Artist Depicted the Ruthless Corporate World with Minimalistic Illustrations

Many artists are inspired by everyday life, and sometimes its excesses, to send us a message through their art. The multifaceted creative Shaun Tan has unveiled a series of minimalistic illustrations in which he depicts the ruthless world of business with poetry and creativity.

Baptized Cicada, the 32-page pictorial book tells the story of a small insect that evolves in an office where his colleagues do not appreciate him, despite his determination and relentlessness.

In particular, it tackles difficult and sometimes taboo themes such as migrant workers, moral harassment or intimidation at work using a cicada and human characters qualified as white collar, in reference to the expression designating officers’ Office.

It was during a visit to Berlin in 2005 that he had the idea for this work while observing the gray facade of a building where he could make out some of the employees behind the windows. Rather than portraying real people, he was inspired by cicadas and their unusual life cycles. Indeed, they spend up to 17 years underground before emerging to mate and die shortly thereafter.

With these illustrations, he wanted to touch the people around him and many more, who may have felt the feeling of being exploited or underestimated in their work in order to bring them a kind of comfort and moral support. To learn more about the artist, you can visit his official website shauntan. net.

And to continue with the illustrations that denounce with originality, we invite you to (re)discover 8 drawings on the difference between working at home or at the office of illustrator James Chapman or the quirky and creative project “Silhouetted Shapes to Turn Colorful Clouds into Whimsical Scenes” by Lan Nguyen.

See below for minimalistic illustrations by the artist who beautifully captured the harsh corporate world through his imaginative talent.