Overlapping geometric forms, flat colour fields, figures that occupy space with an almost sculptural presence. The illustrations of Daniel Chimal follow a rigorous internal logic, yet the eye moves through them effortlessly, guided by a use of colour that goes well beyond decoration and instead builds a precise visual structure.

His compositions are dense and layered, built as systems of visual relationships rather than images in the traditional sense. This is no coincidence: before becoming an illustrator, Daniel Chimal studied architecture, and that training fed directly into the way he thinks about visual space — the weight of one form against another, the balance between solids and voids.

Raised in Mexico City and now based in Berlin, his work carries both cities within it without ever saying so directly. The chromatic energy of Mexican folk art coexists with a formal precision that speaks to European rigour, neither one overtaking the other.

Chimal works for editorial and commercial clients, across campaigns and design collaborations, and is currently exploring how his visual language translates beyond the page towards objects, spaces, surfaces. A coherent trajectory for someone who has always thought in volumes before thinking in images.