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kottke.org posts about Mattias Adolfsson

Mattias Adolfsson’s Whimsical Illustrations

I’ve featured the work of Mattias Adolfsson before, but I ran across some of his marvelously dense & vaguely steampunk illustrations again the other day and wanted to point you in his direction once again.

black & white illustration of a steampunk spacecraft interior

illustration of a room with several very tall bookshelves

illustration of two tall steampunk machines

The fantastical & whimsical nature of Adolfsson’s work reminds me of Mark Alan Stamaty, Richard Scarry, Shel Silverstein, and perhaps even a little Quentin Blake and Aardman.


Infinite Illustrations

As a writer, designer, and, hell, as a human being, I value simplicity over most other considerations. But I also have a soft spot for dense hyper-detailed illustrations in the style of Mattias Adolfsson.

Mattias Adolfsson

Many more examples of Adolfsson’s work is on Flickr. Reminds me of a pair of books I love reading with the kids: Mark Alan Stamaty’s Who Needs Donuts? and Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry. The illustrations in these books are nearly infinite; the kids and I have read Cars and Trucks probably more than 70 times and almost every time through, we find something new.