VISITING PRACTITIONER Victo Ngai

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a lecture led by Victo Ngai, who featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Art and Style. I found both her work and her attitude towards illustration incredibly inspirational, as her unrelenting ambition and commitment to her work has meant she has thrived in her chosen style.

One of the main things which resonated with me was how she talked about publication deadlines, and how once, due to a power outage, the deadline was moved up a few hours, meaning she had to quickly finish her piece, to a standard which she says she was not happy with. However, this made me realise just how important it is to adhere to deadlines, as it is far more important to have a finished illustration to go to print rather than no image at all. 

Ngai also talked about the process of creating imagery for clients, as she said that often the bigger clients were more specific and particular about what they wanted, meaning they were often the projects with less freedom, which she said she enjoyed a lot less. In addition she explained how larger clients would have much more discourse with her, with several rough versions being sent back and forth before a final composition was decided upon and Ngai was able to develop her work using colour. 

Overall I thought the talk was incredibly inspirational, as her commitment and dedication really shone through in both her work and her achievements, which is really something I would love to emulate in my own practice.