Founded in 2015, ZEBU is a creative duo (Lynn and Dennis) from Berlin working in the world of art and illustration. Their studio’s bold and dynamic visual language is applied to print materials, murals, carpets and exhibitions.

MEZCAL VERDE: When and why did you start doing illustration?

ZEBU: We were both born and raised in Berlin, and that's where we live now. We have our roots in graffiti and street art culture. We met at a punk concert when we were teenagers and immediately started painting together. Back then we were mostly painting in abandoned buildings and doing screen printing of posters and stickers . Drawing figuratively came naturally to us. Before, we were very playful in our creative process, not really reflecting who we were; when we went to school we were able to wander more into design and art. What fascinated us about illustration and painting is that it gave us the freedom to create our own images, without realism or naturalism. And this is still interesting to us.

MV: How do you think the environment influences an artist’s work?

Z: First of all, we consider ourselves very privileged to live in one of the richest and safest countries in the world. Being able to go to art school might seem normal, but it's not; it's a huge privilege to have the freedom to do what we do.

MV: How do you two manage to work together?

Z: We work better together than separately. Sometimes we have our own drawing sheets and sometimes we share the same one, but we always take the positive points of each other's ideas and discuss them together. Of course, at certain times during the work we have to divide up the tasks; however, the construction of the ideas is always joint. We rarely have projects that we work on individually, but working together brings us many advantages because we can inspire each other. One can choose the flow of ideas and the other gives it continuity, in this way we are able to create a visual language that we can hardly achieve individually.

MV: What do you enjoy most about your job?

Z: An independent and free life. We have the opportunity to structure our days at our own pace, to travel, to visit new places and to meet new people and cultures. Another thing we really enjoy is bringing our ideas to life, it is an incredible feeling to catalyze inspiration in the form of paintings, illustrations, murals and carpets.

MV: What techniques do you use?

Z: We always like to experiment with new techniques. From the beginning we liked painting murals, with which you can have the opportunity to present your work to a diverse audience, and this gives us the opportunity to inspire an audience that may not visit art galleries or open a design book. In the day-to-day life of studio artists, murals invite us to be versatile, you practically have to use your whole body, almost like exercising. On the other hand, we also enjoy large or small formats within our studio, using acrylic paint and brushes. In addition, we create digital illustrations for books, magazines, prints, etc. Lately we are experimenting with making our own rugs with a weaving gun.

MV: What message do you currently want to share through your work?

Z: Our visual language is reduced, abstract and risky. The way we paint is a result of how we see things around us. When we look at an object, figure or structure, we feel the need to reduce its form and make it more abstract. We like to erase all the information that is not relevant and focus on the essence. Through this creative process our work becomes bold and dynamic; it has no fixed agenda but there is definitely a guideline in the process: through the reduction and abstraction of the human body shape, we create figures that cannot be assigned a specific gender or nationality. Every person should have the possibility to identify with our work, we would like to represent a diverse society, without stereotypes.

MV: What is the inspiration behind the label you created for Mezcal Verde?

Z: The main idea is a word that we often use here in Berlin. When you or a friend have had a lot of shots during the night, we usually call it “Schnäppervoge”, which translates as “liquor bird” or “ shot bird”. We don’t use the word in a derogatory way, on the contrary, it is a loving nickname that reminds us of fun nights and good times with friends at a party.