malika

AN INTERVEIW WITH

Malika Favre is a French artist based in Barcelona.
Her bold, minimal style – often described as Pop
Art meets OpArt – is a striking lesson in the use of
positive/negative space and colour.
Her unmistakable style has established her as one of
Europe’s most sought after graphic artists. Malika’s
clients include The New Yorker, Vogue, BAFTA,
Sephora and Penguin Books, amongst many others.

How has your
upbringing
influenced your
relationship with
creativity?

My upbringing
has greatly
shaped the artist
I am today. You
could say that
my mom taught
me how to draw
and my dad
taught me how
to look at the
world. I feel very
fortunate to have
grown up in a
family without
taboos, open to
dialogue and full
of love.

What role does
color play
within your
illustrations and
how do you
decide on a
color palette?

I’m obsessed
with bold and
“apologetic” colors.
But perhaps even
more, I’m interested
in the relationship
between them,
which can really
reinforce the
message or mood
that I’m hoping to
recreate in a given
piece. Colors have
a lot to do with
how we feel and
how we read a
piece of art on an
emotional level.
Their purpose isn’t
to imitate reality,
but to be visually
pleasing. More
than just colors,
I’m entranced by
the relationship
between them, how
one can shade or
illuminate another

Are there any
particular
themes you’re
passionate about
interpreting?

There are many
themes I favor in my
work, like women
or eroticism for
example. When
I first began as
an independent
illustrator, women
were the central
theme of my style.
Being a woman
myself, I tend
to highlight this
eclectic collection
of diverse women
as an expression
of my femininity:
strong, independent,
sensual, and free.
My interests have
since evolved along
with my work, and
I began to explore
other themes
like traveling,
architecture, and
film.

how do you
choose what
to include and
omit in an
illustration?

There are many ways to tell
the same story. Editorial
illustration is the art of
recounting often complex
stories with a single image.
In this case, I focus mostly
on the base concept rather
than on the visual result.
There’s always a first idea
that comes after reading
an article or designing
a cover, so I start with a
sketch of the most obvious
and then I set it aside. This
gives me freedom to start
approaching the subject
from different angles.
The editorial illustration
is like a gym — the more
you exercise, the better
you become. Covers are
often the hardest to realize
because they are typically
unrelated to a subject or
a specific article. Their
function is to reassume an
entire publication. In the
case of covers, I usually
begin from a very personal
interpretation that I think
will engage the reader.

How do
you know
when a
piece is
finished?

I think it depends
on the illustrator. I
redefine the image
while I’m drawing
but I also tend to
go ahead rather
than rethink what
I’ve already drawn
too much. I can
redefine a line for
hours, but once
I’ve finished I don’t
look back. When I
draw the last line,
the piece is finished.
Sometimes I return
to an illustration
to change small
details but once it’s
been sent, I don’t
touch it anymore.
Of course, when
I see old works of
mine I notice the
small imperfections,
but they only make
me smile.

How do
you find a
distinct and
personal visual
language?
What are you
inspired by?

For me, that personal
language happened in a
rather organic way and
think I really only found
my voice around the age
of twenty. My style is a
combination of things I
love, that I've seen, and
that I've lived: studying
graphic design taught
me to synthesize, render
my images as clean
as possible with sharp
lines, and to use a color
palette reduced to the
minimum. My love for
film taught me to create
cinematic angles and
compositions studied
down to the last detail,
while my interest in math
and geometry have had
a great impact on the
abstractness of my work.
To really posses a visual
language, the origin has
to be genuine.

Are there any
professional
challenges that
you’d like to
tackle in the
future?

I think that the
next challenge
for me will be
more personal
rather than
professional. I’ve
spent the last ten
years developing
my career and
I’m planning on
spending the
next ten doing
the same for my
private life.

This is my own self portrait based on malika farves work