Ever Meulen at the current show in De Loketten, presenting a carpet he designed (Photo Michael de Lausnay)
2013 has started pretty well for Flemish illustrator, cartoonist and overall graphical genius Ever Meulen. Earlier this month, he was honoured with the Henry Van de Velde Award for his career. The award, is presented by Design Flanders, the Flemish government agency promoting Flemish design, and aims at celebrating exceptional design professionals and companies active within the design industry. Meulen receives the award for the ubiquity of his art, even though people are often not aware if it.
At the same time, a new book is published celebrating one of Ever’s most beloved subjects : the motorcar. Automotive will collect most, if not all, illustrations and artwork that Ever ever produced featuring cars, with a preference for classic American road hogs. The book will also contain essays by other luminaries and car lovers, and will be a perfect companion to Verve, the ultimate overview of his work from 1988 until 2005
The Nisiov, Ever Meulen’s original car design, as it is on show at De Loketten (photo Michael de Lausnay)
As with Verve, Ever is highly involved in the design of the book. A series of videos on Youtube give a good idea of how he comes up with the concept of the book, and of his ideas of how text and images should complement one another. The videos are in Dutch, obviously.
If you are in Brussels, you may want to stop by the Flemish Parliament exhibition room De Loketten for an exposition of work by Ever with posters, magazine covers, record sleeves, stamps, books and even a carpet that give a good overview of the genius that is “E”.
Automotiv is published by Oog & Blik / De Bezige Bij.
Tue, Feb 12, 2013
Awards, Comics and cartoons, From our Continental Correspondent