An Chen

0:06 Thanks for the really nice introduction. Hello everyone. My name is Anchen. I'm a Taiwanese illustrator currently based in London. I like using shapes in my illustrations. My compositions often feature clean angular shapes with a mechanical touch.

0:24 I also enjoy incorporating elements of my East Asian heritage into my work. And exploring how geometric shapes and organic subjects interact with each other. Most of my projects are editorial illustrations, but I also work in different mediums including 3D. This was for Adobe animation.

0:47 This was for a children's music video. Packaging, design, sculptures, and textiles. I've also participated in exhibitions globally.

1:08 This was NFT I designed for Gucci's online gallery, Gucci Vault. This was Tokyo Creative Salon in Japan.

1:20 This was for if I illustration festival in France. Today I want to share with you how I found my creative voice and how focusing on creating personal projects led to client work. Growing up, I never thought I could draw properly. While my peers were influenced by Hello Kitty and drawing cute kawaii style animals, I was obsessed with pipelines. And TIN robots. I don't know exactly why, but I think it has something to do with my background where I grew up. A small factory town in Taiwan.

2:00 This is what my my neighborhood looks like. And factory buildings had the strongest visual impact on me as a child. Later when I learned to use vector tool while studying graphic design in college, it felt very familiar for me. Creating objects from geometric shapes is like playing playing with building blocks.

2:24 It's very intuitive and fun. I really enjoy breaking down objects and putting them back together in geometric forms. Even when I draw by hand, I still keep my lines angular and geometric. It's almost like a game I design for myself with specific rules. And I really enjoy creating in this way.

2:51 That's when I started to think maybe I can be an illustrator. My style is also influenced by constructivism, avanguard, British modernist lino cut, and vintage matchbox designs. This once this was one of my early works. I was really proud of the work I was making.

3:13 But I often heard people say, "Oh, your art is special." To give you a bit of context, back home in Taiwan, the preferred style in the industry is more analog and traditional. So for a few years I struggled to balance between changing my style to meet conventional illustration standard and staying true to myself. This went on until during my master's program.

3:47 A tutor even refused to review my graduation project and she said, "I think you should give up this approach completely and switch to maybe watercolor." And I really appreciated the feedback. But at the time in my mind, I was like, "Really? Are you sure? But I don't even know how to use watercolor.

4:22 That's when I realized that people will always have preferences and opinions and I cannot please everyone. And I'm not in control of what other people think of my work, but at least I can control what makes me happy and what matters to me. So from that point, I decided to just create artworks that feel authentic to myself.

4:46 And when I stopped chasing validation from others and focused on creating personal projects, surprisingly work opportunities came one after another. At the time I was very interested in studying the structure of plants and I thought what if I take my very rigid sharp style and put it on a soft organic subject like flowers. I thought it would be fun.

5:15 So I created these floral illustrations and they led to a series of amazing collaborations around the world. The first one was form, a design agency based in here in London.

5:27 I created a floral illustration for one of their branding projects. For this project, I also created my first ever storyboard. Here's how they applied my work on packaging and other design assets. Later, Apple saw the work I created for them and reached out. When I got their email, I thought it was a scam. Thankfully not.

5:53 So they loved how my floral illustrations looked very unique and commissioned me for a campaign. Here are some of the early concepts. The theme was stronger together.

6:08 So I chose elements like dandelions, wheats, and flowers that grow in desert. All depicting a powerful energy. Here are the final illustrations. And this is how they applied to my illustrations. Across their platforms for Apple TV, Apple Music, iBook, App Store.

6:27 I also created additional visuals and animations for them. Next, my floral series also traveled to Japan for Japanese national TV, NHK. They invited me to create key visuals for one of their TV programs, Beyond Happiness, which features people who define happiness in unconventional ways. For this project, I created a range of floral characters to show different personalities. Here are the final works.

6:56 I also designed a title for the show and 3D sets.

7:04 This is how it turned out. They used my design on graphic overlay for the show and for their studio set. They even printed my illustration on carpet and pillowcases. Apart from drawing flowers, I also like to merge my graphic design background into illustrations. Here I try to merge lettering with characters and creating unique personalities without focusing too much on features and stereotypes.

7:37 Later, Studio Bold in Sweden asks me to use this approach for their branding project with Fox. They loved how I created humanlike characters in an inclusive way. Here's the early brainstorming process, which is a tool I usually use for gathering ideas and merging symbols together. Here are the final illustrations I created for them. And how they applied that in the final design for posters, tote bag, and website.

8:07 I also enjoy studying sculptures. I experimented with incorporating sculptural elements into character design and these works led to a collaboration with studio anyways for their YouTube project. They thought my sculptural characters were perfect for showcasing the tension of wrestling. Here's how it looks on the YouTube homepage and the animation.

8:46 Finally, I would like to end this talk by sharing what I've learned during my creative journey as an illustrator. Stop chasing validation from others. Trust your own creative voice and keep creating personal projects that feel fun and true to yourself. I truly believe your work will speak for you and travel further than you can ever imagine. Thank you so much for listening.