With SND 45 in the books, board member Martina Ibáñez-Baldor set out to ask this year’s winners about their portfolios and tips for the rest of us. Avalon Nuovo, freelancer illustrator, won a Silver print award for individual portfolio in the SND 45 print competition.
What is your current job title, and how long have you been in that role?
I’m an illustrator, and I’ve been freelancing full-time since 2018. I started out illustrating some children’s nonfiction titles for Nobrow/Flying Eye Books (where I worked briefly as an editor) and since then have branched out pretty widely. I now do a fairly even balance of editorial and commercial illustration, with occasional work in publishing.
What do you love about designing for digital?
Illustrating for digital output is always exciting for me because it basically means I can use whatever colours I want. Illustrating for print always brings the challenge of making imagery that is rich but also has enough contrast, the right colours, and enough brightness that it will translate just as nicely into ink and paper. Digital work gives a lot more freedom— and I’m a sucker for a beautiful cobalt blue, which is nearly impossible to achieve with a lot of standard print processes.
Which of these project was the most challenging?
A particularly challenging digital assignment I worked one was an animation I made last year for Microsoft during pride month. I was entrusted with the personal story of a Microsoft employee who shared his experience of coming out as gay, and his experience of feeling like the ‘other’ versus how he tries to use his senior position to foster inclusivity in his workplace.
A lot of what made the project difficult was the time and scope— I worked on it solo, and in all I had about a month to create a one-minute animated piece to accompany his interview. I had done plenty of animation before but never quite so much in so little time— it was definitely a trial by fire and I learned a lot of new motion graphics and 2D animation techniques very quickly as I tried to figure out how to execute my plan!
Aside from the technical challenges though, it also felt like quite an important task to be giving visual life to a very personal interview. I am also queer so I felt a lot of understanding for many of the experiences he shared, but even so it is no small thing to be trusted with someone’s story in this way, and I was often very consciously hoping that I was doing it justice.
What do you feel is the most important part of your design process?
It sounds obvious, but the sketching phase is really where I do most of my hard work and where the image takes shape. I always make quite finished-looking sketches for my images: I use looser pen lines, but I always already add all the shading and tones, so that it essentially looks like a fuzzy, black and white version of what the final will be.
Clients are always really happy with this of course, as it gives them a very clear idea of what the final will look like so there’s no uncertainty. But for myself I also find it really important because it allows me to make most of my design decisions early, when things are still loose, and really work out what the shapes are going to look like and make sure the darks and lights all work together. Because of this, the only decision I have to make during the final stage is colour, which I play around with after the lines and tones are drawn until I find the best result. Being able to let my mind wander and maybe enjoy an audiobook or some music while making the final drawing is part of what keeps the work meditative and enjoyable for me, because I’ve already done a lot of the thinking during the sketch stage.
What is your favorite piece in your portfolio from this year?
I often make illustrations for De Volkskrant, and I love to do it because I feel a lot of trust with the picture editors there. I tend to do my favourite pieces for them. Last year I made an illustration for the Oude Muziek Festival (a festival for music from the Middle Ages) which I absolutely loved making, and this year I made another image for them, this time about modern music festivals as ‘festival season’ begins. Both of them were really fun because I got to fill the scenes with lots of different characters, and the end result was a nice big cover image in the newspaper.
What advice would you give to designers who are looking to improve their portfolios?
I can’t speak for designers as the considerations for their portfolio are probably quite different. But for illustrators, especially those that are interested in working for editorial, I have to echo what my wisest teachers and some illustration heroes of mine had to say: make a lot of personal work, and share it! Established illustrators get work more easily because their client list proves their work is successful. But in the beginning, you have to make and share work that tells clients exactly what kind of images you want to make (be it lifestyle, political, portrait, conceptual, or any other niche) so that they know exactly what to hire you for.
It’s also crucial to make sure the work in your portfolio is what you want to make more of! If you made one or two really excellent illustrations, but they have a bunch of architecture in the background and you actually hate drawing architecture, then you shouldn’t put those illustrations front-and-center in your portfolio (I’m speaking from experience here!). Otherwise you’ll just keep getting clients who want drawings of buildings. Feature the kind of work you love making, because it will show your artistic voice in the best light and help you and your clients figure out what your strong suit is.