10 Questions with Esteban Plazibat

Esteban Plazibat is an Argentine illustrator living in Barcelona. Often employing a range of visual approaches, his colourful and expressive work uses compositional structure with a striking dream-like figurative focus. As a restless and curious creative who's client list includes The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe, his goal is to use illustration as a tool to transform complex concepts into recognizable and easy-to-understand images  

Main image: Illustration for The New York Times

Could you define the approach or philosophy of your work? 

My illustrations are a combination of concepts that are difficult to understand, transformed to make them easy to read. I achieve this through a mix of vibrant colors, character-driven figures, and dynamic compositions. Illustration is part of my life; I experience it in many ways—whether by watching a movie, reading a book, discovering a new city, or simply walking down the street—ultimately, everyday life.

Which piece of work or project have you learned the most from and why?

This first year as a freelance illustrator, I was fortunate to work on several projects for the press and magazines. From each of them I learn a great deal—not only from the texts I have to read in order to illustrate them, each one a challenge in itself, but also from the relationships I build with art directors and clients, all of whom have different perspectives and processes. This has helped me develop my practice in an increasingly thoughtful and conscious way. This volume of work allowed me to begin developing my own voice and to establish a workflow that I enjoy more and more. Although I never stop learning: I’m very curious and get bored quickly, so I’m always looking for new stimuli to improve.

My Friend Punki (Personal Project)

What are the skills do you think needed of a good art director and how does it help to improve your work?

The most important thing is to have good communication: to be clear, transparent, and know how to guide the creative process in order to achieve the expected result. It’s essential that they are open to receiving and considering proposals or solutions they hadn’t initially thought of, which can solve the problem just as effectively.

How important is research to your work and why does it matter?

Research is the most important thing, and I love it. When approaching a project from scratch, most of the time I may not know the subject or be familiar with it; in fact, I’m not an expert in anything. I’m really a learner of everything, so research is part of my day-to-day life. That’s why I enjoy this profession so much: every new project is a chance to look for information, reference images, new approaches, and new topics. This constant change makes illustration fun, dynamic, and unexpected.

What About Drinking Water? (Personal Project)

Which illustrator alive or dead do you most admire and why?

Very recently I discovered an illustrator thanks to the magic of the internet who completely blew my mind. His name is Lukas Verstraete. I love his expression, his stroke, his lines and shadows and his compositions.

What is one part of your working process that you do well, something you could improve and something you wish you never had to do again?

I think I’m very good at using color and composition; it’s something people often highlight in my work. There are many things to improve, especially managing my time better and not procrastinating, which nowadays is a very serious problem. I’d also like to improve the narrative aspect of my illustrations and be more poetic, but I believe that comes with study, and it’s something I’ll never stop doing. I hope that over time I can acquire more skills to achieve that. One thing I never want to do again is deal with legal and bureaucratic matters—something that doesn’t interest me at all and bores me. The only time I tried to handle a problem myself was terrible, so now I hire an accountant/manager to help me, and I focus on illustrating, which is what I truly enjoy.

Illustrations created based on a 1959 article from Caper magazine

What is your favorite film poster and what film do you wish you could have done the poster for?

This is a very difficult question for me because I don’t have a good memory, haha, but I usually like simpler, more conceptual posters. For example, I love the poster for Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange because of its level of simplicity and complexity at the same time: with just one glance, it manages to convey so much. I also love the poster for the film Metropolis; it’s a different style, more illustrative, but that kind of drawing and perspective absolutely blows my mind. One poster I would have loved to make myself is for Alice Rohrwacher's film La Chimera. I remember seeing it on the street and feeling surprised and excited. I really hope cinema invests much more in illustrated posters.

What film do you recommend to others most often and why?

The movie I’ve been recommending lately is Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli, 2022) It’s a satire and a dark comedy; it’s quite uncomfortable to watch, but at the same time it invites reflection on obsession, fame, ego, and envy.

What object from a film do you wish you could own and why?

The invisibility cloak that Harry Potter’s father left him wouldn’t be bad to have, although the vintage vinyl player from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom that appears in the scene where they dance by the river would be amazing to have at home. The only strange thing is… it really catches my attention.

The great film critic Roger Ebert described film as an 'empathy machine' suggesting it is a way for us to connect fully with lives and experiences of others that we will never ourselves live. With this in mind, what film have you watched that has had the greatest impact on you emotionally and tell us why if you can?

I’m interested in Past Lives (Celine Song, 2023) because of the way it explores connections between people and the strong bonds that form from childhood. Remembering someone from your childhood, thinking about a moment or a memory, is like reliving it all over again. I like the reflection on those deep connections that can only fully exist at that stage of life.