Jonas Loose is an artist and designer from Hamburg who makes art prints that are meant to make you smile: swans fused with garlic bulbs, owls with pineapple bellies, and hot pink slogans brushed straight across baroque flower paintings. We asked him where the ideas come from, how he makes them, and where they look best at home. The answers are his own.
Who is Jonas Loose?
“I’ve been creative for as long as I can remember,” Jonas says. Drawing and making things turned, over the years, into a career as an artist and designer, and his work has settled into a mix of illustration, graphic design, photography and digital art.
He describes his own style as “colourful, playful and graphic, with a mix of vintage and contemporary influences” — bold shapes, typography, hand-drawn elements and a slightly nostalgic feel. “I like creating pieces that feel fun and decorative but still have a strong visual identity.”
Where does the inspiration come from?
Mostly from nature, and from the rooms he lives in. “Plants, animals, aquariums and small ecosystems are a constant influence, but I’m also inspired by vintage graphics, typography, colour combinations, interiors and everyday objects. I like taking familiar things and translating them into something more playful and graphic.”
That is the whole idea behind his hybrid series in one sentence. A flamingo grows out of a cherry. A dolphin turns out to be what was inside the banana all along. A strawberry becomes a parrot. Familiar things, put together in a way nobody asked for — and suddenly you can’t stop looking at them.
The hybrids — nature, reassembled
SwarlicJonas Loose
PineappowlJonas Loose
StrawbirdyJonas Loose
CherringoJonas Loose
AlpacauliJonas Loose
DolphanaJonas Loose
Swarlic and Pineappowl are the two our customers have picked most so far. See all prints by Jonas Loose →
Asked which artists influenced him, Jonas deliberately doesn’t name one. “I actually try not to focus too much on other artists’ work while creating my own. Of course, you’re always influenced by what you see around you, but I like to give my own ideas enough space to develop without thinking too much about what other people are doing.”
The story behind Do Epic Shit
Of all his pieces, this is the one with the least planned origin story. “The idea for this piece came completely out of nowhere — basically a brain fart. I loved the contrast between the bold pink brushstrokes and the delicate vintage bouquet, so I just went with it.”
It worked. “It ended up becoming one of my most sold pieces, which in itself is quite epic, don’t you think? ;)”
The same trick runs through a whole series: an old master painting — a Dutch flower still life, a rococo garden, a countess in pale blue — with a line of modern, very un-museum-like text brushed across it in pink, yellow or white. The paintings are serious. The text is not. That tension is the point.
Slogans over old masters
Shhh I'm ReadingJonas Loose
Main Character EnergyJonas Loose
Bloom Baby BloomJonas Loose
Slay All DayJonas Loose
I Can't Adult TodayJonas Loose
Do Your Own ThingJonas Loose
For a bookshelf corner: Shhh I’m Reading. For the hallway: Main Character Energy. Shop the collection →
How are the prints made?
“I work mainly digitally, but my process often starts with hand-drawn elements, sketches, textures or photography.” Those get combined with digital illustration, typography and graphic design, “so even the finished digital pieces often retain something handmade and imperfect.”
There is no typical working day. “One day I might spend hours working on a new artwork, another day I’m photographing, filming or editing. I work from my home studio in Hamburg, usually surrounded by our plants, aquariums, terrariums and two cats.”
“I don’t think art always needs a deep meaning or a complicated story behind it. Sometimes it can simply be something that makes you smile, adds colour to a room or feels very you.”
Where do his prints look best?
Not in a room that is trying too hard to match. “I love seeing my work in spaces that aren’t afraid of colour and personality. I think the prints work especially well mixed with plants, vintage furniture, modern design and other artworks. I’m a big fan of gallery walls and mixing different styles rather than trying to make everything match perfectly.”
So take him at his word. Put a Pineappowl next to a real monstera. Hang Do Epic Shit above a vintage sideboard. Mix one of the hybrids with a slogan piece and something by an entirely different artist, and let them argue. If you want a starting point for the layout, our gallery wall templates give you exact measurements, and the poster size guide tells you what fits above a sofa or a bed.
Something you might not know
“I’ve been obsessed with aquariums and nature since I was about ten years old. What started as a childhood hobby has somehow grown into a home full of aquariums, terrariums, plants and tiny ecosystems — and it has become a big part of my creative work as well.”
Right now that obsession has its own outlet: Jonas runs the YouTube channel Haus of Gruen, where he shares his home, the plants, the aquariums, the terrariums “and all the little ecosystems we create” — while new artwork keeps happening in between, “whenever inspiration hits.”
And what does he hope people feel when they hang one of his prints? “Mostly, I want it to make them happy. If someone still enjoys looking at one of my pieces years after buying it, that’s pretty much the best outcome I could ask for.”
The collection
Every Jonas Loose print, from A4 to 100×140 cm
Printed to fit our frames exactly — in oak, black or colour.
Shop Jonas LooseFollow Jonas on Instagram at @jonaslooseart and on his website hausofgruen.com.