Klaas Verplancke, internationally acclaimed illustrator of thoughts and emotions

25 March 2024, the day the illustrator from West Flanders reached the top of his game. That's the date Klaas Verplancke's illustration On the Grid adorned the cover of the legendary American weekly The New Yorker. 

Zwevegem-born Klaas Verplancke (b. 1964) studied advertising illustration and photography at Sint-Lucas in Ghent. He was previously a graphic designer for the Belgian military weekly VOX, and produced ads for everything from mayonnaise to chicken wire. He started writing books for children and young adults in 1996, with text and drawings complementing each other beautifully to create the right vibe. He gradually evolved into a graphic artist, with his illustrations taking on a life of their own. He became a highly sought-after exhibitor in Belgium and abroad, winning commissions from leading newspapers and magazines, and picking up awards, honourable recognitions and nominations along the way. He now makes international headlines as an illustrator, animator, art director, author, teacher, juror, curator and publisher of BANG!, his own magazine for graphic design, featuring his own illustrations, and each edition formatted by a different designer. 

People-watching on public transport is a fruitful source of inspiration for Verplancke. Non-verbal communication is his starting point. He tries to guess the thoughts and emotions behind the facial expressions and body language around him. Only when he has fully formed the image in his mind does he put pen to paper. His work is 90% thinking and 10% drawing, he admits. But this method helps create vivid characters. He colours reality with a diverse dose of humour, poetry, a touch of surrealism and insouciance. 

The graphic design world has quite rightly given him a place in the hall of fame of great illustrators around the world. 'Deceptively simple drawings, skilful, witty, engaging, varied, catchy, inventive, pleasantly surprising, pleasantly disturbed, oddly comforting ...' are just some of the adjectives used to describe his work. All this has propelled him to the top prize, only the fifth Belgian to do so: the coveted front cover of The New Yorker, which turns 100 next year. With his work On the Grid, of which there is also an animated version. 

Photo: Arevik d'Or