Recently, while scrolling on Doodle Malaysia – Do you doodle? Facebook group, I discovered these attention-grabbing artworks.

These limited edition artworks of the Chinese Door Gods, as it turned out, were designed by Yunroo and her two friends Minifanfan and Yuwen Ong. All three of them are part of the Meet The Kawan, an illustration collective.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

The intention behind these lovely pieces of art were noble: To spread the love of illustration in Malaysia and to raise funds for an upcoming exhibition. To make it happen, these creatives invited 14 other international artists to join in to make the exhibition a reality.

Curious, we dropped Yunroo a Facebook message and it resulted in this interview.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Hey there, Yunroo! Can you share a little about yourself to your readers, your hobbies, and how you got started in art?

Hi everyone, I’m Yunroo, an illustrator working mainly with children’s books. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been attracted to stories and pictures. After high school, I went on to continued my studies in Design Communication in Singapore, and then Illustration in London.

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In your own words, can you share with Eksentrika’s readers how Meet The Kawan first got started?

I met Gee Fan and Yuwen at an art event in 2016, and from there we hit off immediately. Since then, we’ve organised a few private art retreats to connect and work together. It wasn’t until last year when we decided to organise an illustration exhibition that Meet The Kawan was formed officially.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

In Meet The Kawan’s ‘About Us’ page, you guys also consider yourselves ‘mess makers’. What do you guys mean by that?

Within ourselves, we hope to inspire one another to step out of our comfort zones and to experiment more. We all learn from our past experiences. By getting our hands dirty, we hope to embrace the learning process, and not to view the outcome as the only metric to determine if a piece of work is successful or not.

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You’ve also worked with major design and publishing agencies worldwide. In your experience, what is one key factor that plays a big part in making a design not only beautiful but effective?

Since I have a background in design communication, I think an effective piece of illustration should convey some sort of a message. May it be a story, some targeted message or just to evoke a sense of feeling. Other than the content, the direction and style of the said piece should also come together to support the artwork so that there’s no mixed message that is being delivered to the audience.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

I also noticed that Meet The Kawan has some Lunar New Year collections in the form of angpow packets and Door Gods wall art. Can you share how you guys got inspired to create them?

It had been a tough year for all of us. All of us had been hit, some more than the other by the pandemic. With the Lunar New Year coming, we thought it would be great to produce some Lunar New Year illustrated products to bring some joy and smiles into peoples’ homes.

Sometimes when we talk about art, the public would feel that it’s too out of reach for them. So by combining our illustrations with the common new year items, we hope to bridge the gap between art and the general public. Also, the three of us are planning to organise a group exhibition this year, so this serves a purpose to test the waters and to raise funds for the exhibition.

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You guys also have been selling your artworks online on Shoppe and your own website. How has the response been so far?

With the sudden lockdown that’s implemented early this year, we had to think on our feet quickly instead of relying on our stockists like we usually do. Most of our customers were really supportive of our works.

Not only did they tag us in their received products, but they were also super understanding even when their parcel arrived slightly damaged by the post, due to the high volume during the LNY period. To us, these little acts of kindness really warmed our hearts and have encouraged us to keep moving forward.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

What are some tips you can share with artists looking to market themselves and their artworks online?

An artist’s career is a long game. So, be comfortable with the platform and the methods that you’re going for. For us, it’s a matter of consistently producing good works, putting them out, and repeating the cycle. Consistently doesn’t mean that one has to churn out something new every day, but at a pace that is sustainable.

As we hone our craft further, we’ll slowly gain the confidence to push forward.

Lastly, don’t get caught up with likes. There’re certain topics or art styles that the algorithm will skew towards, but that doesn’t mean that we should conform to it. We can use it to better inform our decision, but I truly believe that it’s important to have a voice in a piece of artwork.

There’s a balance between these two fine lines, and we should learn how to thread in between them.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

Copied and pasted from Eksentrika.

This is probably going to sound cliche but what are Meet The Kawan’s plans for the future?

The first thing is, of course, to have our exhibition delivered. It was actually planned for last year, but due to the pandemic, the funding we had previously secured was canceled. As the market slowly recovers, we’re hoping to organise it in the second half of the year.

We have invited a number of international artists to take part in our exhibition, so hopefully, everyone will stay tuned to it!

In the long run, we’d love to organise more events to help push the illustration scene in Malaysia. With the rise of Clubhouse, we had also found it easier to connect different communities together, especially artists from different countries, so we’re still exploring ways of utilising it in the meanwhile.

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Are you an artist and want to be featured? Drop us an email. Follow Meet The Kawan here!

All images were supplied by Yunroo.