Felicia Chiao is an industrial designer, illustrator, and toy maker who is now also designing for the food industry, whose eye catching imagery is resonating with the mood of many currently in lockdown around the globe… although the circulated work was created long before the Coronavirus Pandemic.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, originally from Sugar Land, Texas, Chiao describes herself as an “industrial designer by day an illustrator by night”, balancing out her work as an industrial designer at IDEO with imaginative drawings rendered in copic marker and gel ink pens.
An avid sketchbook enthusiast, Chiao has always had a love for trivial objects that inspire happiness, and strives to emulate that sense of simple joy in her work. Her experience ranges from drawing and concept design to woodworking and fine arts, giving her work variety in materials as well as approach.
Despite the differences between these skills, her work has a common thread: to make people happy.
Posting her amazing imagery on Instagram and Tumblr, Chiao says she always loved drawing as a child, but didn’t actually get serious about art until high school.
“At first, I was just doodling on my homework and in my notebooks in my spare time,” she revealed in an item for the IDEO web site, “but by my senior year I thought it would be cool to set a deadline, and complete a sketchbook front to back in one year. It was a good outlet for my stressed and angsty teenage self. The first one took a while – definitely more than a year – but after completing it, I was hooked.
“In a way, these notebooks act as a diary for me,” she continues. “I remember where I was mentally and emotionally for each drawing. Over time, my work has become a lot less about how angry I was that day, and more about colors, patterns, and shapes.”
Central to some of her art is a bald, baby-like thing Chiao created to represent a person or a feeling she was having.
“A lot of people have told me they can relate to my work, and I think it’s because of that character,” she notes. “It has no real defining features other than looking vaguely human, so a lot of people can put themselves in its shoes.
“I often get asked if it’s a boy or a girl or this or that, but it really doesn’t matter what it is.
Illustration remains a side project for Chiao, a counterpoint to her professional life that she began in earnest while in college for industrial design. “It’s great having both,” she told the This Is Colossal web site, “because I find that design work is about solving problems for others while illustration can be completely selfish and about me. It creates a good balance.”
“I like to draw simple lines and shapes, and for each composition, I typically just wing it,” she has also said of her approach to drawing. “I’m sure there’s a meaning to whatever I’m drawing, but when I’m working on it, I’m actually not thinking too hard about it. It’s all stream of consciousness. I draw to de-stress and because it’s fun.”
We could all take from that attitude right now, but I very much doubt – my doodling would be as impressive as Felicia’s!
WEB LINKS
• Felicia Chiao on Tumblr | Instagram | Buy Prints on Society 6 | Behance
• Books and prints of Felicia’s work are also available from Static Medium (books currently sold out)
• Where’s My Moleskine: Felicia Chiao
• Felicia Chiao on Advanced CAD
With thanks to Wamberto Nicomedes for drawing my attention to Felicia’s work
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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