Conversation with Swedish Artist Andreas Wannerstedt on His Oddly Satisfying Visuals

Andreas Wannerstedt, Swedish artist and director creates mesmerizing 3D sculpture and looped animations featuring gorgeously fine-tuned interactions between shape and space. His smoothly transitioning work harmonizes with the laws of physics whilst adding an air of whimsy in his famous “oddly satisfying videos”. Known to transport viewers into a cathartically meditative state, his gorgeous color palette and geometric shapes offer an acutely wholesome and deliciously articulate portal into the perfect world of physics, movement, and predictability.

Wannerstedt has commissioned works for huge brands such as Google, Adidas, Ikea, Coca-Cola, Spotify, and Absolut Vodka. Read on to hear his fascinating approach to the creative process, and learn more about his artistic background and inspiration in our interview with Andreas Wannerstedt.

Tell us a little bit about your life. Was art always present?

I grew up in a family that wasn’t very interested in art. I used to draw all the time when I was a kid, and I really enjoyed visiting all kinds of museums. I immediately fell in love with animation when I was introduced to Flash back in 1999. I quickly realized what I wanted to work with in life when I started to dig deeper into CGI and digital art.

What is your artistic background, when and how did you start? How did you end up with the style you currently work in?

I have a background in graphic design and very little experience in traditional art. I studied Digital Media at a school called Hyper Island in Sweden, but it focused more on group dynamics and project management, so I would say that all my practical skills are self-taught. I started to work as a freelancer right after school, primarily with 2D animations and graphic design, and then I moved over to 3D animations around 2007. The possibilities of what you can create with a 3D software still amaze me.

I’ve picked up my skills by doing a lot of personal projects, each focusing on different techniques and specific areas such as modeling, lighting, texturing, rendering optimization, etc. For a couple of years, I was very much into architecture visualizations and photorealistic renders, and that has affected my style for sure, even though I tend to go towards a slightly more abstract look & feel nowadays, with more focus on color palettes and materials.

How do you usually work and where do you draw inspiration from?

Most of the time, inspiration comes to me when I’m not in front of the computer. The starting point for a piece of work can come from an object, a motion, or a situation I see in the real world. Sometimes, however, if I’m stuck, I just start to experiment – playing with shapes and different motion patterns, and then something usually comes up pretty fast. When it comes to my concepts, I draw a lot of inspiration from real-world mechanics and physics. We’re surrounded by interesting motion patterns and behaviors in our everyday lives.

What do you hope your work achieves or invokes?

My synchronized animations have often been described as “oddly satisfying”, and I hope that the overall effect evokes a hypnotizing feeling which makes the viewer relaxed and even meditative.

How do you feel about being a young artist in a modern society?

To be honest, I’m not so sure I qualify as a young artist anymore, I could barely make it in here on Minus37. ?

But seriously, I think it’s a great time to be a young artist. With the help of technology and social platforms such as Instagram, there’s a lot of potential to reach a lot of people which might make it easier to be accepted as a young and inspiring artist. However, in order to fit into modern society, an artist must learn the ways that society works and functions.

All images and text courtesy of Andreas Wannerstedt

You can view more work by Andreas on his Instagram and website.

Intro written by Kate Smith