25. Hanna Melin
“...it’s so multicultural, the mix of fashion, and the fact that everyone is loved. That’s really important. In my pictures, everybody has to be included. And I think that sums up Hackney: the community”
Illustrator and artist Hanna Melin lives in Clapton with her two boys and her husband, who works in product design. I met Hanna in her home studio a few weeks back, where I learned that being left-handed 70 years ago was enough to stall a teaching career, and that True Crime podcasts are the unexpected listening choice of more than one creator of charming illustrations.
Hanna grew up in Sweden, in an artistic family. Like many of the women I have interviewed recently, she recalls sewing alongside her grandmother, who made many of their clothes when Hanna was young. Her grandmother was a nurse, but sewing and embroidery were her means of expressing her creativity - she originally wanted to become a Design Technology teacher in order to teach sewing but she wasn't allowed to, because she was left-handed. Hanna’s mother was a bank manager, but loved to draw with her daughters “my mum would have liked to have done drawing, but it just wasn’t really a thing you did [for a career] when she was young. And I just loved picture books, but I had no idea you could do it as a job”.
As teenagers Hanna and her friend decided to move to the UK for a year to learn English. When they arrived, they took an art foundation course in Maidstone, just because they thought it sounded fun. Their original plan was to return to Sweden for university, but once their friends had told them it was possible to study illustration at degree level, they leapt at the chance and applied to study in Brighton “…and then I understood that this is a job, that it's what I wanted to do, something you can actually get paid for!”. After graduating from the University of Brighton, Hanna’s innate need to draw pushed her to go on and study an MA at the Royal College of Art and you can see two of her degree show embroidery pieces below.
I asked her how her Swedish background influences her work: “I think perhaps my references are different, in terms of food and the things I want to draw. The colours I use are a little brighter, perhaps. But because I left [Sweden] when I was 18, I wasn't shaped then. I feel like most of my influences came during university and my MA. Living in London has overtaken living in my small town in Sweden, in terms of influencing me. But I love going home and seeing what they have there. Especially going into bookshops - the kids’ books I really like”.
Hanna plans her paid illustration work meticulously. She has an idea in her mind, sketches it out in miniature (see her sketchbook above) and then rarely deviates from this when it comes to the final piece. She creates mood boards or collages on her computer by finding images online to help her vision come to life, and then slowly creates the final piece on the screen.
With her ceramic and embroidery work, it’s a lot freer – she has an idea and just gets on with it “…but I am quite strict. The image in my head is kind of what it will end up being. I think because I’ve been working commercially for so long, I have to be disciplined”
For several years Hanna worked regularly for The Guardian, doing editorial illustrations: “I would get a job and I’d have to finish it in four hours. You can't be vague - you have to make your plan and stick to it, so that's what I've got in me now”. She last piece she did for the Guardian was for an article about men having knee implants in order to become taller, which you can read here.
Hanna’s day starts at her desk at 6.15, when she does admin and goes through any emails that have come in overnight (her agent is in Canada), “I make my to-do list and then I take care of the kids (Hanna has two sons, aged 14 and 10). I have to get everything in order before I can concentrate on the actual work. I like to have a cup of tea, get my tracksuit bottoms on, and put on a podcast about crime. And then I just try to disappear into it somehow”.
I questioned whether having a podcast about serial killers on in the background wouldn’t distract a person who was working on illustrations of animals doing cute things, but apparently not: “I do my guinea pigs jumping around and then I'm listening someone doing a big grisly murder. I have a friend in my agency who does the same. She will be doing a pretty little watercolour of people walking around in wellington boots, but only listens to murdering podcasts”.
Hanna says that living in Hackney is vital to her, both for her work and her own wellbeing: “it's the fact that it’s so multicultural, the mix of fashion, and the fact that everyone is loved. That's really important. In my pictures, everybody has to be included. And I think that sums up Hackney: the community”.
We talked about the challenges she’s faced in her career and investment is a big issue, she says: “people just don't invest so much in illustration anymore. AI and image libraries are really scary for illustrators - that someone can just say ‘I want a cat with a funny hat’ and then that you will find it and you don't have to pay very much for it. That's where a lot of the good jobs have gone. Also money, I suppose. It's up and down - you have to keep on going, even if you're not getting any jobs. You must have initiative, keep on sending things out, then not hear anything back, but you just have to keep on and then in the end, you might get one response”.
One big issue, Hanna thinks, is that people don’t read the newspapers so much these days and so much is online, which perhaps doesn’t require so much in the way of illustration. Which is rather sad, because reading online doesn't mean you don't want the piece to have a bit of colour.
Competition can be an issue – our online existence means that clients now have access to a global network of artists and illustrators that wouldn’t have been possible, pre-internet. “It's a good and a bad thing” Hanna continues, “because I can access more work, but there are so many more people competing for it”.
Motherhood is another element of her life that challenges her work: “When I had my first son I was doing a job for Volkswagen. They texted me when I was in labour, saying they needed two more illustrations. So I thought, OK, I’ll just have to do it tomorrow. So then I did all these illustrations every time he slept. I was able to keep working because he had such a strict routine - he slept two hours, woke for two hours and I was just at home the whole time. But when my next son came, it was too much, it couldn’t work.
I often feel like I want to do more embroidery and I really want to do more work in clay, but it takes too much time. I have to prioritise my paid work, and the work that doesn't take too much time, which is drawing. Things that don't make me money, I can't prioritise. That's the balance. But later I can. Once they’re older”.
The bulk of Hanna’s work comes via her Canadian agency and her licensing agent in California. The licensing agency pairs her with companies making socks, puzzles and Christmas decorations (which is how it is that I have some of Hanna’s illustrated ice packs in my freezer).
She also illustrates for a clutch of companies producing greetings cards, which is how many of you may have come across her work. These companies approach Hanna saying they want some birthday cards, she will send a selection and they choose the ones they want to print. The online card company Funky Pigeon has recently taken one of her designs. Variety makes her happy and keeps her work fresh, and she enjoys being taken out of her comfort zone, so she very much appreciates the broad church that is her client base.
I asked Hanna who she finds most inspiring: “my agent [Anna Goodson], she's very inspiring I must say. She sends me clips and things on Instagram that I might not have considered and says ‘you have to draw this’. It’s sometimes political and I'm slightly scared, because when you do political stuff you can get abuse. But she encourages me. The Swedish artist Mamma Andersson, I like her work a lot, and the Dutch product designer Hella Jongerius – she does amazing ceramics and huge sculptures”.
Hanna also loves bookshops. She finds looking at greetings cards and kids’ books perpetually inspiring and particularly enjoys Pages in Clapton.
Before we wrap up, I ask her about any dream projects she may have for the future and she answers without hesitation: “Ceramics. I want to do a hundred sunbathing women, with a proper glaze on and properly painted and do a whole installation, like a beach. All the shapes, with parasols and things like this”.
I would absolutely love to see this dream come to life.
To work with Hanna, find her via her agent here, find her on Instagram here and find her website here.
