Today we’d like to introduce you to Katsy Garcia.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Katsy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Like many creatives, I started off as one of those artsy kids who was always drawing and doodling in class and getting in trouble for it. Throughout my childhood, I had many hobbies and outlets for creative expression, including summer art lessons, piano lessons, reading copious amounts of books, and 13 years of classical ballet training—however, it was only around high school where I started to take my art seriously and actually considered pursuing a creative career. And so, I decided to take up Multimedia Arts at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in my hometown of Manila, Philippines.
When I graduated from the program in 2016, I was confused. True to the name of the program, we had learned a little bit of everything, including graphic design, animation, illustration, user interface/user experience design, website and mobile app design, photography, and video production among others. I also worked for three years in my college’s student publications org—which in hindsight was a huge influence on my current affinity with editorial illustration—and so I had experience in writing and journalism as well. I had also done a couple of internships with a local artist and a branding and design studio. Like a true millennial, I wanted to do a little bit of everything—but I kicked off my first months out of college with a job as a graphic designer for an international company making design templates. At the same time, I was also doing freelance jobs, mostly in graphic design and branding.
To spare you the intricate details of this long and winding story—in the two years I spent working after college, I went through the age-old artistic crisis with the end result being a decision to focus on illustration. After two immersive internships, a job as a graphic designer, and several years of freelance work, I realized that as much as I loved the world of graphic design and branding, my heart wasn’t completely into it. I also noticed that I would always incorporate illustrative elements in my graphic design work and, over time, I felt myself being drawn to the illustration process over the design. Eventually, I switched over my work focus to illustration, but it wasn’t enough—in my home country, there are many illustration opportunities but priced at very low value—and so I had to take a strategic leap of faith. In order to work towards a sustainable and more lucrative career as an illustrator, I decided to segue into the international industry through a Master of Fine Arts degree in Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design, which is where I am today.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Despite the fact that I’ve had a relatively successful career path so far, it has definitely come with its share of challenges. Some of these include the transitioning/rebranding from design to illustration, the struggle of finding my voice and worth as a creative, and going through tons of terrible clients and ghosted invoices before learning the hard way to watch out for myself and stick it to the man. However, the biggest challenges so far have definitely come up in this most recent step of pursuing further education abroad. I normally avoid discussing it because I hate to complain—I’m highly aware that I’m in a very privileged position to be able to take up graduate studies in the United States, and I never want to seem like I take that for granted.
Although my parents have been very gracious in sponsoring my further education, I personally feel the weight of that financial burden every single day, and it sometimes takes a heavy toll on my mental health. When I was an undergraduate student, my work in my college’s student publications org allowed me to earn up to a 100% tuition subsidy. It was my pride and joy that I was able to work hard to take that monetary burden off of my parents’ shoulders, as I have 5 other siblings, 4 of whom are still in school. However, it hasn’t been as easy here in the United States. My status as a non-US citizen disqualifies me from many available state scholarship opportunities, and so I am constantly working to find more ways to support the cost of my education.
SCAD has been relatively gracious and granted me three types of partial scholarship funding, but the remaining balance is still quite hefty, and most definitely out of my earning range at the moment. I currently work 4 different jobs on campus to earn enough for things like groceries, transportation, utilities, and miscellaneous expenses, and even then I’m limited to 20 hours a week on minimum wage. As a non-US citizen, I’m not legally allowed to accept work outside of my university until I graduate, which includes any illustration-related work—ironic, as that’s the reason I came here in the first place.
Again, these are very privileged problems to be having, and at the end of the day, I am eternally grateful to have this opportunity in the first place. I don’t plan to rest until I’m financially independent and I can pay back my parents for my graduate studies—and I will keep working hard to make the best that I can out of all this and prove myself a worthwhile investment.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I’m an illustrator specializing in editorial illustration, illustration for digital media systems, and more recently, animated illustration. Over the years I’ve honed a specific visual style of digital illustration that’s very contemporary and market-friendly. My style is shape-based, dynamic, colorful, and can lend itself to both adult and children’s markets. Many, many people and peers are so much better than me in the technical sense, but what sets me apart is my graphic design and multimedia background as well as my thought process.
Coming from a graphic design and multimedia background influences my compositions and colors, and I tackle visual challenges differently, using design principles to solve illustrative problems. I sometimes incorporate text into pieces as well or place them directly into design or branding mockups for an illustrative experience above and beyond the page. I like to develop multipurpose illustrations that can be translated and applied across different platforms—I feel like it’s the now and the future of illustration.
In terms of my thought process, besides the design and user-centered thinking, I like to push myself to be very shrewd and clever when it comes to coming up with illustration concepts, which is why I enjoy editorial illustration so much. Anyone can draw pretty things, but it takes more processing power to come up with something visually succinct that can communicate a complex idea through a single simple composition.
Additionally, at least in SCAD, I target a relatively niche market of digital media systems—illustrations that you’d see in advertising campaigns, digital interfaces and apps like Facebook and Google, and the like. Many illustrators in my current sphere of influence target a lot of traditional markets like books and gallery exhibits, but there are actually so many opportunities for illustration in places most people don’t think to look, in the nooks and crannies of graphic design and branding.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Honestly, I personally feel like I have yet to experience a “big break” that will put my mind at ease and assure me that I’m doing something right and that all my hard work till this point has been worth it. Some highlights of my career so far that have come close though are being able to work with Snapchat on several different occasions—my biggest client so far, and gaining recognition in several competitions in the international industry since I’ve started my graduate studies, including Creative Quarterly, 3×3 International Illustration Awards Show, Adobe Design Achievement Awards, and the Cheltenham Illustration Awards. Still, a lot of work to be done, and hopefully more amazing opportunities ahead!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katsy-garcia.com
- Email: katsy.garcia@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katsycreates/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katsygarcia/
Image Credit:
Photos by Abby Magsanoc
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