'Sesame Street' art by Norbert Mirani featuring Bert and Ernie.
Norbert Mirani is a Dutch marketing manager and business strategist, who in his spare time has worked as a comic artist and children's book illustrator. In addition to his daytime job at the publishing houses VNU and Sanoma, he has written and drawn for licensed comic properties like the Dutch Disney and Sesame Street titles.
Early life
As a child, Mirani loved 'Cubitus' by Dupa, 'Les Tuniques Bleues' by Lambil and Cauvin and the comics of Willy Vandersteen. Later on, the comics published in Eppo magazine further raised his interest in the medium. He decided to turn his enthusiasm into action by starting to draw. During his studies, he saw the Dutch Disney comics art director Ed van Schuijlenburg on TV. This inspired him to revitalize his passion for comic art, and he picked up drawing Disney characters. Van Schuijlenburg advised him to continue and meanwhile consider artwork for Jim Henson's Sesame Street characters. In the meantime, Mirani studied economics (marketing) and social sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Dutch-language 'Big Bad Wolf' story (H 9602A), written and drawn by Norbert Mirani for the Donald Duck Holiday Book 2012.
Career
Between 1997 and 2016, Mirani had a full time job at the publishing houses VNU and Sanoma, first as marketing manager for Nieuwe Revu magazine, and then as a manager in business development, new business and corporate affairs. Since 2016, he has been working as a freelance strategist and branding specialist. In addition, he has written hundreds of publications, from books ('Merken Maken de Man', 2007) to articles (for Marketing Tribune) and blogs (Adfoblog), all on the intersection of brand, people and society. He has also been affiliated with the Science of the Time platform of trend watcher and cultural sociologist Prof. Dr. Carl Rohde, as well as the Brandfuel Academy.
Consequently, his drawing activities were limited to his spare time. Between 1995 and 2016, he provided occasional scripts and artwork to the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, most notably with the 'Big Bad Wolf' stories. Mirani was also a productive full color artist for Jim Henson Productions, varying from illustrations and comics for the preschool magazines Sesame Street and Bobo to numerous license products.
On 29 October 2011, Mirani appeared as "imposter" of Disney editor Jos Beekman in the beloved TV game show 'Wie van de Drie', the Dutch equivalent of 'To Tell The Truth', receiving three out of four jury votes.
'Bert & Ernie'.