Interview with Edward Koren

Most New Yorkers go out of town for the summer holiday, which leaves the city free to the smaller, albeit unwanted, local citizens. Edward Koren illustrated this week’s cover entitled “Big Bug City,” where a group of critters gather for a family snapshot while sightseeing in Central Park. Is the city overrun with tropical bugs in this heat or could the illustration be a jab at the swarm of seasonal tourists flocking to the city?

Mr. Koren was incredibly kind to fill me in:

How did you come up with the concept for the cover illustration, “Big Bug City”?

It came from several moments, actually; one from walking though Central Park and another from a visit to The Met. Oddly enough, there’s a recent wildlife rescue issue where they had foxes, porcupines and all sorts of non-native animals infiltrating the parks of the city. It seemed truly bizarre to me, so I kept the idea on file. Then later, on the steps of The Met, there were these teenage girls crowding around to take pictures in front of the museum. They looked like strange insects the way their arms extended to hold the camera. With the point and shoot, this sort of scene is everywhere. Anyway, I let those images float around in my mind and once they marinated, I put them together and viola…“Big Bug City.”    

I mulled over many possible interpretations of the cover, but I couldn’t settle on one. Do you like that it’s open-ended and not immediately obvious?

Yes, I do like to keep things ambiguous. You ask if it’s about how New Yorkers go out of town for the summer and let the cockroaches enjoy the city while they’re gone? Well, that’s one interpretation. Or, is it about how summer tourists swarm the city like pests? Yes, there’s that too. But I’m not going to definitively say it’s one or the other. There can be many possibilities. A lot of work today is too dumbed-down and obvious. It’s more about suspending disbelief and inviting the viewer to use their imagination. I try to make marks and make meaning from marks. The marks have to carry just enough to help you read it, but they’re not going to give you an answer with absolute clarity. I think readers are more amused this way and expect that challenge.      

One of my favorite drawings was the one you did with the castle that had trash cans out front. It’s simple and enigmatic. How often do your daily activities work their way into your ideas?  

Oh, I’m always experiencing different snippets of things, little bits and pieces that somehow end up as drawings. I don’t really go out with the objective to capture every scenario, but overtime, the images sort of soak, move around, and rearrange into pictures. I’m a big observer. I love to loiter. It’s such a delight. Some of my best ideas come from overhearing unusual conversations. Eventually, all these fragments fall into place. I’m always thinking and seeing things so essentially I’m always working. And yes, the ideas sometimes find you, but you still have to put in the work to bring it all together.

Koren recently brought a survey of his work back to his alma mater, Columbia University, where he started illustrating for the college’s humor publication, The Jester of Columbia. Although it’s too late to take a look at the exhibition, “Edward Koren: The Capricious Line,” which ran until June 12, you can still order an exhibition catalog or read Ernest Beck’s eloquently written article on Design Observer . If you missed it, the show may also travel north to The University of Vermont soon.