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change soon – even though the times are different than in the 1990s and the ear- ly 2000s, when every game that looked good seemed to have been illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel. Meanwhile, on one hand, the illustrators‘ scene has become downright huge. On the other hand, the number of games published per year has assumed gigantic dimensions. So the cake is still large enough for everybody.
However, Franz Vohwinkel, now 56 years old, is the one who sort of invented the profession of game illustrator in Ger- many, the godfather of illustration, so to speak. That was not his plan at all when he began his studies in graphic design in Darmstadt. As is usual for students, he didn‘t have much money. Therefore, he placed an ad in the local newspaper, saying that he drew comics. And, really, his phone rang shortly afterwards. The guy who called him was a master den- tal technician who invented games in his spare time – his name: Klaus Teuber. Teuber had just planned to self-publish a game by the name of Barbarossa, and was looking for someone who could do the illustrations. That sounded promising. But it came to nothing.
That‘s because Teuber found a compa- ny, ASS, to publish the game. And later that year, Barbarossa was even award- ed the ”Spiel des Jahres“ prize. But Franz Vohwinkel was not part of it anymore.
The company in Altenburg didn‘t want to take the risk of hiring a young, unknown illustrator. If you look at the original ASS cover of Barbarossa, you know that it was one of the legendary bad decisions in the game industry not to have the game illustrated by Vohwinkel.
Klaus Teuber, however, was convinced of the young illustrator‘s skills. It took another two or three years before a col- laboration came about. At that time, Teuber had Drunter & drüber released by Hans im Glück – another ”Spiel des Jahres.“ Publisher Bernd Brunnhofer was courageous enough to try his luck with the newcomer who had finished his stud- ies and was doing his alternative civilian service. ”That was my stepping stone,“ Vohwinkel states. The rest is history. ”From some point on, I didn‘t do anything else but games anymore. I was just in the right place at the right time. Nowadays, I certainly wouldn‘t be able to get into the scene as easily as it was possible back then.“ Anyway, he had the ounce of luck required. Countless style-setting titles fol- lowed.
In hindsight, he sees that a bit differ- ently. ”Many designs I created over the years look old-fashioned from today‘s standpoint,“ he thinks. Without any ex- ception? He mulls it over. The mask tril- ogy published by Ravensburger – i.e., Tikal (another ”Spiel des Jahres“), Java,
and Mexica –is something he still likes. ”And, together with Imelda, I had tak- en on the art direction for Blue Moon. Through Gen Con, I knew many American illustrators and approached them. Then we coordinated the project. That was a wonderful job.“
Blue Moon was developed at a time when Imelda and Franz Vohwinkel had already formed the idea of moving to the U.S. ”We had met some people there, vis- ited them and saw what a fantastic area the Pacific West was.“ In 2006, they final- ly got the chance for a Green Card. That was the point of no return. This opportu- nity was something you get once in your life and must seize.
”In any case, the time in the USA has changed my view of Germany,“ Vohwinkel says. He, who always considered himself an exotic person in Germany, and had the feeling that he didn‘t quite fit in with this well-regulated state, suddenly realized how German his mentality was. There were these little things that showed him this very clearly. ”We Germans like to have our heaters maintained regularly. The mechanic in Seattle, however, was very, very surprised that we called him in once a year.“ At that point, he became aware of how rationally and well thought out and reasonably many things are han- dled in Germany. And that this is not nec- essarily wrong. ►
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New home: Franz Vohwinkel at the Bay of Eckernförde. After their return from the U.S., he and his wife, Imelda, absolutely wanted to live by the sea.