- December 14, 2020
Philipa Rabbit: “Invest in self-initiated projects and keep your portfolio fresh and relevant”
Reading Time: 3 minutesSpecialising in character design, illustration for motion, UI and branding design, the London based Portuguese illustrator Philipa Rabbit aspires to bring the combination of design and illustration to all of her projects.
In conversation with Neolo, she told us how is being an entrepreneur, how she works and how to implement UI design.
How did you come up with the idea of entrepreneurship?
I started my career in the advertisement industry, working permanently in agencies like BBDO Proximity and Isobar as a digital designer. I worked with amazing creative directors with whom I learned a lot, but I craved more freedom to pursue my career in illustration and to be able to choose the right projects so I could have a better portfolio. I think that was what gave me the idea to pursue a more entrepreneur path and go freelance.
How would you define working freelance?
I can definitely say it has been super rewarding career-wise. I’m finally in a position where I’m able to choose the projects I want to work on, and everything I do now is with the goal of mastering my craft and improving my portfolio. I also love being able to have free time to work on personal projects if I want to.
What’s your experience in digital design? How do you combine it with being an illustrator?
I have a graduation in Communication Design, but I have always been interested in illustration, so much that I ended up taking an illustration course at a technical school of arts and technology back in Portugal. Since that, I’ve always included illustration work in my portfolio. I truly believe as a creative person we should always aim to create the type of work we want to do more of, through self-initiated projects, because that eventually attracts the right clients. Once people could see how I combine digital design and illustration I started to receive more project inquiries aligned with my personal work.
How do you work with your clients? How is your business today?
As a freelance illustrator, digital designer and art director, I help companies communicate their ideas through the power of illustration to bring their brands to life across the advertising and animation media. I have since collaborated with global brands, agencies, animation studios and magazines providing illustration, design and art direction for a broad range of digital projects. My work is specialised in character design, illustration for motion, UI and branding design.
How do you combine illustration for motion, UI and branding design?
Funny enough, I don’t think I ever had the opportunity to combine all of those three specific things into one project. But I can say, for example, I worked on a project this year where I was able to design a website for a French sheet music subscription company named Jellynote. Then as an art director, I also established their new brand identity where illustration became a strong part of the new identity. Finally, I ended up illustrating a series of spot illustrations to go into the different pages of their new website.
What can you say about responsive design? What do you think are the advantages of UI/UX design?
I think it is not a question anymore, it’s a necessity!
If there’s a website online, that should be adapted to all different screens possible, so the user experience is optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile.
Using illustration, especially a more ‘vector’ style type of illustration, it can be very creative as a UI designer because I can use the same illustration in different approaches for the different screens by rearranging the elements. You can’t do that with photography.
Would you recommend WordPress? What would you say about it?
I’ve always used WordPress for my portfolios. As a digital designer, I always aimed to fully control the way my portfolio looks and its presented to the world because at the end of the day my website/portfolio it’s also part of my brand identity. At the moment I use Semplice, which for me is the most advanced online portfolio system based on WordPress for creative people.
If you have to give one tip to an entrepreneur, what would it be?
For freelance creatives, I would say to invest in self-initiated projects and keep your portfolio fresh and relevant.
I know how easy it is to put that task aside, then instead you end up having a lot more work to update and it’s just a dreadful task to do so. Doing self-initiated projects can be the best opportunity to gain mastery over our craft. More importantly, they can help us find our voice. We can explore and connect different things we are interested in. Through this, we not only get to express ourselves clearly but also find, strengthen and develop our skills and ultimately improve our portfolios.
Do you want to create your own online portfolio?
