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InspirationIllustration

Dispassionately Digital: Max Guther highlights the absurdities of daily life

Max Guther is a 25-year-old illustrator based in Mainz, Germany who creates digital collages using "photographic material, textures and self-constructed objects". Reconstructing the core components of daily life in a dispassionate and emotionless fashion, his work subtly highlights some of its greatest absurdities.

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Isometric illustration of office workers in cubicles at identical desks with retro computers, all wearing white shirts and adopting the same dispassionate pose

In the series 'The Goodlife', people strike similar poses whether working in a cubicle, eating at the dinner table or relaxing by the pool. The 'Shape It Baby' postcard series for Manchester School of Arts show body builders strike ridiculous poses in their trunks, seemingly unaware of how inane they look. 'Home', meanwhile, literally deconstructs Guther's childhood home and places it "in a dollhouse which symbolises this certain time of life, where every person should feel safe and comfortable".

Although his work has been widely compared to video game stills, most obviously The Sims, Guther says he's primarily influenced by Bauhaus architects and designers such as Walter Gropius and Herbert Bayer. His work is created using Photoshop and Illustrator, and employs isometric projection, a method for visually representing 3D objects in 2D that's commonly used in technical and engineering drawings.

Isometric illustration of three people seated around a table laden with food in a minimalist interior space with concrete floors and white walls
Man relaxing on a turquoise lounger by a pool, holding a tablet, with a small black dog beside him on a terracotta patio surrounded by potted plants
A shirtless man in coral swim shorts stands before a gold-framed mirror, gazing at his reflection against a peach wall and patterned floor with scattered towels and swimwear
Shirtless man flexing in a bright yellow kitchen with isometric white-tiled walls and a bowl on the counter
Shirtless man in yellow shorts flexing his biceps next to a turquoise exercise ball on a patterned rug against a pink wall
Muscular man in red shorts posing in a pink and white tiled bathroom with an oversized toothbrush hovering above, rendered in isometric perspective
Isometric illustration of a deconstructed house interior showing people in various domestic activities across colour-blocked rooms with a terracotta roof
A gorilla sits at a wooden table with a red chair in a playful classroom setting with yellow and green elements, reaching across the table in an absurdist collage illustration by Max Guther
Person in charcoal-grey coat leaning over a white pedestal sink in a bathroom with blue flooring, from Max Guther's digital collage series
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