domingo, 19 de mayo de 2013

#2wTREE_002 - Chatibuky, where your world ends and mine begins.

Is the wolf as wild as the say in the stories?  courtesy of Chatibuky 

   Chatibuky is Julia Beamud, an illustrator from the same province in Spain as me, Castilla - La Mancha. She worked as a teacher in School of Art "Pedro Almodóvar" of Ciudad Real. Nowadays though she is based in London. Julia has decided to take a sabbatical so that she can work as a volunteer for a Childrens Charity. At the same time she is also improving her skills by attending design courses, workshops, exhibitions theaters,...and generally trying make the most of the opportunities available to her.

   I realized that Chatibuky was not a common name. So when I first started speaking to Julia I wanted to know the origins of the name, and one of my first questions was; What is the story of Chatibuky? 

   Chatibuky is an evocation of my childhood. My father used to call my mother this word. When he returned from work and opened the door of my house the first thing that he would say to her, cheerfully, would be: Chatibuky!!!. Sometimes he also called us like this. It brings back memories of The sound of the extractor fan in my house, my mother in the kitchen, my brother and me playing in the living room. Chatibuky means to me all these things. It was an affectionate word for my father, so I decided to register as my brand name in 2011. 


The wind tries to take me but can not  courtesy of Chatibuky 

    How do you understand Chatibuky? 

   I use Chatibuky for my own product development. In my case, illustration and graphic design go hand in hand. Everything I do looks very childish, it does not mean that I am focused only on children. I notice that the people I am trying to appeal to a wide age range. I am want to reach out to the child that still remains inside of us. 

   It looks like you have a diverse range of different clients, Who are they? 

   By choice, I left graphic design about one year or so ago to focused solely on illustration. I wanted to try to do my best at this, but graphic design, and my work as a teacher did not allow me enough time to work as an illustrator. I decided to reject more work in graphic design and do what I really wanted to do. The people who I deal with now are very different. They are people who like my work, and choose to buy it to decorate a bedroom or a living room and they ask me to make some illustrations or vinyl. 
Julia among legless birds 

   How do you interact with them? 

  I want my website to be a showcase of my work and my blog as well works in parallel because it is more spontaneous. I conceive y blog as a diary to show what I do. I like the idea of sharing the process of my projects with my readers. 

   As an architect I am really interesting in your design process from the moment that the idea starts until reach an outcome. How do you work out the concept in the field of illustration? 


   I can conceive and develop my projects in any way and any time. The length of the project can be as long as whatever is required by the idea. A simple idea for a project can appear during a train journey, sitting on a bench or working on another project, so I just make notes and sketches and wait until the idea formulates. Ideas are around you, even when you dream, so we just need to know how to see. It is also important to be free of them because they can become overwhelming. 

   After having a clear vision about one idea, I attempt to develop it using sketches until I feel so involved with it that my concern turns to being about whether it will be a single illustration, a series or something else. 

  The actual process is another story. The most enjoyable part is doing the sketches to investigate what I am looking for, the wording and the ideas. To Illustrate for other people's ideas is different, the process is closed but equally rewarding. 

The longer our legs were for running the more tormented we were, we had to cut them shorter to feel more and more free, and the less further away we could be, the further away we dreamt...  courtesy of Chatibuky









  I remember that when we met each other you used to write sentences you heard in your notebook. You were working in a project called “Microhistories” at that time, can I know more about this project? 

  That was a daily exercise, that I impose on myself of writing y thoughts and feelings during those days and months. I had so many notes but finally I illustrated the most meaningful to me. Each illustration define its own feelings. Doing what you like is more important than the outcome. You have to shape them as you think, and later they go wherever they have to go. 

   On your website I also notice that you have interesting collaborations in musical events. What is your experience of work in the music field? 

Explosión local  art work  
courtesy of Chatibuky
   Explosión Local, a music festival in Ciudad Real, has been the most representative work in this field. Additionally I have done posters for concerts and album artwork. Normally organizers had always a rough idea of what they wanted as it was the case of Explosión Local. First I had to understand the history of the event, next I needed to understand the features in order to start the design process and, of course, it was really important to understand the work previous events in order to maintain continuity. 

   Finally I was given near total freedom of the creative process and I only had to adjust my work to a few guidelines. 

   Nowadays you are based in London in your sabbatical but what is your current project? 

   I have just published a short childrens story about Doña Escotofina, another character from one of of my childhood experiences. My grandmother used to call me this with a little humor. It was last year when I thought to make Doña Escotofina one of my personal projects. I was working hard in sketches to bring her to life. Like her, I have more projects but she was lucky to go out. 

Miss Escotofina and the things she likes and dislikes
  
courtesy of Chatibuky
   What was the motivation to develop this project of Doña Escotofina? 

  Many years ago I had a desire to be a volunteer in a disadvantaged country. Two years ago I was visiting Cambodia, a wonderful country, where kids, especially girls, have no so many resources. Prostitution is very obvious on the streets. I saw things that are not so fair but the innocence and craftiness of those kids who look happy with almost nothing made me wonder about so many things. 

   I had visited other places before, but after my visit to Cambodia I wanted to do something. A friend of mine knew about a British charity that works with children in Malawi. We contacted them to share the idea and suddenly Doña Escotofina came alive to try to help the children in that country a little. It has been a hard project to develop for financial issues. I thought that it would have been easier but It turned out more complicated. I learnt to encourage myself when something were difficult and no go back. 

   In the end we made it. 

1 balloon is enough for flying
  
courtesy of Chatibuky
   When I look to details in Chatibuky logo I see that you keep same typographic characters but sometimes it appears a cat, a fish or a balloon, what do you mean by the differences? 

   I wanted to have the logo reflect somethings of my personality using these images as a trademark: 

   The Cat came about, having always found them quite arrogant animals until one day I found one abandoned by her mother in the patio of our house. I decided to keep it and found a wonderful friend. The characteristic is independence.


   The Fish. I normally swim, so, sometimes I feel like a fish. My aunt taught me in a summer house when I was little girl. Swimming is like flying, floating in the water and moving around is amazing. This is a kind of freedom impossible to find. It is only you and the water. 

   The Balloon. You can never stop flying. Sometimes our legs are so heavy for walking and we are afraid to start new projects or even go to new places, especially we are afraid of the unknown and change. I think this is a mistake because the only thing that can happen is that you will learn new things to keep flying in this life.

Chatibuky is me. 

   Julia says that her job as an illustrator is always outside of teaching, both are two different things and she is not the same Julia working as an illustrator and as a teacher. For me, she is another legless bird around and this is the main reason to invite her to be a part of this chapter of 2wTree. Thank for your collaboration. Really appreciated, Julia.

        www.chatibuky.com          
  
Chatibuky products here

3 comentarios:

  1. love it!!!!!!!

    Narunja Kes.

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  2. Pero lo de usted señor Velez ya tiene un nivel... ten en cuenta que ya me cuesta un poco seguir la entrevista, pero la chica espontánea y los diseños muy bonitos. Parece que le dan menos vueltas que los arquitectos a las ideas.

    Antonio

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