Bo Lundberg is a Swedish illustrator who draws cities the way a 1960s travel poster would have: a landmark, a big sun, a few stripes of colour and nothing more. He lives in Stockholm, works from a studio at home and has been drawing for as long as he can remember. We asked him how a lamp on his computer turned into a whole series of cities, why he has stopped chasing inspiration, and where his prints belong at home. The answers are his own.
Who is Bo Lundberg?
There was no big moment when it started. “I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, and I’ve simply never stopped.” Today he works as a freelance illustrator from his home studio in Stockholm, drawing for clients on one side and on his own series on the other.
His heroes are a mixed crowd. “I was obsessed with Salvador Dalí when I was around thirteen, but there have been so many influences along the way. Hipgnosis, Joan Miró, Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Hergé, John Prentice, and Charley Harper, to name just a few.” Look at his posters with that list in mind, and you can see the Saul Bass shapes, the Hergé clear line and the Charley Harper habit of saying a lot with very little.
What does his art look like?
“I work with simple shapes and bold colours. I try to reduce my images as much as possible without making them feel predictable.” And he is quick to add that simple is not the same as quick: “What may look simple is usually the result of many sketches, adjustments and changes along the way.”
Almost everything happens on the computer, “although I sometimes scan in analogue elements, such as torn paper or ink drawings.” That is where the warmth comes from: the clean vector shapes of a modern illustration, with the slightly worn feel of a print from the sixties.
Around the World
Stockholm 67Bo Lundberg
London 59Bo Lundberg
Rome 73Bo Lundberg
Amsterdam 69Bo Lundberg
Berlin 68Bo Lundberg
Copenhagen 66Bo Lundberg
Where to start: pick the cities that mean something to you — the place you live, or the one you can’t stop talking about. See all prints by Bo Lundberg →
The story behind Stockholm 67
Many of his prints with us belong to one ongoing project, Around the World, and it began by accident. “The first image I made in what would eventually become the series was Stockholm 67 — although I didn’t know it at the time.”
“I had some time between assignments and came across the shape of a lamp in my computer. I started playing around with it without any particular goal in mind. To give myself a framework, I imagined that I was a designer in the 1960s who had been commissioned to create a travel poster.”
Then it lay still for years. “That was around 2015, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realised the idea could grow into an entire series.” A lamp tells the story in Copenhagen 66 too — a city seen through a piece of design rather than its skyline.
Where does the inspiration come from?
Not from looking for it, he says. “I’ve come to realise that actively chasing inspiration is a bit like trying to catch a soap bubble. If I have the time, I prefer to wait for inspiration to find me rather than the other way around. If you stay open and receptive, it usually does.”
Some of it comes from the people who buy his work. “With my city images, I’m often contacted by people who have a special connection to a particular place, or who ask me to create cities I haven’t done yet because they live there or once did.”
“Chasing inspiration is a bit like trying to catch a soap bubble.”
A day in the studio
The day starts with the dog. “After a morning walk with the dog and breakfast, I usually start by getting things like bookkeeping, contracts and other non-creative tasks out of the way. Once that’s done, I can focus on whatever creative problem I need to solve that day.”
He works until lunch and a few hours after. On busy days, longer: “If I’m busy and deadlines are tight, I’ll keep going all afternoon and, if necessary, into the evening.” He has a line about it, too. “I sometimes say that being a freelancer gives you the freedom to work yourself to death at whatever hours you choose. But it also means you can take a few hours off in the middle of the day if you feel like it.”
Where do his prints look best?
“I see my work turning up in cafés, offices and, of course, people’s homes.” If he had to choose one spot for a single print, it would be a room with a bit of the sixties in it: “I think it would feel particularly at home in a space with mid-century elements.” A teak sideboard, a classic lounge chair or a globe lamp — his colours were made for them.
But he does not want to set rules. “Ultimately, the most important thing is that people choose my work simply because they like it.” What he hopes for is modest, or not: “I’d simply like people to feel that a room becomes a slightly nicer place to be when one of my images is on the wall. Maybe that’s a rather ambitious hope.”
Beyond the cities, he draws the everyday objects of a well-designed life: the coffee maker, the moka pot, the cassette and the racing bike. They are made for the kitchen, the hallway and the corner where the record player stands.
Coffee, cassettes and racing bikes
Pastel coffeeBo Lundberg
Italian coffeeBo Lundberg
MixtapeBo Lundberg
Playing gamesBo Lundberg
Swedish Racing Bike – DetailBo Lundberg
Italian Racing Bike – DetailBo Lundberg
Our tip: Pastel coffee and Italian coffee side by side in the kitchen, in 30×42 oak frames. See the collection →
For three or more cities together, our gallery wall templates give you the exact measurements, and our oak and black frames fit the prints exactly.
Something you might not know
We asked for something people don’t know about him, and got this: “My superpower is being able to cross an entire street without looking at my phone.”
Right now he is drawing a series of illustrations for a tech company, and after that a project for a company in healthcare. “I also have a couple of personal projects I’d love to spend some time on, but I think they’ll have to wait a little longer.” We hope a few new cities are among them.
The collection
All Bo Lundberg prints, from A4 to 100×140 cm
Printed to fit our frames exactly — in oak, black or colour.
Shop Bo LundbergFollow Bo on Instagram as @bolundbergillustration.