Sometimes the best lyrics are the ones that our ears just completely fail at actually hearing correctly.
That was the idea behind our “Misheard Lyrics” challenge. And Arkady – a.k.a “Arkzai” – created a combination that sweet dreams are made of: pizza and the ’80s song “Sweet Dreams (are Made of This).”
We talked to this Tel Aviv-based designer about pizza, cats, and their “cheesy” pizza art. Check out the interview below!
Have any awesome misheard lyrics of your own? Leave ’em in the comments!
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Tell us a little about yourself!
The hardest question of all :)
I’m based in Tel Aviv, Israel, A product and interaction designer by day and an aspiring illustrator by night. I’m kinda hyperactive so I’m really into doing a lot of things such as dancing, pilates, acro-yoga, volleyball…and the list go on. On my downtime I like to watch cartoons, standup, and play video games.
What attracted you to this challenge?
The potential to do something pizza-related.
Did you have any other “misheard lyric” designs you were thinking about doing?
At some point I thought about doing the “Bohemian Rhapsody” moose joke… but my love for pizza prevailed.
Are these lyrics you yourself have misheard or misheard lyrics you’ve heard others mishear?
Well first of all I’m a HUGE pizza fan :) I don’t know how it started but it was kind of a running gag between me and a friend.
How would you define your style? How has it developed?
Thanks :) I don’t really feel l have a well-defined style, I like to experiment with different design and illustration techniques.
I actually owe my thanks to Threadless for helping me develop my style; there are so many great designers on Threadless and I had so many failed designs over the years that it always made me push myself to improve my technique and style.
And you do design for a living?
Yep, I’m an interaction and product designer for a HUGE tech company. I really enjoy working on anything that involves illustration or animation since it’s not something I usually do in my day to day work.
On your site, you have something called “Code Sketching” – that looks really cool, explain that a little bit!
Back when I was studying interaction design I was really into coding, and when processing started to pick up I found this cool drawing library (I don’t recall who made it, so sorry no shout out, thanks for the awesome work whoever you are) and started playing with the code until I landed on the style I liked and was able to export it to Photoshop for fine-tuning.
You’ve won a few challenges before – What do you think attracts people to your art?
I honestly have no idea…These design challenges are my break from my day to day work where I can just illustrate and design silly things I like, so I guess people can relate to pizza, cats and video games.
What’s the art scene like in Israel?
The design and art scene in Israel is mainly based in Tel Aviv, and it’s awesome. We have so many super talented people here, but it’s kind of hard to make a living doing art, so a lot of very talented designers & artists usually sell their soul…meaning go work in tech. The more adventurous ones move to the US or Europe.
Does being in Israel ever inspire you creatively?
It’s hard to say. Tel Aviv is a very interesting city and there’s always something cool to do. But I guess having access to a high speed internet connection is my biggest inspiration :)
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
The first time I got paid for doing an illustration.
Why do you do art? What drives you?
It’s my little escape, I really like to illustrate and just doing it for the fun of it without any clients except my own amusement. What drives me to continue is the positive social feedback and to keep improving my skills…and the nice “rewards” don’t hurt :)
