Brindha Kumar

0:03 Thank you hi everyone my name is Brenda Kumar I'm a Malaysian illustrator currently living and freelancing in London today I'm going to briefly talk about myself my illustration style as well as go through my creative process for a recent project commissioned by selfridges I'm usually not particularly fond of speaking in front of so many people so please bear with me I would describe my illustration style as a use of geometry and symmetry with a lot of clean shapes and lines that usually center around a tongue-in-cheek representation of modern and traditional Society I'm also heavily influenced by my upbringing in Malaysia being a country filled with a mixture of Rich traditional cultures I tend to use a lot of inspired colors patterns and emotions in my work as a result having moved to London in 2019 I worked for a design studio for two years creating wallpapers and bespoke art for commercial and residential Interiors but by the end of 2021 I decided to fully focus on my own work and began freelancing in a full-time capacity during that initial period I worked on a lot of self-initiated projects which eventually led me to work with some amazing clients such as Posh Rolling Stone Adobe Starbucks and recently with selfridges what you are looking at now shows a mixture of both self-initiated and commission projects personally I think self-initiated work is really important as you should always try to use any long periods of free time to focus on creating and exploring your style and medium this is not only to keep you thinking in a creative space and context making you better at what you do but also you really never know where it might take you of course not every creative Journey has to lead you somewhere.

2:05 But that's also totally fine I thought it would be worth sharing an example of that here's a fun personal project I did which is my nft collection unsurprisingly called butts I was approached by the wonderful team at selfridges to work on three window displays for their new selfridges celebrate season which is a high energy 2D takeover of their physical and digital spaces Selfridge celebrates is a playful take on how to plan for moments that call for joyful celebration brought to life by mood lifting illustrations and installations the imagery you see was provided by selfridges which essentially acted as my starting point on how to make use of the space there were a few key points to note firstly that the illustrations will be brought to life in the windows with card and plywood engineering so I had to think about the windows in terms of background mid ground and foregrounded elements and how they relate with one another secondly was that the products sold in selfridges would be incorporated within the windows so I had to really think about areas within the illustrations in which they could include these products apart from that I have been given complete freedom to interpret the windows it's always really exciting and such a pleasure when clients trust your vision and believe in your work so each window essentially follows a theme of an existing store in selfridges the first team I was given was titled Brasserie of Light which is an art deco restaurant and bar set within selfridges the second window was psychic sisters a wellness brand specializing in different types of readings and the third window was titled the wedding Suite once I have a clear understanding of a brief I usually start with my own research as you can see a collection of imagery acts as a good base for me to formulate ideas I will then translate these ideas into my Sketchbook through really rough notes and sketches which will ultimately form my rationale at this point I'll have a general idea or Direction I like to work with so depending on the client's timeline and deadline I would either show my rough sketches at this stage or a more refined one later for this instance I had a month to work on the project in total with the first proposal and feedback given after two weeks given the timeline the client never.

4:38 Actually saw these sketches however I thought it would be worth showing you today because it always acts as an important part of my design process as you can see here I've taken a few snapshots from my initial proposal for the wedding Suite showing the illustration in a layered context like this gives the client a clear view of my direction and how it will physically engage with the space this is important when working under a tight schedule and really useful when collaborating with a client for the drawing process I usually transfer my initial ideas into Adobe Illustrator which is the software that I mainly use for all of my work I start with drawing a component of the illustration that acts as a good base point for me to work from in this case I started with the background layer for all three Windows as it was the sensible place to build from as I progress shown here are the step-by-step layers forming the complete artwork for each window I knew what I wanted a common stylistic theme to be and in this case throughout each window I hope to create colorful perspective Dimension and plenty of layering I would say the technical side to all of this is often just as important as the creative side when producing a document in this context it's firstly crucial to make sure the physical measurements of the space are accurate and then rescale correctly I am of course working on a smaller scale to the actual dimensions of the windows as well as working with many layers so I need to make sure that everything is correct when it is sent to the production team to avoid mistakes and confusion and these were the final results I'll just briefly talk you through each one this is the brasserie of Light Window inspired by the Damian Hurst Crystal Pegasus in the restaurant my intention was that the outline of the Pegasus placed in the foreground would act as an inviting restaurant scene behind the illustration is heavily embellished with patterns seen throughout the actual restaurant in a section display of varying perspective for the psychic sisters window I wanted to create a surreal yet tranquil setting that links to the brand identity the five focal elements are stylized tarot cards supported within archways which aim to invite the viewer to peek into their future and this is the wedding Suite window here the key imagery includes an altar centered between a dawn shelving found in the stall a chandelier also hangs in the foreground above arranged wedding flowers vital to this illustration was the drape curtains being lifted symbolic of new beginnings and the spectacle of the special day which the brand is centered around if you like to check them out they'll be up till the end of the month at selfridges on Oxford Street and lastly I'd just like to thank it's nice that for having me today I hope you enjoyed it thank you thank you