Renaissance

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m Dani, a year two graphic communications student. On the side, I do a bit of photography and illustration work—you can view my work on my Instagram page, @visualsoftcore. I’m also a vocalist for a band-in-progress, which means we’re not quite ready to perform yet.

When and how did you decide to pursue design? 
I knew I wanted to do art since my O-Levels, so I chose to pursue design in ITE, where I did visual merchandising and learnt how to use Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and all that. And this year, when I finally got my first iPad, I started to do illustrations.

I guess it’s always been an interest of mine ever since I was young. I was a creative kid, and it helped that my mum also didn’t really place much emphasis on my academic grades—she just wanted me to be as expressive as possible. She’s been very supportive of me pursuing a more creative route because she actually wanted to do art when she was younger, but during her time, it was very expensive, so I guess I’m in a way living the dream.

Is there a project that you’re working on right now?
Right now I’ve been working on a photo book for my photography module. It’s a depiction of a guy trying to reconnect with himself through nature—walking around nature, looking at things, seeing how it could help him heal himself. It’s mainly in a first-person point-of-view, but I’m also adding in pictures from a third-person’s point-of-view. I guess the entire topic ties to just taking the time to do things to feel like yourself again.

But outside of that, I’ve been doing a lot of experimental photography and have been working on illustrations here and there, but to be honest, I haven’t touched my iPad in quite a while (laughs).

How would you describe your illustration style?
I would say it’s very in-your-face, very colourful, and a bit like graffiti. I hang around a lot at this place called Shrub, a multi-use space for independent artists, in Golden Mile. Naturally, I feel inspired by their style, but I try to incorporate my own elements into my work because I’m not a traditionally trained artist, so I want to make things that people can recognise and relate to easily.

I do feel like traditional art can be kind of indistinguishable because a lot of the time, it’s the same thing, same methods. So I always try to do something different with print, but honestly, I just do it because I like it. It doesn’t really matter what people think.

And to me there are really no boundaries to art because it’s your own opinion on what you see as creative. Sometimes, it’s just there but you have to seek it. If you feel restricted, then it’s only because you are restricting yourself, and you just have to think outside of the box.

Where do you see yourself in five years? 
Five years time, I’ll probably be working at maybe an advertising firm or a graphic design collective or something? But I guess I’ll start small, doing corporate first and then slowly branch out. So fingers crossed I get to work for a graphic design collective like Foreign Policy.