Visbii's playful illustrations push the boundaries of the human kind
Inspired by the characterful worlds of directors like Wes Anderson and Taika Waititi, Visbii's colorful illustrations play with personality and physical form to produce wonderfully unexpected results.
With a client list spanning everyone from the Wall Street Journal to Women & # 39; s Wear Daily, you'll be forgiven for having honed her craft for years the illustrator – real name Amber Day. In fact, she worked as an art director, storyboard artist, and set stylist for a decade before discovering her love for illustration in 2016.
Day moved to Bali from her hometown of LA to spend more time illustrating, but was soon involved in a motorcycle accident and temporarily lost most of the movement in her drawing arm, causing her to reconsider what she was doing from her career wanted. "During my recovery, there was a growing interest in the creative process that quickly became an obsession," she says.
“My obsession has taken me around the world in search of true doers and shakers in their industry, and ultimately sparked Visbii: an illustrated side project designed to combat visual perfectionism, inspire self-discovery and encourage artists to trusting their instincts a little more. ”
In the beginning, Day only created illustrations under her own name, with an emphasis on more organic shapes and color palettes. But she quickly became frustrated with a style that felt like a watered down version of her real self.
"Then, early last year, I read a study of how some people have dualistic mindsets, and instead of trying to strike a middle ground, I realized that I had to be completely creative and work from both ends of the spectrum," he says Illustrator.
"The Amber Day style is much more practical and realistic, while Visbii is more experimental, humorous, and adheres to my technical left and imaginative right."
The bold colors and experimental forms of Day's work as Visbii got even stronger when the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, which inspired her to exaggerate the proportions of her characters beyond expectations. "I didn't realize it then, but I drew a reflection of how I felt like people around me were behaving in the early stages of the pandemic," she explains.
“Much like pandemic Darwinism, our hands got bigger so we could get more supplies for ourselves, and our brains got smaller the more time we spent watching the news and engaging in critical thinking. I've always got through difficult situations by finding humor in them and I think Visbii was my way of dealing with 2020. I'm glad it found a way to stay until now. "
Honing this more distinctive style has resulted in a spate of high profile orders for Day over the past year, including an illustration for the Wall Street Journal featuring monster-sized gummy bears and a project for Women & # 39; s Wear Daily, which she calls "the most epic letter." I've ever received ”.
“They asked about a fashion executive in New York who is about to be swept away in the middle of an earthquake by a tsunami fleeing from a meteor with a satellite roasted by a solar flare in the distance. Oh, and she had to wear a mask. I couldn't help but find the humor on that last line and I absolutely loved how extreme the situation was as it directly reflected what we were all feeling at the time, ”adds Day.
What's next for the illustrator, she's currently riding out the rest of the Bali pandemic ("I thought it would be a great way to get creative back from the last few months in America"). If the past 12 months have taught her something, she says, don't plan too far ahead.
"For the first time in my life, I'm letting work determine my future," says Day. “My creativity knows where it is going, and I think the best we can do as artists is to get out of the way and let us show us how to live our best lives. I believe true happiness comes from being spontaneous and I can say with complete confidence that I have never been happier! "
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