Profile

After working as a freelance illustrator in his native Germany, Stephan Bucher moved to California and earned his degree from Art Center College of design in 1996.

He is the author of the books All Access—The Making of 30 Extraordinary Graphic Designers (2004), 100 Days of Monsters (2007), The Graphic Eye—Photographs by Graphic Designers From Around the Globe (2009), You Deserve a Medal—Honors on the Path to True Love (2011), 344 Questions—The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment (2011) and The Yeti Story (2012) which he wrote and illustrated exclusively for Saks Fifth Avenue.

He has created designs for David Hockney, Judd Apatow, Blue Man Group, and the New York Times. D&AD declared him a Young Gun back in 2004. He designed the titles for the motion pictures “The Fall”, “Immortals” and “Mirror, Mirror” by director Tarsem, and his time lapse drawings appear on the Emmy award television show “The Electric Company” on PBS.

Starting in November 2006 he filmed himself blowing ink on a piece of paper, making each random blocked into a monster. He linked the result to his blog and, for the next 99 days, posted a new monster every night. He found himself the seed crystal for a community of monster obsessives that used his drawings as an excuse to tell stories. The monsters typographic cousins are currently appearing on the Emmy award winning reboot of the classic children’s television show “The Electric Company” on PBS. The Daily Monster MONSTER MAKER, an app that lets people create their own monsters, has been downloaded from the Apple App Store over 200,000 times.

He is responsible for CD packages for everyone from indie artists to Whitney Houston and staying to the multi platinum soundtrack for the movie “The Matrix.” From 2003 to 2007 he created the illustrated column “ink and circumstance” for STEP magazine. He is the inaugural designer and creative director of the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, which operates as a front for Dave Eggers’ 826LA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students age 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills.