Born in Indonesia and now calling New Zealand home, Yhodie Hendra Zaldi recently graduated from Yoobee School of Design. As he works on growing his career as a freelance designer, he explores his craft and style through a series of graphic art prints under the brand name YhoDesign. His most recent collection features wild animals created from hundreds of geometric shapes in graduated colours, giving a faceted, almost 3D appearance to the prints.
A self-portrait of Yhodie (we love how this shows both the process and finished style)
Is art a full-time job for you now, or if not – what is your ‘day job’?
Oh… I wish this was my full time job, but unfortunately no. My daytime job is a fitness instructor, but mostly I do freelance jobs as a graphic designer. Hopefully one day, I will be able to pay all the bills with my art, hehehehehe.
You graduated from Yoobee School of Design – what was one of the most important things you learned about creativity during your time there?
The most important thing was pushing myself more every project and never being satisfied with the first result. (We also explored our own style by seeing other artist’s works… which helped me to see some great artists out there.)
New art prints by YhoDesign (Yhodie Photoshops his finished art prints to mock up how they might look in situ)
Can you tell us a little bit about your process – how do you go about creating your awesome faceted artworks?
The process is from Photoshop by tweaking the images; colour, brightness etc…then I transfer them into Illustrator and start to work on the reference image. After it’s finished, I push it back into Photoshop to add some texture or background – depending on how I feel really, sometimes it’s finished in Illustrator, sometimes in Photoshop. (See below for more details…)
These ‘in-progress’ and ‘almost completed’ versions of a new art print show the design process. Often working from a reference photograph, Yhodie first turns the animal form into hundreds of geometric shapes of various sizes, that are then individually coloured (in graduating shades), to create the illusion of shadow and contour. After painstakingly creating each animal, Yhodie will often bring the finished flat vector artwork into Photoshop to add textures or background, etc.
Tell us about a few creatives/designer you are personally inspired by?
I really like Gareth Pugh (fashion designer ), I know he is not a graphic designer or illustrator but I get lots of inspiration from his work. When it comes to illustrators, I’m inspired by (Indonesian artist) Wedha Abdul Rasyid, designer Andreas Preis, and Andy Westface. They all have different influences on my art.
Illustrations by Andy Westface and Andreas Peis, two of the artists who inspire Yhodie
You’re creating and you’re totally in the flow – Where are you? Who is with you? What are you listening to?
I work by myself in my room (I call it my studio, which is just in the corner of my bedroom). When I am working, I listen to all sorts of music, from hip-hop, RnB or even classical, depending on my mood and what I am working on.. If I am drawing it’s mostly classical, if I’m making my faceted art it’s mostly hip-hop or RnB!
Yhodie loves his adopted home of NZ and it inspires much of his art. These two prints are available (framed or unframed, in various sizes) over on endemicworld.com
Tell us about your creative space/office – what’s in it, what things you do love to have around you as you create?
LOTS OF BUNNIES….Yes I have bunny everywhere in my studio also some of my arts hanging and COLOUR CHART, they are handy to have in front of me and of course flowers or terrarium..I made them and I love it as its make it more nature look.
A new art print Yhodie is currently working on; a dedicated creative space in his bedroom
