Sandro Rybak envisions new worlds in his textural designs

Overclocking his mini but mighty Wacom tablet, Germany-based designer and illustrator Sandro Rybak creates texturally rich flat worlds that lean heavily into the fantasy genre. For Sandro, his work is “usually a mix of abstract elements” plucked from anywhere, whether it's alchemistic copper engravings to childhood cartoons, video games to comics. Like his sci-fi inspirations, he finds that his practice zips and zaps all over the place, touching on a medley of unexpected sources. “I get bored very quickly by my work," he states.

So far, his editorial practice has been featured in The New York Times, and his illustrations on album covers like Vienna-based indie pop singer Oska’s debut EP Honeymoon Phase. Wherever it pops up, Sandro’s appreciation for story, space and place is on full display – something he might have picked up from modernist painter Agnes Pelton, which is another inspiration of his. "Everything feels like a whimsical dream state frozen in time,” he says. "I’m trying to give my artworks at least a small sense of a story, so they feel like there might be a whole universe behind the artwork.”