Orange you glad we have primary colors? Ok, not the best joke – but we do owe a lot to the red+yellow+blue color combo that makes Keith Haring’s art so vibrant, that makes pop art pop, that gave Piet Mondrian his palette. And the winner of our Primary Colors challenge made a design that picked up what we were puttin’ down (and also makes us a little hungry). Artist Taby Kislanov (Plan8) created a design that captures a little humor, a little cuteness, and a little celebration of the primary colors that we love. We talked to this first-time challenge winner all about this big win, the wonderfully pop-culture-centric designs in the Plan8 Artist Shop, and more! Scroll and get to know this new challenge-winner on the scene.
. . .
Your first win AND first submission! Yay! Tell us a little bit about yourself!
Right?? How exciting! I first got involved with art in my early teens, working with comics and 2D animation, then developing my work into illustration and graphic design as I grew older. About three years ago, I decided to expand my work for apparel. For my love of all things nerdy and pop culture, I felt like this would bring it all together and also support my work. About me: I love coffee, music, cosplaying, drawing, and nerding out with friends about movies, TV shows, and all the cool stuff we obsess about. I have a cat, Felix, and a dog, Pepperone.
What attracted you to this challenge?
Besides fun and giving a try to a Threadless challenge for the first time, it’s a reminder of the basics of design and a chance to break the basics to bring out something creative.
What inspired this design? Did you have any other ideas for this challenge?
What are your tools of the trade?
For apparel, I usually draw most of the stuff on Illustrator, then adapt and finish on Photoshop. But I’m a huge enthusiast of traditional tools. I use real paper and ink regularly.
Tell me about Plan8! What does the name mean?
When I started out creating my designs for t-shirts it was meant to be a segment of my work, so I didn’t want to use just my name, as I’ve been using it already for other projects. It was meant to be something different and a name/logo representing my passion for all things science and science-fiction, horror, and pop culture all mashed up. I thought about aliens, planets, galaxies and the day of my birthday, which is June 8th. So that’s how “Planet 8” came out, but the short version sounds cooler. Now I like to think it’s the fictional planet I came from.
Your Women of Science series is awesome – when did you start this? Is it a regular series? Do you have a favorite badass lady from history?
Oh, thank you! I like them so much! I started earlier this year, it is meant to be a bigger collection, I have a few other ladies of science in line. I want to remind people to never forget how women in history were essential to the development of the modern world. And it’s a shame how the same world dismisses them so frequently for being female. So we have to praise them as much as possible. I already included one of my favorites, Sally Ride! She’s everything I wanted to be.
What’s your creative philosophy?
Whatever you do, first create for your own happiness. Others will eventually like it too.
Any books/podcasts you’d recommend for fellow creatives, pop culture fans, etc?
I’m running behind in this whole podcast thing, but I do love books and comics. I’d recommend the Mouse Guard series by David Petersen, Paper Girls by Brian Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, all books by Sarah Andersen, and this one is a little older but the Wet Moon series by Ross Campbell has a special place in my heart, along with anything from Jean Giraud or Enki Bilal, Hergé, Katsuhiro Otomo, Crepax… I could go on forever with this list, really.
Anything else you’d like to share?
We’re all living a difficult moment so I’ll quote the remarkable words spoken by the 12th Doctor: “Never be cruel, never be cowardly. Remember – hate is always foolish and love, is always wise. Always try to be nice and never fail to be kind.” I cut out the part where he says “never ever eat pears”, because pears are pretty good.
