Illustrator Laurène Boglio considers herself a visual storyteller. So when Different Leaf came to her with the idea of creating a series of illustrations for Mr. Karen and his cosmic journey through our pages, her answer was an emphatic, “Yes!” And that was before she even saw the fashion photo shoot of André De Shields, who everyone agrees is the embodiment of Mr. Karen.

Mr. Karen, for the uninitiated, is a character dreamed up by artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust, who are the curators of the first issue of the new, reimagined Different Leaf. He travels through the issue, with chapters from the short story that author Jonathan Lethem wrote about Mr. Karen introducing each reality-based article. Boglio had to create specific images for each chapter. The result is a sort of Where’s Waldo graphic novel, if Waldo was, say, on weed and perhaps from another universe. You never know where Mr. Karen will be or what exactly they’ll be doing.

“His facial features grabbed me,” Boglio says of seeing the De Shields photos. “The clothes were inspiring so I tried to use them as a sign of the character. Something I loved about André was the way he has his hair in this vee that’s so specific to the character. These two elements were key to building the character.”

After reading Lethem’s story, Boglio began her preliminary sketches of Mr. Karen, which she sent to the editorial team. “I did a few different characters and then let them mix and match — I like these shoes, I like this haircut,” she says. “We can do a Frankenstein and mix and match what they like about each of them.”

“I love graphic novels,” Boglio says, noting she had to work closely with Different Leaf graphic designers to create illustrations that would go with wherever Mr. Karen would appear.

“In the story there were so many metaphors and images, that it was great material to use and illustrate,” Boglio says of her creative process. “It was easy for me to extract and think of how I could turn it into a vision that makes sense.”

The photos of André inspired her as well. “They set a general tone for the story, a playful and funny character,” she says. “Some pages are more serious than others. Some areas are very descriptive and then suddenly funny and surreal.”

“They gave me lots of freedom to interpret,” Boglio says of the collaboration. “It was a nice way to create a piece of art that feels independent and free. It was surprising, [to feel] the trust from the team to let me explore my own visuals and vision of the whole text. It’s very rare to have this kind of trust.”

Boglio, who is French but now lives in Massachusetts, has been drawing her whole life. But rather than, say, focusing on portrait painting, she was quickly drawn to graphic design, and within that, illustration. “It was a way of communicating a message through a simple illustration.”

Deciphering the exactly right message is part of what she loves about working with clients. “When someone comes to me with specific needs, it’s very satisfying to guess what they need, when you manage to get what they need while still being able to put some of myself into the vision,” she says. “I love the challenge. How can I be flexible enough to make that work?”

At this point, Boglio’s list of collaborations and clients is long and as diverse as her many quirky illustrations. They include The New York Times, Taylor Swift, Lonely Planet, Hollywood Reporter, Windsor Castle, Time Out, Unicef and Le Chocolate des Francais, to name just a very few.

When not creating illustrations for others, Boglio leads the creative team at Little White Lies, a print magazine celebrating film and filmmakers published in England. Thanks to her role there, she knows the importance of giving an artist clear direction and guidelines, without stifling their creative energy.

The project she did recently for Oberlin College is a good example. “You have to give credit to the art director,” she says. “Thanks to her I managed to do something fun. With someone else I might not have been able to do it. She sent me a clever brief and I found a way to be myself and had fun with it. A good art direction helps you have space and inspiration.”

The Oberlin alumni magazine art director, for instance, didn’t suggest the colors to Boglio. All she said was go bright. “She had a good vision,” she says.

As with the Different Leaf collaboration, Boglio first sends in sketches before finalizing a project. Sometimes that means sending one sketch because the art direction is so clear; sometimes several are required. “It can add another step to the plan if the direction is not clear,” she says.

Boglio’s medium is her tablet, where she draws with a digital pencil. “I love the clean lines,” she says. “It’s handmade but digital. You can see it’s not perfect. I don’t make the lines smoother.”

Boglio found Massachusetts via first London and then New York City. There she met her girlfriend, who got her PhD at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “I didn’t know anything about Massachusetts,” she says, “but I always wanted to live in a smaller town.”

In recent years, Boglio has taken her drawing skills into other arenas. During the pandemic, she got into ceramics. “I wanted to get out of the house,” she says. She was interested in finding someone making ceramics that she could paint on. “Then I realized I could just do it myself,” she says. “It’s very hard. I’m very impressed by people who can do vases.”

Ceramics work has also influenced her drawing. “Painting in 3D allows more play sometimes,” she says. “You have two faces so you can play with that. Anytime there’s a new medium there are new things to play with.”

Boglio is also trying out the tattoo playground. “You can play with where the things live,” she says of this latest artistic endeavor. “I like how I can play with the message.”