Dieter Braun

Dieter loves animals especially following an African safari he and his wife went on. Growing up in the city of Dinslaken in the North Rhine-Westphalia area his parents were supportive of his interest in art and gave him a set of oil paints and an easel when he was ten years old.

Though he felt he was a bit too young, he did try his hand at painting, “At first (they were) quite amateurish, but in time my paintings became better. And eventually I realized that I wanted to do it professionally.” He studied communication design at Folkwangschule in Essen and after trying different forms of design he gravitated towards illustration, “During my studies, I accepted my first assignments as an illustrator for small agencies in the Ruhr area, and I thus financed my life in Essen.”

Today he works in Hamburg and sees himself as a classic applied illustrator though he has expanded into gallery work and as an author. Asked about the industry, “We are bombarded all day with photos, both with great, artistic, as well as with everyday mobile phone photos. It is perhaps easier nowadays to use the illustration to find their own special language. His latest book Die Welt Der Wilden Tiere, is an illustrated book of wild life. www.brauntown.com.”