Tim Boelaars is an illustrator and creative director working at the intersection of iconography, illustration, and visual systems.
For over sixteen years he has drawn icon sets, pictograms, and illustration languages for Apple, Google, IBM, McKinsey, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Tripadvisor, and Wieden+Kennedy.
His drawing is reductive and geometric. The work is in deciding what to leave out, and in the corrections that make a shape look right.
He builds systems by establishing the grid and weight, drawing the set, then documenting the logic so others can extend it years later. The same approach applies to his brand work, where a visual language has to survive identity, product, packaging, and motion.
He works hands-on, and usually stays involved after launch to keep systems coherent as companies change. On larger projects he assembles and direct small teams of designers, illustrators, and motion specialists, and works alongside internal design teams and agency partners.
Alongside his freelance practice he runs Permanence, a small studio with motion director Joe Le Huquet, and is the founder of Plant22, a curated coworking community in Amsterdam for creative professionals.
In 2012, he was named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club in New York.
Direct inquiries: tim@timboelaars.com
For illustration representation Agent Pekka: pekka@agentpekka.com
General Inquiries
tim@timboelaars.comStudio
Tim BoelaarsChasséstraat 22H
1057JE Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Services
Art DirectionAnimation
Brand Identities
Iconography
Illustration
Packaging
Print Design
Elsewhere
Behance ︎︎︎Instagram ︎︎︎
LinkedIn ︎︎︎
Select Clients
AppleAirbnb
Carlsberg
Fabrique
Framer
Forbes
Fortune
IBM
KesselsKramer
Land Rover
McKinsey
National Geographic
New York Magazine
Nickelodeon
Pentagram
Ray Ban
Ticketswap
Tripadvisor
The Atlantic
The Guardian
The New York Times
The New Yorker
The Washington Post
WeTransfer
Wieden+Kennedy
Wired