There is something really simple and beautiful in the abstract-like collages Johanna creates. I like how she makes something from nothing, and each of her compositions are colourful and original!

Johanna Döring
www.chamozolana.com, www.behance.net/chamozolana, www.vimeo.com/chamozolana
Hamburg in Northern Germany

Describe your work in 10 words or less.

Fantasy lanscapes, colours, machines vs. humanity, weird little worlds.

What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs, vintage)? Be specific!

As a rule I use just everything I can lay my hands on: this is mostly magazines, but also flyers and folders and old papers I find at my grandparents house, like blueprints my grandfather made at work or old calendars.

How long have you been creating collages and what made you start?

I seriously started doing collage in 2004 when my favourite professor gave us the task to do an interactive illustration. I wanted to do a picture of a town to get lost in and as I'm no good illustrating, I did it as a collage, which, surprisingly, resulted very much as I hoped it would. So I kept doing collages, they are perfect for themselves and they are also perfect as a starting point for bigger projects, as motion graphics or animated websites...

Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?

I'm just an artistic graphic designer. for me the border between art and good design is very thin. It's just that some projects I do for clients, others for myself (thats probably doing art then, so yes, I do work in another profession).

Do you have any formal art training?

I have a diploma in Communications Design.

Explain your favourite techniques.

Starting with bigger pieces of coloured paper or paper with an interesting kind of structure or pattern I then work out the details. So it's starting more or less randomly but little by little it gets more specific. Depending on the project I sometimes continue to work at the computer.

Describe your favourite piece ever created.

There isn't really. for a while it's always the last one I made, but sooner or later I'm fed up with it and want to do a better one.

What other artists do you admire?

I admire artists from Rembrandt to Daniel Richter, but to make it a more personal selection (personal, as in "influencing me") I give you the czech game designers from Amanita Design, the motion graphic artists from No-Domain in Barcelona and painter Johanna Creutzburg who lives in Berlin and who is also a very good friend.

Thanks Johanna!