Meet Baumann: Craig Boylan’s plastic man who can do just about anything

Sometimes, one clear, well-executed idea can take you a long way. Illustrator Craig Boylan discusses how he developed his uniquely playful creative style.

Stepping from the world of graphic design or animation into freelance illustration can be daunting for a whole range of reasons. One of the toughest things about it is finding your own individual style – a recognisable visual language, or a universe, even, that sets you apart. A look that distinguishes your work from all the other illustrators out there, not to mention the image-making machines that are reshaping the industry.

Liverpool-based illustrator Craig Boylan approached this challenge in a unique way, creating a character called Baumann who exemplifies his style and can be placed in just about any illustration. Baumann looks like a plastic toy and is designed for incredible flexibility, with tubular limbs and swappable features. He’s a bit like a Playmobil figure, but he’s been crafted to Craig’s own ideal.

“The character originally came from some Bauhaus-style character exploration and was really the birth of my whole style. The limbs and head have this look because I wanted the process to be as simple as possible,” explains Craig.

Back in the 1920s, the Bauhaus movement in Germany explored ways to combine artistic craft with the possibilities of industrialisation and mass production. In many cases, minimalism was the answer – removing any detail that the machinery could not replicate. Craig followed a similar method, creating the Baumann form as an archetype to which certain elements can be added, resulting in one-off illustrations.

“I’ve worked in 3D motion design for years, so I’m aware of just how complex and time-consuming 3D can be, and I wanted to move away from that,” he says. “Though the style has progressed from those early stages, I feel the essence is still in there, with the characters having a very manufactured feel. You can also have the character become anyone by adding different elements such as hair, hats, glasses, et cetera, like buying an add-on pack for a toy.”

Not only will you see a version of Baumann in Craig’s illustrations for BBC Science Focus Magazine’s article You Need a Drink, but he’s centre stage in Verdant Brewery’s Putty IPA branding and in the company’s Be Weird campaign. In both projects, he also appears in animated form.

Don’t worry, though, Baumann can do more than drink, and one day Craig plans to turn Baumann variants into art toys. He’s already experimenting with 3D-printed statuettes.

Along with playfulness and a sense of physicality, Craig’s work often has a clever, sophisticated angle. He enjoys juxtaposing the light-hearted fun his characters and primary colour palettes suggest with a little dark humour.

“For instance, there’s the illustration Midjourney’s Menagerie, where we see robots looking at humans in a cage, like a zoo, and all they’re doing is looking at phones. This is about the AI takeover and the potential that humans aren’t the most intelligent beings on Earth,” says Craig.

His Happy Pills image is another example where concept and commentary come to the fore. “With the Happy Pills blister pack, it’s quite a bold and evocative image, and the emojis are quite literally a manufactured way of expressing emotion. When you look a little closer at this image, you see the grimace pill, and I think it gives a slightly uneasy feeling,” he adds.

Craig has VJed, worked in motion design at an ad agency and freelanced for 10 years, but has spent the last two of those resolving his style around Baumann. Now he feels he can take it further.

Perhaps the next step will be to bring Baumann into the real world, at scale – a bit like the creative duo Craig and Karl, who create epic installations from their bases in New York and London. And, if you’re in Liverpool, look out for Craig’s free illustration and art zine, Agog!, which highlights creatives from around the world.