Künzli Optik · Zürich · Advertising Illustration · Campaign Design

Künzli Optik Zürich — Advertising Illustration for a Swiss Campaign

A series of minimalist portrait illustrations created for Künzli Optik in Zürich, combining hand-developed character work with real photographed eyewear for a campaign seen in magazines, on billboards and across Zürich public transport.

Series of minimalist advertising portraits with real eyewear created by Ian David Marsden for Künzli Optik Zürich. — Illustrated portraits from the Künzli Optik Zürich advertising campaign.

Campaign details

Client: Künzli Optik, Zürich
Agency: Matter & Gretener
Creative Director: Daniel Matter
Illustration: Ian David Marsden
Photography: Jonas Kuhn
Graphic identity: Jessica Lorenz
Copy: Dominik Imseng
Client service: Victor Rosser
Year: 2013
Media: magazines, billboards, trams and public transport advertising

A campaign built around recognition

Matter & Gretener commissioned me to develop a series of deliberately minimal portraits for Künzli Optik, the Zürich eyewear specialist at Hegibachplatz.

The creative idea was beautifully simple: how little of a face is needed before a pair of glasses begins to suggest a personality?

The drawings therefore had to resist the temptation to explain too much. A hairstyle, a few lines, the shape of a nose or mouth and a particular expression had to provide just enough information for the viewer to complete the image.

The eyewear then became the decisive element.

Minimalist portrait illustration combined with real photographed glasses for the Künzli Optik Zürich campaign. — The campaign combined reduced line illustration with actual eyewear photographed over the printed artwork.

Illustration meets photography

The final campaign was produced through a hybrid process.

I created the portrait illustrations as clean, reduced drawings. These were then printed, aligned with real frames from Künzli Optik and photographed in the studio by Jonas Kuhn.

That combination of flat line drawing and physical eyewear gave the images their particular visual tension. The glasses were not illustrated approximations of the product; they were the product.

The viewer was left somewhere between portrait, caricature and optical illusion: a few drawn marks could suddenly feel surprisingly specific once the right pair of frames was added.

Minimal female portrait with real glasses in the Künzli Optik Zürich advertising campaign. — Minimal portrait drawing with real Künzli eyewear incorporated into the final photographed campaign image.

Drawing with fewer lines

The interesting part of the assignment was subtraction.

The illustrations needed enough character to establish an attitude, but not so much detail that the drawing competed with the eyewear. Every additional mark had to earn its place.

This made character design, facial shorthand and silhouette particularly important. A small change in eyebrow, jaw, hair or expression could completely alter the perceived personality once the glasses were introduced.

Minimalist advertising portrait created for the Künzli Optik Zürich eyewear campaign by Ian David Marsden.

Minimal male portrait illustration with eyewear from the Künzli Optik advertising campaign in Zürich.

Minimal illustrated male portrait with real eyeglasses created for Künzli Optik Zürich.

Minimal illustrated male portrait with black-framed eyewear from the Künzli Optik Zürich advertising campaign. — Another execution from the Künzli Optik campaign, showing how a few drawn features and the eyewear together establish the character.

Across the series, the principle stayed consistent while the characters changed: reduce the drawing to its essentials, then let the eyewear complete the personality.

“Für Brillen mit Charakter”

For glasses with character.

The campaign line neatly completed the idea: the product itself supplies much of the personality.

From illustration to city campaign

The images were created for use beyond a single advertisement. The campaign appeared across different formats in Zürich, including magazines, outdoor advertising and public transport.

That required the portraits to remain immediately readable when enlarged, cropped or encountered briefly in the street. The economy of the illustration became an advantage: there was very little visual noise competing with the eyewear or the message.

Künzli Optik advertising campaign on a Zürich tram featuring minimalist portrait illustration by Ian David Marsden. — The Künzli Optik campaign in Zürich public transport.

Advertising illustration as part of a campaign system

This project is a good example of advertising illustration working as one component within a larger creative system.

The drawings had to respond to the agency concept, the real product, photography, copy, graphic identity and the practical requirements of multiple advertising formats. The task was not simply to make a series of attractive portraits; it was to make illustrations that could perform a very specific function within the campaign.

concept-driven advertising illustration
character and facial design
minimal line illustration
vector artwork for print production
collaboration with creative direction, photography and design
adaptability across print, outdoor and transport media

Commissioned Illustration & Campaign Visuals →

Graphic Design & Creative Direction →

Illustration for clients in Zürich & Switzerland

Zürich has been part of my professional life since the beginning of my career. I started publishing cartoons in Switzerland as a teenager and established my first studio in Zürich before later working in New York, California and France.

I continue to work with Swiss clients on illustration, editorial, advertising and visual communication projects. The Künzli Optik campaign is one example of that continuing connection: a Zürich brief, a Swiss agency team and illustration developed specifically for a campaign in the city.

Projects can be developed directly with companies or as part of an agency team, from initial visual concepts through finished illustration and production-ready artwork.