Emil Sellström’s beer-related gifs and illustrations will put a smile on your face

Illustrator and animator Emil Sellström has an Instagram account packed with brightly coloured illustrations, gifs and animated shorts. “I’m kind of restless when it comes to style. I can’t just let myself get stuck in a specific style – I need to evolve otherwise I would lose interest and quit. I realise this might not be a perfect strategy but what the hell, that’s not the point either,” explains Emil. “I’d like to think that there is a red thread behind each output, one hint that it’s me.”

An overriding theme in all of Emil’s work is beer, communicated through “abstract 80s graphic posters” and various characters drinking in the nectar. “When working as an art director for MTV, me and a colleague found that we shared a love of beer so we said to ourselves how hard could it be to start brewing ourselves? No beer ever left our ‘brewery’,” says Emil. “This was several years ago, but during this period we talked a lot about beer branding because of our professional roles. It paved the way for a lot of beer-related assets.”

Emil finds himself drawn to bright colours and humour, and the movements and gestures he conveys makes his work fresh and funny. “I make a lot of thumbnails all the time and sometimes when I find the time I choose one that looks fun to make and just go ahead with it,” says Emil. “I’m a sucker for mechanic animations – I find a lot of humour in that, often much more humour than in classical, fully character animated gags. I find half-finished animation projects much more fun than the final result. You know the phase with super rough animation and a lot of glitches!”