems. Life in illustration could be summed up in the last words of the great master Hokusai, when he claimed at the end of his career: „Just ten more years and perfection would be mine." 

Pierre Thomé 
Head, Illustration Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst
www.hslu.ch/design-kunst