Vincent Schwenk’s digital playground

There is something about Vincent Schwenk’s digital designs that makes you want to reach out and touch them. With their bright colours and captivating textures, as well as their use of sound and movement, these virtual creations are invitingly playful. From bouncing pastel-coloured cushions to clunking cuboids which shuffle, topple, and re-stack themselves, the animated objects seem made to be bashed and battered, prodded and poked. Looking at Vincent’s recent creations ‘Blobsy Blob’ and ‘Pinz Pong’, it is hard not to get caught up in his spirited designs.

Vincent frequently finds himself drawn to texture, colour and motion. Much of what inspires his work comes from things which he finds fascinating in his everyday life, from the rolling movement of a snake to the bustle of a traffic-filled road and even a fight he witnessed outside his home. Recreating these textures and motions is a challenge he relishes. “I would say the most difficult texture to render is human skin, but snow and sand are also quite complicated,” he considers. “Fabric textures are fun and a lot easier to do.”

However, he doesn’t always begin a design knowing exactly the effect he wants to create. Just as his work showcases a sense of fun and enjoyment, some of Vincent’s best ideas come from his own form of experimental play. “Sometimes I have only a very vague idea of what I want to do,” he says. “When this happens, I experiment with my software, playing creative ping pong with my computer and trying to learn something new.” He is constantly exploring new digital programmes, with Cinema 4D, Redshift, Marvelous, RizomUV, and DaVinci Resolve currently sitting at the top of his list of favourites.

Vincent’s ability to play with programmes, incorporating different aspects and creating new combinations, reveals his diverse creative training. He studied Communication Design at the University of Augsburg, intending to become a photographer, but while studying, his passions widened and adapted. “My interests changed every year and I developed a love for graphic design, painting, illustration, motion and sound,” he explains. “In the end my 3D skills are a combination of everything I learned in these fields.”

Vincent expresses these skills in a number of ways within his art practice; alongside creating animations for clients, he dedicates time to creating work for his Instagram page and teaching 3D art how-to guides for his subscribers on the creative subscription service Patreon, building a community for those who love the work he does and want to know how it’s done. The time and energy these tasks take varies. “Instagram is my digital sketchbook so those videos only take about a day,” he explains. “Bigger projects and client work take around two months. These jobs are usually the best paid, but they are also the most demanding. I wouldn’t be able to work only on those for the whole year.”

Many of Vincent’s client works are made in collaboration with his friend Vitaly Grossmann. As the creative duo VVAND, the pair have worked together since 2015 for clients such as Microsoft, TV 2 Norway, and interiors company Tylko. Once again, Vincent emphasises the importance of play in their creative partnership. “Vitaly and I love to hang out together, work together and play sports together. Even at work we have fun; we trust and challenge each other.” It is this sense of fun and play which shines in Vincent’s work, allowing him to explore new—and excitingly textured—digital horizons.

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vincentschwenk.de / @vincentschwenk