An Interview With Mar Cerdà, The Cut Paper Designer

Let’s talk about these popular Wes Anderson Diorama series, what has inspired you most from Wes Anderson’s aesthetic and stories?

The sense of theater and the use of frontal view are some of the most present characteristics in my illustrations, that’s why Wes Anderson’s films fit very well with my way of illustrating, with his symmetrical and frontal view compositions. I’m a big fan of his films, I love his personal point of view, his strong identity in every one of his works and that he is capable of doing a bunch of iconic characters or places in every film that will last in time!

Could you walk us through the stages of a Diorama artwork creation? From the brainstorming to development phase, from the technique to your feelings across the entire process.

It all starts with a little sketch of what I have in mind and it continues with research of inspirational images: I like to find the tile design that fits on the piece, the plants that will go best with it etc. Or if it’s a movie, I like to see the scene over and over again till I have every detail clear.

Then I start cutting the structure on paper: the walls that will contain it, the doors or the windows. With that I have the idea of the proportions and I start cutting every single element. Once I have all cut out I begin with watercolors and at last I glue it all.

Depending on the piece I can spend one or two days… up to three weeks or more to finish it up.

If you were asked to pick one artwork that represent you as an artist and your design career so far, what would it be and why?

It’s difficult to choose only one! But I guess I would choose my Darjeeling Limited piece, which was the first piece I did from Wes Anderson’s work and the first piece that was for a gallery. As it was the first one it has something magical, something free in its process, although it’s almost invisible it is perhaps lost in the next ones. I think it always happens in the first piece of something new, when you don’t know exactly where you are going but there is a sense of freedom in there.

What do you think about Instagram and social media sharing, in general, as a platform for designers and artists?

One of the things I love the most about my creations is the process of it. And social media allows me to share not only my final piece but all the parts between the idea and the final art. I love how I feel so near to the followers, how I can learn from them: what they like best, what they don’t like that much, even to improve my English! I’m an Instagram addict, it’s where I discover a lot of great paper artists, where I find a lot of inspiration and I learn what’s going on in galleries around the world. Actually, Instagram was the place where I started connecting with them and where I had my first group exhibition opportunity!

You worked for several publishing houses illustrating children’s books. In your opinion, what is the role of printed illustration for kids today, compared to the digital and virtual world?

We live in a digital world where everything seems to be fast, everything seems at your disposal at any moment, but most of the things that matter are slow. So I think it’s important to keep doing simple things as we have always been doing, like reading books in paper, for example, to remind us that sometimes the virtual world is not exactly as the real world. And it’s important to share that with children as well.

You currently live in Barcelona, how is the city influencing your creative side and style?

I love my city and everything in it inspires me. I like to walk everywhere and in all my walks I always observe the details of the buildings. I’ve drawn Barcelona a hundred times! One thing that is repeated in my illustrations, and I think it’s totally influenced by my city, are tiles, for example. Here in Barcelona tiles were very popular at the end of the 19th century and nowadays a lot of houses still have them.

Your artworks are displayed in galleries around the world and The Culture Trip is a worldwide community, what’s going on at the moment and where?

I have some group exhibitions with Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles with awesome topics: the next one will be this May, a TV inspired show, and another one this July, inspired by cinema. I’m also planning to collaborate with Bad Dads annual show at Spoke Art Gallery in San Francisco next fall. I love to see how a group of different people make art around a common subject and you can see all the different points of views!