An East Kilbride illustrator is celebrating the end of a very successful year.
Katie Smith, 21, from Calderwood, is an illustrator currently studying at Glasgow School of Art.
Katie’s work really took off in 2020, working with brands such as Bare Minerals, Iolla, even megastar singer, Shania Twain.
She said: “I’ve always had an interest in drawing from as far back as I know and I always did well in art as a subject.
“It wasn’t until my later years in school I started looking at illustration as a creative practice.”
Katie says the design elements of illustration made more sense to her than fine art and enjoyed the idea of having a client in mind that she was creating work for – creating for someone else rather than herself.
She went on: “This suited me and felt more gratifying as a means of work, so I started studying ‘visual communication; illustration’ at City of Glasgow College.
“When I was in college I decided it was best to volunteer and get myself out into the creative community in Glasgow, to meet other designers first hand and see how they work, to get advice on practitioner skills.
“I volunteered at Graphic Design Festival two years ago and had the best experience meeting so many designers in the industry of graphic design and illustration.”
The festival taught Katie the importance of networking and keeping in contact with design agencies – this gave her an accountability almost for professionals who were keeping tabs on her progression and work.
She continued: “I started my art Instagram and decided it was important to show people my work and to stop being scared of criticism.
“What I didn’t realise when I started my Instagram was that I was actually building a portfolio of work to showcase and give easy access for people to see what I’m about.”
Studying at Glasgow School of Art has helped Katie build and improve her skills, as well as work with varous brands and magazines.
She has designed covers for The Skinny and helped create art for an Iolla campaign.
She said: “I couldn’t be any happier studying at Glasgow School of Art, I’ve found my experience to be incredibly engaging and pro-active. I study ‘communication design’, which is a mix of photography, graphic design and illustration.
“I will be choosing my specialism of illustration next year, the course really allows me to think more critically about design and they teach us to be forward thinking.
“Last year I started working freelance and was regularly being commissioned to illustrate alongside articles in The Skinny Magazine. From there they let me illustrate their front cover for September 2019 – with both the exposure of the magazine and my Instagram, other jobs started coming my way.
“I illustrated a Christmas campaign for IOLLA, an eyewear company based in Glasgow, at the end of last year and this built up my confidence to start working with brands.”
Looking ahead to 2021, Katie hopes to expand on her work and style as well as grow her career as a freelance illustrator.
“I have only just started my career as an illustrator and I’m excited to see how my style will form and change over time," she added.
“At the moment my work is very heavily reliant on bright colours and promoting a positive mental attitude, which is an element I never want to lose. I’m very much looking forward to some work I have in the pipelines that should come out next year in 2021.”
