We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shideh Ghandeharizadeh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shideh below.

Alright, Shideh thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I wish I had a regular job all the time. An art job is still a job. I get tired and frustrated with my work all the time. On top of that the art industry is in a pretty volatile place right now. I have trouble finding illustration jobs and often find myself working gigs that don’t extremely fit my skill set.

But with the recent rise of AI Image generators, I’ve had to really examine and affirm why I want to make my living through art. And it’s a really simple answer – I love it. The image making process for me is a very solitary one — I’m constantly working with and problem solving with myself. And I really like working on my own. Our jobs are such a big part of our lives and I’m really lucky I get to spend so much of my time drawing. So yes, I’m happy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m an illustrator and motion designer born, raised, and based in Los Angeles. I work with both commercial and editorial clients. On the editorial side I work with my clients to create an image or portrait to go along with their article or publication. On the commercial side I work with motion graphics studios and design styleframes, characters, and storyboards for different animated commercials.

I’m a very multifaceted designer and consider myself to be a problem solver illustrator. I love when clients come to me with a highly specific brief. I genuinely feel most creative when I have to work with a ton of constraints. I think that’s what attracts me to commercial and motion design work so much because you have to work within a brand’s guidelines and style.

My personal expression comes through my zines and comics which I do on the side. You can find me at your local zinefests and art markets selling my personal work. I really enjoy the sense of community zines create.

My work is filled with lots of shapes and colors. I enjoy simplicity and abstraction in my work and creating visual shorthands to communicate complex ideas. If you want an illustration that pops off the page and is very eye catching – I’m your girl.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of my early repeat clients (and current clients) is NPR’s NextGen Radio (Hi Doug!). It’s a really fun gig where each week NextGen brings in junior reporters and helps them complete a full audio and web story. Our job as illustrators is to illustrate a banner image for each reporter’s story and … illustrate their portraits. I was very excited for the first part, not so much the second.

Before that I definitely wouldn’t consider myself a portrait artist by any means. I had experience in editorial illustration, styleframes, etc but my style was very minimalist and shape based. I didn’t think it would work well in portraiture and capturing a subject’s likeness.

The first few portraits I did turned out okay but weren’t very fun for me and the final result looked sub-par. I tried doing what I thought the client wanted rather than doing something I enjoyed.

Once I realized that I wasn’t being dropped as an illustrator and was staying on the team I felt determined to lean into what I like to do – shapes and colors. I started working in a new style (I like to call it my piecemeal portraiture) where the portraits are a lot more abstract and shape based. It changed portraits from an arduous side task to one of my main gigs.

It’s only been a year but I’ve had a lot of success with my piecemeal portraits. I’ve gotten new clients specifically commissioning me for that style and I got my first illustration award (American Illustration 42) for my very first piecemeal portrait. I now consider portraiture to be one of my main skills which would have genuinely shocked me if you told me that a year ago.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shadeyart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadey.art/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shideh-ghandeharizadeh-217795157/

Image Credits
Norman Peng Trenyce Tong