Interview with Giulia Zoavo - Illustrator
I had the pleasure to interview Giulia Zoavo, a Brooklyn-based illustrator, to ask her few questions about her story and work.
About Giulia
Giulia Zoavo is an illustrator and graphic designer, grew up between Reggio Emilia and Milan, today she lives in New York. In recent years she has collaborated with international agencies and clients (Sagmeister & Walsh, BBDO, Logitech, The New York Times), designed in live streaming for Adobe and so many other cool stuff.
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself? How did you become an illustrator? Is it a passion you've always had or have you started to cultivate it over time?
Ciao! My name is Giulia and I am an emilian illustrator grafted to New York. I work for commercial and editorial projects, realizing simple geometric shapes to tell complex stories and concepts, with a touch of humor.
My path is common to many illustrators: I have always preferred to create from scratch rather than following rules, but I didn't know how the need to tell stories could be translated into a job. Than I discovered that in advertising there were people who did just that by profession, create by writing and drawing: I enrolled in an advertising and graphic design course and that’s it!
It all started.
2. You worked as a graphic designer in the past, a job you did full time. At some point you decided to give up everything and follow your passion for illustration, how did you come to this decision?
Not being a very impulsive person, it all happened in stages, very naturally. Over the years, I realized that what I liked most (and was best) was working with concepts, turning ideas into simple images, and that I was more comfortable when I had to draw icons and small illustrations. I felt that this was my path, but it scared me to start a new path with all the challenges it entailed. What gave me the definitive push were some personal projects, which allowed me to reach my first clients as a freelancer, and portfolio reviews, in which I showed my portfolio to expert illustrators and received positive feedback.
In the meantime, I received more and more requests for collaborations from potential clients, so I took courage and quit my job: it was not easy and not everyone immediately understood why I did it, but exactly five years have passed since then, and if I look back I think it was the right choice.
New York has been a constant source of inspiration, without which I would not have been able to conceive many of the projects that have allowed me to grow and reach new clients and important works
3. Can you tell us why you came to Brooklyn? Did you know someone, maybe you had already been there or did you just jump into the void?
Living in the USA was a dream that I kept in my drawer but that seemed unattainable to me. Every now and then I threw it there, especially in the family, when they asked me when I would settle down and I replied “first I have to move to New York, then we'll see!”. Then, when I least expected it and was taken by something else (a great classic!) The opportunity really came. It was not long after I started my freelance adventure: one day an email came from Sagmeister & Walsh, one of the studios I admired the most; after finding my personal project on a site, they were interested in collaborating, initially at a distance. When the project became more challenging and the opportunity arose to collaborate in person, I realized that this was the opportunity to be taken on the fly, the train that doesn't come back. Even though it meant starting all over again almost all over, I got a work visa and left for New York.
4. As an illustrator you have worked with the most famous brands in the world, what is the project that, professionally, made you grow the most and why?
Certainly collaborating with American brands, especially at the beginning, in a language that is not my mother tongue and catapulted into a new country, forced me to overcome many insecurities and grow both personally and professionally. Perhaps on top of the various experiences I put the collaborations with Adobe, for which even recently I was a guest of the live streams dedicated to vector drawing: these are two-hour sessions in which I found myself simultaneously drawing live and telling about me and my work, answering live chat questions. Seeing my work recognized, both by such a large and varied community, and by the company that produces the programs with which I design every day (and which is a world leader in the production of software for creatives), was a fundamental step in my path as an illustrator.
5. What did you find in Brooklyn that you didn't find in Italy? Would you come back?
I often wonder how different my career would have been if I hadn't come here, but it's hard to find an answer. In the USA I was able to meet and work with professionals and clients who seemed unreachable from Italy, and I have the feeling that it gave me more credibility: being able to grow in such a competitive and desired city is always a business card, almost a guarantee of quality in the eyes of colleagues and customers. In addition, New York has been a constant source of inspiration, without which I would not have been able to conceive many of the projects that have allowed me to grow and reach new clients and important works.
It is difficult to say what the future holds: I have been here relatively recently and, although I miss my affections, here I have found many possibilities and a respect for creative work that I sometimes lacked when I worked in Italy. But I hope things get better and for sure, when the time is right, I'll be back :)
Thanks a lot to Giulia!
All images used in this article (cover of the ‘Sunday NYTimes Magazine’ and ‘Italian Plates’) and two of all Giulia’s projects. You can discover more and keep in touch with her by visiting giuliazoavo.com
Thanks for reading! 🙏
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