Creative Chameleon

Dutch illustrator Merijn Hos regularly evolves his style, partly due to his experiences with ADHD. He shares how he turned a potential disadvantage into a creative strength...

- Nick Carson

When we grab Merijn Hos for a chat following his talk at OFFF By Night in Antwerp, he and his wife are on their way out – despite the fact that there’s a whole evening’s worth of inspirational talks to come.

“I get bored of things easily. I’m going away now because my focus has gone – it’s not fun anymore – so I’ll come back tomorrow and enjoy it properly,” admits the in-demand Dutch illustrator, who has just spent an hour telling an enraptured crowd about his constantly evolving style.

He isn’t leaving because it isn’t a fun conference – far from it. Hos has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and over and above the talks themselves, the sheer amount of stimulus in OFFF By Night’s warehouse-sized ‘night market’ – giant flashing LED screens, food trucks, music, ping pong tables; you name it – had become too much after a few hours.

For Hos, another by-product of ADHD is his regular boredom with new forms of stylistic expression, and while that could lead to frustration, combined with the right amount of versatility, tenacity and of course creativity, it can also become a strength – a motivation to evolve.

“After I’ve used a certain style for half a year, I get tired of it and it’s not fun anymore, so I try to think about combining it with something else,” he explains. “But to me, although the work is in different styles, somehow it’s still linked together. It’s like a natural process, for me. It’s not black and white.”