Interview with Thomas Goletz

1 How did you come to paint Diddl?

It really all began in my childhood. I've always enjoyed painting and drawing, and I've copied all sorts of things. At school I loved to cover the board with caricatures of my classmates and teachers.
After graduating from high-school I trained to be a graphic artist. At that time I also started to get really interested in drawing cartoons and taught myself to do so. It was so much fun that I decided to do something professionally in this area.
Diddl must have been slumbering in me all the time, because finally he sneaked out onto my drawing paper in-between all the cartoons I'd drawn by then. That was on 24th August 1990, Diddl's birthday.
In the very first drawings Diddl was a kangaroo. He didn't have a name yet, but he was already wearing his famous overalls. But soon after, I decided to make the little guy much, much smaller and easier to draw so that I could easily place him in a coffee cup or piece of cheese. And so the kangaroo turned into Diddl the jumping mouse.

2. How did you find the name "Diddl"?

Basically I formed the name simply from the sound. I wanted to find a name that sounded cute, scatty, and a little bit cheeky. Something that suited my mouse. And so I finally came upon "Diddl".
Many years later my mother-in-law made a curious discovery: The surname of Thomas, of the twelve apostles, was "Twin", which is "Didymos" in Greek. Sounds a lot like "Diddl mouse", don't you think? Maybe it was simply fate that I should think of this name?!

3. How did you find Depesche?

I'd created 13 Diddl designs for postcards and was looking for a suitable company to publish them. A short time later these designs landed at Depesche. Those first 13 designs developed into a series of 48 postcards. They were then launched in January 1991.

4. What was the feedback like at that time?

Great. My Diddl cards were something completely new on the card market. The colours, the character, the sayings. I was often told that, and this was confirmed by the success of this series. I'd apparently touched a very special nerve in people, and at the same time discovered my Diddl talent. And so it developed into more than just one series of postcards.

5. How did it then continue?

There then followed one product after the other which I created and developed for Depesche. Folding cards, Christmas cards, the Calendar Mug in 1992 etc. Apart from the illustrations, I also painted the texts by hand using pen and ink. Nowadays at least the texts are set using a computer.

1995 we started to build our own team of graphic artists at Depesche, who were able to process the handdrawn originals by means of graphic computers and thus produce the appropriate lithographs for each product. In the meantime the team has grown from the original two graphic artists employed at that time to a staff of more than 30.

6. Are the illustrations now drawn by computer??

No, the original illustrations are still drawn by hand using pencils, inks, watercolours, and acrylic colours. It's the only way to achieve the typical hand-drawn Diddl look. The computer is only involved in the next steps. It's used as a tool to combine text, graphic elements and backgrounds with the scanned in illustrations, to insert the designs in the appropriate product format, and prepare them for printing.

7. And how do you work nowadays?

I still think up new designs, texts, elements and figures for the Diddl World and commit them to paper. For the past few years a small, very talented team of illustrators has been helping me with this.
Together with my wife and colleagues from the Diddl Workshop I also think carefully about the types of new products to be developed. When doing this we always take the fans' wishes and ideas into consideration. Then we have to correct all the Diddl products during the different stages of their development which are often very long. It's extremely important that Diddl's soul and special expressions don't get lost in the wide variety of products. This is something that we pay particular attention to with all products. And only then do we give our "OK" to publication.

8. Can you reveal to us how you paint your fantastic backgrounds?

Oh, they originate quite "planned by accident". I experiment a lot with different colours, and combine many painting techniques. And in this way the greatest effects are created. As time goes by you get a feeling for the different techniques and materials, and the coincidental effects which are sometimes created, can be used for specific purposes. Just like a planned coincidence.
Subsequently, these hand-painted backgrounds can be mixed and adapted using a computer.

9. Where do you actually get so many ideas from?

I like to set all my senses on "receive" and simply keep my eyes and ears wide open to collect impressions and inspiration. It's possible to do this everywhere - in the countryside, when shopping, at home or on holiday trips, when looking at or studying pictures, books, films, people, animals etc. I then store these impressions somewhere on my cerebral hard disk, give them a good mix, form associations between them, turn them around, and mix them again with new information. I then calmly scribble parts of this "impressiongatherinagselectorium" on empty pieces of drawing paper or type them into my laptop. Incidentally, two very special sources of inspiration are our family dog "Berry", from whom I've copied a lot of Diddl expressions, and our grey parrot "Bella", who gave me the idea for "Ackaturbo" the fire-tailed mini-raven.

10. Did you ever think that Diddl would be such a success?

No, of course not. At that time I sensed that Diddl was a really interesting invention, and that this little mouse would keep me busy for quite a time. But I never expected to be so successful.

11. What did you think when you held a Diddl soft toy in your hand for the first time?

I was really proud and happy. Because in the beginning no manufacturer of soft toys was able to transform Diddl's very special shape into a soft toy. And after so many failed attempts, nobody could believe that we would ever see the cartoon figure as a soft toy. But then my mother started to develop the first plush Diddl. She arduously made one sample after the other, and I corrected the proportions and expression again and again. Until after ten samples she finally got it right, and I was pleased to be able to present the first prototypes, which still had hand-made polystyrene eyes. Everybody loved them, and the Diddl soft toys could be produced at last.

12. And what hobbies do you have apart from your profession?

Together with my wife I like squinting in the sunshine, enjoying nature, listening to good music, watching nice films, visiting friends, rummaging in bookshops, our garden, photography, improvising on the piano, going to art exhibitions... In a word: letting myself be inspired.

13. Have you actually got any favourites amongst all the Diddl products?

Yes, my heart is still particularly attached to the Diddl postcards with which everything began in 1990.

But I am of course very close to all the Diddl products, because I know exactly how much effort, thought and craftwork goes into the completion of each individual item.

14. What's it like working with Diddl and Depesche?

Everybody who works with Diddl simply gets down to work with a great deal of fun and a lot of heart. We are all young and open-minded people at the Diddl Workshop at Depesche, there's a fantastic atmosphere in the company, and we invest a lot of love and commitment in our products. I think they reflect this. Of course, the positive feedback from the fans encourages us tremendously and spurs us on to keep diddling.

15. Which other cartoon characters do you like?

I'm a great fan of Disney's "Bambi", "Jungle Book" or "Tarzan". I also like the cartoon films "Toystory", "Ice Age" and "Monster Inc.".
What I don't like so much are figures without a warm heart or who are lacking in identity. I'm not very interested in those quickly-drawn crash-bam Japanese cartoon character.

16. What do you think is the secret of Diddl's popularity?

Of course Diddl catches your eye first of all because of his cheerful colours and his golden appearance. But I think Diddl is more than that. The variety of designs, his greetings, stories and his interaction with his fans all make him very alive. He's a friend who gives the tenderness and love that children always long for. A friend with whom they can feel safe and snug, and who is always there. Because nobody likes to be alone. Diddl is someone with whom both young and old can identify. His much too large feet and scrawly way of being drawn make him less than perfect - and who of us is? Diddl also likes to sag from time to time, just like we all do. But Diddl's colourful optimism always pulls his mousy snout back up again - and sometimes ours together with it. Diddl lives in a happy relationship with his girlfriend Diddlina and his friends Pimboli & Co., like in an intact family. And this is also something which is missing more and more nowadays due to so many separations, and is another thing everybody longs for. Diddl helps you to show your feelings. He says things which are sometimes difficult to say yourself. Particularly in affairs of the heart.

17. What can we learn from Diddl and his friends?

A few positive values and traits such as honesty, optimism, humour, "keeping your childish side", security, being there for each other, the courage to show your feelings and find the right words to express them. A truly great task for such a little jumping mouse!

Original interview from www.diddl.com