A few days ago we sat down to a cup of tea with Pamela Castillo in her lovely home studio in Santiago. The space was filled with her own colorful illustrations featuring playful characters that bring a cheerful life to the environment.
Pamela smiles as she tells us she has been a designer for seven years. She studied graphic design in college and to hone her craft took illustration workshops, which she credits in helping her discover and develop her own style. At present, Pamela works for a design agency, where she specializes in branding, but also works on several editorial and packaging projects. Though she enjoys and values her current position, her ultimate goal is to become an independent designer with her own clientele.
If she were to choose, Pamela says she favors branding design projects. They are by nature multidisciplinary. On top of design they require an extensive research phase, which takes several days of analysis and brainstorming. Besides her regular work at the agency, Pamela takes on freelance projects, particularly enjoying working with startups. She finds they are eager, responsive and the process is fluid and organic.
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Style and Techniques
When we arrived to her home, Pamela was working on a large painting. She explained that she was trying to play with lights and shadows on canvas versus the flat style on wood she mainly did in her previous work. She began this painting by drawing sketches on the canvas and then delineating the contours with black acrylic paint. When we got there she was in the process of applying the various layers of color in order to create textures.
Pamela also enjoys creating vector illustrations. Her digital work is very different from her analog work, varying in texture and color, but having the type of characters and stories as a common thread. Though she is partial to both Pamela prefers working on digital illustrations. In this internet empowered world, the digital format allows her to share and sell her work more easily through Etsy, online contests and her personal online network.
Inspirations
Pamela draws her artistic inspiration from various art forms like music, literature, paintings and especially photography. She says that though currently her work does not have a specific inspiration in the Chilean culture, she would like to explore the Chilean “flavor” in future works.Since she deals with several different mediums so do the artists that she admires. Paula Scher, Sagmeister and Walsh are among her favorite designers. Pamela finds their approach very interesting and respects that they bring their unique personal style to all their projects. She is a fan of agencies like IDEO, Pentagram. In the world of illustration, she mentions that Cleon Peterson, Camille Rose Garcia and Niark stand out in her mind.
The Future
Pamela’s dream projects are a giant digital illustration, something that might take her 5 to 6 months to create and a design project that would be for a good cause, like an NGO.Pamela is a bright, young artist and designer on the rise. We are very excited about Pamela’s first exhibition of her playful, eclectic paintings, which will take place in the gallery Taller de Rokha in Santiago.To explore more of Pamela’s work check out her portfolio on Behance: https://www.behance.net/disnois
