András Baranyai

András Baranyai, born in 1974 in Hungary, studied Graphic Design at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest and currently works as a freelance graphic designer as well as illustrator. In recent years he has published children’s and textbook illustrations in particular. In these he combines classic illustration styles and elements with the possibilities of digital image design pieces and characters from comics. In 2006 along with four other young Hungarian illustrators he took part in an illustration project advertised by the publisher Csimota for the International Children’s Book Fair Bologna, to interpret the world famous fairytale »Little Red Riding Hood« without words. Five completely different book concepts were developed that provided an interesting insight into the current storybook scene in Hungary. They revealed the illustrators’ different approaches to the fairytale and the resulting storytelling strategies. András Baranyai’s illustrations in »Piroska és a farkas« (t: Little Red Riding Hood) play not only with the medium of the book, including the visual page design and an unusual view management, but also with the expectations of a child reader, who will find a well known fairy tale re-told in a modern world of pictures. Along with other fairy tale volumes, András Baranyai illustrated children’s poetry books, like »Emese almája« (2006; tr: Emese’s Apple) by Ottó Kiss, and the prose text »Szerintem mindenki maradjon otthon vasárnap délután« (2006; tr: I think everyone should be home on a Sunday afternoon) for which he also provided illustrations. With »Vaker« (2007; tr: Pitch) the illustrator worked on a book project for young adults with the individual words and phrases in sign language, aiming to arouse an interest in sign language and the daily life of deaf people in their peers. To make the image-text concept even stronger, many of the illustrations use actual young people’s language and adolescent topics like love and friendship. His picture book »PapaApa« (2008; tr: PapaFather) is targeted towards children of preschool age and once again evokes the sly humor of Hungary, when he tells a story with a wink at the different types of father figure in typical situations that need to be overcome. András Baranyai has received national and international awards. He lives in Budapest.

© internationales literaturfestival berlin

Emese almája
[Text: Ottó Kiss]
Pagony
Budapest, 2006

Piroska és a farkas
Csimota
Budapest, 2006

Szerintem mindenki maradjon otthon vasárnap délután
[Text: Ottó Kiss]
Csodaceruza
Budapest, 2006

Vaker
[Text: Tamás Vincze]
Csimota
Budapest, 2007

PapaApa
Csimota
Budapest, 2008