Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Friederike Ablang

We recently had the chance to connect with Friederike Ablang and have shared our conversation below.

Friederike, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
My business is illustrating books.

I often feel, that people think Illustration is easy. Too easy to be actual work.
But it is hard. 
It takes years to learn the techniques and develope your own style. Those years are often accompanied by doubt and imposter syndrome, devastation and working three or four jobs to keep yourself afloat.

Then it takes a lot of energy and persistence to get your foot in the door with publishers who give you projects to work on. That means marketing yourself through a website, Social Media, sending out portfolios, calling people, going to book fairs, showing your work over and over again.

And then, when you can start, once you have projects, you have to manage your own time, make sure you meet deadlines, do your taxes, still keep in touch with current and potential employers, know all the essentials, like resolutions, colour profiles and such and then! You also have to draw everything that is asked of you and possibly more for social media, which is prone to forget you quickly, if you don’t stay active.
This means very long hours in the same position, which is strenuous for your joints, neck, eyes and hand, shoulder, lower back…you name it.

When you’re done and the book comes out, not only will you be overly critical with yourself, you also have to be prepared to be judged by everyone who sees your illustrations. When you become visible through your illustrations, it is normal that people look and form opinions. But it is harder to endure than one anticipates, since our work is very closely connected with us. Best case everyone loves it…that’s what we all hope for.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi there! My name is Friederike Ablang. I illustrate school books and kids’ books.
I feel that I’m rather good at showing emotions in my work. It can be whimsical, slightly crazy and colourful but also show exactly what the employer wants to see, which is essential for the work with school book publishers. I’m fast and flexible and – knock on wood – have never missed a deadline.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
I wanted to be a biologist and join Greenpeace to help save the planet. That didn’t work out for a number of reasons. So I was on the search for what to do with my life and was taken by the hand by my good friend Merle Goll, who encouraged me to join an art foundation class. 
My Mother, being an illustrator herself, was absolutely against the idea, knowing very well, how hard the market can be and she also knew my drawings and how often I drew. She told me, if I wanted to be an illustrator, I had to be obsessed and draw ALL THE TIME. I took that advice and it truly helped. Later in my illustrator’s life I had very long and deep conversations about what it means to be an illustrator with my friend and colleague Anna Süßbauer, which were essential to understanding certain patterns in myself and to develop my skills further. My father and I have had many talks about human behaviour, psychology and the functions of the brain, which helped me understand a lot about myself and the world and its people. And finally my husband, who always encouraged me to try new things has helped me tremendously to develop certain techniques and methods, that helped me a lot to move forward in my career.
So my Mother, my father, my husband, Merle and Anna truly helped shape me on the way of becoming and being an illustrator.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
The illustration professor at my art college was clearly not a fan of my diploma work. I had written 26 short stories and illustrated each. It hurt a lot the way she looked at it and spoke about it, even though I don’t think she’d even read the stories. The only thing that helped me, was my typography professor who found very reassuring words after the presentation, telling me, it would all work out just fine for me. I am forever grateful to him for that.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I think peace is the most important cultural value, it needs to be upheld the most. “Without peace everything is nothing.” Said Willy Brandt and I agree 100 per cent.

Therefore in march this year I published a book with Merle Goll and Sabine Kranz called Das Friedenstier – mit Stift und Flügeln für den Frieden (The Peace Animal – with Wing and Pen for Peace). We found almost 150 illustrators and authors willing to participate in the book and a publisher (dtv) who agreed to publish the book and donate basically all the profits to Doctors Without Borders.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most at peace when I’m by the sea, in the forest or the mountains, anywhere in nature. A camper van would be the ideal home for me – should anyone have one lying around, I’ll take it.
I would love to travel and draw and write while exploring Scotland, Scandinavia or Canada. Any patron who wants to support me doing that, please get in touch! 😀

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.friederikerablang.com
• Instagram: @friederikeablang
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friederike-ablang-b8417516/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ablangillustration
• Other: You can find me on Cara, Bluesky and others.

Image Credits
all by me.