Wolf Bōese

Berlin-based Wolf Bōese honed his sleek and minimalist style by straddling the worlds of graphic design, illustration, icon design and custom typography. Aside from a wide breadth of digital design projects, Wolf spearheads a local chess club and enjoys photography in his spare time.

Hi Wolf! Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are today and when did you first become interested in design and illustration?

Hello. Like many of my peers, I suppose it started with doodling as a kid. I did that a lot during class in school. During my teens video games became a big fascination. The interfaces and also documentation with the icons of different units, upgrades, weapons, and tools caught my attention. I remember obsessing over the details in the game's menus and manuals for instance.

How would you describe your aesthetic and how has it evolved over time?

My creative journey went from the video game industry in the position of character artist, building monsters and heroes to then later shifting my focus to the identity and interface. I started focusing a lot more on the details of typography and icons in particular. I wouldn't say that my style has changed a lot per se but how you can see what is essential and what isn't sharpens over the years. It takes fewer attempts to get what you can consider the "final" product. Drawing letters and icons has made me focus way more on shapes rather than distracting details and ornaments or colors. Reduced complexity, sharp angles and black is all I need to be happy (surprise, surprise this is also reflected in my wardrobe).

What are your favorite subjects or themes to explore, and why?

Artistically? The Good, Bad, Love, and death. Light, darkness.

How did you discover Noun Project and what led you to start designing icons?

I don't recall how I came across the site to be honest, but I remember what resonated with me at the time was the “industrial grade” philosophy. Icons with a universal appeal, some level of neutrality similar what you would think of a font like Helvetica. Sturdy, no distractions, unapologetic. Something that isn’t more or less than what it needs to be. That appealed to me.

I had been drawing icons here and there, but around 2010 I got into drawing fonts – mostly display, explorative display, or logo type. Drawing icon sets was an extension of that. Once you have letters you need compatible icons.

What’s your creative process like and how do you approach creative collaboration?

I suppose first you can ruminate on whatever subject you are dealing with, before even drawing a single line. After that gestation period, I typically go into the digital tools directly. No need to scribble (it's all in my head). The same goes for web projects. There is a limited need for preplanning all the details of a layout – since the target is responsive and interactive, many questions can be answered as they arise in code (and yes, I do code). Today’s design codes are more flexible in this way. But I started with this approach before Sketch and Figma etc. implemented responsive layout tools.

What’s been one of your favorite projects to work on so far and why?

Well, besides dozens and dozens of typefaces and icon sets that I love creating, I found myself doing something new. For nearly two years now I had the pleasure of building StrangerChess, an offline chess community and its branding, merch, social media, and overall web presence. It's been immensely rewarding to work on every touchpoint, from portrait photography to type design, merch, shirts, or giveaways like stickers and posters, and finally see the popularity continuously grow. Real people making real connections. Hosting the daily meetup itself gets me off-screen which is vital for a better balance in life.

Where do you find creative inspiration?

I pay attention. Maybe snap a picture here and there, or take some screenshots on the web of something that resonates. Sponge it up. Being original isn't particularly important to me. We live in a larger culture of ideas and breaking the light in the prism of our perception is enough. Whatever you touch you ultimately put yourself into it. Rinse and repeat.

What advice would you give to artists and designers just starting out or looking to strengthen their practice?

Find the sweet spot of “good enough”; if you are constantly striving for perfection you’ll never finish. Let go. The other part: being creative is great and all, but you can get stuck in a cycle. Figure out a way to sell. You got bills to pay. Marketing yourself is part of the job, and that means you need to dedicate a sufficient chunk of time to this seemingly less fun part of your job.

Thank you for sharing with us Wolf! To view more of Wolf’s work, visit his website, Dribbble page, or Instagram. You can also find his icon collection on Noun Project or typefaces on MyFonts.

Wolf was nominated by Noun Project. All art courtesy of Wolf Bōese.